“The Little Mermaid,” by Hans Christian Andersen is about a mermaid who goes to the surface, meets a prince who she saves and falls in love, and goes to a sea witch to temporarily become human, even though she was told she might die. Once she became human, she almost married the prince, however the prince married someone else and she ended up becoming an airy spirit. In the animated version, the prince’s wedding was interrupted and they fell in love again. While the two versions of The Little Mermaid share a common theme, the Disney animated film version is by far a more interesting story because of the characters.
The common theme between the two versions of “the Little Mermaid” is that you shouldn’t sacrifice everything for one thing. The
The differences between Grimm’s version of “Snow White” and Anne Sexton’s poem, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” reflects how society sees women. To start, in Anne Sexton’s version the step-mother is the “fairest of us all” until Snow White turns 13. Then, in stanza 2 line 19 Snow White is “fairer than you [the step-mother],” whereas before Snow White is “no more important than a dust mouse under the bed” (stanza 4 line 6). In Grimm’s version of “Snow White,” Snow White’s mother declares her beauty while she is young; Snow White is “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame” (pg. 124). The difference in stories shows the significance of women becoming valuable around the time they hit puberty, which supports
The tragedy of romeo and juliet ends with great demise romeo and juliet were secretly married. Withholding this secret lead to a tragic hero who tried their best but did not succeed in the end. This story relates to the Hans Christian Anderson story of the Little Mermaid. Juliet and the little mermaid both had a unfortunate fate because they were caught up in love.
The first reason why Ariel is most like myself is because of her love for adventure. In the film, The Little Mermaid, Ariel wonders off to ship wrecks and swims up to the surface to speak to birds to identify human objects. She is always on the run for an adventure, much like myself. If I am not at home taking care of my family, we are out at the Kermit sand hills, taking last minute trips to Indiana, or spending the weekend at my families’ lake house. Like the quote in The Little Mermaid and on “IMDb” says, “If only I could make him understand. I just don't see things the way he does. I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad,” I too agree, the world is a beautiful, magnificent place and taking adventures and exploring is something that has always been appealing to me.
Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” Folk and Fairy Tales. 3rd ed. Eds. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. Toronto: Broadview, 2002.
...this way, Hollywood twists the unknown to make it more appealing to audiences. However, they can also just as easily contrast this by making the object less desirable, as seen in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Where the Disney mermaid figure is flipped on its head and the beautiful innocent mermaid turns to sharp-fanged, devious, bloodthirsty merpeople. The general premise of the creature still appears, a half woman, half fish hybrid, however, being mythical creatures Hollywood can mould them into whatever they want, and whatever fits their needs most. There is no forced style everyone must adhere to as there is no evidence of their existence so Hollywood film studios can design their mermaid to whatever they want, probably to whatever makes them the most money. Completely depending on their target audience they could have anywhere between innocent and sinful creatures.
...gently every day and now has found the love of her life. Also, this version of Cinderella is more magical than the original which is more along the lines of today’s fairy tales. The movie Cinderella emphasizes that working hard and being well-behaved will result in an abundance of rewards.
The Little Mermaid is well known to everyone, but which version is known best? Hans Christian Andersen or Walt Disney, both are very similar mostly because Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid was the most popular version of the story before Walt Disney.
