Rupunzel is one of the best modern Disney movies to date in my opinion. It has funny characters and scenes, as well as great character development. However, it differs a lot from the original tale, and a closely related cartoon retelling of the original Grimm tale called Rapunzel Story | Rapunzel Cartoon Story 2019 | Fairy Tales in English For Kids | Bedtime Stories.

In both, for example, Rupunzel lives in a tall tower with no doors or windows, taken care of by Gothel. In the cartoon, Gothel the sorcerer was under the control of another sorcerer who made her guard his tower for her. In the Dinsey film, Mother Gothel owned the tower herself, and kept Rupnzel here for her own motives.

Unlike in the cartoon how Gothel took Rapunzel because the child’s father stole Rupunzel leaves, Mother Gothel took Rupunzel in the movie because her hair was infused with the sun, and could provide her with endless youth. This is also why Gothel wantd to keep Rupunzel hidden from the world in the movie, since her life was at stake. Compare this to cartoon, where Gothel wanted to keep Rupunzel in the tower so she could get back in and out.

Also, another difference between the two takes on Rupunzel is Rupunzel’s own status. In the cartoon, she is a peasant girl, while in the movie, she is the lost princess. The same is true about the prince in both versions. In the movie, Flynn Rider is a common thief, while in the cartoon the “prince” was an actual prince.

Something similar, though, is that Rupunzel has her hair cut off by Gothel in both versions. In the movie, Rapunzel fell in love with Flynn Rider and wanted to save him, but she vowed to stay with Gothel forever if she did so, as she and her lover were in a tough situation. Flynn cut off her hair to stop her from giving up her life to the evil mother. In the cartoon, Gothel cuts off Rapunzel’s hair, as she was mad that the prince visited her, when she was supposed to be separated from the world.

However, I would say that the most majoy difference between the movie and cartoon, is that there were no Rapunzel leaves in the movie, while there were in teh cartoon.

Bluebeard is certainly one of the more interesting fairy tales to have emerged. Common themes are an ambiguous villain, coupled with a heroine that is assertive, yet not at the same time. The tale has the same story overall, in most adaptations, but some take of it are more interesting than others. First off, all three contain an interesting villain, probably one of the better-developed ones, as he isn’t just “evil” like most fairy tale villains are. He actually has an element of cunning and trickery to his personality and the way in which he secures victims by temping their curiosity. In each adaptation of the tale, he gives his newest wife a key to a forbidden room and then travels away to see if they’ll break in or not. However, this standard method Bluebeard uses and the development of Bluebeard himself was different in three prominent adaptations: the film Barbe Bleu, the original Grimm tale, and then the tale by Charles Perrault. 

In the original Grimm tale, which is the farthest removed from other adaptations, has several differences. First of all, Bluebeard wasn’t even named Bluebeard. He was just referred to as The Sorcerer. He also tricked a group of sisters, two of them succumbing, but the third one saving them by assembling their bodies from the parts that Bluebeard chopped up. Not only this, but the heroine also tricks him into taking her sisters back to their parent’s house and giving over lots of his own gold. But before this, when Bluebeard was initially handing his wife the key to the forbidden room, he also gave her an egg to hold and carry with her everywhere. He did not want the egg to be broken at all, for if they did, then he would be angry.

The Charles Perrault version is actually called “Bluebeard” unlike the Grimm version which goes by a different name. Unlike in the Grimm tale, Bluebeard wasn’t an actual sorcerer, nor did he possess magic beyond a bewitched key, which if it got stained with blood, could never be cleaned. After he tricked her, he wanted to kill her, but she kept stalling long enough that her brothers came and impaled him to death, thus saving her. He also only attempted to trick one gal in this tale rather than three.

Barbe Bleu is very similar to the Perrault version of the tale. It is basically a movie adaptation and a more developed version. In this tale, there are two sisters, both of whom live a poor life after their father passes away. Bluebeard is a wealthy lord who is known for marrying women who suddenly disappear, but one of the daughters marries him anyway. She lives a relatively good life with him until Bluebeard tricks her in a similar way, eventually causing him to want to kill her. However, instead of knights running him through, chose to behead Bluebeard instead, thus saving the wife from death. She also stalls him in killing her, which helps the knights arrive in time to behead him. She is later saved, as she was trapped by Bluebeard before.

All in all, I like the movie version of the tale, as it is the most developed and story-like. The wife of Bluebeard has an almost fully-fledged backstory and actually has a personality beyond just cunning. Usually, movie adaptations of tales are more advanced than the original fairy tales they’re based off of, and this is very true for Barbe Bleu, which is why I like it best out of all the adaptations of the tale.

