Rapunzel is a classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm that has been adapted several times by several different people. The most famous cinematic version must be the Tangled movie by Disney. The political cartoon I chose has both but has a different message than the original and the movie. In the fairytale Rapunzel falls in love with a prince who gets his eyes gouged out by a thorn bush. The political cartoon does not include this but does take a feminist stance on the tale. The prince says “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair” to which Rapunzel replies “I’d sooner shave my head and collect coins at the airport than let a man use me as a stepping stone.” This is a comment on how a woman does not need to allow men to take advantage of women and walk all over them. In the movie and in the fairytale, she does of course let down her hair for her new mother to climb up. Without things such as this the movie and cartoon would be almost unrecognizable from the original tale. The comic of course discusses Rapunzel’s long hair since it’s such a main part of the tale. Most adaptations in some way shape or form reference the hair and the tower because it’s the “falcon” of the story. Like any other political cartoon of course its commentary and lesson is not the same as the original tale, especially since feminist values definitely wasn’t something that would be taught during the time that the fairytale was released. The cartoon is also significantly shorter than both the fairytale and movie which is why it is like some fairytales in that it gets straight to the point. The cartoon has a message it is trying to get across so it lets you know pretty quickly what it wants you to know.

The Robber’s Bridegroom, Fitcher’s Bird, and Bluebeard all have the motifs of a Bluebeard tale. This means they all contain an old man who takes girls as his bride and gives them a test to know their loyalty. The test usually involves a locked room with a key and inside the room there is a horde of dead bodies whom are all the old man’s previous wives. Although these tales are all similar and have similar themes, they all have their differences. The only Bluebeard tale where the man has a blue beard is in the Charles Perrault version called Bluebeard. In the robber’s bridegroom the bridegroom is a cannibal and murders his brides along with his companion in order to eat them. He doesn’t test them and then kill them if they fail the test and store them in a locked room. Perrault’s tale of Bluebeard and Fitcher’s Bird are the most similar in my opinion. Both contain the locked room and the test. But the brides in both have different ways of escaping Bluebeard. In Perrault’s version the bride is caught snooping in the locked room but avoids being killed by waiting upstairs until it is confirmed that her brothers are coming to go downstairs. Her brothers then kill Bluebeard for her. In Fitcher’s Bird the bride uses her wit to trick her husband into taking her sisters home with gold in jewels and then she disguised herself as a bird to so that he would not recognize her.  

There are several differences between the Hansel and Gretel fairytale by the Brother’s Grimm and the movie adaptation. These changes from the original fairytale to the movie were made for several reason. One large change was that Hansel and Gretel’s mother is their biological mother who loves them and not a horrible stepmother who wants them dead. This was probably done so that the movie would seem more fun and family friendly rather than it seems cruel. Especially since it is a PG movie that is probably targeted towards children. They also didn’t want to enforce negative stereotypes about stepmothers to young children. Some other changes that the movie makers made were to make the run-time longer since if the movie only consisted of what happened in the fairytale, it would be very short. So, they added extra subplots in order to make the film longer. For example, although in the fairytale the family had money problems, but the root of it wasn’t necessarily specified. In the movie they had troubles with the bank and the banker, and the banker ends up giving them the money they need instead of cheating them. This of course never happens in the original. The basic parts of the original story like the character’s name and the witch and the witch because they are core parts of the story. The gingerbread is an iconic part of the story and is something that everyone can recognize. Removing something like that from the fairytale would change it completely to the point where it is unrecognizable which is why the movie makers chose to leave it in.  

