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The 'Disneyfication' of Fairy tales

 The 'Disneyfication' of Fairy tales

By Bhumika Kukreja, Ananya Jain, Sahaj Singh Saluja

We often take the print and visual media for granted and do seldom realize that there was a time before all of it began. The onset of the journey of print can be traced back to 594 AD in China. After the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press, we all know how far we’ve come. In print, one major part of the writings written is folktales and fables, gradually transgressing from oral to paper. In the 19th century, primary education became compulsory and children became an important category of readers. A children’s press devoted to literature for children alone was set up in Germany in 1857. And all the due credit goes to the Grimm brothers for introducing fables to the world as they spent many years in Germany compiling traditional folk tales from peasants. 

Be it the story of the utterly confident and obedient ‘The Little Red Riding Hood’ or everyone’s obsession with Rapunzel's luxuriant hair; Be it experiencing adventures and flying like a free spirit akin to Peter Pan or longing for lost love like Sleeping Beauty. These stories have been etched in our minds since we were little. 

But there’s one problem we should deal with. Disney has sugar-coated the tales which did not always have an ecstatic and fulfilling ending. The originality of the folklore has been altered to give it a trite happy ending. Disney has received a lot of criticism for altering the fairy tales and doing injustice to the believable storylines. Some critics also believe that Disney affects the general perception of fairy tales among the larger chunk because they create a definitive fairy tale consciousness among the audience and when the audience doesn’t get what they have expected, they return disappointed.

The Story of Frozen and Snow Queen

To begin, we would take the example of the famous movie Frozen which is adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”. The book New Fairy Tales was published in 1844 and the movie adaptation which reinvents the story was made in 2013. “The Snow Queen” is one of his most celebrated works. Let’s go through the basic plotline of both the works individually and then we would compare and contrast the differences and similarities. 

“The Snow Queen” is set in northern Europe where two best friends, Gerda and Kay, live. And there resides a nefarious Snow Queen. The hobgoblin created a mirror which magnifies ugly and evil things and shrinks good and pretty things. When hobgoblin’s associates took the mirror up into the sky to see what the angels looked like in it, it fell and smashed into millions of pieces. Some of these pieces got into people’s eyes and distorted their view of the world; some pieces became windows; some pieces even made it into people’s hearts and turned those hearts as cold as ice. But many pieces were left scattered about the world. One of the snow pieces reaches Kay’s heart and it turns into ice. He suddenly starts behaving badly with Gerda and can only see the negative side of things now. Everything that catches his eyes now becomes ugly. One fine day Kay took his sledge and went sledding with his friends in town. That day, the Snow Queen met him, took him under her wing and rode off with him on a sledge to a place unknown.  Gerda wonders what happened to Kay, fearing him dead. She throws her prized red shoes into the river as an offering, in the hope that Kay will come back in return. But it doesn’t work, so Gerda gets in a boat and soon drifts out into the world beyond her home, where she meets an old lady who befriends her. Gerda talks to the flowers in the woman’s garden, in the hope that they will tell her where Kay is, but they speak to her in riddles. Autumn comes, and Gerda continues on her way in the world. On her search for Kay and the Snow Queen’s castle, Gerda meets numerous people in her way. She meets a crow who gives her a warm coat, she also meets the robbers where the little robber girl helps her go further north to find Kay. Gerda finally reaches the castle where she finds Kay.  Gerda turns up and recognizes Kay instantly despite his changed appearance but he sits still and unresponsively cold.  The only way to free him from the Snow Queen’s tangles is to remove the shard of the magic mirror that has turned his heart into ice. Upset, Gerda cries warm tears that drop onto the frozen Kay, and seep through to his heart, thawing it. When Gerda sings a song they both know, he recognises her, and bursts into tears. His tears wash out the grain of glass from the magic mirror that was lodged in his eye, and he returns to his old self. Reunited, Gerda and Kay return home, growing up together and yet retaining their childlike innocence, as spring turns into summer.

Now, talking about the 21st century Frozen which has been adapted from this work shows stark contrasts and the characters and narratives of both these works ended up being very different from each other. 