Hansel and Gretel is one of the most famous tales by the Brothers Grimm. It features two children, named Hansel and Gretel, who after getting separated from their family have to try to find their way back home. However, along the way, the two children encounter a witch who has a house made of gingerbread, and swimming with candies and other treats. The children get fooled into thinking that the witch is a good person, and takes them in only to try and eat them before the children use cunning and trickery to escape.

Since Hansel and Gretel is such a famous tale, it has been adapted numerous times into movies, stories, and other mediums. One such movie is Hansel and Gretel by MGM studios, which is different from the original tale but not by much. One thing that is different, and quite notably so, are the development and portrayal of Hansel and Gretel’s parents. The father has a name, Stephan, and the wife doesn’t want to actively purge her family of her children. Rather, she is just very practical and organised, and not understanding why the other members of her family aren’t as well managing. Not only this, but Stephan is fairly naive and lets the baker in town always pay him less than he deserves, something which bothers his wife.

Another difference between the two tales is what happens at the witch’s house. In the movie, the witch actually sits the two children down in the bedroom before reading them Briar Rose and tucking them into bed so they can have a good night’s rest. It is Gretel who discovers the witch inside of her secret potion room trying to create a concoction that will allow her to perform an evil spell. This prompts the witch, after catching them, to have Hansel placed into a cage while she keeps Gretel as her slave. In the original tale, the two children just happen upon the witch who, doesn’t read to the children, or tuck them into bed, rather swiftly puts Hansel into a cage and uses Gretel to try and fatten Hansel up. Hansel is also just passive in the movie, whereas in the original tale he tries to trick the witch with a  bone so she thinks he still isn’t fat. In the original tale, Gretel also shoves the witch into her own oven, burning her alive, after tricking her to stick her head inside. 

Also, in the beginning, the children end up getting sent out by their practical mother, rather than an on purpose abandonment by her family. The children accidentally let the family donkey into the house, and the mother has them go out picking berries, which they get lost doing. This is how they stumbled into the witch’s cottage, prompting both the mother and father to worry about their children’s safety. The parents went out into the woods looking for them, since they were so nervous.

The children are definitely not as naive or passive in the original tale, as they are in the movie, and their family is more developed in the movie, as well as their interactions with other townsfolk and the witch at her cottage.

Fixed Fairytales is a youtube series about European folk tales and “how they should have ended” or should have been told. The narrator is an owl who lives in a castle tower, and is the main story teller. The company who makes it is known as Klopp Animation, marketing this series towards kids, but even I, as a college student, find it amusing.

The point of the cartoon is to be funny, and I think it accomplishes this well. Red Riding hood is sassy throughout the cartoon, as in the modified version of the tale, she sasses the wolf when she gives him bad directions. She seems more like a rebellious teenager than naiive child. Not only this, but the wolf himself also has some personality to him. He seems to be cunning and sly, but in a funny way.

In addition, the tale also combined Little Red Riding Hood with Goldilocks and the three bears. Red Riding hood directs the wolf to the bears’ cottage instead of her grandmother’s. At the bears house, they are agresive to him and he sheiks in terror, getting what he deserved.

Furthermore, something I found entertaining was Red Riding Hood’s interaction with her grandmother. She and the grandmother discuss how she gave the wolf bad directions, and how clever a trick that was fo Red Riding hood to pull off. They laugh and talk, and the grandmother even does stretches on the bed, for she got well soon afterwards.

Overall, I find the style of Fixed Fairytales to be funny and cute. The characters are drawn in a whimsical style, something both kids and adults will find nice. The animation reminds me of modern cartoons, which I think adds to the fairy tales and makes them more fun to learn about and analyse for younger people. The script has many funny and sassy elements to it, which executes the point of the cartoon well: to be funny while educational at the same time.

Link to Cartoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG3_gnKSDh4

Link To Source: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2_0hLUfH08zqXRVTjmWkQ

The Frog King and Cupid and Psyche, despite having different origins and different plots, still share a lot of similarities. (The Frog King is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, while Cupid and Psyche is a Greek tale) For one thing, both tale star a beautiful young maiden who is sought after by many, and end up marrying someone they originally thought was undesirable.

In the case of the young woman from the Greek tale, the goddess Venus cursed her to be undesirable to all but a monster who lived atop a mountain. In the tale by the Brothers, she was desired by a frog whom she hated at first.

Both princesses from the tales ended up marrying their “less than optimal” companion in the end. For the Greek tale, this was Cupid who accidentally pricked himself and the maiden with his arrows of love. For the gal from the Brothers tale, a frog made her be his companion as a result of retrieving her golden ball.

Not only is this similar, but the womens’ undesirable companions also had lots of riches, and showered them with wealth. The frog from The Frog King was secretly a prince from a far off kingdom, while Cupid was the son of a god, and thus owned a palace adorned with gold and other riches.

