Once Upon a Time in a Disturbing, Creepy Land...

 

graphic from this blog

 

I saw a little bit of Beauty and the Beast last night, which I haven't seen for years. I was swarmed with memories, particularly because of the songs... that soundtrack was my very first CD back in 1991. I was in elementary school when Disney came back with a bang creating The Little Mermaid in 1989. But that wasn't the beginning of my relationship with fairy tales... it just brought them to life in a new way. I remember watching the old version of The Little Mermaid over and over {which was much closer to the original story with quite a different ending than the Disney version} and feeling so sad that she was separated forever from her family. I also recall being creeped out that Thumbelina was going to be forced to marry a mole; wondering if I would pass as a real princess by knowing there was a pea under my mattress if someone put it there; feeling it was gross for a grown man to walk naked down the street, even if he was a fictional emperor; being afraid of a little, evil man who requested so much of you if you couldn't figure out his name; not liking the idea of cannibalism that was so prevalent in Hansel and Gretel -- even though I didn't know what cannibalism was; and basically being appalled at the litany of completely irresponsible parents in these stories {and hoping my own mother didn't get any ideas from them}.  Regardless, I kept reading the stories, and wanting them read to me. Because even if Cinderella had lost both of her parents {a strong fear of mine as a child} and then lived as a slave with her yucky, mean stepmother, she was still Cinderella. She sang with animals, experienced magic, and was beautiful... and if you want to hook a five year-old, you pretty much have it made with those virtues right there. 

Which leads me to...

The questions of the day: 

Which fairytale heroine would you be?

and 

Which fairytale do you think is the strangest {and why}?

I have a hard time deciding. Truthfully I loved fairy tales, even if most of them had something in their plot that was somewhat disturbing to me as a child. Even Beauty and the Beast, who's Disney Princess is my favorite, had me in arms as a kid. I can remember watching it thinking, "does nobody else see that she is falling in love with an animal?! Why doesn't this bother anybody?" But I loved the fact that Belle was a complete bookworm and felt a little different than the people around her, so I forgave her for coming too close to beastiality for my comfort and loved the princess and all her talking appliances anyway. Plus,  I was relieved that at the end he became a man again and her father got to come live in the castle with them. Because, as a child, the thought of your parents not living with you and your handsome husband prince is just absurd. {And what I'm not telling you is that at 30 I still feel the same way... if my mom and brother would consent, I would make them each build a house on either side of me so I could see them all the time. But let's pretend I only felt that way as a child, because it tends to seem a little more normal. :)}

Comments

[Ti]

I think the creepiest tale is the one where trolls live under a bridge. I can't remember the title. To this day, just the idea of a troll popping out at me is enough to make me cringe.

As for me, I sort of identify with Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

[Coconut Library]

Hi Ti! I think the one you are referring to is Three Billy Goats Gruff? My preschoolers loved that one and I couldn't understand why... I think it is pretty scary/creepy too.

[Amanda]

I would totally want to be Mulan. She gets to be totally kick-ass, ride a horse, talk to Mushu, has awesome clothes, etc... :-)

I've honestly always found Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to be odd. Something about those 7 dwarves just always really creeped me out.

[Beezy]

My favorite Disney fairy tale was always Sleeping Beauty. She has pretty hair and a pretty voice, and her friends are fairies that make her dresses. Plus they're funny when they fight.

I was always a little afraid of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. Plus how weird is it that in the end, the hunter cuts the wolf open to rescue the grandmother and girl, and the wolf only dies because he's been filled back up with heavy stones? Seems like that last step could have been left out...

[JLH]

My favorite is Ariel, she gets to wear a coconut bra...how great is that.

I always thought Hanzel and Gretel was the weidest story and it made me a little bit leary of the oven when I was young.

[Denise Ferraz]

like classic stories, My First Contact with Fairy Tale took the Walt Disney because then the first view, I think a serious OR What a Cinderella Snow White, if we think in stories I have read or saw on Children, now Currently we thought I would be one of Shereka Fiona, that is not within the standards of beauty or the Princess and the Frog Princess, my second son, For I am reading the book racial.Eu identity: The psychoanalysis of fairy tales, and there a people Everyone realizes that the stories are Strange, meaning that neither have the OU imaginable Another book on the subject that I have read and liked was with women who run like wolves from Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a writer in him explaining a Importance of tales and stories in Our Life, Especially Women, then I think even Strangers OR WHEN weird tales Are Required subparagraph Our growth.