Fairy Tale and Film

Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales
, in which she notes 
the way in which sexual matters were treated with distaste by the Grimms, 
affirming that they felt more comfortable detailing acts of violence than what 
she terms as ‘the facts of life’. One result of this tendency is that ‘intimations 

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Notes to Chapter 1 
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of a father’s passion for his daughter are discreetly kept to a minimum, while 
the evil deeds of a stepmother are invariably writ large’ (2003: 150). 
12. See 
Mirror, Mirror
(Bernheimer, 1998) in which various female writers attest 
to the influence fairy tales have had on them. Authors responsible for 
popular fictional works with fairy tale motifs include Margaret Atwood, 
Isabelle Allende, A.S. Byatt and Angela Carter (as well as notable male 
writers such as Gregory Maguire and Neil Gaiman). The fact that there is 
a considerable audience for such work proves an extensive adult interest, 
although more work is needed on reception. The surlalune messageboard 
(surlalunefairytales.com/introduction/disneyfairytales.html) provides some 
insight into the variety of female fairy tale fans online, and their often 
divergent attitudes to fairy tales, particularly what is considered to be ‘nega-
tive’ or otherwise, while Brigid Cherry’s research (2009) into the relationship 
between horror fans and a childhood love of fairy tales affirms that it is not 
necessarily romantic overtones that gain prominence! 
13. Generally considered one of the oldest fairy tales in existence, a number of 
scholars have attempted to trace the history of the Cinderella tale, includ-
ing Jack Zipes, who contends that ‘the Cinderella type heroine was changed 
during the course of four millennia – approximately 7000 BC to 3000 BC – 
from a young active woman who is expected to pursue her own destiny 
under the guidance of a wise gift-bearing dead mother, into a helpless, inac-
tive pubescent girl, whose major accomplishments are domestic, and who 
must obediently wait to be rescued by a male’ (2002b: 195). What stands out, 
however, even in his example of an early matrilineal version such as ‘Moon 
Brow’, is the same basic emphasis on female rivalry and marriage. These are 
the bare bones of the ‘Cinderella’ plot, after all, although modern versions 
often depart from both tendencies. Far from assigning more progressive 
features to the past, we should reassess what contemporary variations of the 
tale have to offer. As Zipes admits, the mass media (including film) ‘have 
presented variations on the Cinderella tale that either reinforce the patriar-
chal texts or place them in question’ (2002b: 197), yet he seems unable to 
discern many examples of questioning films, even in his more recent work.
14. The same phrase, ‘paying “lip service” to feminism’, has been adopted by a 
number of female critics, including various contributors to 
Fairy Tale Films:
Visions of Ambiguity
(Greenhill and Matrix, 2010), offering a veritable chorus 
of disapproval.
15. Although feminist critics often target Disney for providing unrealistic and 
uninspiring female role models it is important to question how much the 
acculturation theory is supported by research evidence. Interestingly, a cross-
cultural survey conducted by Maya Gotz et al. (2005) into the way children 
incorporate media products in their creative play found that they were selec-
tive in what images were chosen and the use made of them. The work is cited 
by Butler (2009: 52). 
16. A scene in 
Shrek the Third
(Chris Miller and Raman Hui, 2007) exemplifies 
their point when a group of ‘Disney’ princesses are held captive and simply 
‘assume the position’ (striking winning poses as they wait to be saved) while 
Fiona, despite being an ogress, is equally passive. Although her mother head-
butts the way out of their cell in an amusing deviation from expectation, 
Bacchilega and Reider claim this joke is at the expense of feminists. Only in 

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