One difference between these tales would be the personality of each lady. The gal from The Frog King scorned the frog after he was no longer useful to her. The gal from the Greek tale, on the other hand, loved Cupid with all her might, but ended up losing him temporarily as she became curious about him rather than just taking what he told her word for word. (She’s more assertive in this way.)

Another difference between the tales are the fact that one lady didn’t love her husband until he proved himself to be good, while the lady from the Psyche and Cupid loved cupid even before she became curious. She’s more humble than the slightly spoiled one from The Frog King.

The classic Disney 1937 film known as Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is something most disney fans have already seen or know about. It’s a story that has been given a whimsical attitude, with likeable and funny characters to make the story all the more interesting and enjoyable. The original tale the movie was based on by the Brothers Grimm is somewhat similar to the movie, but also different at the same time. For one thing, the original tale has more gruesome and gross things. For example, the queen requests the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s liver and lungs rather than her heart. Unlike in the movie, the queen choses to eat Snow White’s bodily organs, as an act of revenge and to “acquire” Snow White’s youthful beauty. In the movie, the queen just houses Snow White’s heart in a box. In addition, the queen also passes away in a much more gruesome way compared to how she did in the Disney movie. In the original tale, after the queen is invited to Snow White’s wedding, where she is forced to dance in red hot iron shoes until she dies. In the Disney film, she just falls off a cliff after being chased away by the dwarfs from their cottage. 

Not only was the original tale more gruesome than the film was, but it was also written in a less whimsical and more simplistic way. In the Grimm tale, none of the dwarfs had any whimsical names or personalities of their own that differentiated them from each other. They all were the same character, essentially, and played the same role in the story. In the film, each of the dwarfs had independent names and personalities that matched those names. They also played a larger role in the movie than in the original, as they actively helped Snow White get rid of the queen, and escape her cruelty; they were more passive in the non Disney version. As for other simplicities, most of the original tale was just the queen trying to murder Snow White in various ways. (One with a corset, next with a comb, and finally with the apple.) The film has more of a complex storyline, as the whole thing wasn’t entirely just the queen trying to kill Snow White. Rather, Snow White bonded with the dwarfs, and helped them re-organize their messy cottage and clean up their acts overall before the queen tried to murder Snow White. The film had a lot less repetition in it, which I think takes away from some of the original, fairy tale way, of telling a story, but made a good film to watch and enjoy.

In conclusion, the Disney film and the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm had a lot of similarities, but also some major differences as well.

One of the core principles of the fairy tale known as Cinderella is that she was able to achieve monetary security through the divine magic and marriage to her prince. In the tale, Cinderella’s father married her evil stepmother, who already had two daughters from her previous marriage. They were snoody, and treated Cinderella like a servant maid, having her sleep in the ashes where she got her name CINDERella. However, since Cinderella was very close to her mother who passed away before her father married his second wife, she “came down” in the form of doves to help her daughter. These doves helped her with her various tasks that were assigned to her by her step mother, like picking lentils out of ashes, and also by sending her a dress so she could go to the formal ball, where she met her prince. Despite the fact that the magical intervention of reviving a free dress to meet the man of her life who will fall in love at first sight, and the doves who helped her with her work were able to get her out of poverty, this kind of miracle sadly only exists in fairy tales. In real life, if someone is in poverty, it is very difficult to get themselves out of this situation. Important dignitaries, like the prince, won’t fall in love with an impoverished person at first sight, rather just disregard them. Not in a cold way, but chances are they’re looking “within their class” to find people to marry, whom they deem to be “respectable” individuals. That leaves only one way to get out of poverty, and is hard work. In the modern era, to not just get by, but to get wealthy requires a college degree. These degrees cost thousands, and take years of full time learning to achieve, plus a lot of brain power. (Unless one were to get a degree in either medicine or business, the chances of wealth are very slim still.) If one has no money saved away to support themselves during university, and already have a family or are living day by day, or some other domestic situation, they are likely to get trapped by “the system” and stay poor. No one is going to give you a free handout into wealth, similarly to how Cinderella got her free dress. Fairy tales provide escapism, rather than an insight into the real world. It would be wonderful if miracles, such as what happened in Cinderella, could happen in real life but this is far from the case. Fairy tales will always remain fairy tales, but this doesn’t mean that we still can’t enjoy them, or fantasise about the wonders and splendour of the imagination.

What is a fairy tale, one might ask. Some people might think they’re synonymous with legends, myths, or other stories of that sort. A fairy tale is usually a short story, or tale, passed down from person to person orally. Some of the most famous ones are from German literature, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. While it is true that legends and myths do contain mystical/mysterious elements like fairy tales often do, they aren’t told in the same way, and are generally not of the same style. 

