Film Adaptation of Two Popular Fairy Tales According to Disney

Children around the world today enjoy reading the fairytales that all have happy endings. Every night, most children are read these stories to bed by their parents and so that they can fall asleep peacefully. What some people don’t know is how cruel the origins of the fairytales can be, and how gruesome it can be. The two adaptations of Cinderella, The Grimm Brothers and the Disney version differ in many ways however, they both have happy endings but the way the journey takes places are somewhat different.

However, if the children were to read the original stories, most children wouldn’t like it because of how dark the stories were. So, The Grimm Brothers model of “The Cinderella Story”, had to be watered down for the sake of bedtime stories, and that’s exactly what Disney did for the Cinderella fairytale. While it is best the way that Disney depicts it for the children, people will want to know where the story originates. We will see why The Grimm Brothers portrays Cinderella this way, how many people felt about the Disney take on Cinderella, and how the two adaptations are different in comparison.

The Grimm Brothers adaptation intended audience for the folktales were intended “to capture the ‘pure’ voice of the German people and to preserve in print the oracular poetry of the common people” – Ed Battistella. For example, the mother was talking to Cinderella and said to her, 'Dear child, remain pious and good, and then our dear God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you.' This can be one way that the Brothers seen the German people and how they portrayed it in the story and how they used pathos because children at the time would perhaps listen to their mothers if they see it in a story. The purpose for the Cinderella was to persuade the audience, the German people, to convince them to be the best versions of themselves.

The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella’s story, it is given a far less compassionate ending were the stepsisters eyes are pecked out at the wedding by birds. This was supposed to be lessons for children, as well as, a fairytale compared to today’s adaptation. In The Grimm Tales it is stated here, “Afterwards, as they came out of the church, the older one was on the left side, and the younger one on the right side, and then the pigeons pecked out the other eye from each of them. And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived”-Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm.

The Grimm brothers were meant to be folktales of right and wrong for children to behave. For example, we can see that the stepsisters were punished for treating Cinderella wrong and Cinderella was rewarded with remaining good and true to herself. The Cinderella’s story evokes fear into children to make them do right instead of wrong. Since the story is a fairytale, the story ended with a happy ending and it was organized to start off terrible and ended happily like most fairytales endings. The Cinderella Story language was written in a formal language since it was written in 1697.

The adaptation of Disney’s story Cinderella tells the story compared to Grimm’s brothers differently. For example, the intended audience for the Disney version will be the children of today. So that it can be more enjoyable for children, the storyline left out the violence portions and kept the dramatics part. The story time Cinderella is meant to entertain children and not scare them unlike the Grimm’s version, and it attracts to people who enjoy a rag to riches story. Kids will be happy to read this version of the fairytale and not have to feel afraid. Just like the Grimm’s version, it starts off bad and then it gets better towards the end, but with a safer and less gory end.

For Disney’s version, the reviews from many parents were not the best, some felt that it was disrespectful to women because a woman shouldn’t have to take abuse to keep people happy. Others felt that it was too raw because it showcased the parents dying and some kids got too emotional while watching the film. ‘Parent reviews for Cinderella (2015)”. (my analysis….) One of the good review(s) stated, “I loved the central theme of having courage and kindness that was impressed upon the audience throughout the entire movie. Ella was beautifully played to not be too 'princessy', but rather quite human in spirit and nature. I found this Cinderella one I would LOVE for my daughter to look up to. One of the last scenes where she turned and told her step mother she forgave her touched my heart in the deepest place and was a great lesson for my daughter to witness.”

The two versions of are different in comparison, for example, Disney’s take the fairy godmother has a magical wand and in the Grimm’s tale it is a little white bird. They are both drastically different, but they serve Cinderella the same purpose. The little birds do more for Cinderella in the tales than in the modern adaptation by giving her everything she needs from chores to her festival outfits that she got to keep. Disney wanted to make Cinderella work for what she wanted, unlike the Grimm’s tale where they gave her everything she desired. Cinderella does get a lot of help but not as much in the original tale, this will show the audience that they shouldn’t rely heavily on others and take care of things themselves.

Another major difference, in the original storyline, Cinderella goes to the festival three time instead of once. The Prince takes more charge and devises a plan to make sure her shoe, does in fact, gets stuck. He is more involved than in the modern Cinderella and makes sure to find his wife. Perhaps Disney only focused more on Cinderella and didn’t give much time to other characters because it is in fact her story. The last difference would be the endings of both stories, for instance, the stepsisters went to extreme measures to try to become the next princess. The mother urges them to cut parts of their feet to fit the golden shoe and ended up gushing blood in the process. Cinderella was not locked up from the Prince like the modern story, but she was summoned to try on the shoe. The stepsisters’ punishment was being blinded for the rest of their lives and in Disney’s nothing happened to them.

We find then, that the original tale and the modern story were written very differently because they were written in different times. For example, the original tale was made to teach children lessons, no matter how cruel the story was. The modern version was made to be appropriate for young kids and because of that the original.

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