Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Red Riding Hood Roald Dahl - 3,977 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

... et Atwood, which has a contemporary setting, thus disproving the notion that Disney has halted the natural evolution of the fairy tale. I have to agree with the substance of this argument but would have to suggest that one example of a modern slant to an ancient tale is hardly enough to prove the point. But something that James did mention in his post to the forum reminded me of the work of an author unquestionably relevant to our discussion: read some Angela Carter he urges: in fact, watch The Company of Wolves, a non-Disney fairy-tale film based on one of her stories. Having read these comments, Paul Bommer (web) replied: I agree with James that the Angela Carter spins on these tales restores a lot of the lost meaning behind them and would strongly recommend the Bloody Chamber collection. ; and certainly, having seen The Company of Wolves countless times, the films dark atmosphere, imaginative and inventive narrative style and unsettling sexual implications are certainly quite fitting, particularly in relation to some of the disturbing tales I have encountered during my research for this dissertation. So, Yes I would undoubtedly have to concede that in terms of adult-orientated film, animation and literature there are still some excellent examples of spellbinding, exciting and undeniably menacing fairy tale adaptations.

For example, I remember in recent years a quite horrific version of the Snow White story starring actress Sigourney Weaver and also The Bolex Brothers contemporary animated feature. The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993), though hardly recognisable in comparison to the Grimm tale it manages to be both charming and highly disturbing, using 3 D modelling techniques alongside pixilation: the animation of human actors frame by frame. As Paul Bommer again submits: I think fairy stories have always, and to some extent should remain, laced with a light touch of brutality - that core of truth that life can be shit / difficult . It seems to me that 'disney fication' means just the opposite and I for one think thats a shame...

and I was amused to read that, after a short hiatus, during which he appears to have been further contemplating the issue, Paul returned to the forum and declared I was just doing the washing up and thinking how I hated Disney's Pinocchio and how I much prefer other versions where he looks more wooden or unusual, like Lane Smith's recent version / sequel . But then it occurred to me that without Disney how many of us would have ever heard of Pinocchio - probably not I for one. So while it pisses me off that Disney's versions of folktales become the Canon (? ) it obviously also inspires others to seek alternative ways of telling or retelling the same stories. But getting back to brutality of these tales, Celeste Goulding, an illustrator from Sydney, Australia relates a particularly alarming version of Sleeping Beauty from the mid 1600 s in which ~The Beauty fell into a coma, the king found her and presumed her dead but he was so attracted to her that he had sex with her anyhow. Well, she became pregnant and gave birth to twins (while still comatose). Eventually she woke and raised her children, the king found her and started seeing her regularly.

The Queen found out about the King's bit on the side and became jealous, so she sent her huntsman to murder the children one by one... and serve them up to her as a stew which she ate with delight. So, although we obviously dont want to see these thinly veiled references to bestiality, necrophilia, and rape that littered many of the original folk-tales in today's childrens books, we must equally resist the trend for political correctness. Indeed after some initial denials of its existence in the genre, many illustrators agreed that political correctness HAS gone some way in damaging childrens book illustration.

Paul Bommer again, having recently attended a childrens book seminar at the V&A, stated that all of the illustrators talking expressed some degree of exasperation at the levels of censorship that they had experienced in the US children's market... Which leads to wolves that mustn't be scary, witches that mustn't be evil, trolls that must be vegetarian and anything that hints or smacks at nudity (let alone sexuality) or bodily function being strictly verboten... I'm not advocating smut for kids here or anything so terrifying that it gives them the naggers for weeks, but I do think that the Disney retelling of these stories has lost a lot of the bite and wit of the originals. I remember being truly, deeply terrified by the witch in the Wizard of Oz when I was a kid and loving it because of that! You " ve the feeling that she'd be treated somehow differently today, watered down (sure the pun) and somehow explained off as being Wicked as a consequence of her harsh and unloving upbringing on an Emerald City housing estate? ! At this point I was starting to feel that maybe the evolution of the folk tale should include all things disney fied, and that these stories ought to return naturally to the domain of the adult reader / viewer AND it seemed, my thirst for the blood of all things Disney appeared to be diminishing...

until the following e-mail arrived: Whoa, Hold on a second here. You can't compare the motives behind the creation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to Tarzan, or any of the other more modern Disney movies. You have to remember the intentions of Walt himself. Walt Disney was an illustrator.

He was a storyteller. He was a visionary. He just was. Listen, Walt wasn't following some band wagon or conforming to a formula in any way when Snow White hit the scene.

You " ve done your research, right? ? This film was "Disney's Folly." He spent every dime he and his brother and the 9 old men had in order to make it and they had to wash off the production cells to make the next movie cause they didn't have the cash to buy more. This was something he was passionate about and he wanted to share with the world. It was his version of the fairy tale, but as you said, these tales were changed and embellished with each telling. Is it his fault that HIS telling is the most famous? There's a reason for that.

