In May I am taking a trip to Germany. This will be a Continuing Education deep dive into the places where the Grimm's Brothers lived, worked and collected their stories and folk tales. Apparently, the Brothers Grimm made such a massive collection of stories (about 250) in hopes of saving the oral storytelling traditions of the German people and to help standardize the German language. The first edition (1812), however, was raw, unrefined, and never intended to be read by children. So many of these folk tales reflected the terrible living conditions that the people historically had to endure. No one, including the Grimm's brothers, expected that these stories would eventually become so popular for children throughout the world!
My reason for taking this trip (besides the pleasure of travel), is the hope that I will be inspired to write another Children's Musical using one of their fairy tales.
In preparation for the trip, I have begun re-reading these stories from the more "original" sources and early translations into English. My hope is to find a lesser-known tale that would have a goodly number of colorful characters, an engaging plot line, NO ROMANTIC LOVE STORY, and not too much DARKNESS. (There really is a LOT of SCARY STUFF in these tales!!! No wonder modern retellings have undergone so many revisions!)
Walt Disney kept a lot of the frightening aspects of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" (1937) and "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) from the original Grimm's tales. However, "Cinderella" (1950), "The Frog Prince" ("The Princess and the Frog" 2009), and "Rapunzel" ("Tangled" 2010), thankfully, got rather sanitized and comedic treatments from later Disney artists.
My reason for taking this trip (besides the pleasure of travel), is the hope that I will be inspired to write another Children's Musical using one of their fairy tales.
In preparation for the trip, I have begun re-reading these stories from the more "original" sources and early translations into English. My hope is to find a lesser-known tale that would have a goodly number of colorful characters, an engaging plot line, NO ROMANTIC LOVE STORY, and not too much DARKNESS. (There really is a LOT of SCARY STUFF in these tales!!! No wonder modern retellings have undergone so many revisions!)
Walt Disney kept a lot of the frightening aspects of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" (1937) and "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) from the original Grimm's tales. However, "Cinderella" (1950), "The Frog Prince" ("The Princess and the Frog" 2009), and "Rapunzel" ("Tangled" 2010), thankfully, got rather sanitized and comedic treatments from later Disney artists.
I remember taking my little sister to see "Sleeping Beauty" in the theater when it was shown in a rerun in about 1970. My 3 year old sister was absolutely terrified of Maleficent, especially when she turned into the dragon. The sinister parts of these stories are still really frightening!
As has been explained to me, bedtime stories including boogie monsters and scary stuff were meant to keep children from leaving their beds at night. Apparently, children were told that nothing bad would happen to them as long as they stayed asleep in their beds.
I wonder if that worked? My kids had bad dreams enough without scary bedtime stories. And no amount of warnings or threats ever deterred them from trying to get into our bed in the middle of the night, either!
Regardless, it's clear that I prefer the sanitized, comedic renditions of these tales! For me to be able to have pleasant dreams, I need to hear:
"Once upon a time..." at the beginning and "they lived happily, ever after" at the end.
As has been explained to me, bedtime stories including boogie monsters and scary stuff were meant to keep children from leaving their beds at night. Apparently, children were told that nothing bad would happen to them as long as they stayed asleep in their beds.
I wonder if that worked? My kids had bad dreams enough without scary bedtime stories. And no amount of warnings or threats ever deterred them from trying to get into our bed in the middle of the night, either!
Regardless, it's clear that I prefer the sanitized, comedic renditions of these tales! For me to be able to have pleasant dreams, I need to hear:
"Once upon a time..." at the beginning and "they lived happily, ever after" at the end.
"The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen", a mini classroom musical, is my retelling of one of Grimm's folk tales. Enjoy its comedic elements!
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