Subversive Film Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are ideal for film adaptations: set in fantastical landscapes, with larger-than-life characters. They are also a well-suited genre for subversion, with easily recognizable plots and conventions. So subversive fairy tales? Surely they are the most perfect film of all.

Well, it may not always be the case, but below are a selection of subversive fairy tale films: some bad, some good, some magical.

Pan’s Labyrinth (Dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006)

Set in a fascist Spain in 1944, an imaginative young girl Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) struggles with living with her new stepfather, a malicious and malevolent captain in the Spanish army. She escapes into a fantasy kingdom – a dream world inhabited by nightmarish creatures – where she must overcome three terrifying tasks to prove herself as a Princess. But it soon becomes clear that the fantasy-world is no less dangerous than the real world, and Ofelia has nowhere to turn for help.

In this spellbinding story, fantasy and reality are seamlessly blended to do what fantasy does best: deal with real-world issues on an allegorical level. Pan’s Labyrinth deservedly won Oscars in 2007 for art direction, cinematography and makeup. Del Toro’s fantasy world is brilliant, by turns brutal and beautiful.

Stardust (Dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2007)

In a small town called Wall, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) doesn’t know who his mother is, can’t impress the girl of his dreams, and can’t shake the feeling that there must be something beyond the wall that borders his small and sleepy town. Of course, this is something beyond the wall: a fairy kingdom. And when Tristan ventures beyond the wall to collect a piece of star, he finds instead a girl, Yvaine (Claire Danes) who he must protect from an evil witch (the delicious Michelle Pfeiffer) and an ambitious Prince (Mark Strong).

Stardust is subversive because it is witty: it takes the classic clichés and makes them fresh. A buccaneering sky-pirate (Robert De Niro) is, instead of hard-hearted, clearly homosexual. The hero is, for want of a better word, a wuss. He can barely swing his broadsword. And the heroine from the heavens (heaven forbid!) cusses.

Shrek (Dirs. Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, 2001)

After four decreasingly-quality films in this franchise, by now most viewers would recognize the loveable, ugly ogre Shrek (Mike Myers), his princess wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and the fast-talking smart-assed Donkey (Eddie Murphy). Not to mention the suave and spirited Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), and his killer “cute kitten” act. Although the third film was wholly lacking in magic, and the fourth a fairly lackluster affair – surely this fairy tale franchise is charmed, for films to keep being made – the first in the series was fantastic.

Shrek – while certainly not the first adult-appropriate kids film – helped push the genre along. It’s filled with subtle sexual innuendo, and clever twists on classic tales. The ensemble cast (including Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, the Gingerbread Man, the Three Blind Mice, and many many more) means the film is rife with opportunities to riff on fairy stories.

The Brothers Grimm (Dir. Terry Gilliam, 2005)

Poor Terry Gilliam. He just can’t catch a break. He just keeps on trying to make his dream subversive fairy tale film, and is thwarted at every turn along the crooked road. That’s a lot of turns. The Brothers Grimm, Tideland (below), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – all seemed to have such promise, and none have lived up to the expectations.

The Brothers Grimm gives us brothers Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger), who are traveling con-artists, using smoke and mirrors to fool people from small rural towns into believing they are plagued by demons and forces of darkness. The brothers then exercise their considerable talent, and exorcise the poltergeists and other supernatural problems – for a fee, of course. They’re hardly upstanding heroes: they prey on gullible gardeners and easy-to-fleece sheep-shearers. Of course, as skeptics, they soon come across a town that is inhabited by real evil, and must draw upon all their courage to battle the bad guys.

But as previously stated: poor Terry Gilliam. Despite some suitably gritty art direction, and fantastic sets and costuming, the plot is too long and over-drawn, and the script anything but enchanting.

Tideland (Dir. Terry Gilliam, 2005)

After a young girl’s (Jodelle Ferland) negligent drug-addicted parents overdose (her father is acted by Jeff Bridges), she falls into an eerie fantasy world. Much like Pan’s Labyrinth, Tideland attempts to blend themes from reality into fantasy – though it is a lot less successful. Featuring rotting corpses, human taxidermy, and pedophilia (involving a child and a mentally-challenged young man), Tideland also showcases a slow script and incomprehensible plotline.