10 Great Fairytale Movies
Aug 16, 2019 11:26:48 GMT
Fox in the Snow, spiderwort, and 3 more like this
Post by teleadm on Aug 16, 2019 11:26:48 GMT
Once again I turn to an article from BFI (British Film Institue) to present a list they made in 2015 when they had just put out Jean Cocteu's La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) 1946 on their "BFI player".
But this article tried to suggest 10 other great fairytale movies that they thought should be sought out.
It's understandable that scaling down to only 10 movies is a difficult and riskfilled task, from the birth of movies to 2015, and it's easy to step on toes if certain favorites are not mentioned.
So here they are:
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) 1926, Director Lotte Reiniger
German silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger’s commitment to the genre spanned her entire career. Drawing on the ancient history of shadow-plays, her films are populated by painstakingly detailed cut-out creations, especially in this ambitious adaptation of the Arabian Nights that is believed to be the oldest surviving animated feature film. She never made another, but her later short films include exquisite adaptations of familiar classics and oddities like The Tocher 1938, inspired by the Scottish legend of the ‘wee folk’.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, Producer Walt Disney
For the past 75 years, untold millions (more likely billions) of children received their first exposure to traditional fairytales through the work of Walt Disney. His formula: take a timeless story, flesh it out to feature length with the aid of irrepressibly catchy songs (Snow White boasts ‘Heigh Ho’, ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’ and ‘Whistle while You Work’) while making sure that little or nothing dates the material – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs may be the oldest film that could still get a profitable multiplex reissue today.
The Red Shoes 1948, Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
The high-water mark of the extraordinary creative run that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger enjoyed in the 1940s, this extravagant fusion of fairytale (Hans Christian Andersen), ballet and melodramatic romance was damned by its British distributors as “an art movie”, but went on to become an Oscar-winning blockbuster in the US.
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu) 1970, Director Jaromil Jireš
The Czechs have a longstanding affinity with the fairytale, their many film classics spanning perennial childhood favourites like Bořivoj Zeman’s There Was Once a King... 1954 and Václav Vorlíček’s Three Wishes for Cinderella 1973, or the dark fantasies of Jan Švankmajer’s Alice 1988 and Little Otík 2000. Jaromil Jireš’s gothic extravaganza straddles both these worlds, and is decidedly not for children!
The Princess Bride 1987, Director Rob Reiner
Targeted at more cynical children who’ve convinced themselves that they’ve outgrown all that soppy fairytale nonsense, Rob Reiner’s adaptation of William Goldman’s sassy, knowing 1973 novel is one of the most instantly quotable films of its decade (“Inconceivable!”), and a cast that includes Billy Crystal, Mel Smith, Peter Cook and Christopher Guest (Reiner’s partner in hilarity on This Is Spinal Tap 1984) makes it clear that much of it is played for laughs.
My Neighbour Totoro (となりのトトロ) 1988, Director Hayao Miyazaki
When we think of great fairytale films, they’re usually adaptations of already well-established classics. Hayao Miyazaki’s irresistibly beguiling masterpiece certainly feels like one, but in fact it’s a wholly original creation – albeit one that’s since become as indelible a part of Japanese (and global) culture as many things that have been around for centuries.
Edward Scissorhands 1990, Director Tim Burton
Of all contemporary American filmmakers, Tim Burton seems the most in tune with the classic fairytale tradition, even if he can’t help warping and twisting it along the way. Although based on an original idea (by Burton, fleshed out by screenwriter Caroline Thompson), its classic fairytale ambience is underscored by the fact that it’s told in the form of a bedtime story that attempts to explain where snow comes from.
Kirikou and the Sorceress (Kirikou et la sorcière) 1998, Director Michel Ocelot
French director Michel Ocelot has spent the last four decades making exquisitely detailed colourful animated films inspired by both the folk culture and decorative arts of many countries from off the usual well-beaten track. The first Kirikou film, his international breakthrough, was inspired by west African folk tales about an intrepid boy who refuses to let his diminutive stature impede his efforts to persuade the sorceror Karaba to stop persecuting his fellow villagers.
Shrek 2001, Directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson
A huge hit that generated multiple sequels and a feature-length spin-off (2011’s Puss in Boots), DreamWorks’ Shrek combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of classic fairytales with a gleefully subversive wit, with Disney’s treatments in particular subjected to open mockery.
Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) 2006, Director Guillermo del Toro
Fascist Spain circa 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War, seems an unlikely setting for one of the more distinctive fairytale extravaganzas of recent years, but Guillermo del Toro brilliantly uses this historical backdrop as a springboard for a Narnia-like fantasy.
Complete BFI article
So what do you think? What movies would you like to have changed or prefered, if any (there is offcourse no 10 movie restrictions if you want to mention more worthy fairytale movies)?
