Once Upon A Time

By: thursday

A list in progress of fairy tale films. These films are fairy tale adaptations or retellings. Currently looking at the european fairy tale canon with some others thrown in. Films in italics are not on mubi.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Freeway

There was once a woman who had some bread, and she said to her daughter: “Take this hot loaf and a bottle of milk to your granny.” The little girl set off. At the crossroads she met a bzou.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m talking a hot loaf of bread and a bottle of milk to my granny’s.”
“Which path are you taking,” said the bzou, “the path of needles or the path of pins?”
“The path of needles,” said the little girl.
“Well then, I’ll take the path of pins.”
The little girl amused herself picking up needles. Meanwhile the bzou arrived at her grandmother’s, killed her, put some of her flesh in the pantry and a bottle of her blood on the shelf. The girl arrived and knocked at the door.
“Push the door,” said the bzou. ”It’s closed with a wet straw.”
“Hello, Granny; I’m bringing you a hot loaf and a bottle of milk.”
“Put them in the pantry. Eat the meat that’s there, and drink the bottle of wine on the shelf.”
As she ate, a little cat said: “She is slut who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of her granny!”
“Undress, my child,” said the bzou, “and come to bed beside me.”
“Where should I put my apron?”
“Throw it on the fire, my child; you won’t be needing it anymore.”
And she asks where to put the other garments, the bodice, the dress, the skirt, and the stockings, and each time the wolf replied:
“Throw them in the fire, my child. You won’t be needing them anymore.”
“Oh, Granny, how hairy you are!”
“It’s to keep me warmer, my child.”
“Oh, Granny, those long nails you have!”
“To scratch me better, my child.”
“Oh, Granny, what big shoulders you have!”
“All the better to carry firewood, my child.”
“Oh, Granny, what big ears you have!”
“All the better to hear with, my child.”
“Oh, Granny, what a big mouth you have!”
“All the better to eat you with, my child!”
“Oh, Granny, I need to go badly! Let me go outside.”
“Do it in the bed, my child.”
“No, Granny, I want to go outside.”
“All right, but don’t stay long.”
The bzou tied a woolen string to her foot and let her go out, and when the little girl was outside she tied the end of the string to a big plum tree in the yard. The bzou became impatient and said: “Are you making a load out there? Are you shitting a load?”
When he realized that no one answered him, he jumped out of bed and saw that the little girl had escaped. He followed her, but he arrived at her house just at the moment she was safely inside.
– "The Grandmother’s Tale”, translated by Catherine Orenstein from an oral folktale collected around 1885

1931 Dizzy Red Riding Hood
1934 The Big Bad Wolf
1943 Red Hot Riding Hood
1944 Little Red Riding Rabbit
1949 Little Rural Riding Hood
1984 The Company of Wolves
1990 Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood
1996 Freeway
1997 Little Red Riding Hood
2005 Hard Candy

BLUEBEARD

Having come to the closet door, she made a stop for some time, thinking about her husband’s orders, and considering what unhappiness might attend her if she was disobedient; but the temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it. She then took the little key, and opened it, trembling. At first she could not see anything plainly, because the windows were shut. After some moments she began to perceive that the floor was all covered over with clotted blood, on which lay the bodies of several dead women, ranged against the walls.
– “Bluebeard” by Charles Perrault

1901 Bluebeard
1938 Bluebeard
1938 Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
1944 Bluebeard
1947 Monsieur Verdoux
1949 Bye, Bye Bluebeard
1979 Very Blue Beard
1993 The Piano
1996 Bluebeard’s Last Wife
2009 Bluebeard

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

1946 Beauty and the Beast
1952 The Little Red Flower
1977 The Scarlet Flower
1978 Beauty and the Beast
1990 Edward Scissorhands
1991 Beauty and the Beast
2001 No Such Thing
2006 Penelope

1946 Beauty and the Beast

1978 Beauty and the Beast

CINDERELLA

When evening came Cinderella wanted to leave, and the prince tried to escort her, but she ran away from him so quickly that he could not follow her. The prince, however, had set a trap. He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch. When she ran down the stairs, her left slipper stuck in the pitch. The prince picked it up. It was small and dainty, and of pure gold. The next morning, he went with it to the man, and said to him, “No one shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe.” The two sisters were happy to hear this, for they had pretty feet. With her mother standing by, the older one took the shoe into her bedroom to try it on. She could not get her big toe into it, for the shoe was too small for her. Then her mother gave her a knife and said, “Cut off your toe. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot.” The girl cut off her toe, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince.
– “Cinderella” by The Brothers Grimm

