Do the conventions of traditional fairytales fit in with animated films?
Do the conventions of traditional fairytales fit in with animated films?
The tradition of fairytales goes back to before recorded history, originally designed to educate, fairytales’ aim now is to entertain. Fairytales went through two renaissances; the first was the introduction of illustrations to books and the second turning fairytales into to animated film. Walt Disney has been the main contender in bring fairytales to the cinema, starting off with retelling the traditional folktale of Snow White, adding particular characters, like Dopey, to make the films more appealing to the American youth. Walt Disney has remade many fairy tales other than Snow White, including Pinocchio, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid.
Vladimir Propp, in his work The Morphology of the Folktale, provides narrative structures for fairytales, which he argues all fairytales fit into. A rough outline of Propp’s theory is as followed- fairytales have a beginning in which the initial situation is introduced and the hero passes or fails an initial task, resulting in guidance from some kind of mentor, often resulting in the hero leaving home. In the middle part of fairy tales there are two possible roots for the fairytales to go; the hero struggles against some villain, or is cheated out of his deserved reward and must prove himself. In the end of the fairytale Propp says that the hero’s victory is recognized, any remaining villains are exposed and punished and the hero gains his reward. Propp consulted only a limited catalogue of fairytales mainly only Russian and European, yet his narrative structure does appear to fit accurately to the majority of fairytales. When applying them animated fairytales they seem to fit comfortably. Take the Little Mermaid for example, a traditional folktale that was turned into an animated film by Disney in the early 90s. In the beginning of the Little Mermaid the heroine Ariel saves and falls in love with a human Prince Erik. She turns to the Sea Witch Ursula for guidance who turns her into a human in return for Ariel’s, allowing her only forty-eight hours to make Erik kiss her. Ariel meets and spends time with the Prince, however Ursula prevents the prince from kissing Ariel, then turns into a women and enchants Erik to marry her. Erik realized who Ariel is just before he marries Ursula, but Ariel turns back into a Mermaid and Ursula takes her back into the sea. Erik tries to save Ariel, mean while Ursula has become very powerful and rules the sea, but just in time Erik kills her. Ariel becomes a human and her and the prince marry. This story fits in with Propp’s fairytale conventions as there is an initial task, guidance, the heroine is cheated out of a reward, the villain is defeated and the heroine gains her reward.