The film begins with two sisters Anna and Elsa living with their parents in a fictional city, Arendelle. Princess Elsa of Arendelle possesses magical powers that allow her to control and create ice and snow. After Elsa accidentally injures Anna with her magic, their parents isolate both sisters from each other to protect Anna from Elsa's unpredictable powers. After Anna's 21stt birthday, Elsa flees to the North Mountain, where she finally acknowledges her powers, building an ice palace to live a hermit life. In the process, her magic unintentionally engulfs Arendelle in an eternal winter. Anna ventures out to find Elsa and end the winter, leaving Prince Hans of the Southern Isles in command. Anna fell in love with him on her birthday, only to later realize he betrays her and tries to kill her sister. She meets an iceman named Kristoff and his reindeer Sven, convincing them to take her to the mountains. Reaching the ice palace, Anna meets Elsa. When Anna reveals what has become of Arendelle, a horrified Elsa confesses she does not know how to undo her magic. Her fear causes her powers to manifest themselves once more, and she accidentally freezes Anna's heart, seriously injuring her. The colony of trolls led by Grand Paddie, to whom Elsa and Anna were taken in their childhood, reveals that Anna will freeze solid unless "an act of true love" reverses the spell. Kristoff races Anna back to Hans to receive her true love’s kiss but Hans instead reveals that he has actually been plotting to seize the throne of Arendelle by eliminating both sisters. Hans locks Anna in a room to die and then manipulates the dignitaries into believing that Elsa killed her, but not before they were married. He orders the queen's execution, only to discover she has escaped her detention cell. Hans confronts Elsa outside, claiming that she killed Anna, causing Elsa to break down and abruptly stop the storm. Anna spots Hans about to kill Elsa; she leaps in the way and freezes solid, stopping Hans. Devastated, Elsa hugs and mourns over her sister, who thaws out, her heroism constituting "an act of true love". Realizing that love is the key to controlling her magic, Elsa ends the winter. The sisters are reunited, and Elsa promises never to lock the castle gates again.

Now that we know both the stories we can compare and contrast the plotlines.

The first difference we observe is that the Villain in “The Snow Queen” becomes Frozen's Hero. The protagonist of “The Snow Queen” is evil and wicked while Elsa, the protagonist of Frozen, cares about her family and her country. She’s merely confused and afraid about the control of her power and doesn’t want to hurt anybody. The Snow Queen is feckless and cunningly captures Kay under her robe. Another difference is the control of powers.  A major difference between their powers is that Elsa is still mastering and understanding her supernatural side, while the Snow Queen appears to be in complete control of her sorcery. One more difference that can be observed is the motivations and intentions behind the usage of those powers. The Snow Queen uses her magic for nefarious purposes. Elsa simply wants to be left in peace and fulfil her self-realization on her terms. The starkest difference is that Frozen changes the storyline of “The Snow Queen”. "The Snow Queen" begins with the Devil, disguised as an evil troll, who creates a mirror that distorts reality and later shatters into fragments of ice that plunge into the eyes and hearts of people.  Frozen omits the troll mirror from the plot entirely, and Anna's heart is accidentally infected with ice when Elsa loses control of her powers. Another difference between "The Snow Queen" and Frozen is that Anna appears to be desperately cold once the ice begins to spread through her heart, but Kay never once feels the pain of frostbite.

One more difference is that Frozen changes major themes and religious aspects. Andersen’s story has a lot of religious anecdotes which he took reference from. But Frozen eliminated that and instead took a stance for the values which are of utmost importance in the 21st century. Frozen spotlights the trending value of self-reliance and platonic love over romantic attachment. Messages of female empowerment, familial love and the importance of affirming one's identity are echoed throughout the film. The film also examines the pain and dangers of repression and isolation, while also highlighting the importance of letting go of fear. Andersen's "The Snow Queen" draws upon moralistic values frequently seen in traditional fairy tales. Archetypes of good versus evil, childhood innocence triumphing over the learned sins of adulthood, summer versus winter and the separation of man from nature - all of these themes are encompassed under the overarching concern of preserving Christian values.

The last difference observed would be in the fictional setting in Frozen and an unspecified place somewhere near northern Europe or a Scandinavian country in Andersen's “The Snow Queen”.  Although Frozen is fabricated, the Kingdom of Arendelle is inspired by the country of Norway, and the fictional land maintains many features congruent with its Nordic setting, like decorative rosemaling, wooden stave churches, and sweeping fjords. 

