Aurora: The Princess Who Personifies Grace & Beauty

Country of Origin: France as told in "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault in 1697.

Movie Debuted: 1959

What Aurora brings to the table: Unerring trust

Age at time of story (in the movie): 16

Major Differences Between original story (OS) and movie (M): The Disney version of "Sleeping Beauty" varies slightly from Perrault's tale, but they are nearly identical. Again we're going for a three way comparison (BG=Brothers Grimm)

1) In all three versions, one fairy is not invited to the christening. The scorned fairy curses the baby, leaving the last fairy to use her gift to counteract the evil. In M there are 4 fairies total, BG has 13 and P has 9.
2) BG & P have Aurora pricking her finger 15 yrs old. Her parents go on a trip, leaving her alone. M has Aurora succumbing to the curse at 16 yrs old.
3) BG & P has the entire castle falling asleep when the princess does. The three good fairies put the castle to sleep in M.

4) The curse lifts after 100 yrs in BG & P. In M, the prince breaks the spell with love's first kiss. Anyone remember that from Snow White?

Moral of the Story/Social Implications:

Bubble Child:

My major issue with this movie is when Aurora goes off into the woods, she meets her first stranger. And a young man at that. He feeds her a line and they spend the afternoon together. What happened to "Stanger Danger?" I understand the importance of protecting your children, but to do so in the extreme invites as much danger as if you didn't protect them at all. We know Prince Phillip is a good person, but Aurora doesn't and your kids won't either when they come across strangers. Arm your children with enough smarts to recognize a potential threat in people they don’t know.

Begging for Mercy

In Perrault’s tale, the curse breaks after 100 yrs. A headstrong prince then makes his way through the thorn barricade, kiss the sleeping princess awake (but not by the power of love), and they marry. Poor Aurora never had a chance. What if the prince had not been a prince at all, but a thief, or a peasant, or worse? In some of the early tellings of this story, the prince who finds Aurora, actually rapes her. Thank you Disney for sparing the rest of us. Did she really have a choice in who she married? Was it love at first sight or did the prince use his powers of persuasion to gain her hand?

Reclaiming What was Stolen

When the evil fairy curses the princes, it is the last fairy who also suffers. Her gift is essentially stolen and now she must use her turn to counteract the harm brought upon the child. While it seems like the raw end of the deal, the situation sets up the last fairy, Merryweather in case of the movie, to be the true hero. Grace, beauty, and musical ability are all fine traits we wish upon our daughters, but the gift of life is invaluable. Merryweather saves the baby and gives her another chance to live the life her parents dream for her. You can’t put a price on that.

No Wrath Like a Fairy Scorned

Something has to be said for the villainess, Maleficient. According to my dad, she is “one bad mama-jamma.” When she is not invited to the christening, she hits the king and queen hard by cursing the baby it took them years and years to conceive. Ouch! That’s a heavy price for excluding someone. So, make a note to yourself, 1) don’t tick off evil fairies, 2) rethink the guest list for your next party/gathering/christening/wedding. The one person you decide not to invite may get offended and send you a nasty gram.

Did you know?

1) Aurora is known by three different names: Aurora, Briar Rose, & Sleeping Beauty

2) Disney wanted the movie of SB to be illustrated as a moving tapestry. Compare to the "Unicorn Tapestries" and see the similarities in color, angular structure, and sophisticated decoration.
3) SB was the second most successful film at the box office after Ben Hur.
4) The music from Peter Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name was a major source of inspiration for the film.

Poll Results: After counting all the votes, you all think that Aurora's dress should have been a purple compromise. I personally think she would have looked stunning in violet.
Final Note:

This is one of my favorite movies and it truly is a piece of art.

Found a Good Seamstress

So the the snag in my princess dress has been repaired. On to discovering more about Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.

A Snag in My Pretty Princess Dress

As I've been going through my princess posts, I'm finding that for the older stories like Snow White and Cinderella, I'm having a hard time finding the videos from the library. Obviously, this is slowing me down as far as getting the breakdowns posted.
Sleeping Beauty has been the most difficult to get my hands on, so we'll have to skip her until a video becomes available. I'm quite peeved about this as I would have liked to stay in order of appearance, but for the sake of satisfying curiosity, I'll have to move on.

