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Old 03-26-2010, 06:42 AM   #5 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru
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Well, the problem I have with the whole thing is the disparity between the traditional fairy tale and the Disney products.

Traditional fairy tales on the surface were mythological stories with a strong moral streak running beneath: they essentially taught little children to behave and young girls to be chaste, and other such wonderful things. In a way, they're all within the tradition of Aesop's fables.

Disney, on the other hand, tends to remove much of the darker elements and turns the moral aspect into a convoluted mess or otherwise glosses over it, rendering it more or less powerless. Disney takes moral mythological tales and turns them into sugar-coated flights of fancy.

If you want to see what I mean, have a look at some of the original tales that have become Disney Classics. Not all of them have happy endings. And many of those that would seem happy are actually at best bittersweet.

The first revisitation of the post-Disney fairy tale that I experienced was Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, which is a collection of rewritten stories that are brilliant dramatic parodies of fairy tales, including versions of "Sleeping Beauty," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," and "Little Red Riding Hood." I highly recommend reading it. They're deliciously dark and gritty.

So I welcome such things as this photo series. It, in addition to works such as Carter's, appropriates these traditional fairy tales, wresting them from Disney's monopoly on them.
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Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 03-26-2010 at 06:55 AM..
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