Encouraging children to believe in a fantasy that is unobtainable is what Disney has successfully done with the help of their fairytale movies. Altering the gruesomeness of blood soaked feet and empty eye sockets of Grimm, into a lighter hearted humorous version of Cinderella has changed the moral and what we are trying to teach our children. If Disney’s movies were made identical to Grimm’s versions would they still be as magical, would the movies still be geared for a younger audience? Has Disney taken away the true hardships and meaning of the classic fairytale by censoring the stories to fit their ideal mold? Children who have grown up with Disney have been given entertainment first and to believe in a fantasy world and where morals are no longer the focus. Children want to believe in characters and certain setting and events that occur and Tolkien makes a good claim at that by saying, “children are capable, of course, of literary belief, when the story-maker's art is good enough to produce it.”
The story of Cinderella is a tale of a girl that goes through abuse and is made to be a servant in her own home and given a new name in mockery of her suffering. Grimm made Cinderella’s mother present and an important factor in her personality by saying "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee." That line in itself shows the way society thought at that time and the type of message Grimm wanted to send. Disney gives god a character by making it a fairy god mother that is magical, making children desire and feel that they deserve immediate gratification regardless of their situation. To be able to portray having deceased parents and a wicked step-mother seem somewhat enjoyable Disney adds music and talking mice and gives the story a whimsical feel by really creating that fantasy land. If children were shown more often the Grimm version they wouldn’t feel as whimsical about the situation, children would not be able to understand the connection between the hardships Cinderella has to endure and the reward she is blessed with by stating true to her mother’s word. Grimm shows Cinderella staying sincere and kind and showing a devotion to God and her mother and that her kindness it not based on an empty hope that her dreams will come true. Cinderella’s circumstances are very unfortunate but she is still shown to be obedient by doing every task that comes her way, she endures the tedious task of picking out her peas and lentils over and over again. Everyone is visually appealing in the Grimm fairy tale but they make the hearts of the step sisters “vile and black” with doing that he is not putting emphasizes on physical beauty. If Disney were to take this approach in their version children wouldn’t be so fixated on their looks alone, they would worry more about the content of their character. With a less emphasizes on looks children would have better self-esteem and would judge people on who they are and not on their appearance. In both versions Cinderella is not sacrificing or making a mockery of herself when the prince searches for whose foot fits the shoe, both versions show that the step sisters would do anything for fame and fortune. Cinderella embodies hard work, obedience, hope, virtue, honesty and love, while her stepmother and sisters embody greed, lying, laziness, and stupidity. This is evident in Disney's Cinderella. In the Grimm brother's version, Cinderella is equally presented as a figure of virtue, while her stepsisters and stepmother are shown as willing to do anything to fit into the slipper. In the Grimm story the mother forces her daughters to endure pain in order to fit the slipper, by telling them “Cut the toe off; when thou art Queen thou wilt have no more need to go on foot." At a young age children would not understand why someone would be willing to endure so much pain it is also showing that even though you cannot walk that’s ok because everyone will cater to you now that you are powerful. Tolkien writes how Andrew Lang made a great point on the view of children versus adults on understanding certain situations, Lang stated “children's knowledge of the world is often so small that they cannot judge, off-hand and without help, between the fantastic, the strange (that is rare or remote facts), the nonsensical, and the merely “grown-up” (that is ordinary things of their parents' world, much of which still remains unexplored).” Here we come to believe that if this part of Grimms story was in the Disney version, children would feel it’s normal to harm yourself in order to gain. This is one time where Disney does a decent job at making the step sisters seem very foolish when trying to put on slipper and making the audience and children feel embarrassed for them and never wanting to be in their position by the way they make a mockery of themselves. Grimm’s story is more about vengeance, having stronger graphics and an emphasis on those who are wicked receive punishment for their actions. With their type of display in the story it would teach children that sever consequences come from being an ugly person. Consequences Grimm ends the story in by having pigeons peck out the stepsisters eyes “and thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.” The Grimm version provides an ending that is much more in tune with human emotion and much more realistic by not having the very end of the story be a happy ending. They still show a happy outcome for Cinderella by showing that if you are good and virtuous you can see your wishes come true. Disney chose to end the story by having her sisters beg for Cinderella’s forgiveness after they saw that the slipper fit her foot and she was the girl at the ball. After all the scrutiny her sister put her through it was great for Disney to show them apologize to her although it may have been for the wrong reasons. Apology goes a long way and teaching children to learn to apologize at a young age will keep them honest and true to themselves. Both versions have their own way of passing on morals and showing what it means to be a beautiful person inside. Children can believe in a higher power whether its god helping them or giving god a face by making it a fairy god mother but they know that only if they are “good and pious” their image of God will look over them. Grimm is very straight forward with his approach but still gives the whimsical feel with the pigeons, Disney keeps children in a fantasy world making it hard for them to come to terms with reality and not being able to have immediate gratification.

Works cited

Taylor, Margaret. "Cinderella: The Brothers Grimm."About.com Classic Literature. N.p., 1884. Web. 1 Apr 2012. .

Tolkien, J.R.R. "http://bjorn.kiev.ua/librae/Tolkien/Tolkien_On_Fairy_Stories.htm."On Fairie Stories. N.p., 1939. Web. 1 Apr 2012. .