Fairy Tale and Film

Epilogue 
165
at the heart of these stories, their sense of wonder and wish-fulfilment, 
and their affirmation of positive change, even against the odds. This is 
the remit of fairy tales after all: to present protagonists faced with perils 
and difficulties, yet also endorse their ability to surpass them. The ques-
tion that appears to give so many scholars pause is whether progressive 
claims can be made for cinematic variations, with the film industry 
negatively regarded as working to maintain consensus and a tendency 
to denounce happy endings as an escapist fantasy. 
A key aim of this book has been to challenge such negative thinking, 
selecting films that attest to the positive impact cultural criticism and 
socio-political movements have had on narratives, while also aiming to 
avoid simplistic generalisations. Our understanding of fairy tales – and 
film – is better served in seeking examples that widen our critical and 
imaginary horizons, I would argue, rather than affirm foregone conclu-
sions. Although scholars have struggled to come to terms with the fact 
that fairy tale revisions, so often applauded in print, acquire a differ-
ent hue in celluloid, we should not regard the medium as invariably 
at the mercy of commercial considerations, acknowledging the ability 
to reflect key changes in our understanding of gender, materialism and 
power – without necessarily deeming these gestures to be insincere. As 
critics have noted, a marked ambivalence is apparent in the fairy tale 
film, just as fairy tales themselves are contrary narratives, yet a number 
of significant films appear to have been overlooked on somewhat tenu-
ous grounds. While this is attributable to a level of snobbery, devaluing 
the popular on the questionable grounds that people don’t know what’s 
good for them (a critique in keeping with determinist theories of media 
power and the accompanying belief that commercial cinema’s interest 
in fairy tales is wholly negative), the danger of such thinking is that it 
refutes any grounds for improvement. Zipes has pessimistically claimed 
that ‘what might have been considered subversive or provocative in the 
past has been domesticated through the market and changing tastes and 
values’, going on to claim that there is ‘little room for genuine opposi-
tion’ (2009: 19). This idea of co-optation has been echoed by others, 
especially with regard to fairy tale films, and may be linked to ‘the old 
Marcusian notion of recuperation, where a radical concept which once 
had purchase rapidly becomes a commodity and, in the process, is 
washed, laundered and hung out to dry’ (McRobbie, 1994: 15). However, 
such thinking denies the fact that political ideas may find their way into 
popular culture simply because there is a genuine demand for them. 
What Zipes describes as ‘changing tastes and values’ have arisen for a 
reason, informed by the political movements and altering attitudes of 

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Fairy Tale and Film
the last century. The result can be seen in the way traditional motifs 
have been revised in recent films: presenting assertive, intelligent 
heroines who want more from life than marriage; new depictions of 
masculinity that applaud traits such as sensitivity and compassion; an 
appraisal of greed and the acquisition of wealth as more damaging than 
desirable, scenarios that draw attention to the continued threat of male 
violence, and a willingness to review established ideas about malevo-
lent mothers, desiring daughters and the seemingly perpetual problem 
of unhappy families. These themes reflect key changes resulting from 
opposition to dominant culture, and although the retention of some-
what reprehensible tropes in other films affirms that we cannot afford 
to be complacent, neither should we ignore what political movements 
have achieved. Hopefully, this analysis will encourage a reconsideration 
of what counts as a fairy tale film, as well as what may justifiably be 
termed a radical or (at the very least) innovative revision, exposing texts 
to continued debate and exploration. Just as no fairy tale ever truly ends, 
because they are continually retold and reinterpreted, films are continu-
ing the same tradition, and the fact that we are likely to disagree about 
every one of them is because the fairy tale film is ultimately as diverse 
as its audience.
In concluding his investigation of the fairy tale film,