The man was a visionary because he had the unmistakable talent of knowing what the public wanted. Yes, its sweeter than the older versions, but you need to remember the time period America was in and the context in which it was produced. You should also keep in mind the man himself. The reason he wanted to start his theme parks was because he didn't like taking his daughters to carnivals. The carnies scared them, but they liked the rides and games. Hence, a sweet and child friendly environment.

I think it's kind of ridiculous to mock a tale that was courageously told by a man and an extraordinary team of artists who pioneered an entire industry. And to mock the sanitation of the literature? If Disney hadn't participated in telling those tales many children and adults may never have heard them at all. Perhaps they even encouraged the older versions to be retold over the years (I never read The Little Mermaid until I saw the movie first and became interested in the story).

What good is a book if it sits on the shelf? The beauty of a story is in the telling. You refer to the final version of the Beast that appeared in the film as some kind of branding iron that will burn all other versions of this character from the memory or imaginations of the public. Personally, I suggest you take a look at some of the concept art that was created in the planning stages for that film, they weren't all sweet and the illustrations are fantastic, but again - this is just one telling for the story by a team of artists. I doubt this or any other film, will eradicate any piece of inspiring artwork from a reader's memory. Where in any Disney Marketing material do you see anyone telling consumers to overlook minor little irritations like history and folklore?

No one is holding that child in his / her chair and saying... "Don't you do it! Don't you open that book! For God's sake, don't READ it! !" . Since Walt's death, the lull that the Disney Company had in the early 80 's (anybody remember The Black Cauldron...

anybody? ? ) and the resurgence and perverse expansion into every type of business they could become involved in... I think many people have become bitter toward "the Mouse" and Mickey as more of corporate symbol than the character they loved as a child. Marketing, high prices at the Disney Store, and press coverage of Michael Eisner in court have diluted the Technicolor that once awed America on Sunday night television. But the heart and soul of the Disney Company has always been its feature-animated films, and every good film starts with a good story. -Lisa Mazzuca (On Your Mark Design & Graphics) - web Courageous storytelling? ? ? ~ Although I have already accepted and conceded some of these points in my previous text, I have to say that I believe that it is this type of unadulterated hero worship and pitiful sycophancy and that has turned Walt Disney into both an American deity and, conversely, an object of disdain and ridicule. It seems to escape the minds of some people that Disney was, amongst other things, a businessman and predominantly interested in making money and not a saintly benefactor working for the good of mankind as Ms.

Mazzuca would suggest. Surely it is no coincidence, as Gary Morris points out in his Bright Lights Film Journal that: these stories... predate the copyright laws and were thus free to adapt. Making money has always played an important part in the make-up of the Disney corporation and I do not think that unwarranted fawning and flattering of the man can absolve him from any blame, he was after all an unabashed capitalist. I also cannot see how anyone could possibly submit Disneys The Little Mermaid as a positive example of an adapted folk tale, and extolling the virtues of concept art in the planning stages of Beauty and the Beast merely highlights the fact that these fantastic unsweetened drawings were not used in the final film.

I do accept a point that many have made which suggests some of the earlier animated feature films were intentionally over-sweetened to combat the general gloom resulting from the Great Depression, but I think its important to remember that Disney wasnt the only animator at that time toying with folk and fairy tales, and some of these others didnt subscribe to Disneys sugary style. In one of Gary Morris journal articles he informs us that Not everyone in Hollywood was so enamoured of order or happy endings or the sentimental school of mindless, grinning funny little animals. Amongst these renegades of Warner Brothers Termite Terrace were Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and most notably Tex Avery. As Morris affirms Avery's application of modernist elements to an ancient cultural form is the most complex and extreme of the lot. Between 1937 and 1949, whilst animating for Warner Bros. and M-G-M studios, Tex Avery made eight films based on or relating to fairy tales, namely: Little Red Walking Hood, Little Rural Riding Hood, Red Hot Riding Hood, Swing Shift Cinderella, Cinderella Meets Fella, The Bears Tale, A Gander at Mother Goose, and Blitz Wolf.