The Little Red Riding Hood is a very famous fairytale that has been adapted into several other stories, movies, and cartoons. I chose to use a somewhat political and social cartoon to write my blog about. The cartoon is by Dave Coverly. It reads “My, Grandma, what a big premium you have for a plan that doesn’t cover getting eaten by a wolf. Coverly uses the fairytale to convey his stance on health Insurance in the united states and how it is costing people so much money. It takes the famous phrase from the fairytale where Little Red Riding Hood continuously asks the wolf questions believing it’s her grandma. She says, “My Grandma, what big ears you have!” and so on. Instead Riding Hood exclaims to her grandma that she has to pay so much for insurance despite it not even covering getting eaten by a wolf. This is in reference to when insurance often exploit their users into paying high prices for their insurance that doesn’t even cover everything that they would expect it to. Then when they really need to use it after some sort of accident their premiums rises causing them to have to pay more money. I really enjoyed this cartoon and I enjoyed the message that it conveys. The United States Insurance market has so many problems, especially when it comes to health insurance which could mean life or death for a victim. I think it was a good idea for the cartoonist to use the famous fairytale to make this analogy since many people have read it and can understand the context. Overall I thought it was a great cartoon.

There are many similarities and differences between the Greek tale of “Cupid and Psyche” as well as the Frog King. In both “The Frog King” and “Cupid and Psych” The groom is at first seen as ugly or even monstrous. The frog king was an ugly slimy frog before he was revealed to be a handsome prince. Before Psyche discovers who, her husband is, she is told that he is an ugly beast who causes others to fear him which is why he insists that she does not see him. When Psych finally takes a lamp to his face, he is revealed to be the handsome Cupid. Both the princess from “The Frog King” and Psyche have trouble keeping their promises to the person they are supposed to love. The princess refuses to let the frog eat from her plate and sleep in her bed until her father forces her to keep her promise to the frog. Psyche promises her husband that she will not look upon his face, but she does so anyway because her sisters tell her that she must know whether he is truly a monster or a beast. While there are similarities between the two there are differences. The magic in the fairytale is known to be fiction and isn’t based in any sort of faith. However, the Greek tale is based in Greek mythology which is believed to be true by some which is why some people in the past and present worshipped the Greek Gods. In “The Frog King”, the princess’ family is a good influence on her, exemplified by her father commanding her to keep her promise to the frog. He influenced to do what was right and keep her promise. Psyche’s family on the other hand does the opposite. Her sisters convince her to break her promise to her husband and see what he really looks like. Overall both stories have similar lessons involving family and promises but explore them in different ways.  

Snow White the fairy tale by the Brother’s Grimm and Snow White and the seven dwarves have many differences. One difference can be easily spotted in the title of the Disney version called Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The movie had way more of a focus on the dwarves and even went as far as to include them in the title. The Disney movie’s changes of the dwarves included giving them all names based on character traits such as Dopey and Happy. In the fairy tale none of them had names and there wasn’t much of a distinction between the different ones other than their different bed sizes. Disney chose to put more of a focus on the dwarves to relate to the unemployed working class of the United States during the oppression. During a time when everyone wanted to work, their hardworking natures allowed people in America to relate to them. Snow white in the movie is also changed from a princess with one parent to an orphan princess who lost both and is forced to work for the evil queen. Yet again Disney wants to relate to the middle class. Instead of being born a princess she works hard, does what she is told and later becomes queen. In essence hard work pays off. Her readiness and willingness to work can also be seen in the movie when she wakes up in the Dwarves’ home and willingly offers to cook, clean, and keep house for them. Workers during the great depression were being encouraged to go out and volunteer and make the country great to get it out of the depression. Walt Disney’s movie changed the original fairy tale in a lot of ways in an effort to both relate to his middle-class audience and influence the spirit of the country through both the dwarves and Snow White.

Success is something that can be defined in several ways depending on the type of person you are. Success can be quantifiable by your wealth or “riches” or it can be measured by your happiness in life. This can range from anything including money, love, or even career stability. This means that success can even be reached through marriage to someone that they really love, if that’s what they value in life. Cinderella was miserable in her life until she went to the ball and married the prince. Although complete overnight life transformations don’t really exist, being with someone you love can make you successful. There are several real-life examples of couples find success in marriage that encompasses both love and riches. For example, Bill and Melinda Gates met at the start of the company that he co-founded, Microsoft. They loved each other and it eventually grew into the tech giant that it is today. They loved each other and found economic success. The idea that you’ll be able ton reach success through marriage overnight is false. You can’t expect the real world to be like a fairy-tale where all your dreams come true. But various ideas of success can be achieved through marriage. Reaching success through magic however is clearly not possibly. Real people can’t expect their fairy god mother to come save them, or that magical birds will grant them any wish. Success however you define it in real life can only be achieved with hard work and it’s not realistic to believe that it can be achieved by magic.

