Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Disney's "Donkeyskin": Coming to a Theater Near You?

Upon reviewing the blog posts of my fellow group members, it seems apparent that we agree Donkeyskin and Cinderella are closely related fairy tales. Simply put: the basic storyline formula is the same for both Donkeyskin and Cinderella. There are basic plot details that are altered for each story based on the origin and historical background, but that is to be expected. In fact, I would argue that Donkeyskin is closer to some historical versions of Cinderella than Walt Disney's watered down version is to the "originals" but that is an entirely different blog post all together.

As mentioned, both Donkeyskin and Cinderella share some very similar elements. Girl of unrivaled, yet hidden, beauty overcomes her guise of poor appearance caused by either a manipulative older woman or her sexually-assertive father (or both) with the aid of her overseeing (god)mother to marry a dashing prince and live happily ever after. Various parts were added or embellished based on the story teller in order to fit the audience, but the formula remained the same.

The other story I chose to read was the Donkeyskin-esque "Gold Teeth," an Italian version as told by Estella Canziani. In this version, a man is made to give a promise to his dying wife, who has gold teeth, that he will not remarry anyone that does not have gold teeth. For years, the widower lived alone with his daughter, desperate to remarry but unable to find another woman that satisfied the demands of the promise he made to his wife. That is until one day a "well-dressed gentleman" pointed out that such a woman lived in his very house (his daughter...surprise!). The daughter seeks the help of her godmother who suggests she ask for a series of extravagant dresses, to which the father obliges; the last dress of which is dirty gown made of flea skins (plot twist). In the end, the daughter runs away and lives in the disguise of an old lady wearing the flea skin gown, only to have a (somewhat abusive) prince eventually fall in love with and marry her.

Like Perrault's "Donkeyskin" and the Grimms' "Cinderella," "Gold Teeth" follows the same Cinderella fairy tale formula. Dispite the fact that these three stories where written in three different eras in three different regions around Europe, they all have too much in common not to be related. I will say that it could be argued that they are not the same stories entirely, but it is not logical to argue that they shouldn't be studied together. How Donkeyskin got lost in the flurry of Disney remakes is a mystery to me...

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