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meganbmooreInteresting article on the cinematic history of "Snow White." With some rather amazing racism in early comments.
10th Kingdom should be there, IMO, but even without it I've still seen most of the ones they show. I mean, excepting the 2012 ones. (Anyone heard anything about the Direct to DVD movie? Is it even out yet?)
And you know something? I'm pretty sure that the reason Snow White: A Tale or Terror is my favorite of the ones that have been out for a while (well, except 10K) is that it doesn't have any of the "huntsman spares Snow White" drivel. Lilly figures out that he's about to attack her and takes off, eventually losing him in the forest.
Everyone likes to talk about the huntsman "sparing" Snow White, but he really doesn't. In the version the Grimm's first wrote down, it's explicitly stated that he doesn't want to kill something so pretty himself, but he's COUNTING ON the forest animals killing her, or her getting lost and dying if they don't. He takes this little girl who has never been anywhere before and deliberately dumps her in a part of the forest he knows is dangerous and leaves her there with no food, directions, or weapons. She then stumbles through the forest, avoiding anything that sounds frightening, and wanders around lost so long that her feet are bleeding and then she finds shelter and barters services for protection. When the Grimm's rewrote it to be friendlier to children, the huntsman STILL dumped her defenseless in the forest, but he hopes nothing bad will happen to her and all the forest animals shy away from her (because they can't hurt something so pretty?) and it practically turns into a pleasant stroll until she finds the dwarves' house.
Child friendly: Murder. Cannibalism. Forcing people to dance in heated iron shoes so that their feet are ruined forever.
Not child friendly: Young girls surviving dangerous situations.
So, anyway, the whole "Huntsman spares Snow White. Yay Huntsman! Gosh is that Snow White passive!" bit has always really annoyed me. I mean, I'm not remotely opposed to canons actually making the huntsman HELPFUL and actually doing things to help her, a la Once Upon A Time (Well, he doesn't actually get the chance to help as far as we know, but he INTENDED to.) and Snow White and the Huntsman, (and I do like how 10K makes one huntsman figure a straight up creepy villain courtesy of Rutger Hauer, and the other huntsman figure works when converted to the heroine's romantic lead) but it really grates when people talk about him being nice and sparing her or whatever when he just dumps a defenseless kid in the forest and says "seeya."
10th Kingdom should be there, IMO, but even without it I've still seen most of the ones they show. I mean, excepting the 2012 ones. (Anyone heard anything about the Direct to DVD movie? Is it even out yet?)
And you know something? I'm pretty sure that the reason Snow White: A Tale or Terror is my favorite of the ones that have been out for a while (well, except 10K) is that it doesn't have any of the "huntsman spares Snow White" drivel. Lilly figures out that he's about to attack her and takes off, eventually losing him in the forest.
Everyone likes to talk about the huntsman "sparing" Snow White, but he really doesn't. In the version the Grimm's first wrote down, it's explicitly stated that he doesn't want to kill something so pretty himself, but he's COUNTING ON the forest animals killing her, or her getting lost and dying if they don't. He takes this little girl who has never been anywhere before and deliberately dumps her in a part of the forest he knows is dangerous and leaves her there with no food, directions, or weapons. She then stumbles through the forest, avoiding anything that sounds frightening, and wanders around lost so long that her feet are bleeding and then she finds shelter and barters services for protection. When the Grimm's rewrote it to be friendlier to children, the huntsman STILL dumped her defenseless in the forest, but he hopes nothing bad will happen to her and all the forest animals shy away from her (because they can't hurt something so pretty?) and it practically turns into a pleasant stroll until she finds the dwarves' house.
Child friendly: Murder. Cannibalism. Forcing people to dance in heated iron shoes so that their feet are ruined forever.
Not child friendly: Young girls surviving dangerous situations.
So, anyway, the whole "Huntsman spares Snow White. Yay Huntsman! Gosh is that Snow White passive!" bit has always really annoyed me. I mean, I'm not remotely opposed to canons actually making the huntsman HELPFUL and actually doing things to help her, a la Once Upon A Time (Well, he doesn't actually get the chance to help as far as we know, but he INTENDED to.) and Snow White and the Huntsman, (and I do like how 10K makes one huntsman figure a straight up creepy villain courtesy of Rutger Hauer, and the other huntsman figure works when converted to the heroine's romantic lead) but it really grates when people talk about him being nice and sparing her or whatever when he just dumps a defenseless kid in the forest and says "seeya."
no subject
Date: 2012-03-31 01:47 am (UTC)"Child friendly: Murder. Cannibalism. Forcing people to dance in heated iron shoes so that their feet are ruined forever.
Not child friendly: Young girls surviving dangerous situations."
One of these things is not like the other? Talk about a mixed message. It makes me think how people are under the misconception that the Bible is child-friendly.
I've been following your exploration of these Snow White stories with fascination, all this time, and it just occurred to me to mention something you might not be familiar with. Have you ever heard of interactive fiction? It's a bit like the choose-your-own adventure books, where you enter actions into a prompt to cause the story to unfold.
Anyway, Emily Short wrote, in collaboration with others, a multiple-ending story based on Snow White that's fascinating--"Alabaster"--where Snow White is anything but passive and engaged in an extended dialogue with you, as the huntsman. You need software to play it, and if you've never played IF, it's a bit of a learning curve, but the story that unfolds is creepy and unusual.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-31 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-31 01:55 am (UTC)That IF sounds interesting. I have fond yet frustrating memories of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I read as a tween. I would either forget to skip around or spend 3 times as long trying to get all the options as it would normally take me to read a book.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 12:12 am (UTC)"Alabaster" is particularly frustrating to play, for me, at least, because it's not so easy to get to the endings that are there! I've reached, maybe, three, but there's more than that, I think. With IF, however, there's none of that turning the page to go back! :)