1 Fairy Tale Adaptations

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Fairy Tale Adaptations

Do you remember the first time that you heard the story of Cinderella? Climbed up Rapunzel’s tower? Cheered three little pigs to victory over the Big Bad Wolf? These stories have remained popular for hundreds of years after their original publications. Since then, many authors have created their own editions of these classic tales. The Education Library at the University of Saskatchewan has created a guide to Fairy Tales which offers the following definitions to help classify these new renditions:

Match the definitions:

“Adaptation:	A distinct rendering of an original story. Different versions of the same tale are usually associated with a particular author and country of origin. For example, the original French version of Cinderella, Cendrillon, was published by Charles Perrault in 1697; the German version by the Brothers Grimm, Aschenputtel, was first published in 1812. Most modern-day English language translations of the Cinderella story are adapted from one of these versions.”
“Fractured Fairy Tale:	A tale bearing resemblance in theme, motifs, or tale type to another, but which has its origin in another culture.”
“Version:	Any translation nor re-telling of a folk or fairy tale. The original story is usually altered to some degree. For example, characters may be changed, the ending may be softened, the language may be simplified, dialogue may be added or subtracted, and new illustrations may create a different mood.”
“Variant:	A re-working of a traditional fairy tale that retains familiar elements such as characters and plot, but alters the story in unexpected ways, often with a contemporary “spin” or ironic twist.”

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Read the following information about original version of fairy tales you know, compare them with adapted ones. Match the texts with the pictures.

1. Beauty and the Beast Could Have Ended Badly, but It Didn't

Beauty and the Beast is a well-known Disney classic, but did you know that the tale has its roots in French literature? French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is credited as the earliest-known author of the story, but it was abridged several times in order to be a shorter and more appealing fairy tale. A common trait of fairy tale stories, many of the characters didn’t have names. In this story, Belle is only referred to as “Beauty”, which is actually her nickname. Her father is simply referred to as a merchant, and she has a number of unnamed siblings. (And what about the other characters that Disney introduced to the story, like Gaston and all of the servants transformed into household items? They never existed in the original story.)

The merchant gets lost and stays in the Beast’s home—and quite comfortably! He makes himself at home and eats and drinks until he leaves, all without meeting the Beast. That is, until he picks a rose from his garden! The Beast tells the merchant that he will die for taking one, but they end up settling with the merchant going home and asking if one of his daughters would die in his stead. (If they refuse, the merchant was to come back to the Beast in three months to die.) In the end, Beauty volunteers to take her father’s place because he picked the rose for her, but the Beast can’t bring himself to kill her. Instead, she comes to love him dearly and he transforms back into a Prince.

2. Cinderella Doesn't Need a Fairy Godmother

One could argue that Cinderella is the neediest of the Disney Princesses. Sure her home situation isn’t ideal, but she cries until her Fairy Godmother appears, and her Fairy Godmother proceeds to use her magic to give her everything she needs. With Cinderella’s uncanny good looks and the magical assist, she charms Prince Charming and they live happily ever after. However, the original stories of Cinderella went through a few adaptations until they fell into the hands of the Grimm Fairy Tales. In keeping with other fairy tale norms, Cinderella is the only named character in the story. (Cinderella is also only a nickname, so we don’t know her birth name.) She is once again treated like a household servant by her stepmother and sisters. However, instead of consulting her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella plants a twig by her mother’s grave, and she weeps over it until it turns into a tree. She clearly has her own magical powers!

Cinderella frequently weeps and prays by this tree, which grants whatever items she may want. Eventually, she catches wind of a festival that is being held for the Prince, which she desires to attend. It spans three days, and over the course of these days, she calls on birds to aid her. The birds also do her chores and bring her shoes and dresses of increasing beauty that she wears to the festival. The Prince wishes to escort her home each day, but she manages to disappear—and we’re not entirely sure why. By the third day, he gets wise, and he actually coats the stairs with pitch so her shoes get stuck when she tries to leave. (She simply leaves them behind due to the inconvenience.) The Prince then travels to find the owner of the shoe, and Cinderella’s sisters famously cut off parts of their feet in an attempt to wear the shoe. They get called out for it because of the blood on the shoe, but eventually, everyone finds out that the shoe belongs to Cinderella. (It’s not actually a glass slipper either, but it’s made of gold!) When the Prince does find Cinderella, he immediately puts her on his horse and rides off with her. Cinderella and the Prince get married, but at the ceremony, pigeons arrive and peck out the eyes of her stepsisters. While it isn’t mentioned in the story, with Cinderella’s affinity for birds, we wonder if she had anything to do with that.

3. Mulan’s Fellow Soldiers Were Fooled by Her for a Decade

There are several versions of the original Mulan story, as it is a very old tale with roots in oral traditions. (It is also up for debate as to whether she’s a real person or not, but a lot can happen to a story that started in the 400s or 500s!) Disney isn’t that far off the tracks in regards to this tale, seeing as she did step in for her father and take his armor because she felt that he was too old to be fighting. However, Mulan had been taught to fight at home, so she blended in perfectly with the rest of the warriors when she joined the army. Mulan actually fought with them for over ten years, and by the sound of it, she didn't get caught until the very end, and she wasn't hiding at that point. You go, girl!

