Fairy Tale Movies The Tournament (1 Viewer)

[Lew Crippen]

Great post Dome . I appreciate your analysis. The amount of thought that you have given this is obvious. While I am not sure that I agree, I’ll need a fair amount of time to consider with which of your point I agree and with which I take issue.
More later—I’ll surely get some time to carefully consider before this tourney is complete.

 

[Lew Crippen]

As I wrote before, you have expressed yourself very well as to why Star Wars should be considered a ‘Fairy Tale’., you have presented an interesting case. Accepting many (though not all) of your arguments, set those aside for the moment and consider some of the other essential ingredients of a ‘Fairy Tale’.

You are certainly correct in that a ‘Fairy Tale’ is a morality (play) told in allegorical fashion. And that often (perhaps always) there are elements of fantasy and magic are included, so that we have talking animals and mystical creatures with strange, wonderful and terrifying powers. And that there may be battles between good and evil.

All of this is presented (among other reasons) so that children’s imagination is engaged and their interest is held.

But also, the scope of the story is limited. It is strictly limited in terms of locale: a single, small Kingdom, a small portion of a forest. It is usually limited in terms of time, though there are numerous exceptions to this (Sleeping Beauty sleeps for a long time). But the story usually proceeds within a reasonable time frame. ‘Fairy Tales’ are also limited in the number of characters. There may be (as you rightly observe) plenty of action, but such action is limited to single combat, personifying good vs. evil, or if there is a battle with many participants, that is only referenced, it is not a center part of the action.

While all of these limits may be broken (for example, Pinocchio, if that is indeed a ‘Fairy Tale’, takes place over a long time and wide geography) none of them break them all and all to the extent that does Star Wars

Put another way, I would suggest that one can have an epic tale or a fairy tale, but not both.

We could for example, use some of the constituent elements, which you have listed and determine that ‘The Odyssey” is a fairy tale. It is not, it is an epic. The Ramayana is not a fairy tale, though it contains all of those things that you included (and more). It is an epic tale.

I admit that I did not have the taxonomy of ‘Fairy Tales’ in front of me (if one exists) when I wrote my statements as to ‘limits’, but I am reasonably familiar with the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, as well as such French ‘Fairy Tales’ as ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and I expect that those limits of scope are not too far off the mark.

Lucas’ main inspiration for Star Wars, The Hidden Fortress is not a ‘Fairy Tale’. This actually is not even debatable, as ‘Fortress’ is based historical Japan (those were all real clans in Japan, not made up, although as far as I know, none of the characters was based on an historical character). This source, Lucas retold as a space opera, with nods to Westerns, no longer made. Nothing in the source, nor in the translation to suggest that he had any notion of making a fairy tale.

This is just off the top of my head. I may get more cogent, if I have an opportunity to properly consider.

Pretty impressive to come up with leitmotif. I may be corrected, but the main use of this phrase was by Wagner, who brought this concept to its peak in Der Ring des Nibelungen, where associations are made through four operas. This is not apropos of anything, other than to observe that you got it mostly right.

For Tolkien, I’d accept ‘The Hobbit’ as a proper ‘fairy tale’. Even if J.R.R. was just funnin’ as to LOTR’s being an allegory, its scope would disqualify it altogether, even more so that LOTR. After all, this is just one small part of the history of Middle Earth.

‘The Hobbit’, on the other hand began (and remained) a (simple) story for children.

 

[SteveGon]

Lew, well said! I tend to agree with you: I've never thought of Star Wars as a fairy tale; it's an epic fantasy adventure with science fiction trappings. However, all due respect to Dome, who presented a fine case for it.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

After reading Lew's post, I am inclined to nominate The Hidden Fortress!
:p)

:wink:

 

[Mike Hutman]

Well looks like The Never Ending Story moves on, winning by the score of 7 to 5 over Edward Scissorhands.
Here's the next match up.


1)The Princess Bride
VS
9)Ladyhawke

Wow! I love both of these Two movies. I'll be sad to see One of them lose.

 

[Henry Gale]

The Princess Bride

 

[ErikG]

Tough, but...
The Princess Bride

 

[Bill J]

The Princess Bride

 

[Dome Vongvises]

The Princess Bride
- by miles.
Lew, this is one of the best discussions I've had in forever. It's great to hear your take on this, and the aspect of "scope" hadn't really entered my mind. My respects to you.

 

[Justin Doring]

The Princess Bride

 

[ChuckDeLa]

Ladyhawke

 

[SteveGon]

The Princess Bride

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

The Princess Bride

 

[Ric Bagoly]

The Princess Bride

 

[Andy Olivera]

Ladyhawke

 

[Brian Kissinger]

Which way will brian vote? I wonder?
The Princess Bride

 

[Jeff_A]

The Princess Bride

 

[Gabe D]

The Princess Bride

 

[JenB]

I hate to vote against either one of these so I will abstain today.

 

[Lew Crippen]

The Princess Bride