Personally I would have prefered Pinocchio 1940 if there have to be a Disney example, since I think it's a much better movie than Snow White.
For a Czech representative I would have prefered Three Wishes for Cinderella over Valerie.
But those were my personal opinions.
But this article tried to suggest 10 other great fairytale movies that they thought should be sought out.
It's understandable that scaling down to only 10 movies is a difficult and riskfilled task, from the birth of movies to 2015, and it's easy to step on toes if certain favorites are not mentioned.
So here they are:
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) 1926, Director Lotte Reiniger
German silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger’s commitment to the genre spanned her entire career. Drawing on the ancient history of shadow-plays, her films are populated by painstakingly detailed cut-out creations, especially in this ambitious adaptation of the Arabian Nights that is believed to be the oldest surviving animated feature film. She never made another, but her later short films include exquisite adaptations of familiar classics and oddities like The Tocher 1938, inspired by the Scottish legend of the ‘wee folk’.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, Producer Walt Disney
For the past 75 years, untold millions (more likely billions) of children received their first exposure to traditional fairytales through the work of Walt Disney. His formula: take a timeless story, flesh it out to feature length with the aid of irrepressibly catchy songs (Snow White boasts ‘Heigh Ho’, ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’ and ‘Whistle while You Work’) while making sure that little or nothing dates the material – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs may be the oldest film that could still get a profitable multiplex reissue today.
The Red Shoes 1948, Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
The high-water mark of the extraordinary creative run that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger enjoyed in the 1940s, this extravagant fusion of fairytale (Hans Christian Andersen), ballet and melodramatic romance was damned by its British distributors as “an art movie”, but went on to become an Oscar-winning blockbuster in the US.
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu) 1970, Director Jaromil Jireš
The Czechs have a longstanding affinity with the fairytale, their many film classics spanning perennial childhood favourites like Bořivoj Zeman’s There Was Once a King... 1954 and Václav Vorlíček’s Three Wishes for Cinderella 1973, or the dark fantasies of Jan Švankmajer’s Alice 1988 and Little Otík 2000. Jaromil Jireš’s gothic extravaganza straddles both these worlds, and is decidedly not for children!
The Princess Bride 1987, Director Rob Reiner
Targeted at more cynical children who’ve convinced themselves that they’ve outgrown all that soppy fairytale nonsense, Rob Reiner’s adaptation of William Goldman’s sassy, knowing 1973 novel is one of the most instantly quotable films of its decade (“Inconceivable!”), and a cast that includes Billy Crystal, Mel Smith, Peter Cook and Christopher Guest (Reiner’s partner in hilarity on This Is Spinal Tap 1984) makes it clear that much of it is played for laughs.
My Neighbour Totoro (となりのトトロ) 1988, Director Hayao Miyazaki
When we think of great fairytale films, they’re usually adaptations of already well-established classics. Hayao Miyazaki’s irresistibly beguiling masterpiece certainly feels like one, but in fact it’s a wholly original creation – albeit one that’s since become as indelible a part of Japanese (and global) culture as many things that have been around for centuries.
Edward Scissorhands 1990, Director Tim Burton
Of all contemporary American filmmakers, Tim Burton seems the most in tune with the classic fairytale tradition, even if he can’t help warping and twisting it along the way. Although based on an original idea (by Burton, fleshed out by screenwriter Caroline Thompson), its classic fairytale ambience is underscored by the fact that it’s told in the form of a bedtime story that attempts to explain where snow comes from.
Kirikou and the Sorceress (Kirikou et la sorcière) 1998, Director Michel Ocelot
French director Michel Ocelot has spent the last four decades making exquisitely detailed colourful animated films inspired by both the folk culture and decorative arts of many countries from off the usual well-beaten track. The first Kirikou film, his international breakthrough, was inspired by west African folk tales about an intrepid boy who refuses to let his diminutive stature impede his efforts to persuade the sorceror Karaba to stop persecuting his fellow villagers.
Shrek 2001, Directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson
A huge hit that generated multiple sequels and a feature-length spin-off (2011’s Puss in Boots), DreamWorks’ Shrek combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of classic fairytales with a gleefully subversive wit, with Disney’s treatments in particular subjected to open mockery.
Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) 2006, Director Guillermo del Toro
Fascist Spain circa 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War, seems an unlikely setting for one of the more distinctive fairytale extravaganzas of recent years, but Guillermo del Toro brilliantly uses this historical backdrop as a springboard for a Narnia-like fantasy.
Complete BFI article
So what do you think? What movies would you like to have changed or prefered, if any (there is offcourse no 10 movie restrictions if you want to mention more worthy fairytale movies)?
Personally I would have prefered Pinocchio 1940 if there have to be a Disney example, since I think it's a much better movie than Snow White.
For a Czech representative I would have prefered Three Wishes for Cinderella over Valerie.
But those were my personal opinions.
