Sunday, February 17, 2008
Going deeper than Disney
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Fairy tales can be much more than little stories to help children get to sleep at night and encourage them to be good."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I do not really get the deeper with disney concept. It doesn't really say how it is going to uncover the enchanting moments in disney fairytales... or that is is interpreted into ballet somehow. But it seems like something I would really like to watch. :) I really enjoy fairytale like stories.
i don't know if the title of this article fits either, but it is an interesting idea to find the deeper facets of disney stories, especially since they are taking over broadway. i think that many of the disney stories do have a very deep and universal message or story when you pair them down to their origins. for after all it isn't disney who invented all these fairytales.
It's a good title. Fairy tales are really interesting because they're a symptom of a culture. With Disney, a lot of areas are simplified, themes are cut out, and most historical context is, too. Disney movies generally have a few lines for the "adults", but still.. Little Red Riding Hood? Dirty, expresses anxiety about females deviating from their set paths, reinforces patriarchy. Disney's version? Cutesy, reinforces patriarchy.
It's going deeper than Disney by reexploring, for example, character designs, as it states in the article. Since this show is performed for a mature audience, the director/designers don't have to rely upon stereotypes and stock characters: they can explore and potentially say something interesting. ..Or they can make you aware of what society is really afraid of.
It's neat, damn it.
It's nice to start to see more contemporary takes on old stories. It's like our generation finally putting their fingerprint on a tradition. However, I don't know how excited I am for a modern dance styled Cinderella story, but that's just 19 years of being brainwashed into wanting to see it one way.
I've always liked when the fairy tail that we have grown up with have been changed in someway. Weather they are made darker or little things have been changed, such as the step sisters from really being ugly, the change brings some different meaning to the tail. Of course the fairy tail's overalls meaning does not change. It is just really refreshing to see something different that what Disney and the perfect world present.
I agree with Rebecca. It's always been a pet-peeve of mine, though I love Disney movies, when people read the original story and say it's a cop out because it's not simplified and happy like the Disney version. I think re-surfacing this can really prove to be useful and interesting for the production team as well as the audience. There really is so much more to delve into with fairy tales than we have been taught our entire lives through the eyes of Disney.
I really fell into what was said about cruelty being explored in the piece. It is so true that contrast is necessary, in most areas of life actually, so that you can grow to appreciate the opposite. A child who knows no negatives will have trouble identifying the positive. And I like the way the mother's role is played. A parent's quest for their child to be happy is perfectly matched by a child's image of their parent's overarching perfection. The sisters feet turning ugly in respect to this being a ballet? Creative.
If you l think about every Disney film ever produced in Walt's life, what is a the one things they all have in common. Their all pagan basses stories, so of course their going to be dark, and have allot of meaning behind them that is lost if you don't look at the background. Bringing that to stage seems to be a natural thing to do, just make sure you don't bring the kids.
since when have fairy tales always been so pure? many of us know the horrors of the grimm's fairy tales, but children do not. yet despite most peoples awareness of these dark details in what are traditionally childrens' stories, they're rarely explored to such a level on stage. the cinderella ballet has people thinking now about the plot and characters in a deeper sense, something that audience members probably never expected to end up doing.
Post a Comment