Grimm Brothers Film Analysis

In order to appeal to today’s audience, Disney had to change aspects of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales to fit the audience’s modern day ideals. Any form of entertainment is written for a specific audience. The time period between when the Grimm Brothers were writing to now has seen many changes which alter the way stories are told. In the 1800s, when the Grimm Brothers wrote their fairy tales, people passed down stories through word of mouth. It was a simple time,”They continue to live in such a way that nobody ponders whether they are good or bad, poetic or crude… And they take pleasure in them without having any reason” (Grimm Brothers page xxvi). People absorbed what they heard which did not require reading deeply into each story. Each

They made their movies for the younger generations. Consequently, this caused parents that watched the movies to often be offended when there were themes that were added in that could send a bad message to their children. The parents have an expectation of a light hearted theme in Disney movies. Because of this, the emphasis on the dark themes that the Grimm Brothers wrote was not something Disney could keep,”With that comes a cleaning up, censoring anything that might offend the sensibilities of parents" (Lori Moody). Disney is a very successful company and they know that not everything from a source material can be used when creating a movie. They take the time to go through each source and take the most important parts of that story. Subsequently, their final result is highly recognized and appeals to their major

Disney cannot use every dark theme like the Grimm Brothers because of the audience they have.
Cinderella is just one example of how Disney had to change parts of the source material to make it appropriate for their audience. The Grimm Brothers’ Cinderella is an example of a piece of writing that teaches their lesson in a violent way. In their version of the story Cinderella’s sisters amplified the trait of jealousy. To emphasize jealousy the stepsisters, “poured peas and lentils into the ashes of the hearth so she had to sit there the entire day and separate them. In the evening, when she was tired, there was no bed for her, and she had to lie next to the hearth in the ashes” (Grimm Brothers page 70). The audience would interpret these actions as wrong and understood the Grimm Brothers more drastic style of writing. The audience learned from what the Grimm Brothers wrote and were taught that there was consequences jealousy because of the harsh punishments that the Grimm Brothers described. Since the audience lived in a harsher time, living was not luxurious. As a