Reflections Essay on a Fairytale Film

Introduction of Examining the Fairytale

            There have been so many English language films, which were based on fairytales. It is up to the choice and idea of a film crew to carry out a fairytale in a film to give the audience a totally different view of facts or provide them a new kind of entertainment. In any case, making a film on a fairytale is an interesting option to choose, but it is also an exciting option in so many ways. A reader may not get the great feel of the fairytale story when it is read from a book or novel, but when they see it on a big screen, they can relate characters and situations in a better manner. In this analysis, the fairytale based film, which going to be analyzed is “The Princess Bride” The film was released in 1987. The film is based on a fairytale described in a 1973 novel “The Princess Bride”. So, the name of the film was not changed to keep it real for the audience, who were going to watch the film (Short)

Examining the Fairytale

In this film, the fairytale is framed in a way that there is a sick boy, and this story is being told to him. There is one thing quite common in the majority of fairytales, and that is there sincerity and sweetness. These elements are critical for any fairytale. It is important for any film, when a fairytale is being shown to the audience, then they have to come up with characters, which can relate to the original characters of the novel. If characters selected in the film are quite different from the characters of the original story, then there will be a mismatch, and it is less likely for an audience to get a feeling of the story. But when this fairytale was rewritten with some elements in this film, it also had cast, which very much related to the original characters. The princesses were said to be a beautiful girl, and the film had used a female character, which was beautiful so that the beauty of the princess can be made relevant to the princess, which was described in the novel. It is always an important question that when the story is rewritten and it is shown on the big screen, then it has the content to see for everyone. The story had minor violent parts, but those parts are not that violent, where one may that such film should not be exposed to children (Maslin)

It is also vital to keep in mind for the producers of the film, who work on a fairytale kind of story that they have made good preparation of ideas and involved thought process so that fairytale looks even better on the big screen. This was the case with “The Princess Bride” that its producers made a great effort to rewrite this story in this film. That’s why, when some better and well-praised fantasy and fairytales films are analyzed, “The Princess Bride” is able to take its place in this list. The fairytale film comes under the fantasy genre of movies, and when things are being fantasized, it is vital to give them a real feeling so that people can connect and relate with the story. One cannot come up with a story, which is too hard to believe as it is far away from the essence of reality. Goldman came up with a wonderful story, which had so much in it to be framed for the cinema, and that’s why, it was decided that a film would be a good option to elaborate this story with broader perspectives, which care hard to be written in a novel. The other good thing about the film was its framing so that audience also has something in their back of mind that it is just a fairytale, which is being told to a sick boy, by his grandfather. So, if they feel anything unreal, they can think that it is just another fairytale (Crow)

The fairytale of this story was rewritten in the best possible manner, which made it one of the best in the all-time list. The story had so much in it for the audience to cherish. The other great part of this story in the film is its capacity to educate children about different themes. The children can learn about various ideas in this rewritten story in the film. There had been so many situations, where the idea of being polite was beautifully propagated. There were so many difficult and hard situations, but still, it was shown that one can still be polite even in those toughest of the situations. It is a great lesson for every child to learn that being polite is a state of mind, and one should act upon it by keeping his/her values in context, rather than getting carried away from the difficult situations. The other great lesson in this rewritten fairytale is that people should always remain brave, and brave people should be given the opportunity to lead as they can create opportunities even in the most difficult circumstances (Mills)

It is also vital to see some of the differences, which were evident in the rewritten fairytale as compared to the original ideas explained in the novel. One thing that should be noticed that the overall theme of the story is similar to the theme presented in the novel, but there were minor changes in the rewritten story. One major thing evident in the film is that several characters of the novel were omitted from the story of the film. It was important to do so because it is hard to put all characters with a perspective in a film, which is restricted to show everything in two hours. However, when it comes to the ending of the story, the novel was not able to come up with a picture-perfect ending, but the film was managed in a way, that story ended with a picture-perfect scenario. It is vital to have a better continuation of the story, which leads to a better ending or perfect ending because people like to have such kind of ending on the big screen. It was true that various changes were made in the film, but still the original story and theme was kept intact to keep it as real as possible (RAMELLA)

Conclusion of Examining the Fairytale

After analyzing both the novel and film with different perspectives, it can be said that the fairytale was rewritten in the film, but this was rewritten in a way that original source was kept connected in the majority of parts. It is critical to understand that when a fairytale or even any other story taken from a novel or book, it should have come elements, which can comply with the requirements of the big screen. So, few minor changes were made in the overall story, the however overall theme remained the same. The ending of the story in the film was rewritten with a perfect kind of ending as compared to the end described in the novel.

Works Cited of Examining the Fairytale

Crow, David . Why The Princess Bride Is a Perfect Fantasy Movie. 2019. 4 May 2020 <https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-princess-bride-perfect-fantasy-movie/>.

Maslin, Janet . Film: 'Princess Bride,' Full-Length Fairy Tale. 1987. 4 May 2020 <https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/25/movies/film-princess-bride-full-length-fairy-tale.html>.

Mills, Sarah . Best Fairy Tale Movies: The Princess Bride. 2015. 4 May 2020 <https://www.learningliftoff.com/best-fairy-tale-movies-the-princess-bride/>.

RAMELLA, BRYNNE . The Princess Bride: Biggest Differences Between The Book And The Movie. 2020. 4 May 2020 <https://screenrant.com/princess-bride-book-movie-differences/>.

Short, S. . Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin. Springer, 2014.