Fairy tale movies: WFNY Staff Chat

mgbode – For today’s roundtable, we are going to talk fairy tale movies… but, I think we first need to talk about what ARE fairy tale movies.

Do Moana and Frozen count given that Disney took liberties with the stories that they no longer even really follow the original tales? What about Lord of the Rings, which uses fairy tale creatures, yet is an independent and original story? In a similar manner, the parody fairy tale films such as Shrek. Or, more recently, Onward. So, where do you draw the line on what fairy tale movies are? What are your favorite ones? And, what the the favorites (current and/or past) of your kids?

gerbs – Firstly, I don’t consider Onward a parody movie, more a REALLY great combination of mythic “fairy tale” and tongue in cheekiness about D&D with paternal feelings deeply woven in.

wfnycraig – Alright, this is when I date myself. When I was very young, before the VHS vs. Betamax wars, families could rent video machines and movies for a weekend. I don’t remember what the format was, but it was a giant cartridge the size of a laserdisc, you know way before discs were commonplace. I did some googling and I think it might have been Cartrivision.

Regardless, my dad brought one of these bad boys home one weekend and had a few movies for us to watch in the comfort of our own home, without commercials! He rented some movies for he and my mom to watch when we went to bed, but he also brought at least one kids movie. It was a version of Jack and the Beanstalk starring Lou Costello of Abbot and Costello fame (It’s available free and captioned on YouTube.).

I will have to watch it with my kids to see if it holds up, but I must have watched that movie three or four times that weekend. I was probably six or seven years old and I was enamored with the treat of being able to watch a film, on-demand, at home whenever I wanted. It’s unbelievable how many people are eliminated from the beginning of this phenomena here at this website.

As for what my favorite fairy-tale movies are, I have to include The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. We watch those films every year and the magic of the stories are fairy-tale-like, if not the technical definition of fairy tales. Other than that? Shrek is great. The Princess Bride is a good one. Lastly, I don’t know if you would include it, but I feel like the Wizard of Oz belongs in the genre. And that’s an all-time classic even without the matching of Pink Floyd.

gerbs – Princess Bride is one of the best movies ever made and was the first movie my wife and I watched together. I couldn’t find my DVD copy so I bought one for $5 from the Walmart near her house.

mgbode – Another common element over the past decade or so has been to take those not as known (at least to most of the American target demographics) fairy tales for more wide distribution as feature films. The Book of Life, Cocoa, Moana, Frozen, and even Thor following that route.

gerbs – It’s hard to nail down the definition of “fairy tale” as well: the dictionary says “a children’s story about magical and imaginary beings and lands”. By that definition, one could say that the MCU is a “fairy tale”, as is Star Wars, LOTR, Airbender…most of what we digest content wise.

mgbode – You would get a ton of flak in certain circles for calling Star Wars a “children’s story.” But, I don’t think any of those too serious about such things reside here.

gerbs – More so leaning on the “magical and imaginary beings and lands” for SW, but I can agree that not ALL parts of the Star Wars universe is kid friendly. I’ve been catching up on the Clone Wars TV show and there is quite a bit of darkness and destruction I’d feel a little weird having my kids watch.

mgbode – Agreed. Yet, my boys (a bit older) are obsessed with that show and Rebels. And the entirety of the Star Wars expanded universe. What are the fairy tale movies (and/or shows) that are on loop in your household?

gerbs – As previously posted, we are a Disney+ household, so movie wise it’s Frozen 2, Moana, and Tangled. Show wise, we’ve been doing more Doc McStuffins but still hardcore Sofia the First, which is 100% fairy tale.

mgbode – Unsurprising that there is a lean towards the musical variety of fairy tale in your household 🙂

gerbs – Silent non musical moments at GerbsHQ are few and far between