I am doing this project because I enjoy reading the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and pondering the themes included in them. My project is on the themes of three different versions of Sleeping Beauty- The Brothers Grimm version, the Disney version, and the Live Action movie version. I will write a summary of each of the stories and then compare the different stories’ themes.
In the Brothers Grimm Version, the King and Queen of a country desired a child but were incapable of conceiving. One day, a frog prophesied to them that they would have an girl. The frog’s prophecy transpired, and the Queen birthed a girl. To celebrate, the King threw a party and invited the Wise Women. As he only had twelve gold plates, he only invited twelve of the thirteen Wise Women. Eleven out of the twelve Wise Women who were in attendance gave the child gifts. Before the twelfth could bestow her gift, the thirteenth Wise Woman swept in, enraged at the perceived slight, and cursed the unfortunate child. Her curse was that when the child turned fifteen, she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. After the thirteenth Wise Woman left, the twelfth Wise Woman, unable to reverse the curse, tempered it, so the child would just fall asleep for one hundred years instead of die. Hearing this, the King ordered all spindles be destroyed. Sadly, when the girl turned fifteen, she found a formerly locked room with an old woman spinning inside. Under the curses compulsion, she pricked her finger on the spindle. Once she fell asleep, the entire castle fell asleep as well. To protect the people inside, a thorn hedge grew around the castle. As the legend of Brier-Rose grew, numerous young men attempted to traverse the hedge, but the thorns hooked them and would not let them through. One hundred years later, a Prince endeavoured to span the hedge, and all he found was a field of flowers. He passed through and woke up Brier-Rose.
In the Disney Version, a King, Stefan, and his Queen, Leah, had a baby girl named Aurora. At her christening, she was betrothed to Prince Phillip, the son and heir of King Hubert, a neighbouring king. The good fairies, Flora and Fauna, granted the baby gifts of beauty and grace. Before Merryweather could present the child with her gift, Maleficent, a malicious fairy, appeared, irate because she was not invited to the christening. She cursed the child. When the child turned sixteen she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Once Maleficent had departed, Merryweather altered the curse to the best of her abilities and reworked it so Aurora would only sleep, not die. She also modified it so Aurora could be woken by a true love's kiss. Stefan burnt all of the spinning wheels and dispatched Aurora to live with the fairies until she was sixteen. While living with the fairies, she was termed Briar Rose to keep word of her existence from reaching Maleficent. One day, in the woods, she met Prince Phillip, although she did not recognise him nor did he recognise her. In the meantime, Maleficent was hunting all over for Aurora with no luck. Eventually, she sent Diablo, a raven, to search for her. Diablo had no luck, until he spotted a puff of magic created by the fairies using magic. While Diablo flew back to report to Maleficent, Briar Rose departed from the woods and continued back to the cottage where she told the fairies about the handsome stranger she met in the woods, and how she had fallen in love and wanted to marry him. The fairies would not hear of it because Aurora was royalty and he was not. Little did they know, Prince Phillip was having the same conversation with his father. Both Phillip and Briar Rose were heartbroken. After hearing she was royalty for the first time, Briar Rose ran away to the castle where Maleficent tricked her into pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. As she fell asleep, the fairies arrived and put the entire castle to sleep as well. Once the fairies figured out that Phillip was the stranger who Briar Rose fell in love with, they journeyed to find him, but they were too late. Maleficent had already captured Phillip and was planning on keeping him captive until he was old. Once he was old, she would have him wake up Briar Rose, who would still be young. The fairies broke out Phillip and armed him with the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. After the escape, Maleficent tried to stop him using her magic, first with lightning, then a forest of thorns, and finally, after none of these had worked, Maleficent turned herself into a dragon. That did not succeed either as Phillip stabbed her with his sword and she died. Phillip then kissed Briar Rose, waking her up. Then they got married.
