Fairy Tales 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

I found todays class discussion very interesting, how cinema, while although the new primary medium to tell fairy tales, will always rely upon textual material. Walt Disney establishes early on the cultural connection to his Snow White and the Brother's Grimm version by crediting the adaptation to the Grimm's version, and the iconic "Book" opening image. But while he credits this early literary form of the tale, Disney himself re-writes the tale, and through cinematic popularity, makes his own the "grand version." Disney accomplishes this by both keeping to the storyline, and by also making his specific and unique, Which is evident through the personification of the Dwarfs. In the Grimm's tale, the seven dwarfs are described as merely just that: 7. They have no individual characteristics or personalities. Yet Disney gives all 7 of them, a character trait unique to their own. Such a decision not only allows for theatrical entertainment and diversity, but in turn distinguishes the Disney form from the more vague and simplistic folk tale from the Grimm collection. Bashful, doc, dopey, grumpy, happy, sleepy, Sneezy: these names have become perpetually bound and synonymous to the identity of the Snow White tale, thanks to the creativity and ingenuity of Walt Disney to create something new, yet also traditionally familiar.

1 comment:

  1. I think it is funny, if you visit the Sur La Lune Website and look under Snow White, there is a side bar that mentions the fact that the Dwarfs, in no other version than Disney's, have names. I think also that, in many ways, the creation of the characters for the dwarfs was necessary, because in reading the story only one dwarf is talking at a time, or they are all acting together to achieve a single goal (get the stays off of Snow White). This however, would become very difficult on screen, unless you numbered them like Thing 1 and Thing 2. I think it is cute how Disney chose to represent them not as really developed characters but as exaggerated characteristics, but I personally cannot decide if that is something ingenious all unto Disney, or something required by the medium of film (similar to the naming of the characters in the silent film).

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