Weevilcharley

To agree with most, 'A Clockwork Orange'. Fascinating, and hideous. Really genuinely disturbing but I can't help myself .... carcrash literature?

It's very definitely Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!

Hey everyone. I've been speaking to my tutor about my work in a bit more detail, and we've decided that I'm definitely going to stick to Disney's adaptations of fairytales OR classic literature, rather than try and swamp myself in fairytales and classic literature. One way we thought I might approach the study is to look at Snow White (so the original Disney fairytale), then take one from the fifties/sixties, so perhaps Cinderella, and then take a more recent one such like The Princess and the Frog (which came out last year, this year?), and discuss how the methodology of animation has changed, how the theory and process of adaptation to film has changed, and how these changes reflect on the changes made in society. So that'd be quite interesting. What's everyone's thoughts? It would be really great to look at this evolution in process. And Snow White and Cinderella are such classic stories that there's enough material to help me along in my quest. However. I don't feel at the moment that that has enough magic in it for me. While it would indeed be fascination, I want something with a bit more sparkle. It seems to academic for me (obviously I'm aware this is an academic thesis, but there's no harm in making it an interesting, different, magical read where I can :eek2:). So then I thought I could maybe look at 2 specific texts, one of classic literature maybe (my thoughts drifted to Peter Pan), and one of classical standards- or of a more fairytale origin- so perhaps Hercules or The Little Mermaid, and compare the differences and similarities in the changes made during the adaptation process. Third option is to do the same thing but comparing two/three classic literature adaptations/fairytales. I'm shying away from Alice in Wonderland because I'm going to use that as a study for my Popular Forms module essay. The classic literature examples I'd use would most probably be Peter Pan, the Jungle Books and/or Hunchback of Notre Dame. The fairytales I'd go for would probably be Snow White, Cinderella and/or the Princess and the Frog/The Little Mermaid. Fourth option (this is the wild card), I could gander at Snow White, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast (for example), and their 'Disney Princess' corp that has been developed from the films these heroines feature in. This one would be quite interesting, but I fear may drift too far away from the adaptations process. I just like the idea of being able to analyse what it is about these characters that Disney managed to make into incredibly successful selling marketing ideas, when in actual fact the real characters from the original texts are all a bit ... well ... wet! So that would allow me to look into the social context and cultural implications of women in America during the 30s/40s/50s, and how these films affected all that..... This a bit much? Let me know what you think, your previous feedback was excellent! Thank you, Charley

ten out of fifteen. I never was good at maths!!

The Lord of The Rings

They've got Marvel as well?!?!!?!??! I was astounded to hear they own Miramax, because I've always thought of Miramax as a pretty outstanding film studios... and not that this changes that, but suddenly I feel bad for all these companies who just don't get to be self sufficient. Although I suppose if Disney approached me and asked to buy my [completely fictional] company I'd completely cave before they'd even finished the question....

Hm, I think I might shy away from trying to find ALL films which are based on myths/legends and fairytales- I only have 20,000 words!!!! I'm definitely going to stick simply with Disney, and even then only with his more ostensible adaptations- the obvious literature that people have come to associate singularly with Disney, eg. Snow White, Cinderella, and Peter Pan, to name a few of the most popular. I discovered today that Disney actually own ESPN. Does that company leave any stone unturned??!!! I find it amazing that one singular human being has literally built a world-dominating Empire.

Thank you for the link to this thread!!! it's absolutely fascinating. When I have a spot more time (so... after lunch) I'll come back and post some thoughts. How have you been getting on??

Wow everybody, thank you so much for your quick- and fascinating- responses!! I'm really glad everyone likes the topic, hopefully this will allow for an interesting and ongoing debate throughout my long months of study!!! Firstly, Chrissy please allow me to explain my absence from the forum- in May I moved to Italy to work as an au pair, and the family I was staying with didn't have access, and since I've moved back to Leicester I only have access via the university library!! Luckily my library visits have increased to daily (as you can see, here I am on a Sunday morning!) so I fully intend to remain a very active member, and apologise for my lack of activity for so many months- it wasn't through lack of trying! You've all offered some really excellent points, thank you so much, what a great start. ii, this is a very good point. For now however I'm trying to keep my study as broad as possible, rather than limit myself to one or two specific texts just yet. I can confirm though that I will be looking at the more ostensible adaptations- Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Hercules for example, and of course Alice in Wonderland- one of my favourite books but one of my least favourite Disney films (the reason for which I really hope to discover during my research!!!!!!!). As BookJumper states, the purist in us demands fidelity when it comes to adaptations, yet we're incredibly forgiving of Disney's films, which [often painfully obviously] deviate from the original. Is this simply down to the style- the "artistry" you talk about, BookJumper? Do we see a Disney film, and shrug off its changes with a "well that's because it's Disney" comment, perhaps due to a 'Disney Spell' he has cast over us, to paraphrase Jack Zipes (who has some excellent work on this idea of a 'stranglehold' Disney has maintained over popular culture, if anyone is interested.)? Is it that we're subconsciously accepting the idea of Disney's target audience being mainly pre-adolescents, and for this we smile and nod and ignore any infidelity? Or is it something completely different? Disney's mission statement (business objective) is to "make people happy"- something the company certainly achieve, that much is inquestionable. How is this achieved, though? Through bright colours, use of song, or a happy ending? These are definitely traits we have come to expect of a Disney movie. Nollaig you're probably not alone in this! My elder brother would most certainly pay a lot of money to see a sort of satirical version of a Disney movie, despite the fact that he's a sucker for a Disney Classic as much as the next person. Why is this?! Are we fed up of the 'fairytale' now? Have videogames and sci fi and horror movies taken over our subconscious, making Disney and the fairytale seem dated, 'cushy', and childish? Of course, Disney hasn't always made these light and fluffy moral tales. His 1922 film of 'Puss In Boots', made with the Laugh-O-Gram animation studios, is 9 minutes of slapstick violence and 'evil' plans to manipulate authority (in this case, the King). Disney's hero in this short achieves success through deception and trickery. This is a far cry from, say, Cinderella, who's innocence and and sheer good will summon her Fairy Godmother in order to not only make things better, but make things the best that they could be! This film, as well as others, is on Google Video, do check it out, it really is good :-D Charley xx

