There was a time when every girl dreamed of becoming a princess and living happily ever after with either a prince or a knight in shining armor. Nowadays those childhood stories seem somewhat outdated; nevertheless the dreams, at least for some girls, remain quite the same.
With a few up-to-date twists involving either google, facebook, or youtube, the knight in shining armor remains a standard up to which every boy should aspire; but upon closer examination, maybe reality is a better bargain than a fairy tale.
It is certainly impossible to determine when the first fairy tale was ever made; it is very likely that they developed alongside the human language, either to control or amuse the listeners; there are way too many theories on the subject to be discussed here.
Among the most famous storytellers, or writers one can easily recall the Brothers Grimm, Andersen, or Perrault. Those somber and even gruesome stories could easily make a perfect script for the latest horror flick; blood abounds and mutilation is described in ways that would make Tarantino faint.
But those stories proved to much for the postwar generations (WWI that is) and they were slowly but surely hidden from the mainstream media of the day.
It was until 1937 when a visionary of the fairyland would appear, shining a new light upon those rusted and forgotten stories; for it was in that year that entertainment mogul, Walter Elias Disney against his advisors unlucky counsel, went through with a project that had become a personal goal of his: Snow White and the seven Dwarfs.
Then dubbed Disney's folly it skyrocketed to become the inauguration of Disney's studios golden age for animation. An academy award winner and a blockbuster (bringing in $8 million dollars) it was the first full length animated feature in the English language, and it paved the way for the formula that became the hallmark of the Disney's studios: re-versions of folk tales that slowly grew on children's minds all around the world. With some plot twists and new and lovable characters, every new Disney feature shared with its predecessors the promise of eternal happiness and perfect love, a bright future for even the saddest girl as long as she lost the right shoe on the right spot.
It is hard to ascertain whether one version is better than the other, but it is not so hard to reckon that fairy tales were not always so child-friendly, leaving alone the fact of the fairest of all 15 year olds, (snow white's age on The Grimms' version) sharing a room with seven unrelated short men, some of those tales were not exactly lullaby material. Fancy a taste? Well then, you are welcome to read the second part of the post… 'till then!
by Gabriel® All rights reserved. 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment