The Fantastic and the Real: Fairy-Tale Films in the 21st Century: Greenhill, P. (2020). Reality, magic, and other lies: Fairy-tale film truths. Wayne State University Press.

Daniel Compora

doi:10.32798/dlk.889

Published: 2021-12-31

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2021)

The Fantastic and the Real: Fairy-Tale Films in the 21st Century

Daniel Compora

Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura

Section: Review articles

https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.889

Greenhill, P. (2020). Reality, magic, and other lies: Fairy-tale film truths. Wayne State University Press.

Abstract

This article provides a critical examination of Pauline Greenhill’s monograph, Reality, Magic, and Other Lies: Fairy-Tale Film Truths (2020) and situates it within her larger body of scholarship. The title reflects the contradictory nature of fairy tales, which often contain moral and social truths beneath their fictional surfaces. Though related to her previous work, this book represents a departure from her earlier collections. Here, she provides close readings of various films, employing a sophisticated and detailed analysis of film techniques, and supplying a relevant social commentary. She asserts that fairy-tale films are multi-layered works that do more than simply convey aesthetically pleasing imagery. She breaks downs scenes into minute details, and occasionally provides diagrams that allow readers to understand and visualise scenes of films that, perhaps, they have not even seen. While these characteristics are present in her previous works, here they coalesce to form a perspective that reflects in a detailed way Greenhill’s vision of fairy-tale films and situates it within the larger context of fairy-tale film studies.

Keywords:

adaptation, fairy tale, film, Pauline Greenhill, social commentary

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Compora, D. (2021). The Fantastic and the Real: Fairy-Tale Films in the 21st Century: Greenhill, P. (2020). Reality, magic, and other lies: Fairy-tale film truths. Wayne State University Press. Dzieciństwo. Literatura I Kultura, 3(2), 140–149. https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.889

Cited by / Share

References

Bacchilega, C. (2013). Fairy tales transformed? Twenty-first-century adaptations and the politics of wonder. Wayne State University Press.
Google Scholar

Bacchilega, C., & Rieder, J. (2010). Mixing it up: Generic complexity and gender ideology in early 21st-century fairy tale films (pp. 23–41). In: P. Greenhill & S. E. Matrix (Eds.), Fairy tale films: Visions of ambiguity. Utah State University Press.
Google Scholar

Cheng, S. (2016, August 18). Why white actors play Japanese characters in Kubo and the Two Strings. Buzzfeed. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.buzzfeed.com/susancheng/kubo-and-the-two-strings.
Google Scholar

Gettell, O. (2018, January 15). Stephen Colbert likens Trump to ‘racist Rumpelstiltskin.’ Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 8, 2021, from https://ew.com/tv/2018/01/15/colbert-trump-racist-rumpelstiltskin/.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2015a). The Snow Queen: Queer coding in male directors’ films. Marvels & Tales, 29(1), 110–134. https://doi.org/10.13110/marvelstales.29.1.0110.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2015b). The international fairy-tale filmography (IFTF). Marvels & Tales, 29(1), 137–139.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2016a). Fairy-tale films in Canada / Canadian fairy-tale films. In: J. Zipes, P. Greenhill, & K. Magnus-Johnston (Eds.), Fairy-tale films beyond Disney: International perspectives (pp. 246–316). Routledge.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2016b). Team Snow Queen: Feminist cinematic ‘misinterpretations’ of a fairy tale. Studies in European Cinema, 13(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411548.2016.1140491.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2019a). Camera obscura and zoetrope: Tarsem and magic/reality in transcultural fairy-tale film. Narrative Culture, 6(2), 119–139. https://doi.org/10.13110/narrcult.6.2.0119.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2019b). Sexes, sexualities, and gender in cinematic North and South American fairy tales: Transforming Cinderellas. In: A. Teverson (Ed.), The Fairy Tale World (pp. 248–259). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315108407.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P. (2020). Reality, magic, and other lies: Fairy-tale film truths. Wayne State University Press.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P., & Matrix, S. E. (Eds.). (2010). Fairy tale films: Visions of ambiguity. Utah State University Press.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P., & Kohm, S. (2013). Hoodwinked! and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade: Animated “Little Red Riding Hood” films and the Rashômon effect. Marvels & Tales, 27(1), 89–108. https://doi.org/10.13110/marvelstales.27.1.0089.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P., & Kohm, S. (2020). “Hansel and Gretel” films: Crimes, harms, and children. Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura, 2(1), 11–34. https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.350.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P., & Rudy, J. T. (Eds.). (2014). Channeling wonder: Fairy tales on television. Wayne State University Press.
Google Scholar

Greenhill, P., Rudy, J. T., Hammer, N., & Bosc, L. (Eds.). (2018). The Routledge companion to media and fairy-tale culture. Routledge.
Google Scholar

Hubner, L. (2018). Fairytale and gothic horror: Uncanny transformations in film. Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Hutcheon, L. (2006). A theory of adaptation (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Google Scholar

Kim, J. (2021, February 26). Model minority, still ‘other.’ Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://lareviewofbooks.org/short-takes/model-minority-still/.
Google Scholar

Poniewozik, J. (2018). The end of fairy tales? How Shrek and friends have changed children’s stories. In M. Hallett & B. Karasek (Eds.), Folk and fairy tales (5th ed., pp. 466–469). Broadview Press.
Google Scholar

Rudy, J. T., & Greenhill, P. (2020). Fairy-tale TV. Routledge.
Google Scholar

Short, S. (2014). Fairy tale and film: Old tales with a new spin. Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Turner, K., & Greenhill, P. (Eds.) (2012). Transgressive tales: Queering the Grimms. Wayne State University Press.
Google Scholar

von Franz, M.-L. (1982). Interpretation of fairy tales. Spring Publications.
Google Scholar

Zipes, J. (1996). Towards a theory of the fairy-tale film: The case of Pinocchio. Lion and the Unicorn, 20(1), 1–24.
Google Scholar

Zipes, J. (1997). Happily ever after: Fairy tales, children, and the culture industry. Routledge.
Google Scholar

Zipes, J. (2011). The enchanted screen: The unknown history of fairy-tale films. Routledge.
Google Scholar

Zipes, J., Greenhill, P., & Magnus-Johnston, K. (Eds.). (2015). Fairy-tale films beyond Disney: International perspectives. Routledge.
Google Scholar

Zipes J., Greenhill P., & Magnus-Johnston, K. (n.d.). The international fairy-tale filmography. Retrieved April 20, 2021, from http://iftf.uwinnipeg.ca.
Google Scholar

Daniel Compora

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0868-350X

Affiliation:

Uniwersytet w Toledo United States

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Daniel Compora – PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Toledo (USA). His research interests include folklore, popular culture, and distance learning. Contact: daniel.compora@utoledo.edu.