Hello everyone. I am studying a Masters Course in Adaptation at De Montfort University, and have recently begun research for my dissertation. A rough title that I'm playing with at the moment is 'Disney adaptations and the cultural implications that the 'disneyfication' of fairytales has had on 20th and 21st century societies'. Obviously this will be narrowed down greatly by the time I come to writing the paper, but for now this is the title I am researching under. As I want to really understand the wider implications of Disney's adaptations of classic literature, I wondered if any of you guys had any thoughts you wouldn't mind sharing with me- for my reference sake only if you would prefer I didn't quote any of you in my work!!! For example, how do you feel about many characters from Classic Literature having come to be known as in the posession of Walt Disney? E.g "Disney's Snow White", "Disney's Cinderella". Do you feel that this is exploitation of the classics, or do you agree with some critics who claim that without Disney much of our 21st century youth would be completely unaware of the existance of these fairy tale legends who do not feature in their computer games and sci-fi tv programmes. How do you feel about the fidelity, or indeed infidelity, of the Disney adaptations in comparison to the originals? Are they too sanitised perhaps? Or are they necessary adaptations to make a moral tale in order for the films to serve a purpose within the family unit? I'd be really grateful for any feedback whatsoever!!

I am studying Adaptation as an MA at De Montfort University, and am considering exploring 'Alice' as part of my dissertation, which is focused on Disney adaptation and the cultural implications that the 'disneyfication' of fairytales has had on our society. I recently saw an annotated version of the novel, and Through the Looking Glass (in my opinion, by far the better tale- it's wittier, it's deeper, and when you read this novel in light of it's literary implications, the Wonderland through the mirror gets a whole lot darker) and although I didn't purchase it at the time, I fully intend to. It has incredible detail of Carroll's intentions of 'play' when he was writing the book, and explains in more depth some of the objectives and given circumstances of some of the more obscure characters (oh how Stanislavskian). I would really, really recommend picking up a copy- because the 'behind the scenes trivia' you refer to would make a Wonderland novel in itself.

I actually really enjoyed both of the Langdon novels, and while the adaptation of the Da Vinci Code was fairly laughable, they made their best out of a bad lot to be fair to them. With Angels they had certainly learnt from their mistakes from Da Vinci in that they cut out the crappy long lectures, added in a few more fast cars, and in general made the whole thing a great deal snappier and sharper, which I really enjoyed. The book really, really isn't terrible if you give Brown a bit of artistic license and remember that he is writing fiction here, and at no point does he ever attempt to claim his tales are true, simply inspired by factual operations, for example la Purga, and the CERN anti-matter tunnel, etc. I do however think the last chapter should be ripped out, screwed up and thrown away because not every book needs to end with a love scene. I'm glad the screenplay cut this out. Despite all of the above however, 'Deception Point' is a decidedly difficult novel to get into....

I second Alex from clockwork orange! wow. an incredible character.

I use a picture I printed from a copy of Vogue last year, it's from a Roald Dahl shoot Helena Bonham Carter & Tim Burton did (my favourites), in the picture HBC is standing in a broken glass elevator in a field of pink flowers, and it's the most inspiring photograph I've ever seen. The picture itself is a bit bigger than the book I'm reading (alice in wonderland, I can't get enough of children's fiction to distract me from my dissertation!) so the edges are tatty but I'm a big fan of books and things that have been really loved, so I don't mind too much. I also have a copy of the picture on my wall, blown up to poster size. I do hope no-one from Vogue is reading this xx

I'm a sucker for a good cover. I also can't help myself in second hand bookshops. I buy anything that looks like if it doesn't get bought soon it may be thrown away, because it makes me feel so sad. There are some amazing pieces of literature sitting in second hand bookshops/charity shops, they need rescuing!!!