Next discovery: Little Mermaid, Ariel.

Cinderella: The Princess Who Rose From the Ashes

Country of Origin: France as told in Cendrillion by Charles Perrault (1697).

Movie Debuted: 1950

What princess brings to the table: Optimism and undying hope

Age at time of Story (in the movie): 17-19

Major Differences Between original story (OS) and movie (M):
The Disney film is almost a direct adaptation from Perrault's story (P). Since I've been reading a lot of the Bros. Grimm (BG), I thought I'd do a three way comparison.

1) M- Cinderella's parents die, leaving her an orphan, in BG and P the father is a widow who remarries

2) Godmother - both M and P show the appearance and helpfulness of the godmother. In BG, Cinderella goes to her mother's grave and cries, then birds tending the grave shower her with gifts of gown and shoes.

3) The slipper - in M and P the slipper is glass. In BG, the slipper is silk. In the brother's version, when the stepsisters try on the shoe is doesn't fit. In order to make it fit so they can marry the prince, the first cut off part of her toe while the second cuts off part of her heel. When the prince sees the blood, he knows they have deceived him.

4) At the end of P's tale, Cinderella has mercy on her stepsisters and sets them up with noblemen at her wedding. Too generous if you ask me. The BG ending is a bit more traumatic. The birds who gave Cinderella her finery, find the stepsisters wicked and peck out their eyes for their dishonesty. I say they missed a great opportunity to get dear old mom.

Moral of the Story/Social Implications:

Cheaters never prosper

Despite the initial pay off, those who cheat and lie eventually get what is coming to them. And paybacks are everything they should be. I'm sure the stepsister in the Grimm tale didn't see those birds coming to peck out their eyes. Let this be a lesson, stay away from Hitchcock's birds and do your best to be honest.

Stepmothers get a bad rap

Disney had a great way of make an evil villain. Unfortunately for all the stepmothers out there, they now have to deal with the fall out. Snow White's evil queen and Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's stepmother are about as wicked as you can get. Its no wonder that children fear their fathers (divorced or widowed) remarrying. I think the stereotype of the wicked stepmother has changed a bit, but the stigma is still firmly attached.
If you are a stepmother, God bless you. Making a blended family work is hard enough with having an unfavorable, albeit stereotypical, reputation trailing in your wake.

Dad has to step up

In the Grimm and Perrault version of the tale, Cinderella's dad is alive. It really makes you wonder what kind of man would marry a woman who abuses his child? I think Disney did us all a favor by take her dad out of the picture. There would have been problems finding anything to like about a man who would sit around and let his daughter suffer. And in the two stories, he does just that. Pitiful.

Kill them with kindness

Cinderella embraced this with everything she had. Not once did she say an unkind word to her family, which in my opinion, they deserved (and much more). She accepted her role without much complaint and was even cheerful about most of it. What we can learn from Cinderella is that kindness will open so many more doors than filling your heart with hatred and ugly thoughts. The girl was a saint. Putting this philosophy into practice is very hard to do and many of us struggle with it. But can you imagine what this world would look like if we all were able to do this?

Hope is hard to kill

I think this is one of the best messages that came from the movie. Despite the horrible turn Cinderella's life veered into, she never gave up on her dreams. I think for Christians, the underlying message is having faith in God. In the case of faith, there is no darkness deep enough that God's light can't reach, though there are times in our lives when we feel the opposite. Keeping faith during those dark times is what allows God's love to come through. I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer. Armed with a strong faith, there can be nothing in world that God will deny us. While your prayers are answered on God's time and fulfilled in His way, he has our best interest in his hands. Blessings in abundance will be poured over us.

