In the Grimm's "Briar Rose," the thirteenth fairy is not invited because the king and queen posses only twelve plates. Of course, she comes anyway and is much offended by the lack of an invitation. She proceeds to exact her revenge by cursing the princess to die by pricking her finger on a spindle in her fifteenth year, and she promptly leaves the story, never to be heard from again. More aptly put, she has fulfilled her role as evil protagonist and now exits the story, having set the future conflict in motion.
In the Disney version, things are hardly this simple, and yet they are also simplified greatly. Disney has only four fairies, the three good fairies, and the one
who casts the curse. The last fairy
is more a witch than a fairy, being garbed fully in black and appearing and vanishing
in a thick cloud of green smoke. In addition, the is named. She is called Maleficent,
a name for a witch, if there ever was one. Here, it is not a matter of begin embarrassed
for lack of dishware that causes the omission of her invitation to the ceremony.
The king and queen did not invite her because she is an evil character. This is in
sharp contrast the (presumed) initial lack of alignment for the thirteenth fairy
in the Grimms' story, in which it is only outrage at being denied an invitation which
causes the fairy to follow the dark side, so to speak. Beyond this, Maleficent does
not leave the story once she has cast her evil spell. Indeed, once the princess (here
known both as "Briar Rose" and a birth name of "Aurora") reaches
the designated age, it is Maleficent who eventually coaxes her into touching the
spinning wheel so that the prophesy may come true. By making Maleficent an inherently
evil person, Disney sets up an evil for the audience to hate, and thus an easier
conflict to identify. Disney seems to consider this especially necessary in dealing
with young children. It makes all the sticky moral questions go away, and the children
can simply hate the witch. Even after this point, Maleficent's role is still not
complete, as I shall discuss this a little later in my discussion of the prince's
actions.In the old tale, the princess does prick her finger and she sleeps for exactly 100 years. It is at this time that a wandering prince is able to penetrate the thick thorn hedge which has grown around the princess and all in her castle, though many previous princes have tried and failed, dying on the horrible thorn hedge. The prince comes, as though he is fated to, indeed he is in this story, and awakens the princess from her slumber after the hedge parts for him easily. All that is required for him to do this is to kiss the princess.
In Disney's version, this is hardly the case. First of all, (as I will mention shortly) the prince is already in love with Briar Rose and thus has a more concrete motivation. He must fight his way through the thorns, hacking them to pieces valiantly with his sword. Upon surpassing this obstacle, he must then deal with the evil Fairy. She assumes the form of a horrible dragon (black and green, of course), and they do battle, whereupon the prince kills the dragon. This represents a considerably more significant effort on the part of the prince, as well as creating a sort of test to demonstrate that he is truly worthy of the princess. It also serves to put some action into a tale otherwise devoid of any violence, again appealing to youths who are used to action-packed cartoons.
Finally, in the Grimms' tale, Briar Rose never meets the prince prior to being awakened by him. Indeed, if she had not slept, she would have been dead long before the prince's birth. However, once the prince sees her, he kisses, she wakes up, and they are married immediately. Hardly the modern model of a cautious, mature relationship based on love and affection.
Again,
Disney makes things a good deal more complex and this results in a slightly convoluted
plot line. To begin with, the princess and the prince meet at least once before she
ever goes to sleep. While walking in the woods, she encounters him, and they dance,
all the while the audience knows that they have met even once before, if only in
their dreams. This serves to create a more realistic basis for them to fall in love
and get married later on. Whereas in the Grimms', the princess served her full term
on sleep, a full 100 years, Disney has her sleep for only a short while (about a
day) before the prince comes to her rescue. The conflict with the original statement
of how long she must sleep is conveniently overlooked. After defeating Maleficent,
he awakens the princess and the kingdom, and the prince and princess are married.
Here, it is much easier to see the, as a couple which might get married, and much
easier for the child audience to wish for it to happen.The Grimms' and Walk Disney versions of sleeping beauty are extremely different versions of a ubiquitous tale found in many forms. Major differences added by Disney include the treatment of the uninvited fairy, the effort required on the part of the prince, and the development of the relationship between the princess and the prince. The changes serve primarily to make the tale more accessible to today's youngsters, making it more compelling and more appropriate, and thus more likely to be watched, at least one person (the one who made the following graphic) has even referred to it as...
