In a previous post, we went over how Cinderella was modernized in the first few decades of the twentieth century in pre-television cinematic featurettes. The 1950’s brought a television boom. By 1953, half of all American homes owned a TV set. Sadly, the small screen Cindys of fifties haven’t survived in a form that’s currently …
Author Archives: Erica Smith
Cinderella: the Modern Woman, 1922-1944
Classic. Old-fashioned. Anti-feminist. Cinderella seems to belong to a bygone world of ball gowns, but for the past century, she has been modernized at least once a decade by the magic of television. Our oldest database entry, not just for Cinderella but any tale type, is a silent, black-and-white cartoon produced by Disney in 1922. …
Can Black Fairies and Mermaids Save the Remake Machine?
It’s no great secret that audiences are weary of live action remakes and reboots. If we measure the live action Disney age as starting in 2010 with the release of Alice in Wonderland, they’ve now been at it for ten years and show no signs of stopping. We can only assume Disney will continue this …
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Why You Miss Mushu So Much in the New Mulan
The new 2020 live action Mulan featured many departures from the 1998 animated version, but one stands out. Her trusty dragon friend, Mushu, has been axed, to the dismay of many fans. Mushu added a dash of comic relief to this children’s war film and filmmakers wanted a more serious tone for the live action …
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Four Secrets Allusions to The Ballad of Mulan in the Live Action Remake
Both the 1998 animated Mulan and the recent live-action remake draw from an ancient Chinese poem entitled The Ballad of Mulan. This poem is not as well-known to audiences as the European texts that serve as fairy tale fodder for other movies. Western audiences are primarily familiar with the story through the animated film and …
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Why Mulan Can’t Empower Other Women
The recent release of the live action Mulan has generated a buzz on whether this new film’s plot and character changes constitute a step forward or a step back for women. Filmmakers made the controversial decision of cleaving Li Shang’s character in two. Her romance with a commanding officer was seen as a problematic power …
Drizella’s Revenge: Cinderella’s Stepsisters Step Out of the Shadows in Once Upon A Time
Ella Enchanted author Gail Carson Levine said of Cinderella’s Stepsisters, “If I had been around when “Cinderella” was first concocted, I would have argued against two stepsisters. We don’t need two! In the fairy tale they’re indistinguishable.” Indeed they are. Groupings of three are common in fairy tales. Cinderella’s stepsisters function to provide two failed …
Fairy Tale Feminism: Bring Back the Knights in Shining Armor
“Are there any men in this show?” my dad asked. He’d walked in on me watching a scene in season two of Once Upon A Time, where Emma, Snow White, Mulan, and Sleeping Beauty team up for adventures in the Enchanted Forest without a man in sight. I explained that yes, Snow White was married …
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A Farewell to Charms: Looking Back from Once Upon A Time’s Final Season
After stretching on for seven years, 155 episodes, and roughly 9% of our database entries, Once Upon A Time finally bade viewers farewell this year. Jennifer Morrison, who plays Emma Swan, jumped ship at the end of season six,though not before marrying longtime-lover Captain Hook and giving CaptainSwan fans some closure. Without Emma as the …
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Prince Harry to Marry Former Sleeping Beauty
Five years before Prince Harry proposed, Meghan Markle was already a fairy tale princess. The American actress, best known for her role as Rachel Zane on the legal drama Suits, guest starred as Sleeping Beauty in a 2012 episode of the crime drama Castle. In the episode “Once Upon A Crime,” (season 4, episode 17), …
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