The Story Of Snow White

The Brothers Grimm version of Snow White is called "Little Snow-White" or Sneewittchen (German). It was published in 1812 and then revised by them in 1857. In the 1812 version, Snow White’s biological mother hires a huntsman to kill her because of her unparalleled beauty. The Grimms’ older version gives us more of an insight into her origin and also suggests that the girl is born out of a flight of fancy rather than a genuine desire. In the revised version they change the biological mother to a stepmother. The Grimms made the change in later editions because they 'held motherhood sacred,' but that there were sociological grounds for the change — beyond the fear of offending potential readers —because "many women died from childbirth in the 18th and 19th centuries, and there were numerous instances in which the father remarried a young woman, perhaps close in age to the father’s eldest daughter," of whom the new wife might feel jealous.

The Queen sends a hunter to kill Snow White and comes back with a heart for her, which is a boar's heart, and the Queen eats it. She discovers that Snow White is still alive and attempts to kill her three separate times - once by lacing up Snow's corset too tight, once by a poisonous comb, and finally by a poisonous apple. After the dwarfs bury Snow White in a diamond casket, a Prince finds her and demands to have her taken to his castle so he can admire her. On their journey to the castle, they accidentally hit a bush causing the apple to fly out of Snow White's throat which makes her wake up and thank the Prince for saving her life. At the Prince's and Snow White's wedding, the Queen is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes, until she eventually dies.

The differences between the Disney version and the Brothers Grimm version of Snow-White help display the "Disneyfication" of stories as well as how the storylines and publishing have changed over time. The original story isn't as romantic and child-friendly as the Disney version.

The very beginning of the tale is cut completely from the film. Rather than learning of Snow White’s youth and background, we are thrown straight in at the deep end. She lives with her vain, abusive step-mother and isn’t particularly happy about it. In the tale, we actually find out about Snow White’s real mother, who pricks her finger on a needle, wishes for a beautiful daughter, and then dies in childbirth. Also, in the 1812 version of the story, it is not the stepmother but the biological mother who wants her daughter dead as she is envious of her sheer beauty. 

Cannibalism is also quite evident in the tale but was completely removed from the film. In the film, the Evil Queen asks the Huntsman to kill Snow-White and bring her heart as proof of her murder. In the tale, she asks the huntsman to bring her liver and lungs as tokens of her death and says that she would cook her organs in salt and eat them. This is another example of the Brothers Grimm taking things a little far. Their Fairy Tales often end up in strangely dark, violent realms.

While the Queen dies in both versions, the actual method is very different. She died much earlier on in the film, with a demise seeing her fall off a cliff due to a stroke of lightning. There is a much more personal, vengeful and satisfying end for the character in the story. She is forced to dance in red-hot iron slippers until she drops dead. It might be a little too torturous for a children's film.

These are the few ways in which the ‘Disneyfication’ of the fairy tale was done to make it appealing for its young audience which is in stark contrast with the gruesome and gory plot of the story. 

In the early 1930s, Walt Disney had become dissatisfied with producing formulaic short cartoon series. His enthusiasm was waning. Then suddenly, the idea came like a lightning flash — Making a full-length animated feature film (which had never been tried before). After deliberate exploration, he chose the story of ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’. After its success Disney never turned back and went on to produce full length animated movies. 

In the case of Frozen, it is believed that it has to do something with Walt Disney's death. It is believed that he was frozen upon his death so that he could be brought back to life in the future. And as this theory goes, Disney made Frozen bury this thought in an internet-driven world.

We have come to know that many of these original folktales contain dark, and grotesque subject matter, including death, mutilation, torture, and sexual exploitation. This 'Disneyfication' was done to make the dark tales child friendly but they did injustice to the original tales as we barely know about the origins of our favourite Disney films.  

That being said, this alteration in the original folktales and fables by Disney has led to the worldwide fame of these tales. While one might not know about the dark themes in these tales, they have the basic idea of what the tales are all about and this is the only reason why we are researching these tales centuries after they got published.


References

 


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