Hello everyone!
I'm ezilo25 and this is my very first article on this site! I wanted to do something special, and since I have read the Grimms Tale in German my whole life, I wanted to do a comparison of disney movie adaptations and the Tales of Grimm. So, let's get started! Oh, and excuse me if I do grammatical
mistakes, I'm french, so please forgive me!

Cinderella

Oh, Cinderelli... I adore the Disney character, I am passionate about the animation movie, but I am in love with Aschenputtel, the Grimms version of the Cinderella. Yes, I know, the movie is inspired by the Perrault version, which I also love, but since Aschenputtel influenced the making of the movie, I wanted to ad this one to the list, I thought it might interest you!
There are various differences between the two, the first one being the tone: indeed, Aschenputtel is such a cruel tale! First off, the father doesn’t die, he just treats poor Cindy just like the step family treats her: cruelly, completely denying her value. Plus, when the prince comes to seek the woman who lost the shoe, the father initially doesn't want to let his daughter try the shoe on, stating, after he is asked whether there are other ladies in the house, that there is “only another little shriveled Cinderella” left in this house.
Furthermore, she doesn't have a fairy godmother: she plants a tree on her mother's grave with a seed her father brought back from his traveling, and she cries so much over the death of her mother that she waters the plant and a tree grows. Occasionally, a bird sets on a branch and grants her a wish. I've always imagined that it was the ghost of the mother.

The Grimms tale is also longer and more repetitive, since they are three consecutive ball nights, and every time the prince only dances with Cinderella. It can also be noted that the Grimms tale focuses rather on the maidens connection to birds, rather than mice, since they help her sort out the lentils from the ashes.



Oh, I didn't mention? The stepmother punishes Cinderella by pouring ashes and lentils in a bowl, and asking her to sort them out and the birds help her in that task.



A very important difference is also that the Prince comes to seek the woman he fell in love with, unlike in the movie, which is quite important, since it's a reproach that is often made to Prince Charming. Generally, he is more determined than in the movie, since he also covered the stairs to the castle with something called “Pech”, that I can't translate, it's some kind of kind of sticky mud...
He does that so Cinderella won't escape, because, during the three nights, she first escapes by hiding in a large birdhouse, that the prince later has cut down, finding however the maiden has escaped, and the almost exact same thing happens the next night, Cinderella finding refuge in a pear tree, and escaping before the tree is chopped down.
Now, you might have heard that in the tale the sisters cut off bits of their feet to make them fit into the shoe, and that is true: one of the sisters cuts her big toe, and the other a part of her heel; both encouraged by their mother, who explains that once they are queens, they won't have to walk. And their feet fit, the Prince takes first the elder one on his horse, but he has to pass the tree over Cinderella's mother's grave, and the bird sings: “Ruke di look, rucke di look, blood is in the shoe: the shoe is too small, the real bride is still home” (It rimes in German), he takes the elder home, the youngest cuts her heel, the shoe fits, the Prince takes her on his horse, and they pass the tree, and the same thing happens again. But when Aschenputtel tries on the shoe, not only does it fit, but the Prince recognizes her, he takes her on his horse, and I will finish this Cinderella part by the song the birds sing as they see her pass with the Prince:
“Rucke di look, rucke di look,
No blood in the shoe
The shoe is not too small,
The real bride, he brings home.”



That was all for today, next article will come out soon, I'm not sure exactly when... I will be handling “The Princess and the Frog”, or “Sleeping beauty” or “Tangled”, tell me which one you would prefer. I would like to do “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, but I haven't seen it in ages, so I don't remember a lot of it... Could you please tell me if this article was too long, I'm sorry, I'm just so passionate about the Grimms Tales!

See you soon, au revoir!
ezilo2505