            The fairy tale can be defined as a concise magical story that involves a succession of motifs. Fairy tales or as their also known märchen all contain similar themes which exist no matter their country of origin. Fairy tales tend to be exact in their descriptions of time. For example, in the brothers Grimm fairy tale of Briar Rose, the titular character is asleep for one hundred years. The number one hundred is even and exact. Fairy tales are written like this in order for them to be simple, straightforward as well as “smooth” and “round”. This is in contrast to the saint’s legend which tend to have less perfect or even numbers to make the reader feel as though the story is true and are being given exact dates and numbers. For example, in the saint’s legend Legenda Aurea the twelve apostles sleep for 372 years. Since it seems like a more precise number the reader is supposed to feel as though the speaker is reliable thus believing the saint’s tale is true and renewing their faith in their religion. Another popular fairytale motif is the hero’s ability to save the day at precisely the right moment. They never have time to spare or are late in their efforts. For example, in the Grimm fairy tale of Briar rose the prince by chance arrives at the briar bush surrounding the castle exactly one hundred years after the princess and everyone else in the castle were put to sleep. This motif is seen again in the Swedish fairy tale called Silberwiss and Lillwacker. Silberweiss sees each of the three princesses right before they are supposed to be taken away by a sea troll. Lastly, a fairy tale motif seen across various fairy tales is that the protagonist or hero is isolated before they can save the day. In the Swedish fairy tale previously mentioned Silverweiss is left alone with his dogs to defeat the sea troll in three isolated events all involving a princess and a sea troll. This isolation of the protagonist is also evident in Briar Rose when the titular character is alone in the castle, with her parents being away when she pricks, her finger on the spinning wheel. This creates a “sharply designed structure” of the fairy tale which intensifies the severity of the event making it more enjoyable.

 “The Brothers Grimm”. The Brother’s Grimm is a Hollywood film, it is expected that the directors and producers of the movie will take creative liberties in order to ensure that the movie is profitable and appeals to a wide audience. There were several differences between the real-life brothers Grimm as described in Chapter 1 of The Brothers Grimm and their depiction in the movie. The brother’s personality and occupation are drastically changed in the movie. The movie depicts the brothers of having constant arguments and heavy drinking. But the brothers were very close to each other and couldn’t stand to be apart. Because of their strong religious beliefs, they looked down on drinking alcohol and did not drink often. In the movie the brothers are con men who travel to towns in order to stop witches or other magical creature even though they never actually stop magical creatures, they just convince people that they do. In reality the brothers never pretended to vanquish magical creatures, they were scholars. They were honest men who worked hard in school to eventually become professors as well as write and publish several books. This brings me to another difference between the real brothers and their portrayal in the movie, the writing of their book of collected fairy tales. The movie makes it seem as though the fairy tale book was the only one, they wrote and that only Jacob wrote it. In real life both brother’s worked on the fairy tale book but it was not the focus of their writing careers. They wrote several essays and part of a Dictionary. However, the most important part of their writing career was their German grammar book which was very popular and positively received by scholars from all over. The largest discrepancy between the book and the movie in my opinion would have to be the movie’s portrayal of real depiction of the fairy tales that the Grimm’s wrote about. The Grimm’s never actually fought a witch, or Sleeping beauty, or Rapunzel’s tower. This obviously was an attempt to make the brother’s story more interesting, but it makes it seem as though the brother’s actually encountered real people and creatures from fairy tales which is definitely not accurate.