Back to the dreams. Children can reap the most benefit from this. A dream of becoming a world renowned painter may be dashed as people criticize and tell the child that he'll never make it, he isn't good enough. Folks, that's life. And it sucks. But if that child continues to dream and perfect his craft and push the naysayers away, then he might indeed achieve his goal. Just because someone says negative things to you, doesn't mean you need to relinquish your dreams. Stay steadfast, learn from constructive criticism and become better for it. Ugly criticism definitely toss in the trash. When the road is littered with obstacles push through, because there is something wonderful waiting for you just down the road.
Here are the lyrics to "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." It's a beautiful message I keep posted next to the computer I write my novels on. It helps keep me focused.

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

Poll Results: Lady Tremaine was voted as having the most wicked heart. Anyone who would lock a girl in a room to keep her from competiting with her daughters, is someone with quite an ugly soul.

Did you know?
There are over 90,000 versions of the Cinderella story around the world.

Final Note: Despite what Cinderella endured at the hands of her stepmother and sisters, she got exactly what she deserved. Her dream of a better life came true and how can you not love a happy ending? Maybe this is why she is a much loved heroine. She rose from the ashes and into a new beginning.

Snow White: The Princess Who Would Lead Them All

Country of Origin: Germany; as told by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm

Movie Debuted: 1937

What Snow White brings to the table: innocence and naivety

Age at time of Story (in the movie): 14 yrs

Major Differences Between original story (OS) and movie (M):

1) OS-Snow White is 7 years old! M-she is 14

2) OS-Evil Queen tries to kill SW three separate times (choking her with corset ribbons, pricking her with a poisoned comb, and finally that fateful apple)

3) M-Huntsman tells SW to run away, but in OS, it was SW who had the idea to go into the woods and never come back4) OS-After SW eats the poisoned apple she "dies." Some time later, a prince hears of the princess and asks the dwarfs for her body and coffin. As they move the coffin, one end is dropped which dislodges the piece of apple from SW's s throat.

Now, in the M version, SW eats the apple and falls into a death-like sleep. The prince comes to pay his respects and kisses her. *Gross alert approaching* The prince doesn't know that love's first kiss will break the spell (he and SW had a love-at-first-sight moment in the castle courtyard), and he kisses her anyway. He just kissed a dead girl! I give you leave to take a hot shower now.5) M-Evil Queen falls to her death. OS-Evil Queen is fairest in the land for a time. The magic mirror tells her that the new queen is now the fairest. Evil Queen goes to the castle for the marriage celebration and check out the new queen. She is obviously horrified to see SW alive and fair. As punishment for attempted murder, the prince order Evil Queen into a pair of red hot iron shoes to dance in until she drops dead. Sucks to be her.

Moral of the Story/Social Implications:

Don't open the door for strangers (they might be a homicidal maniac)

Vanity will be your undoing   
 
Plastic surgery seems to grow more popular every year. Distorted body image not only plagues grown women, but affects girls as young as eight! More women should learn a lesson from the Evil Queen and find a way to love the body/skin/face they already have. I know, easy to say, hard to do. If we didn't feel like we were competing with other women, then perhaps the "mean girl syndrome" wouldn't be as prevalent. Becoming a slave to your vanity may cost you more than money. What is the price of a broken friendship, a mountain of debt, or your life?

Jealousy and the Mean Girl Syndrome  
  
Jealousy drove the Evil Queen to extremes. She tried to kill her stepdaughter several times, so she could be the most beautiful in the land. Unfortunately, not much has changed in society. Girls who feel threatened by other girls take drastic measures to ensure that their rival knows her place. Whatever happened to supporting each other and building meaningful relationships? When did we start beating each other down to get a guy's attention? I don't know either, but we need to tell our daughters/nieces/cousins/god- & granddaughters that jealousy (in small, minuscule amounts) can serve a purpose -- to make you work harder to achieve more.

Quotable Quotes:

"Snow White: There once was a princess and she fell in love
Sneezy: Was it hard to do?
Snow White: (laughs) No, it was very easy"
This made me pause. Yes, teenagers are stereotyped with falling in and out of love at the drop of hat. This quote only serves to support this notion and turns every new boyfriend into prince charming. However, what we can take away from this, is that while falling in love is "very easy," staying in love requires maturity, communication and a lot of hard work.

