Fairy Tale and Film

particular view of masculinity that is seemingly designed to meet with 
female approval. Male characters are often on the brink of divorce, 
or otherwise estranged from loved ones or potential love interests – a 

---

52 
Fairy Tale and Film
situation that requires them to change in order to get the relationship 
they seek and the contentment presumed to derive from romance and 
a family. Significantly, while modern ‘Cinderella’ tales present heroines 
widening their horizons beyond finding a ‘significant other’, a reversal 
is evident for male protagonists, particularly where careers are shown 
to distract them from relationships or familial obligations. Additionally, 
although magic is often elided in contemporary ‘Cinderella’ scenarios 
(substituting mortals for the conventional fairy godmother), super-
natural intervention is explicitly retained in many of these male-led 
narratives. An enchantment occurs, initiating a transformation that 
tests their character and forces them to amend their flaws. As such, 
although they may not undergo a physical transformation, there is a 
connection to the ‘Animal Groom’ (ATU 425A) cycle of fairy tales, in 
which male figures are magically altered and eventually rehabilitated.
4
In pointed contrast to such tales, however, which make female char-
acters the catalyst for disenchantment, the onus is placed on men to 
redeem themselves in some way. It is in terms of the desired attributes 
sought from male figures in these films that they are deemed ideo-
logically significant, revising assumptions about masculinity and the 
contrasting demands placed upon men.
If romantic inclinations are largely beside the point for many fairy 
tale heroes (the princess generally comes with the castle, once the hero 
has satisfied a task given by her father), modern-day romances affirm 
a need to win (or frequently win back) female love interests through 
more than feats of bravado or wit, requiring an ability to elicit affec-
tion, and demonstrate it also. This is quite a departure from the norm. 
As Zipes contends, Grimm heroes are generally motivated by ruthless 
self-interest: ‘Given a chance he uses every opportunity to economize 
his energies and advance himself without really giving a thought to 
people around him ... More often than not the hero is out to prove 
himself at all costs and to survive – and love has very little to do with 
his actions’ (2002b: 100). Female partners thus tend to be won, rather 
than wooed, and although the wider fairy tale canon provides a number 
of males pursuing women, emotional declarations are rarely the way 
to romantic victory. (We might note that while the Aarne–Thompson–
Uther index includes a category of comic tales entitled ‘Looking for a 
Wife’ (1450–74) the attributes deemed most desirable are thriftiness, 
industriousness and good housekeeping skills, the onus being on pro-
spective wives to prove themselves, rather than a prospective suitor!) 
Where a favoured female is in demand, requires persuasion, or male 
protagonists have a certain ‘disadvantage’, the shoe is placed on the 

---

Transformations and Male Maturation 
53
other foot. The unattractive hero of Perrault’s ‘Ricky with the Tuft’ 
manages to talk a beautiful but essentially dumb woman into falling for 
him through a combination of his eloquence and her willingness to put 
aside conventional aesthetics. Repeating a similar idea in 
The Invention 
of Lying
(Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, 2009), Mark (Ricky 
Gervais) eventually persuades the beautiful but dim Anna (Jennifer 
Garner) to marry him, although her superficiality contrasts so greatly 
with his wit and kind-heartedness to make us question why she would 
appeal at all. Initially rejected on the grounds that their children might 
physically resemble him (!) she changes her mind about the importance 
of looks, leaving her vain fiancé for the world’s first liar, yet also the 
most genuine character in the film. Although Anna is as gullible as her 
fellow citizens, Mark avoids manipulating her for his own gain and it 
is his kindness, rather than his exceptional ability to distort the truth, 
which enables him to get the woman he desires, a feature he shares with 
the ‘youngest son’ in fairy tales featuring male rivalry and romance. 
In similar vein, many cinematic depictions of male transformation 
both solicit and reward traits that challenge conventionally approved 
masculine ideals, and again we can find some interesting precursors in 
fairy tales, especially those featuring ‘enlightened fools’. Contrasting 
tales involving romantic pursuit – ‘The Search for the Lost Husband’ 
(ATU 425) with ‘The Man on a Quest for his Lost Wife’ (ATU 400) – Tatar 
contends that while females are required to make an overt demonstra-
tion of their love to regain lost loves, men tend to be rewarded for stoi-
cism and a level of restraint described as a ‘nearly pathological absence 
of affect’ (1992: 160). The Grimm tale ‘The Youth Who Wanted to Know 
What Fear Is’ (ATU 326) – sometimes titled ‘The Boy Who Wanted to 
Shudder’ – is considered a rare example of male behaviour because 
emotion is sought – and finally evinced – by the hero, and Tatar com-
mends ‘its move towards a rapprochement between male resistance to 
affect and female affiliation with feeling’ (1992: 162). We might note, 
however, that this is a comic tale of surprising social ascent, with a 
bawdy punch-line that is not exactly romantic. Having won a princess 
through spending three nights in a house of ghouls, yet proving equally 
unmoved in the marital bed, a maid intervenes with an upturned 
bucket of live fish, giving him the sensation he desires yet could not 
properly articulate. Warner describes the story’s end as ‘a metaphor of 
the overwhelming power of physical passion’, signalling his first orgasm 
(1995: 276), although we could equally regard the scene literally, as an 
amusing confirmation of his extreme ignorance and naïveté – akin to 
the comic/bawdy tale type ‘The Boy Who Had Never Seen a Woman’ 

---

54