Produced in 2009, The Frog Princess is a Disney animation inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, The Frog Prince. Both The Frog Princess and The Frog Prince deal with a multiplicity of issues, all of which contribute to supporting positive messages and morals (Ceaser, 2009). However, though The Frog Princess is based on a classic fairytale, it is far from being the same. The writers at Disney have taken a classic fairytale and created a “Monster” (Prince, 2001). This essay will examine the evolution of the original Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, the messages both main characters represent, and how the adaptation to fit a modern child readership diminishes a classic fairytale. Through discussing these arguments, this paper will prove that Disney’s adaptation into The Princess and The Frog is counter-productive in representing the original story’s messages, morals, and values.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
In both versions, the mermaid meets the prince and he falls for her beauty, but he’s already betrothed to another. However, Anderson’s mermaid has to endure not only physical, but also mental and emotional hardships. She is unable to communicate with the prince to reveal she was his true savior, and with every step the mermaid experiences agonizing pain. Andersen’s mermaid has to stand by and watch her love marry another and her chance of an immortal soul slips out of her grasp. Soon after the wedding, the mermaid is approached by her sisters with an opportunity to return to the sea, but she would have to commit a terrible, and selfish act. The story goes like this, “Before the sun rises, you must plunge it [a knife] into the heart of the prince; when his blood sprays on your feet, they will turn into a fishtail and you will be a mermaid again” (Andersen). The mermaid faced a difficult dilemma, one that all individuals face—self betterment or selfless sacrifice. Andersen’s mermaid chooses selfless sacrifice, tosses the knife overboard and cast herself into the ocean. This ending is not what most would call happy, but it reveals some remarkable life lessons and an incredible depiction of selflessness. Not all stories have to have happy endings to satisfy a reader (Whitty); this story for example holds so much more depth, substance, and emotion because it does not have one. Disney chose a happier, predictable ending where Ariel marries the prince in the end; this ending makes it easy to smile, but lacks in allowing the reader to develop much more emotion than
A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.
Fairytales are vital to teach kids morals and lifelong lessons. Most children grow up watching a variety of Disney movies. A personal favorite of some little girls is Beauty and the Beast. The original Disney movie was recreated in 2017 with real actors, instead of animation, which is what we will be comparing with. What some people don’t know, is where this story originated from.
“The mermaid swam with her prince toward the beach. She laid him in the fine white sand, taking care to place his head in the warm sunshine, far from the water. She also had to give up her voice, which she had done so willingly, endure tremendous amounts of pain to have the legs of a human, and give up her life as a mermaid as well as never be able to be with her sisters at the bottom of the ocean again. The little mermaid passed all of the tests that the universe threw at her, but in the end, she did not get to marry the prince and this is a great example of a message from the author that life can be unfair sometimes.
Walt Disney’s Cinderella is adapted from the original fairy tale written in 1697 by Charles Perrault. There are some key differences between Walt Disney’s Cinderella and Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. In Charles Perrault’s tale, Cinderella’s father is not dead, but the father is controlled by the stepmother. Cinderella’s younger stepsister is much more polite than the older stepsister, who calls Cinderella Cinderwench. The king in Perrault’s tale hosts a two day Ball, which Cinderella attends with the help of the fairy godmother. During Cinderella’s preparation for the first night of the Ball, Cinderella helps the fairy godmother find a coachman when the fairy godmother could not find one. Cinderella’s glass slipper comes off on the second night of the ball. Similar to Walt Disney’s Cinderella, the prince in Perrault’s story announces to marry a woman whose foot will fit in the glass slipper. Unlike the Walt Disney’s tale, Cinderella is not locked up in the attic and the stepmother does not physically attempt to stop Cinderella from trying the slipper. Instead, the step sisters ridicule Cinderella when Cinderella suggests trying on the glass slipper. Cinderella wears the slipper and takes out the other slipper from a pocket which Cinderella puts on the other foot. Suddenly, the fairy godmother appears and transforms Cinderella’s ragged outfit to a magnificent gown. After the transformation, the step sisters recognize Cinderella as the unknown beautiful princess who attended the Ball and beg for forgiveness. Cinderella forgives the step sisters and marries the step sisters to the great lords of the castle. The prince marries Cinderella, however, Perrault does not mention about the prince and Cinderella living happily ever after.
Over the years, fairytales have been distorted in order to make them more family friendly. Once these changes occur, the moral and purpose of the stories begin to disappear. The tales featured in the many Disney movies - beloved by so many - have much more malignant and meaningful origins that often served to scare children into obeying their parents or learning valuable life lessons.