The dwarfs have just discovered SW and are watching her sleep. They're having a discussion about letting her stay.
Grumpy: She's a female and all females is poison. Females are full o' wicked wiles.

LOL! On some level this is so true. On another level, this is so funny!

Did you know?

Because Snow White was so successful, it gave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer the green light to film "The Wizard of Oz." You can thank Walt Disney for flying monkeys, thank you.

Poll results: Sleepy and Bashful tied as your favorite dwarf. Excellent choices.

Final Note:

I haven't been able to find much evidence supporting the idea of "love's first kiss." I'm inclined to believe that this is exclusive to the imagination of the man, Walt Disney. It really is his fault that young girls believe their first kiss is supposed to be this wonderful, fireworks-filled event. What kind of first kiss to going to live up to all that hype? 

An Exercise in Research & Reflection: Disney Royalty

As we embark on our journey on all things princess, let’s nibble on a few points to get the pondering juices flowing.


Fairytales are a subgenre of the traditional folktales that were verbally passed down through the generations. They date back to ancient Egypt!

Charles Perrault was the first person to record fairy tales, with the Brothers Grimm making fairy tales their own genre. In the late 17th century, Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term conte de fée, or fairy tale (en.wikipedia.org).

And there is no escape from these stories, like it or not. It would be like trying to cut out the gene that makes up the color of your eyes. Other than the commercial cash-cows that they have become, fairy tales do serve a purpose and we can’t dismiss the moral and magical influences they have on us.

These subliminal, and sometimes, blatant messages are more geared towards girls than boys. The ideas of the saving acts of prince charming, the transforming power of love, and the magic of that first kiss seem to wedge themselves between that desire to be the next great athlete, that selfless doctor, or mother of the year. I don’t think that most women really grow out of those romantic notions, no matter how old they admit to being. Take for example, the over-hyped process of finding the perfect wedding dress.

I’ve watched enough wedding shows to see how the salespeople go for the kill. “How do you feel about this dress? Does it make you feel like princess?” Aha! There it is. How could a starry-eyed, bride-to-be not want to drop a couple thousand dollars to become a princess for a day? It’s what she’s been dreaming about since she was a girl (and marketed to since she was two years old). Along with that is the fairy tale wedding at Cinderella’s castle and the brides makes her grand entrance by arriving via pumpkin coach. It’s no wonder the wedding industry makes a gazillion-million dollars every year (I’m estimating here). What kind of price tag does that magic come with? I suppose it depends on how deep your prince’s pockets are. And yes, we shall envy Kate Middleton, the commoner who gets to become a princess for real. Wonder how she really feels about that? Dream come true or nightmare in the wings?

Disney wised up to all this wedding hoo-ha and in 2010, debuted their Disney Fairytale Weddings Bridal Collection. This features dresses based on the personalities of six of the ten princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle. Now I was a girl who was obsessed with The Little Mermaid. Had this line been available when Eric and I were married, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have looked at a dress or two.

The thought of being a princess involved in a romantic love story with a handsome prince is what sells romance novels. On the extreme side of royalty spectrum, there are woman who are treated all their lives as little princesses and expect the world to do the same. Has anyone ever seen an episode of Bridezillas? Case in point. While I never want to raise or be around a spoiled, self-centered, brat, pretending to be a princess for a few hours will not hurt anyone. My cousins and I made- believe we were Autobots, and we turned out ok.

Peggy Orenstein, an author and contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, had a different idea on the subject. In her article, What’s Wrong with Cinderella, she voices her concern over the negative influence that the Disney royals have on the psychological development on young girls. While she highlights some great points, I feel that ultimately it is the parents’ responsibility to keep things in check.

Now onto your official disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in the analysis of the “Big 10,” are merely the musings of one writer. They are meant to dig a little deeper into some ideas that are grossly glossed over or otherwise dismissed completely. And provide a little humor on the side. Comments are encouraged and I will answer back in the comments area, so check back if you post a question. Certainly we can have a discussion and still be friends afterwards.

Now onto our first born princess: Snow White.