In the Live Action version, Maleficent was a young fairy who lived in the Moors, which were a magical forest, next to a Kingdom of corrupt humans. She met a boy named Stefan and fell in love with him. He fell in love with her too, but his greed outweighed his love. Once Maleficent grew up, she became the protector of the Moors. King Henry wanted more land, so he attacked the Moors with the intent to destroy them. Maleficent repulsed his attack and mortally wounded him in the process. Infuriated and wanting revenge, King Henry declared whoever killed Maleficent could wed his daughter and inherit his kingdom. Stefan then went to Maleficent and drugged her but could not bring himself to kill her, so he cut off her wings instead and brought them back as proof of her death. Angry, Maleficent turned the Moors into a kingdom of dark magic with the help of Diaval, a raven who Maleficent had turned into an human. After some time had passed, Stefan and his wife had a child. Diaval told Maleficent about the christening of Stefan's child. At the christening, Maleficent cursed Aurora so that on her sixteenth birthday she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep like death. To mock Stefan, she made it so Aurora could only be awakened by true love's kiss. To protect Aurora, Stefan sent her to live with the three pixies, Thistlewit, Knotgrass, and Flittle, until she was sixteen. He also burned all the spinning wheels in the kingdom and attacked the Moors to try and find Maleficent but was met by a wall of thorns. Maleficent watched over Aurora but never really met her until she was fifteen. She then realized that she had gained affection for Aurora and tried to reverse the curse but was unable to. She had made the curse impossible to be reversed by any power on earth which included herself. While wandering in the woods, Aurora met someone traveling through the woods on horseback. Not realizing that he was a Prince, Aurora fell in love with him. He was also instantly smitten with her. Maleficent invited Aurora to live with her in the Moors, but the pixies told Aurora of her past. She figured out Maleficent was the evil fairy who cursed her that they had told her about. Grief stricken, Aurora ran to the castle where Stefan locked her in a room for her safety, but the curse compelled her to go to the dungeons where she then pricked her finger on a spinning wheel, fulfilling the curse. Maleficent, in the meantime, had abducted Phillip and entered the castle looking for Aurora. Maleficent had Phillip kiss Aurora to try and wake her, but it did not work. Maleficent then went to Aurora and apologised for cursing her and kissed her on the forehead. As she turned to leave, Aurora awoke and forgave Maleficent. As they were trying to leave, Stefan ambushed them and trapped Maleficent in an iron net, which fairies were allergic to. To try and help them escape, Maleficent changed Diaval into a dragon, to no avail. Stefan and his soldiers were able to restrain him. As Stefan approached Maleficent to try and kill her, Maleficent’s wings rejoin her after being released from their cage by Aurora. Maleficent then flew Stefan to the top of the tallest tower but was unable to bring herself to kill him. Stefan, however, had no such qualms and tried to kill Maleficent again. In the ensuing scuffle, they both fell out of a merlon. Maleficent was able to break free before they hit the ground, saving her life, but Stefan was not so lucky and fell to his death. Aurora unified the two kingdom by becoming Queen of the Moors, as well as taking over the queen-ship of her father's kingdom.
The Brothers Grimm version is a very similar story to the Disney version except it tells the story as if it was someone’s memory instead of as a fairy tale. In the Disney version, it has more details than the Brothers Grimm version, but Aurora is not very present in her own story as she is sleeping for a fair amount of the movie. This movie also takes quite a bit of the humanity of Maleficent away by appearances alone. Not to mention making her cruel and animal like by having her thwart Prince Phillip intentionally, and intending to keep him captive until he was old and his love was still young. This makes it more appealing for the parents of younger viewers, as there are clear cut good and bad characters. So they do not have to explain motivation in too much detail, or tell their kid not to do what the character did wrong. Because it is obvious by the looks and actions of the antagonist that they are an villain and not one to use as an role model. They also make Aurora a generic helpless princess by having Phillip do all of the rescuing, while she does nothing. In the Live Action version, the main character is Maleficent and the story follows her backstory and her journey from a happy child to a revenge-driven fey. Additionally, it has more of an backstory for Aurora and her father. Furthermore, it adds humanity to them by having them not be only happy or slightly annoyed with having real emotions and motivations like greed, fear, and love. Moreover, they make Maleficent into both an antagonist and a protagonist, making her a lot more human because she is not just evil or just good but has moments of both. As well as, she has motivation. Aurora is not just a puppet; she actually does things, and contributes to the plot of the movie by seeking out Maleficent and choosing not to be afraid of her, when the normal reaction would be for her to be scared. Also by freeing Maleficent’s wings instead of running away or helping her father, she shows that she forgives Maleficent for her actions. The movie also has more of a setting and time because they show the place that this is set in showing more of how the land looked in that era, and how the ruling structure looked making it possible to figure out the time period. The Brothers Grimm version is more condensed and to the point of the story with rather pale human characters but human characters nonetheless. The Disney version is more of a stereotypical fairy tale with an cookie cutter all evil no good villain, a sweet, innocent, beautiful, and useless leading lady, and a strong, dashing, overprotective, and assuming hero. In the Live Action version, there is more of a realistic story and plot than the other two stories and there are more three dimensional characters with motivations other than hate with reasoning behind their motivations.
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