Folktales and Filmakers

1. FILMMAKERS AND FOLKTALES

2. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

3. THE ORIGINAL TALE
As we examine Beauty and the Beast, what elements are there for
entertainment for adults?
• What indicates the change in class of the merchant?
• What indicates the sisters’ obsession with class/status?
• What indicates the status of the beast?
• What indicates the suitors’ fixation on status and wealth?
• What place does marriage and romance have in this tale?
• What place does commitment to promise/ deception have?
Then, what are the moral aspects that keep the story in
collections of folktales for children?
•How does Beauty represent good: a good daughter, a kind sister,
a person of character?
•How do the sisters represent bad, women without moral
character?
•What makes the Beast a sympathetic character?
•What does the punishment of the sisters and the reward of Beauty
and the Beast teach children?

4. WALT DISNEY

5. A DISNEY MOVIE
 glorifies individualism and reinforces the Disney way
 controls children’s interests and consumer tastes
 represents American values, the vision of eternal youth and
beauty
 has characters that are lifeless, one-dimensional, uniform
 includes singing to help reveal the characters’ innermost
thoughts,
 always ends happily
 avoids anything complicated or confusing
 teaches that only the good will inherit the earth
 adds funny and adorable characters that can take over the
plot
 is infantilized, does not
 shows a well-ordered, clean world
 focuses on male heroes and male prowess
 has rigid sexist and racist notions

6. AS WE WATCH DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE
BEAST, HOW DO ZIPES’ INTERPRETATIONS
APPLY?

7. JIM HENSON
THE STORY
TELLER

8. A HENSON FILM
 is daring and innovative
 uses shortcuts such as having a narrator tell the story or
silhouettes
 has puppet dog as the skeptic who plays the doubter in
the audience
 goes against the Disney image
 includes characters who deal with personal struggle,
conflict with parents, suffering
 emphasizes the values characters are portraying:
sincerity and loyalty, strength and weaknesses; values
are clearly expressed
 shows the narrator is both inside and outside the
narration and is actively involved with the audience who
interrupts, questions, mocks, laughs and sighs
 has no clear line between reality and fantasy

9. AS WE WATCH HENSON’S HANS MY HEDGEHOG
(ANOTHER VERSION OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST,
HOW DO ZIPES’ INTERPRETATIONS APPLY?

10. HOMEWORK
(Folktales from around the world)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" 374-378
"Hansel and Gretel" 149-152
“Little Red Riding Hood” 23-24
"Rapunzel" 378 - 380
"The Magic Orange Tree " 353 - 356
The Mother of the Waters 356 - 358
The Water of Life 380 - 382
Vasilissa the Fair 359 – 362
“Jack and the Beanstalk” 394-397