Saturday, April 11, 2015

Fairy Tales on the Silver Screen

Thank you so much The Book Rat & A Backwards Story for hosting this.

I don't usually post on the weekends, but I wanted to do a couple of special Fairy Tale Fortnight posts. (And I thought that because they're non-bookish - at least, mostly - that the weekend would be perfect to post them. Besides, my week is filled!)

I, like many other people, got my first exposure to fairy tales through the Disney animated movies.




Snow White, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid were all early staples for me - with Snow White being the one I've seen the most - but it wasn't until Beauty and the Beast that I started to love fairy tales. (I talked about my love for this fairy tale back in my April 3rd post.)


Since then I've watched a few other fairy tale movies.


Of these, Ever After is certainly my favorite. Between Drew Barrymore playing a Cinderella that was a lot more active - and physically fit - than most cinder girls, a 'Prince Charming' that wasn't perfect and a steller supporting cast, this is one that I still love rewatching.


When I originally saw Snow White on tv, I loved it. Upon buying it on dvd, I was less enchanted. The high points are a wonderful, charming Kristen Kreuk as Snow and a delightfully dastardly Miranda Richardson as the evil queen.


Beastly, while taking inspiration from my favorite fairy tale, certainly isn't without it's flaws. If you just give it a cursory glance, it's fun fluff. Any deeper though, and certain messages start to get a bit uncomfortable. (Especially for those of us that like fairy tales for the escape.) (And it kind of screwed up it's own tag-line...)


Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was originally a book - something I did not know until recently. (And by the same author as Wicked, no less.) It was actually a movie I enjoyed a lot, as it was told from the perspective of the less mean of Cinderella's stepsisters. (If I recall, the movie wasn't as frothy as this cover makes it look, either.)


Finally, am I the only one that's seen Sydney White? I mean, you're not missing out on much if you haven't seen it, but you could do worse for college fluff. (Bet those two words don't go together often.) This movie was fun, but I hit a certain point - like as soon as I met him - and I was starting to wish that the titular Sydney wouldn't get the 'prince'.


And now, what fairy tale movies have you seen? Were they good? Not so good? 'Why did I ever watch that?' worthy? How about the new Cinderella movie? Have you seen it? I'd like to, but I'm probably waiting til it hits dvd, so tell me if you think it's worth it. Any movie suggestions?

Comments (4)

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Ever After was a definite favourite of mine for ages, and of course Disney movies are a staple of my movie diet! (I have to admit though, I have ALWAYS hated the Disney Snow White). I haven't seen a lot of the others you have on here though. I didn't know they'd adapted Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister! I generally find Maguire a little too weird for my taste, but I LOVED this one. I kind of wish I still had a copy...

Let's see other fairy tale live actions...there was that Snow White with Julia Roberts that was super gorgeous, but otherwise just alright. Oh and the adaption of Ella Enchanted which is truly awfuly. I know people love it...and I just can't. WHY. HOW?? (Of course none of them read the book first, so that could be it). I honestly think that's it which feels really weird!
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1 reply · active 517 weeks ago
My early favorite Disney movie (before Beauty and the Beast) was The Little Mermaid. I don't know how accurate Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was to the book, but I do recall liking the story and being really thrilled that the story was told from one of the stepsisters point of view. I've looked for a dvd of it - because I totally wouldn't mind rewatching it - but I have had terrible luck with that.

Before I started this list, I thought I'd actually seen a lot more fairy tale movies. There's some of the newer ones I'm interested in, but I have heard such unfavorable things that I'm not too sure about them. It seems like you've got two groups when it comes to these movies and, I admit, I'm rather critical - especially of fairy tale retellings.
Oohhhh, Ever After. How I love that movie... Been wanting to rewatch it, actually.
And how did I not know Confessions was made into a movie!? I mean, I didn't love the book (though it looks like they totally changed it anyway, so that probably wouldn't matter), but yeah, I definitely need to track that down.
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1 reply · active 517 weeks ago
Good luck finding it. I originally got to record it back in the days of VHS tapes when it was on their ABC Disney movie night thing that they used to have. I've looked for it a few times since then - as I do remember actually liking it quite a bit - but am not having much luck there at all. I'm really not sure how much was changed from the book because, although I'm a little interested in reading it, I've just not gotten there yet thanks to the severely mixed reviews I've read.

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