Watching Henson’s version of Hans my Hedgehog sparked some questions in me about the nature of a storytelling medium and adaptations in general. I do think that something (magic, perhaps?) is lost retelling these tales in a medium that did not exist when they were forged. My personal experience with watching fairy tales is that once the story is over, I feel conflicted and almost in debt to the main text—like I was unfaithful to the values of the original story. Even as a child, I remember watching The Wizard of Oz and then immediately begging my parents to buy me the book so I could compare the stories. Reading the Zipes article about Disney did shed some light on my conflicted feelings, but putting a personal spin on the tales is a necessity. Actually, I would argue that it is inherent in the form of a fairy tale. Even as I try to remember the exact way Cinderella got the prince in the Grimm’s version, I’m sure I’ll mix some stuff up (perhaps unconsciously to suit my individual taste…like Disney).
On the other hand, as I watched Hans my Hedgehog after having read the story, I was enthralled by the new literary and technical details added or subtracted to the narrative. Assuming most of us are watching these fairy tale films/episodes during the impressionistic years of childhood most likely not having read the story, I think that this type of informed viewing is the more rare of the two. I prefer watching these films as sort of a reconstruction exercise instead of focusing on the narrative.
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