Week 15 Reading B: Anderson Fairy tales
The second portion of the anderson fairy tales was the little mermaid story. It's the original story of a Disney classic that almost every kid has grown to love while they've grown up. I think that something really interesting about reading the original stories of Disney classics is the way that Disney makes them into children's stories and makes these really lovable characters that people know so well. I think a really cool challenge for storytelling to take one of these fairy tales that has not been redone and make it into a lovable Disney-type story. I think it’s intriguing the way that the stories differ. In Anderson’s take, there is a lot more focus on the little mermaid as she is under water and in the culture she grew up in. The real story is much darker, discussing death and how they turn to sea foam once they have died. Most interestingly, however, is the way that the little mermaid dies at the end and turns into sea foam. It has a very tragic ending to the story unlike the happy, family friendly story we are used to.
The Little Mermaid. Source.
The Little Mermaid. Source.
Hi Morgan, I just saw your post go up, and I wasn't really sure what you thought about Andersen's version of the story; it is really different from Disney, but you didn't actually include anything from Andersen's story here in your post. The idea is to take notes on the actual reading, including now at the end of the semester. So if you have a minute to add some thoughts about Andersen's story here, that would be good! You could just list the biggest "problems" Disney had to solve here and the solutions they chose; maybe you can think of different solutions. :-)
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