1899 Cinderella
1922 Cinderella
1922 Cinderella (Aschenputtel)
1926 Ella Cinders
1928 The Patsy
1934 Poor Cinderella
1938 Cinderella Meets Fella
1947 Cinderella
1954 Cinderella
1954 Sabrina
1955 Daddy Long Legs
1957 Cinderella
1973 Three Wishes for Cinderella
1979 Cinderella
1998 Ever After

SLEEPING BEAUTY

1954 Sleeping Beauty
1959 Sleeping Beauty
1990 Briar Rose or the Sleeping Beauty
2007 Sleeping Betty

SNOW WHITE

One evening as they sat thus cosily together someone knocked at the door as though he desired admittance. The mother said: “Rose-red, open the door quickly; it must be some traveler seeking shelter.” Rose-red hastened to unbar the door, and thought she saw a poor man standing in the darkness outside; but it was no such thing, only a bear, who poked his thick black head through the door. Rose-red screamed aloud and sprang back in terror, the lamb began to bleat, the dove flapped its wings, and Snow-white ran and hid behind her mother’s bed. But the bear began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you. I am half frozen, and only wish to warm myself a little.
– “Snow White and Rose Red” by The Brothers Grimm

1933 Snow-White
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
1941 Ball of Fire
1951 The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
1954 Snow White and Rose Red
2012 Snow White and the Huntsman

HANSEL AND GRETEL

1932 Babes in the Woods
1955 Hansel and Gretel
1999 Criminal Lovers
2003 Grimm
2007 Hansel & Gretel

RUSALKA & THE LITTLE MERMAID

1968 The Little Mermaid
1976 The Little Mermaid
1984 Splash
1989 The Little Mermaid
1997 Mermaid/Rusalka
2007 Mermaid/Rusalka

1976 The Little Mermaid

2007 Rusalka

THE SNOW QUEEN

1957 The Snow Queen
2007 Blind

THE NIGHTINGALE

1923 Voice of the Nightingale
1949 The Emperor’s Nightingale

THE UGLY DUCKLING

1931 The Ugly Duckling
2010 The Ugly Duckling

THUMBELINA

1954 Thumbelina
1964 Thumbelina
1994 Thumbelina

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

1902 The Little Match Seller
1928 The Little Match Girl
1937 The Little Match Girl
2006 The Little Matchgirl

THE BARON MUNCHAUSEN

1911 The Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen
1943 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
1961 The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
1988 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

THE FROG KING

1954 The Frog Prince
1961 The Frog Prince
2009 The Princess and the Frog

PIED PIPER

1933 The Pied Piper
1972 The Pied Piper
1985 The Pied Piper of Hamelin
1997 The Sweet Hereafter

MUSICIANS OF BREMEN

1922 The Four Musicians of Bremen
1969 Town Musicians of Bremen

PINOCCHIO
1940 Pinocchio
1972 Pinocchio

BABA YAGA, VASILISSA THE BEAUTIFUL, KOSCHEI THE IMMORTAL/DEATHLESS, & OTHERS

But at evening she came all at once to the green lawn where the wretched little hut stood on its hens’ legs. The wall around the hut was made of human bones and on its top were skulls. There was a gate in the wall, whose hinges were the bones of human feet and whose locks were jaw-bones set with sharp teeth. The sight filled Vasilissa with horror and she stopped as still as a post buried in the ground.
– “Vasilissa the Beautiful”

1939 Vasilissa the Beautiful
1954 Frog the Princess
1956 Ilya Muromets
1964 Jack Frost
1966 The Tale of Tsar Saltan
1968 Through Fire, Water, and Brass Pipes
1973 The Golden Horns
2001 Spirited Away

1918 The Blue Bird
1946 The Tinderbox
1948 The Red Shoes
1955 The Steadfast Tin Soldier
1962 The Wild Swans
1970 Donkey Skin
1976 The Princess and the Pea
1990 The Juniper Tree
2010 Tangled

Further Reading:

Fairy Tales of the Silver Screen
The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films by Jack Zipes
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine Orenstein
Anthologizing Bluebeard
Baba Yaga in Film by James Graham