And so I think it's going to be interesting to see how Hollywood becomes serious about fairy-tale production.
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In my work, it's quite obvious that Hollywood, for the most part, has not really taken fairy tales seriously there are exceptions, and I deal with the exceptions in my book ["The Enchanted Screen"]. They've not tried to intelligently explore the meanings of different variants of a tale type, the way Europeans have.
If you compare the European, and to a certain extent, the Japanese and South Korean [filmmaking] traditions, it's a scandal the way Hollywood has produced [so much] schlock. I would say 90 percent of the fairy-tale films that come out of Hollywood are really not enlightening or entertaining. They also infantilize the films -- as though children are stupid, and families are stupid. Unfortunately, something has happened in American culture, and there is a lot of stupidity going around. It's clear from your work -- and what you've been saying -- that you think Disney has shaped the popular understanding of these stories in a very negative way.
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For many many years -- up until, I would say, the s -- Disney had a huge monopoly [on animated feature fairy-tale films] in America. And it still does, for the most part -- despite the rise of "Shrek," or the films of Hayao Miyazaki or Michel Ocelot or the Russian director Garri Bardin, who recently did an absolutely brilliant animated feature fairy-tale film called "The Ugly Duckling" For the most part, when Americans think of fairy tales and to a certain extent, this is also a global phenomenon , they think of Disney.
Thanks to the theme parks and the commodities that are produced [and the strength of the Disney brand,] you can't help but think of fairy tales in light of the way the Disney Corporation has interpreted them. And in my mind, once you've seen one Disney film, you've seen them all: They repeat the plots; their self-produced animated films tend to be very conventional; and I think there's no experimentation whatsoever, no breaking away from the plot formulations It's just boring, at least for me, to see these films And most animators who have worked with Disney have always wanted to be the one to illustrate the evil characters, because at least they're more interesting and more complicated.
That doesn't mean that one should write off all the Disney films -- I don't mean to dismiss these films [entirely] -- but they represent the worst aspects of capitalist, corporate productions. Which recent fairy-tale films have impressed you the most? Which have impressed you the least?
The films that have impressed me a very great deal are the ones I discuss in the last chapter of my book: All of these, by the way, are live action. Totally -- not anti-Disney -- but not like the Disney animated fairy-tale forms. Again, like all of these except "How to Train Your Dragon," it's live-action -- it's a fascinating revision of Perrault's tale. And as I said earlier, one of my favorite animators today, who's absolutely fantastic, is Garri Bardin; in addition to his "Ugly Duckling," he's done shorter films -- "Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood" as well as "Puss in Boots"; both of them are 30 minutes long.
He has a very subtle aesthetic. The images in his films keep changing; he uses all types of puppetry and clay animation, and has a political perspective that basically critiques what has happened to the Soviet Union, its decadence, and the hopes for a different type of world. Those are the films I really think are important.
In terms of films that I dislike, [there's] "Tangled" [Zipes thinks the film was so bad, it ought to have been called "Mangled"]; that, I think, represents the worst aspects of animated fairy-tale filmmaking in America. I also think the "Hoodwinked" films -- "Hoodwinked! And of course, I hope that Catherine Hardwicke and her company keep losing money on the "Red Riding Hood" film that they did, which is really an insult and offensive to anyone who thinks seriously about films.
Emma Mustich is a Salon contributor. Follow her on Twitter: Ads are currently disabled. Please sign in with Facebook or Google below: If you have an older Salon account, please enter your username and password below: Are dark fairy tales more authentic?
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Disney and others are chasing dollars, not keeping it real, one expert argues. I mean, he's changing up so much and backtrackin' and sidesteppin'. We've gotta name this condition that he's going though. I think it's called Romnesia. That's what it's called. I think that's what he's goin' through. Now, I'm not a medical doctor, but I do wanna go over some of the symptoms with you, because I wanna make sure nobody else catches it.
You know, if you say you're for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you'd sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work , you might have Romnesia.
Do Republicans really care about ‘people like you’?
If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care, you might have a case of Romnesia. If you say you'll protect a woman's right to choose, but you stand up in a primary debate and say that you'd be delighted to sign a law outlying — outlawing that right to choose in all cases — man, you definitely got Romnesia.
Now, this extends to other issues. If you say that you're a champion of the coal industry when, while you were governor, you stood in front of a coal plant and said "This plant will kill you" —[audience: And if you come down with a case of Romnesia and you can't seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you've made over the six years you've been running for President, here's the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up..
We've got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease. But we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books, never got on TV. Many had gone to segregated schools and sat at segregated lunch counters. They had seen loved ones beaten, and children fire-hosed, and they had every reason to lash out in anger, or resign themselves to a bitter fate. And yet they chose a different path. In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors.
In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in, with the moral force of nonviolence.
Barack Obama
Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away the dignity and grace that God grants us. They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught -- that freedom is not given, it must be won, through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith.
Everyone who realizes what those glorious patriots knew on that day -- that change does not come from Washington, but to Washington ; that change has always been built on our willingness, We The People , to take on the mantle of citizenship -- you are marching. That's the promise of tomorrow -- that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. That when millions of Americans of every race and every region, every faith and every station, can join together in a spirit of brotherhood, then those mountains will be made low, and those rough places will be made plain, and those crooked places, they straighten out towards grace, and we will vindicate the faith of those who sacrificed so much and live up to the true meaning of our creed, as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Disney and others are chasing dollars, not keeping it real, one expert argues
One of the great things about America is that individual citizens and groups of citizens can petition their government, can protest, can speak truth to power. And that is sometimes messy and controversial. But because of that ability to protest and engage in free speech, America, over time, has gotten better. We've all benefited from that.