Fairytale Film

It has been announced that Angelina Jolie is to star in a 2014 slant on Sleeping Beauty, and I'm assuming here they mean slant on Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) because wardrobe have definitely focused on the evil fairy Maleficent look from said film. Jolie is going to somehow make this horned weirdo look cool and sexy and 'identifiable', is the assumed plot, a the-other-side-of-the-story which brings to mind Wicked.










It seems lately Hollywood has cottoned on to the idea of reimagining tried and tested fairytale stories, revising the concept and flipping it on itself. Culturally our fascination with fairytale seems to still exist, films have managed to grasp the central idea of a story, such as Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood and Snow White, and tailored it to suit modern audiences. Recent examples include Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011) which was pretty much Twilight with a red cape.


Disney were perhaps the first production company to adapt the Grimm fairytale to a film narrative. In their landmark first feature film, Snow White (1937), the eponymous princess sings precociously “some day my Prince will come”. This chick is the stereotypical feeble fairytale princess. For the whole film she does nothing about her fate, staying at home and cleaning the house while the seven dwarfs pop off to work every day, and settling in the kitchen baking cakes with birds (yeah, that bit did look fun). Even when coming under constant attack from the pro-active - although admittedly insane - Evil Queen she does nothing but literally take the apple and drop dead. STUPID. It is the dwarfs, and the prince that must come to her aid.

Seriously, WHO TAKES APPLES FROM THIS WOMAN?! This bitch still gives me nightmares

But you can't really blame Snow White for being demeaning to women, after all it was the thirties (!) Back to the present day, this year we've been assaulted with two Snow White adaptations: Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. Mirror Mirror focuses on being comic and stars Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, whereas Snow White and the Hunstman is more of an action-epic boasting a leading cast of Chris Hemsworth (aka Avengers' Thor), Charlize Theron as the chilling and beautiful antagonist and Kristen Stewart (aka Bella-preggers-Swan) as Ms White. Fortunately, in this adaptation, the 'fair maiden' is not so much a damsel in distress. Rather than waiting around to be killed or saved, she stands up and fights for herself. Rather than wincing, she screams at monsters:

And yet the aesthetics of the otherworldly, ethereal, the fairytale, remains in tact in this film, with Gothic castles, enchanted forests and intricately designed mythical CGI creatures. The iconic apple, the narcissistic mirror and of course the dwarfs make revised appearances, casting Snow White and The Huntsman as essentially a fairytale, albeit with modern feminist twist.

Bambi gets involved

But why does faiytale continue to be relevant in society? in Snow White and the Huntsman, Charlize Theron smoulders as the Queen who hungers for eternal youth and beauty at any cost, and could that not be reflected upon society today? Fairytales like Snow White have stayed with us perhaps because they, in a fantasist, illusionary vehicle, present to us our own universal flaws and virtues, fears and desires.


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Also coming soon on the Fairytale vibe is the retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer (set for release 2013) which I was lucky enough to see the set of. Not giving anything away, but expect some giants.