Morris again explains that these animated shorts represent an assault on the Bettelheim school that sees fairy tales as the source of moral instruction for youth, and, closer to home, on the Disney aesthetic. Avery's rendering of these ancient tales were produced to gratify the young and naive, as well as the more mature worldly-wise audience and to reverse the sentimentalist trend by bringing chaos out of order. For young audiences, Avery preserves the trappings of the genre ~ talking animals, supernatural events ~ and adds the cinematic touch of physical law constantly challenged. For adults, he litters his work with sexual innuendo and distancing devices that replace the sense of reassuring archetypes with a modernist construct that merges the story with its audience, puts adult preoccupations (e.

g. , sex) in place of children's, and imagines characters not as clueless tabula rasa's awaiting moral enlightenment but as sophisticated, willful creatures with a bottomless bag of tricks. Gary Morris - The Fairy Tales of Tex Avery For a time, Avery was able to successfully remove the tired old characters of the big bad wolf and red riding hood from their safe and sacred sanctuary of the well-worn fantasy narrative and relocate them into a sleazy, urban landscape full of pool halls and nightclubs awash with lusty ladies, sinful suggestions and sarcastic side swipes: creating in the process a unique world of self-conscious cartoon actors who know they " re in a cartoon and freely comment on their status as fictional creations, undercutting the story at every turn. So, are there any contemporary artists still willing to challenge the Disney aesthetic and produce childrens books and illustrated folk-tales with a harder edge? A name that was mentioned earlier in this discussion is that of Lane Smith, an artist renowned for distorting folk tales and fables.

After meeting with writer Jon Scieszka in 1986 the inventive pair produced The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. The book, described by internet childrens book site Kids reads. com as a wise-guy fairytale was initially rejected by most publishers for being too weird and too sophisticated but has now sold over a million copies, been translated into ten languages, and has been called a classic picture book for all ages. Their next venture (which, incidentally, I recently purchased) was a collection of anarchic interpretations of classic tales and fables called The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales and certainly breaks boundaries in the world of childrens illustrated literature. The book itself questions the principles and standard practices not only of folk-tales but even those of typography and publishing. For example: Take the opening tale, the classic Chicken Like; One minute the story is running along smoothly in the traditional manner and then an odd little character, claiming to be Jack the Narrator appears shouting Wait a minute!

Wait a minute! , only to inform us that he forgot to publish the contents page; The throng of familiar characters (Goose Loose, Ducky Lucky etc. ) ignore this bizarre interlude and carry on their customary course until... the Table of Contents falls from the sky and kills them all, leaving a twisted mass of typography and body parts. But of course its not purely Jon Scieszka's bizarre plot and the imaginative use of typography that makes this book so different and so successful; Lane Smiths beguiling use of all manner of media, from photomontage to printed textiles certainly strike the eye accordingly, in his weird and wonderful renderings of such tales as Cinderumplestiltskin and The Really Ugly Duckling. I was surprised to read that much of his sinister grainy work was not done using any spray-painting technique. As Smith himself explains: A lot of reviewers have misidentified my technique as airbrush or dyes or even egg tempera.

I think this is because it almost looks as if it was sprayed with paint with little dots of color and texture visible. Actually, my work is rendered in oil paints. I paint on board, building up several thin glazes of the oil, sealing them between coats with an acrylic spray varnish. This not only dries the oil instantly, but also causes a chemical reaction between the oil and the acrylic. Normally, it would be a mistake to combine two opposites like this and in fact it was a mistake the first time I did it, but I liked the results. I'm a big fan of artists who play with surfaces.

I love texture and grunge. The trick is to know when to stop. Sometimes I keep adding more and more layers until I've ruined the piece. Usually I stop when the painting starts to look interesting.

Then I go in with a fine brush and add details, lights and dark's, etc. It's a laborious process, but it's unpredictable and it keeps me interested and surprised. This book retains its appeal to children as a familiar storybook, whilst attracting the adult graphic-novel readers, sells successfully worldwide, has won many awards and still manages to offend a few purists along the way. Another artist who works with a variety of media, styles and techniques is Lauren Child. I was interested in her innovative mix of naive-art, montage and creative typography, but particularly the combination of these techniques with digital media (A recipe I have recently been experimenting with myself). In Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book, the hero Herb falls into a book of fairytales, where he instigates a chaotic series of events, meets a tenacious and headstrong Goldilocks, is pursued by numerous recognizable individuals and ultimately gets rescued by his Fairy Godmother.

Herb is also the star of Beware of the Storybook Wolves another Lauren Child book to mess about with the conventions of this genre. This time, the wolves from his bedtime story come alive to devour the boy, but the child tricks the wolves and again begins a madcap jaunt through a number of well-known fables, along with more of those notorious fairy tale characters and mocked clich's. Ilene Cooper, in her internet review of the book, states that The artwork is frantic strips of color serve as background for exuberant pen-and-watercolor pictures reminiscent of Quentin Blakes art, only kicked up one dizzy notch. Of course, having mentioned Quentin Blake, we are reminded of hi work with the late Roald Dahl and in particular their book of Revolting Rhymes which memorably satirized a number of tales, again including Little Red Riding Hood. In Dahls last picture book he teamed up with illustrator Patrick Benson to produce a book that almost straddles genres; a contemporary tale that, whilst featuring deep dark forests, a throng of little people, a largely unseen beast and a general feeling of foreboding, still manages to retain a modern, upbeat, quality largely due to Benson's twisting on the old cross-hatching style. My final example is the work of author James Finn Garner and illustrator Lisa Amoroso entitled Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times a sample of which is neatly condensed by book reviewer Russell A.