The original tales have several different endings, but some of them end in tragedy. One such tale has her elderly father die while she was at war, and her mother remarries. Mulan is later approached by the Emperor to become his concubine, and she decides that it is in her best interest to die rather than to live as a trophy wife. However, other stories end more favorably, with her simply riding home on a camel or looking forward to getting married after coming home from the war.

4. Snow White Needs to Know About Stranger Danger

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is another Disney movie that was adapted from the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. While the Disney version never mentions a king, the original tale says that her original mother died and the king took another wife—the evil queen, now Snow White’s stepmother. After being told by the magic mirror that Snow White is now more beautiful than she is, the evil queen asks a huntsman to take her into the woods and to bring back Snow White’s lungs and liver. A little more gruesome than asking for her heart! The huntsman lets her go into the woods as he cannot bear to kill Snow White, so instead he brings the queen the lungs and liver of a wild boar. Which she proceeds to eat. (Apparently, the evil queen has cannibalistic tendencies. Yikes.) Unfortunately, the queen finds out via her mirror that Snow White is still alive and living with seven dwarfs in the mountains. The evil queen disguises herself on several occasions and attempts to kill Snow White with a tightly laced corset, a poisoned comb and finally a poisoned apple. The dwarfs had managed to revive her on the previous attempts, but they could not bring her back after the poisoned apple, so they made her a glass coffin because they felt that she was too beautiful to bury underground.

Sometime later, a prince comes across the dwarfs’ home and asks to stay for the night. Upon seeing Snow White’s figure in the coffin, he pleads with the dwarfs until they allow him to take it home. (It's a little creepy that he wants this dead girl that badly, but she's apparently so pretty that he just can't help himself.) His bumbling servants carry it, but when they stumble while carrying it, somehow the piece of poisoned apple stuck in Snow White’s throat gets dislodged and she comes back to life. (Maybe the dwarfs should have tried the Heimlich maneuver instead of washing her with water and wine, loosening her corset and combing her hair.) Snow White and the prince get married, and they even invite the evil stepmother queen. She attends but she is very scared, as she should be—they bring out a pair of iron shoes and heat them in burning coals. They then force the evil queen to wear the shoes and dance until she dies. And that is how the story ends. Let’s just say that Disney’s ending was much more kid-friendly, and the newly married couple has poor taste in wedding entertainment.

5. Rapunzel was Named After Her Mom's Pregnancy Cravings

The tale of Rapunzel is one of the few stories adapted by Disney that doesn't share a name similar to its source material. (The Disney movie is called Tangled.) Rapunzel is yet another story made famous by the Brothers Grimm. In the Grimm tales, Rapunzel’s parents aren’t royal at all. In a weird bout of pregnancy cravings, the mom-to-be desires to eat the rapunzel plants from a neighboring sorceress’s garden. The father doesn’t bother asking the sorceress so he climbs the wall and steals rapunzel plants for his wife to eat. He gets caught by the sorceress and after explaining himself, she allows him to take her plants if he and his wife give up their child to the sorceress. He says yes, apparently. The little girl is born and the sorceress names her Rapunzel and takes her away. It isn’t until the girl reaches twelve years old that the sorceress locks her in a tower, which has no door or stairs, but it does have a room and window at the very top.

The sorceress gets in and out of Rapunzel's room by climbing her hair, which a prince happens to witness. He decides that he wants to see Rapunzel for himself, so he manages to convince her to let down her hair-rope while the sorceress is away. They meet on several occasions, and Rapunzel falls in love. She asks him to bring strands of silk so that she can make an actual-rope ladder long enough to escape the tower. (Why they didn't just cut her hair and climb out or have the prince bring a long enough rope, we'll never know.) Unfortunately, Rapunzel blows her cover one day by asking the sorceress why she is more difficult to pull into the tower than the young prince. (Evil women dislike being less than drop-dead gorgeous in fairy tales, so the sorceress was not thrilled at this roundabout way of being called fat.) In retaliation, she the sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and hides her in the wilderness.

The sorceress then waits for the prince and lets down Rapunzel’s hair, allowing him to climb into the tower. He’s utterly shocked and unhappy when the sorceress tells him that he won’t ever see Rapunzel again, so he throws himself out of the tower. While he didn’t die, he is severely hurt and the thorns he landed in poked out both of his eyes. He blindly wanders the wilderness and eats grass and roots for several years, but eventually he does come upon Rapunzel, still out there living in the wilderness. Rapunzel had a set of twins while he was away—probably due to his visiting her in the tower. Poor Rapunzel cries upon seeing him in such a state, and her tears magically enable him to see again when they roll into his eyes. He leaves and takes her to his kingdom with her, where they do get their belated happily ever after.