Disney Debates: Are adaptations travesties?

[pinkrenata]

The "Disney version" is merely one in a long line of versions anyway. In the case of the "traditional" stories (Beauty & the Beast; Aladdin etc) the precise origin of the story is difficult to pinpoint.

Exactly what I was going to say. Many of the fairy tales had been passed down orally for many generations and spread about to different regions/countries. Even the Grimm's version of Snow White, although many would call that the original, is only one of many versions. It just happens to be the most well-known.

[Wonderlicious]

Even the Grimm's version of Snow White, although many would call that the original, is only one of many versions. It just happens to be the most well-known.

Branching off on what Renata just said, does anyone think that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty may have come from the same origin? They both are tales about evil women (Snow White's Queen, the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty) who cause a beautiful girl to fall into a deep sleep by poisoning them with something(apple in Snow White, spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty), yet are awaken a long time later by a prince.

By the way, I've found a site which people may want to look at as it contains information on classic fairy tales such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

Also, do you class the Arabian Nights as fairy tales? I personally do, aided by a book on Disney Animation saying so, but many people don't (the Sur La Lune website doesn't have any analysises of Aladdin or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves). Who classes them as fairy tales?

[pinkrenata]

Even the Grimm's version of Snow White, although many would call that the original, is only one of many versions. It just happens to be the most well-known.

Branching off on what Renata just said, does anyone think that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty may have come from the same origin? They both are tales about evil women (Snow White's Queen, the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty) who cause a beautiful girl to fall into a deep sleep by poisoning them with something(apple in Snow White, spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty), yet are awaken a long time later by a prince.

That's an awesome point, Wondy, that I'd never thought of before! It certainly is possible. Of course <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> doesn't have the jealous step-mother factor, but who knows where the story even originated. If something is passed on enough through hundreds of years, and told by many cultures, things are bound to change so much that one simple story can become many elaborate tales that are quite different from one another. In this case, Disney would be one of the last of many adaptors of these stories!

[Wonderlicious]

Apparently, I heard that the first known versions of the Snow White legend that came from Germany in the early eleventh century had no dwarfs in, but featured the evil Queen actually killing Snow White, only to get killed herself when Snow's father discovered what had happened to his daughter. People probably later incorporated the Sleeping Beauty elements in (the Brother's Grimm perhaps?) to make it lighter.

[Loomis]

Branching off on what Renata just said, does anyone think that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty may have come from the same origin? They both are tales about evil women (Snow White's Queen, the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty) who cause a beautiful girl to fall into a deep sleep by poisoning them with something(apple in Snow White, spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty), yet are awaken a long time later by a prince.

That's an awesome point, Wondy, that I'd never thought of before! It certainly is possible. Of course <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> doesn't have the jealous step-mother factor, but who knows where the story even originated. If something is passed on enough through hundreds of years, and told by many cultures, things are bound to change so much that one simple story can become many elaborate tales that are quite different from one another. In this case, Disney would be one of the last of many adaptors of these stories!

Well, keep in mind that many of these tales are alegorical and often political commentary of the time. The same story could have been adapted to suit what was happening when it was re-written. A wicked Queen could be a literal wicked Queen that was ruling the land, or a metaphor for something else.

Wikipedia discusses the various versions, Perrault's being the most commonly accepted, of Sleeping Beauty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty

"Perrault so transformed the tale of a sleeping beauty, "Sole, Luna, e Talia" in Giambattista Basile's collection of tales, Il Pentamerone, that she is scarcely recognizable in the first part of the tale, the only part that is still current. Shared themes of violence, rape, rivalry and cannibalism appear in the second parts. Basile's was an adult tale told by an aristocrat for aristocrats, emphasizing concerns such as marital fidelity and inheritance. Perrault's is an aristocratic tale told for a high-bourgeois audience, inculcating female patience and passivity. There are earlier elements that contributed to the tale, in the medieval courtly romance Perceforest (published in 1528), in which a princess named Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep and is raped by a wandering prince, resulting in the birth of their child. Earlier influences come from the story of the sleeping Brynhild in the Volsunga saga and the tribulations of saintly female martyrs in early Christian hagiography conventions."