A new take on the Snow White fairy
tales came out in the theaters today: Mirror Mirror. So far
film critics seem a little disappointed with the movie. The acting isnot that great and director Tarsem Singh's style does not do justiceto the traditional fairy tale. The main interest of the movie is that
it offers an original spin on the old fairy tale: the queen is
telling the story and turns Snow White into the evil one. The
audience is disappointed because everyone wants an evil queen: this
is what Snow White is all about. We are supposed to identify with the
beautiful young woman who is tyrannized by her jealous stepmother,
whether we are watching the candy-coated Disney version or reading
the original gritty story.
Why isn't this movie working? Because
there is not only stories to tell, but a way of telling them. Snow
White is a cultural landmark because we can relate to the story. From a psychoanalytical point of view, Snow White reflects mother-daughter
relationships and coming of age, things we all know about even if we
have no extensive knowledge of psychoanalysis. Disney turned Snow
White into a 'princess', a character little girls want to identify
with. I agree that the Disney version is filled with old-fashioned
and patriarchal values I would not want to expose a child to, but I
cannot deny it is a cultural landmark.
Mirror Mirror fails because it
approaches a myth from an unfamiliar angle. We care about Snow White
because we know the story and relate to it on different levels: it is
a part of our childhood memories, of bonding with our own children
and we probably relate to it on an unconscious level too. This new
version is not a recognizable myth and does not have an audience
because Snow White is not something we want a new take on, it is a
myth that needs to be left untouched to conserve its a meaning, both
on a personal and cultural level.
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