Peck: Cinderella is a kind of misfit with sisters-of-step heavily augmented with cosmetics, a man appears, her "individual deity proxy, " who helps her prepare for the ball with tight-fitting clothes that cut off her circulation and high heeled shoes that ruin people's bone structure. Conclusion To start summing up, I would like to point out that when I first started this dissertation I honestly believed that my original question Has Disneyfication destroyed the traditional folk tale and damaged childrens illustrated literature? had an obvious answer and that my research would reveal an open and shut case. But during my research I have discovered the matter to be far more complex than I had initially anticipated. Even though I still believe that the Disney corporation has permanently altered the course of the folk tale, I now dont necessarily believe this to be such a heinous crime. For the foreseeable future I will still look upon Disney ~ the man, the machine and the mouse ~ with a certain amount of scepticism, contempt and culpability but possibly with a little less angst.

It has recently occurred to me that we can equate Disneys apparently inadvertent interference in the evolution of the folk tale with that of the new breed of Illusionists who supposedly spoil the traditional, tried and tested, formulaic magic by showing you exactly how the trick is done: when in reality they are challenging the conventions of a dying art and merely invite revitalization, invention and the promotion of healthy competition. Back in the area of childrens literature and film, I am also encouraged by the resurgence of witches, wizards, ogres and the like, in blockbusters such as Shrek and the Harry Potter series, whilst obviously not forgetting The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But funnily enough, the final factor in turning my argument around was simply the fleeting appearance of a number of well known storybook characters in a recent, extremely popular, award winning childrens book. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, a beautifully illustrated and fairly cheerful tale about a cat, a squirrel and a duck, contains a segment where two of these protagonists wander through a grim, shadowy forest, imagining all manner of beast and villain, most notably the green-faced witch in the pointy hat, the big bad wolf, a hungry fox and a brutal bear, whilst a lost and oblivious innocent skips playfully on his way. And here again we have an artist imaginatively playing with typography and challenging conventions. All of this simply proves that somehow, however stale or sterile the genre can get, there are always cutting edge artists around to tinker with ideas and subvert from the norm, not to mention annual pantomimes and Halloween celebrations to keep these shady characters tightly lodged in our subconscious minds.

And having researched far more on the subject of Disney than I could possibly convey in this thesis, I will have to leave you with a thought from Paul Bommer - Artist and Illustrator, who surmises: I guess the old frozen nazi wasn't all bad! Reference / Bibliography The Death of the Seven Dwarfs - documented by Ernst Ludwig Rochholz 1856 (Translation by D. L. Ashliman 1998) web The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology - by Joseph Campbell - Viking 1959 Of Other Worlds - C.

S. Lewis - Harcourt, Brace and World 1966 Catherine and Laurence Anhalt - Beauty and the Beast - web web The Disney Version - Richard Schickel - Ivan R. Dee, Inc. 1968 & 1997 Review of Disneys Alice in Wonderland by Dan Patanella web The Magic Kingdom - Walt Disney and the American Way of Life - Steven Watts University of Missouri Press 1997 Just Disney. Com - web disney / biography AOI Discussion - web James Merry - animator / illustrator - Paul Bommer - Illustrator Celeste Goulding - " web - Yahoo!

Groups (Illustration) Lisa Mazzuca - web Amazon - web The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (Animation) The Bolex Brothers - Manga Entertainment Ltd (1993) The Company of Wolves - 4 Front Video Director - Neil Jordan / Writer - Angela Carter The Fairy Tales of Tex Avery - by Gary Morris (Bright Lights Film Journal) web Lane Smith / Jon Scieszka web The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith - Puffin Books 1993 Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book - Lauren Child Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Childrens Beware of the Storybook Wolves - Lauren Child Hodder Childrens Books Beware of the Storybook Wolves reviewed by Ilene Cooper Booklist ~ Youth February 1, 2001 web Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake The Mining by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Patrick Benson - Puffin Books 1991 Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times by James Finn Garner, Illustrated by Lisa Amoroso New York: Macmillan, 1994. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories - reviewed by Russell A. Peck web Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper Picture Corgi Books 1999


Free research essays on topics related to: roald dahl, folk tales, red riding hood, fairy tale, walt disney

Research essay sample on Red Riding Hood Roald Dahl

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com