by Monwan

Created on: February 08, 2009   Last Updated: February 11, 2009

Movie adaptations of tales by the Brothers Grimm have come in many formats. There are the obvious Walt Disney movies, the funny contemporary teen movies, and then the out of the ordinary movies that merge a few stories into one movie.

Snow White

In this day and age, most children are first exposed to the Brothers Grimm through Walt Disney movies. Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated film and is probably the first movie a person thinks of when thinking of movies based on fairy tales. This classic movie tells the story of a princess whose evil stepmother (and witch) sends her pretty young stepdaughter into the woods to be killed. The reason for this is, of course, jealousy. The stepdaughter is not killed but instead is saved by seven dwarfs who live in the woods. She is safe until her stepmother realizes Snow White is still alive. The evil stepmother pretends to be an old woman and tricks Snow White into eating a poison apple, which causes the girl to fall into a deep sleep. The dwarfs care for the comatose girl and until a handsome young prince wakes her with a kiss.

This story has also been made into a teen movie, Sydney White. Sydney is a freshman in college who joins her mother's sorority. The dwarves are some outcast sorority sisters who help Sydney survive and triumph in the college's social hierarchy.

Sleeping Beauty

Another famous Disney movie based on a story by the Brothers Grimm is Sleeping Beauty. In this story, a king and queen have given birth to a beautiful baby girl, the princess Aurora. During the celebration of the birth, three good fairies are invited and begin to bestow gifts of beauty and song on Aurora. Before the last fairy can bestow her gift, the evil Maleficent arrives, showing her anger at not being invited to the celebration. She curses Aurora to die on her sixteenth birthday after pricking her finger on a spindle. Once Maleficent leaves, the last fairy changes the curse so that the princess will only fall into a deep sleep instead of dying. To save the princess, the king and queen send their only child to live in the woods with the fairies. Being a Disney movie, there is a lot of color, songs, and cute dancing animals. This particular version is a favorite of mine. My family always assumed it was because of the princess, but I think this movie is what started my dragon fetish. When the evil Maleficent turns into this big black dragon while fighting the princes trying to save Aurora, it was just the

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