She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not...

Okay my lovely fanatics, I have been dying to write this post because it’s my favourite tale of all.  The famous tale of a magic spell cast upon a prince and his subjects, waiting for a girl to fall in love with him and break his curse before the last petal falls and he lives forever as a horrible monster.  Yes, it is the tale of Beauty and the Beast! And what a tale it was.

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The original story, La Belle et la Bête, was written by a French woman, Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and as much as I enjoyed the tale all together, I was expecting more from it.  I suppose I can thank Disney for that.  Nevertheless, the story’s message of accepting appearances and “virtue before wit or beauty” is a very powerful and humbling message to carry in modern day life.  Let’s go over the differences of the original story from Disney’s, shall we?

 In this story, Belle is a poor merchant’s daughter who takes care of her father and spoiled, wicked sisters.  As we all know, her father stumbles upon Beast’s castle in the woods where he finds shelter from the rain and wolves. Beast is kind to him but when her father takes roses from Beast’s garden, he gets angry and says to the father that unless he receives one of the daughters, the father will have to die for his treachery.  This is where the similarities kick in and Belle takes her father’s place and promises to live with Beast forever.  That’s one brave girl. Belle and Beast eventually grow to appreciate each other but alas, Beast sets her free. Belle returns just in time from visiting her father to save Beast from the brink of death, kiss him, and break his curse ending in a happily ever after. 

In the ending, instead of an on-the-edge-of-your-seat battle between Beast and Gaston in Disney’s version, it’s more intimate with Belle returning to a dying Beast lying in the garden.  She confesses her love for him, begging him not to die, begging him to live and be her husband because she can’t live without him. How romantic is that? And now, a drum roll for my favourite part; as soon as her words of love leave her lips, Beast transforms into a gorgeous Prince. I just love that, don't you? Sigh.

It may not be a tale as old as time, but it certainly beats most fairy tales in the romance category. Once again, hats off to Disney for bringing this hopelessly romantic story to the big screen. Fifty points to Gryffindor! Er, Disney.

Fairytales – one, Adaptations – three.

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Claire Marshall.

Claire is short, though she likes to cheat and wear heels.  She was born in Toronto and, yes, she likes the Leafs. She is a caffeine addict and likes super heroes and anime. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, playing video games, and watching her favourite shows and movies. She is a social media addict with a wicked sense of humour and follows celebrity gossip like the bible.

Links: Twitter || WeHeartIt || GoodReads ||

You Win Some, You Snooze Some

Judging by the title of this entry, all you lovely little fanatics can probably guess who this post is about.  If you guessed Sleeping Beauty, you’d be absolutely right!  I’ve always been a fan of the beautiful sleeping princess who waits for her prince to battle an evil dragon, break her sleeping spell with true-love’s kiss and ride off into the sunset with her…or, at least, the Disney version of that story.  Unfortunately, I was a little let down with the original story written by the Grimm Brothers.  Why, you ask? Let’s prick our fingers on that spindle and find out.

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In the original story of Little Brier-Rose, nothing truly eventful happens, except that a scorned wise woman curses the princess to prick her finger on a spindle and die, but the good wise woman eases the curse from death to a hundred-year sleep.  Years later, our ever-faithful prince decides to brave the thorn bushes surrounding the castle, which conveniently part for him, and he strides with ease to awake the princess from her deep slumber and they live happily ever after. Just like that. For what served as Sleeping Beauty’s inspiration, it’s enough to make anyone drowsy.

Disney’s adaptation was more action-packed and provided detail on the relationship between Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty’s version of the prince and Brier-Rose.  They even share a catchy song and dance together, and what hopeless romantic doesn’t get a kick out of that?  Maleficent curses Aurora as a baby to die on her sixteenth birthday and the blue fairy, Merryweather, weakens the curse so that it knocks her out instead of flat-out killing her. As planned, Aurora turns sixteen and pricks her finger on a spindle, falling into a deep slumber.  An unknown amount of time later, Phillip gets word of his princess’s curse and charges in on his trusty steed to rescue her.  Maleficent interjects in the form of a dragon and Phillip commences an epic battle against her, fighting through thorns and avoiding hellish green fire to finally plunge his sword into her heart, defeating the evil sorceress and awaking his love with a kiss to live out their happily ever after. 

Isn’t that much better?  Disney proves that, if you have a boring story, just add dragons!

Fairytale – one.  Adaptation – two.

Watch the new trailer for Disney's 2014 Maleficent.

 

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Claire Marshall.

Claire is short, though she likes to cheat and wear heels.  She was born in Toronto and, yes, she likes the Leafs. She is a caffeine addict and likes super heroes and anime. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, playing video games, and watching her favourite shows and movies. She is a social media addict with a wicked sense of humour and follows celebrity gossip like the bible.