Fairy tales tend to be short and sweet, with predictable, cookie cutter characters in designated roles. For example, in a lot of fairy tales, there is an antagonist such as the big bad wolf from little red riding hood (Who is the namesake of this blog. ; ) ), and a hero/heroine like Red Riding Hood herself. Both characters aren’t fully developed, like they would be in books, but still have just enough personality to where people can relate to them. In addition, many fairy tales contain either princes and princesses, who are betrothed to each other even before the story begins. Usually, in order to save the princess, the prince has to go on some daring quest, or complete some challenge to win her affections or save her from death.

Something else common in the fairy tale are a lack of descriptions. The listener of the tale usually has to formulate what the characters and setting look like themselves, since there is only just enough so that the plot can be followed. In my opinion, this is something wonderful about these tales. The idea of getting to create a world in which the tale takes place without being bogged down by lengthy descriptions is a fascinating idea. (That is, I still would like novels to contain descriptions, but since fairy tales are just supposed to be short and sweet stories, I like them better this way.)

Overall, fairy tales are oral stories passed down from generation to generation, varying in their plot line slightly depending on who the teller is. They don’t have very many descriptive elements, and the characters tend to be underdeveloped, yet likeable. Fairytales are unlike any other type of story, with myths and legends being quite different, and deserving of entire entries of their own describing the wonders they offer.

The Brothers Grimm is a 2005 film starring Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. In the movie, the two of them were trickers, trying to get by on exorcising witches and other creatures from legend the common people knew about through folk tales. The brothers wrote down these tales to better understand how to trick people, but eventually had to face a real challenge, dealing with real magic. The brothers had to go on a quest in order to find 12 missing children, all of whom were needed for a spell by an evil queen to come back to life. Even though all their “adventures” were fabricated, this real life adventure helped them discover themselves and who they truly were.

Now, this movie differs a lot, and I mean a lot, from the lives of the actual brothers. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, in real life, were honest workers and scholars. Although their biggest claim to fame were their fairy tales in real life, they also worked on other projects at the same time, such as the complete German Dictionary and various collaborative papers. Below are several comparisons to the brothers in the movie vs. in real life, like the examples provided:

1. The brothers were not conmen, rather honest workers. As explained above, the brothers tried to make an honest living by their work, although they never did strike it rich.
2. Both brothers in real life were patriotic when it came to their country and people, and never worked with the French, like they did in the movie, on any projects or adventures.
3. The brothers Grimm wrote other projects besides their tales, as explained above.
4. The brothers were very close to each other, almost devoted to one and other, in real life. They spent most of their time together, and would miss the other when they had to be somewhere else other than home. In the movie, Jacob and Wilhelm had a “frenemy” relationship for most of the story.
5. Wilhelm did marry someone in real life, but her name wasn’t Angelica, and Jacob never liked her romantically. Jacob, rather, would remain a bachelor his whole life, focusing solely on his research.
6. In the movie and in real life, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm came from a poor family in the 1700s, and were raised by a single mother after her husband passed away.
7. However, Jacob and Wilhelm did have more than one sister, and Jacob never sold a cow for magic beans to save her from death.
8. Both brothers did originate from Kassel in the movie, and in real life. They would spend most of their lives at Kassel in real life, although they would move in the movie.

The producers of this movie clearly did some research into the Grimms’ actual lives in order to create their fictional versions of the two. Although there are many falsehoods in the movie compared to the real life Grimms, the movie was still well done, and the brothers themselves, if they were still alive, probably would liked to watch this film.

1. Why did you chose this as your First Year Seminar?

First off, my name is Jack Mendenhall, and I am a student of Dr. Esa’s First Year Seminar From Grimm To Disney. I chose this first year seminar because I am interested in European cultures and traditions, plus the fact that I grew up on many fo the Disney classics we are going to cover in this class. Not only that, but I liked to read interesting and engaging stories and tales that provoke thought, and these fairy tales do just that, as they’ve lasted the ages all the way from when they were written until this point. I am very excited to get into the meat of this course!What are you hoping to accomplish in this seminar?

2. What are you hoping to accomplish in this seminar?

I am hoping to accomplish and achieve a better understanding of the original fairy tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm that inspired people, and Walt Disney, so much. I would love to also be able to become more knowledgeable about fairy tales, being able to see where so many of the classic Disney movies and characters really originated from. In addition, I would like to learn more about German literature, and how it evolved and functions, for I’ve mostly read English literature in school and on my own

3. What is your favourite fairy tale? Why?

My favourite fairy tale is probably Little Red Riding Hood. The reason this is, is because I like the trickery that the big bad wolf plays on Riding Hood as she goes on her way to her grandmother’s house. I especially enjoyed the scene where the wolf was inside of Grandma’s bed, and Riding Hood still believed he was her grandmother despite looking like a wolf. I believe that this fairytale is a classic that will be remembered, as I even named my blog after one of it’s characters. : )