Comparing Classic Cinderella to Disney's Cinderella
Karyn Eck
English 102-1025
M. Barros
Final Draft Disney Predecessors
February 17, 2013
Classic vs. Modern Cinderella is a classic fairytale most little girls look up to and dream about. They watch the story of Cinderella enduring hardship and cruelty then wind up with her Prince in the end. These young girls fantasize and wish for their life to be exactly like Cinderella’s story. Children most often don’t grow up reading this original fairytale from a book, they only watch the Walt Disney version and know of nothing else. So it is expected to think that they would grow up and never know that there was a different tale of Cinderella that had been told. Present day shows that this original fairytale is becoming more and more known though. So, it would be safe to say that the number of people who know of the original fairytale by their adulthood, is about to go up. The original fairytale of Cinderella, written by Charles Perrault, has many differences than Walt Disney’s version, but there are also many similarities. One of the first noticeable differences in the beginning was that in the book Cinderella’s father does not die, and is indeed still alive throughout the story. Although he is not mentioned after the beginning, it is known that he is not dead. The book simply states, “Once upon a time there was a gentlemen whose second wife was the proudest and haughtiest woman imaginable,” then the father was not to be mentioned again unless it was by Cinderella herself (78). The movie production by Walt Disney altered this detail of the story tremendously. The father went from being nonexistent to becoming ill and dying. This creates more of a dramatic setting in the very beginning. I believe that Walt Disney intentionally wanted that, to glorify Cinderella’s strength and will power. In the video production it is not known how Cinderella actually got her name, it is just assumed that she was born with her name. The writing by Perrault says
English 102-1025
M. Barros
Final Draft Disney Predecessors
February 17, 2013
Classic vs. Modern Cinderella is a classic fairytale most little girls look up to and dream about. They watch the story of Cinderella enduring hardship and cruelty then wind up with her Prince in the end. These young girls fantasize and wish for their life to be exactly like Cinderella’s story. Children most often don’t grow up reading this original fairytale from a book, they only watch the Walt Disney version and know of nothing else. So it is expected to think that they would grow up and never know that there was a different tale of Cinderella that had been told. Present day shows that this original fairytale is becoming more and more known though. So, it would be safe to say that the number of people who know of the original fairytale by their adulthood, is about to go up. The original fairytale of Cinderella, written by Charles Perrault, has many differences than Walt Disney’s version, but there are also many similarities. One of the first noticeable differences in the beginning was that in the book Cinderella’s father does not die, and is indeed still alive throughout the story. Although he is not mentioned after the beginning, it is known that he is not dead. The book simply states, “Once upon a time there was a gentlemen whose second wife was the proudest and haughtiest woman imaginable,” then the father was not to be mentioned again unless it was by Cinderella herself (78). The movie production by Walt Disney altered this detail of the story tremendously. The father went from being nonexistent to becoming ill and dying. This creates more of a dramatic setting in the very beginning. I believe that Walt Disney intentionally wanted that, to glorify Cinderella’s strength and will power. In the video production it is not known how Cinderella actually got her name, it is just assumed that she was born with her name. The writing by Perrault says
Cited: Perrault, Charles. Perrault 's Classic French Fairy Tales. "Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper". Meredith Press, 1967. 78-97. Disney Corp. Cinderella, 1965, Film.