Links: Twitter || WeHeartIt || GoodReads ||

If the Glass Slipper Fits...

Hello again, my little fanatics!  Some of the ladies reading will remember the most popular princess from childhood. Most of us dressed as her for Halloween, and think about how adorable we looked and how lucky she was to be the belle of the ball!  I’ll give you all a hint: “Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo!” Correct! Cinderella.  But did you know that the real story of Cinderella wasn’t as magically delicious as what we grew up with?  Caution to all Cinderella lovers: I’m about to smash that lovely glass slipper.

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Let’s start with the original story of Cinderella.  It goes about the same: The poor girl is bullied by her evil stepmother and sisters and all she wants to do is go to the ball with them.  What’s also similar is she has cute little birds to help her out with her chores (don’t we all wish) and going to the ball.  But what’s different, is that instead of having a Fairy God Mother, she has her dead mother to help. Morbid, yet touching.  When Cinderella cries in front of her mother’s grave, the hazel tree planted there with two perched birds, magically gives her beautiful dresses and gold slippers to wear to the ball three times.  And of course, she is unrecognizable to her stepfamily at the ball and the prince only dances with her. She leaves her slipper behind, the prince comes for her and they live happily ever after. 

Now, what makes the original story different from the Disney adaptation and the 1998 film, Ever After: A Cinderella Story is that instead of the step sisters getting let off the hook by Cinderella’s kind heart, they are less fortunate, due to one step sister cutting off her big toe while the other cuts off part of her heel just to fit into the slipper, as well as being blinded by Cinderella’s faithful birds. The Disney adaptation is wonderful for the younger generation and sends a good message to always follow your dreams. In the film adaptation Ever After, this Cinderella becomes a certain kind of role model for young women in the sense of not being a damsel in distress.  She ultimately takes care of herself and her prince, which I find is the best portrayal of real-life obstacles. She’s feisty.  Win.

Fairytales – one, Adaptations – one.

 

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Claire Marshall.

Claire is short, though she likes to cheat and wear heels.  She was born in Toronto and, yes, she likes the Leafs. She is a caffeine addict and likes super heroes and anime. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, playing video games, and watching her favourite shows and movies. She is a social media addict with a wicked sense of humour and follows celebrity gossip like the bible.

Links: Twitter || WeHeartIt || GoodReads ||

Another One Bites the...Poisoned Apple?

Once upon a time, a little girl fell in love with fairy tales.  That same little girl grew up to become a young woman who still loved fairy tales, but often questioned where these stories originally came from.  She decided to investigate by reading the original copies, starting with her favourites.  Discovering that these original stories were not by any means the sugar-coated, pixie-dusted goodness that she had grown up with, she decided to share her information and opinions with the world and fellow fairy tale enthusiasts.

Now, my lovely fanatics, I thought I would start with the famous raven-haired, red-lipped beauty we all know and love.  I’ll give you a hint: She bit a poisoned apple, fell into a deep sleep, and was brought back to life by a kiss from her oh-so-handsome Prince Charming.  You got it! It’s Snow White. We’ve all seen Disney’s and Hollywood’s adaptations, but we never really wondered where they got the idea for it.  Let’s take a bite out of that apple, shall we?

Image courtesy of dreamstime.com

We’ll start with Disney’s 1937 animated film and Hollywood’s 2012 adaptations. The details of the original story, written by the Grimm Brothers, and the adaptations are similar; the Evil Queen has a talking mirror, she wants Snow White dead because she can’t stand to have someone else be more beautiful than her, and Snow White lives happily ever after with Prince Charming (or the Huntsman, which is implied in Hollywood’s Snow White and the Huntsman).  Now for the interesting parts: the differences.  

In the original story of “Little Snow White”, the Evil Queen sends the Huntsman out to kill Snow White and bring back her lungs and liver so the Queen can devour them, but the Huntsman takes pity on Snow White, lets her go and fools the Queen. The Evil Queen later dies by having her feet melted in heated iron dancing shoes at Snow White’s wedding. In Hollywood’s version, the Huntsman helps Snow White battle the Queen’s army, then kills the Queen by stabbing her in the heart. In Disney’s version the Evil Queen simply gets struck by lightning and falls off a cliff to her death.  Disney’s animated adaptation works for young ones, but Hollywood replaces a perfectly good original ending with one that they feel is better. 

Original fairy tales, one. Adaptations, zero.

 

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Claire Marshall.

Claire is short, though she likes to cheat and wear heels.  She was born in Toronto and, yes, she likes the Leafs. She is a caffeine addict and likes super heroes and anime. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, playing video games, and watching her favourite shows and movies. She is a social media addict with a wicked sense of humour and follows celebrity gossip like the bible.

Links: Twitter || WeHeartIt || GoodReads ||