Legend (1985)
Adult Fairytale
Hugely underrated Ridley Scott film that was a box-office flop. Scott attempts to reconstruct the fairytale as something dark and primal and creates moments that are superlative cinema
Fairytales
In its simplest usage, a fairytale is a story for children. Most modern fairytales originated from the interpretations by The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and others like Charles Perrault, although all of these draw from earlier folk tales that have origins in oral tradition. It should also be noted that many of these, especially the Grimm Brothers originals, often have darker elements that are usually sanitised by modern child-friendly tellings.
Few fairytales actually feature Fairies. Most fairytales concern adolescents or innocents – children, orphans, princesses, while antagonists are figures like evil stepmothers or wicked witches. The story frequently requires a journey – often through The Woods – and the innocent undergoing peril to find rescue (often from a prince) and arrive at a place where they receive the gift of true love whereupon comes the refrain “… and they lived happily ever after.” The fantastic enters in the form of magic, talking animals and witches.
There have been a great many fairytale adaptations since the early days of cinema. For a time, Disney produced a series of classic animated versions and there have been a great many other works produced both animated and live-action, all drawing from classic and familiar tales. A number of these are musical and/or ballet interpretations.
There is also body of deconstructed fairytales where the elements of familiar stories are put to very different usages. The most common of these is seeing the fairytale updated into modern surroundings often with comical or less-than-innocent results, or of stories where Little Red Riding Hood encounters werewolves or Hansel and Gretel’s witch is a cannibal. Other versions posit the idea that characters from classic fairytales inhabit shared worlds.
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Fairy-Tale
Jean Cocteau makes one of the greatest of all fantasy films and the finest of all fairytale adaptations, elaborating the original story out with a visual magic that still manages to dazzle audiences today
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
The first full-length animated film ever made and the beginning of the Disney tradition. A superlative effort, full of an adorable anthropomorphism where Disney instinctively grasps all the elements of the formula
Melies Cinemagician (2011)
Compilation of Georges Melies Shorts
Melies Cinemagician is a special screening of a selection of films from Georges Melies presented by Vancouver’s Vancity Theater to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The show was a live performance involving a score composed especially for the event, displays of conjuring tricks and a magic lantern show. The same year also saw […]
Snow White (2009)
Fairy-Tale Ballet Adaptation
An amazing reinterpretation of the classical fairytale as modern ballet for adults. This does amazing things to reinvent the original and is visually extraordinary
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Little Red Riding Hood with Werewolves
In his first film, Neil Jordan adapts an Angela Carter story that retells Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf film that becomes a fascinating swim of fairytale and sexual allegory
EverAfter (1998)
Deconstructed Cinderella
Witty and very charming retelling of Cinderella that strips out all of the fantasy elements and substitutes a pseudo-historical realism. The cast positively shine.
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)
Modernised Hansel and Gretel/Juvenile Delinquent Drama
Matthew Bright’s even better sequel to Freeway where he conducts an outrageous and quite brilliant modernisation of Hansel and Gretel now recast with two juvenile delinquents on the run
Beauty and the Beast (2014)
Fairy-Tale
Adaptation of the fairytale that takes place in an exquisitely dreamy sumptuousness – a stunningly designed, costumed and photographed world that has a genuine magic. However, the motion-capture animated Beast looks far too much like a CGI effect
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
One of the finest of all Disney animated films, an adaptation of the fairytale made with the full artistic resources that studio could bring to bear
Otesanek (2000)
Wooden Log-Baby Monster/Gonzo Surrealism
Hilarious Jan Svankmajer film about a mother who decides to treat a log as a child. Full of blackly funny humour before transforming into a macabre monster movie
Shrek (2001)
Animation/Fairytale Spoof
Before this was spun out into a series of ho-hum sequels, the original was an animated film that burst with a freshness and a series of winning voice characterisations
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
The start of the 90s renaissance of Disney animation, a beautifully made adaptation of the fairytale that hearkens back to the Disney Golden Age. The only animated film nominated for an Academy Award Best Picture
Gretel & Hansel (2020)
Dark Adult Fairytale
Osgood Perkins emerges as a top director in this dark and extremely adult interpretation of the fairytale. There is nothing about this that can be viewed as a children’s tale any longer
The Beast (1975)
Erotic Fairy-Tale
An exquisitely dreamlike erotic fairytale from cult director Walerian Borowczyk, a variant on Beauty and the Beast involving the liaison between a girl and a beast.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Fairytale Romance/Swashbuckler
Swashbuckling fairytale that treads a fine line between deconstruction and parody, while reveling in a script where the dialogue positively dances. Perfectly cast – a film that few do not come out enjoying its ebullient fantasy
Princes and Princesses (1999)
Animated Fairytale Anthology
From Kirikou director Michel Ocelot, an anthology of animated fairytales that prove quite delightful
The Piper (2015)
Horror Version of The Pied Piper
A Korean retelling of the fairytale The Pied Piper of Hamelin that in mid-film suddenly morphs from a standard telling into an incredibly grim horror film. The results are really quite striking, not to mention pulled off with considerable assurance
The Red Shoes (1948)
Ballet Drama/Fairytale Magic Shoes
Sumptuous, beautifully made ballet fantasy from Michael Powell based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. A Technicolor spectacle at a time when most films were still made in black-and-white
The King and the Mockingbird (1980)
Animation/Fairytale
A classic French animated film that remained unseen for over thirty years. A fairytale about a cruel king and two lovers aided by a mockingbird, it emerges with an impressively epic sweep
Red Riding Hood (2011)
Adult Fairytale
Catherine Hardwcke’s adapts the fairytale as a dark adult fantasy where there has been the clear intention to pitch it to Twilight audiences but the results are surprisingly good
Freeway (1996)
Modernised Little Red Riding Hood/Juvenile Delinquent Drama
Matthew Bright’s extraordinary modernisation/trashing of Little Red Riding Hood who becomes Reese Witherspoon’s juvenile delinquent who goes hitchhiking and is targeted by serial killer Kiefer Sutherland
The Field Guide to Evil (2018)
Horror Anthology
From the producers of the ABCs of Death films, a further horror anthology where nine directors from around the world deliver eight episodes based on the folklore of their region
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
The beginning of the big Disney renaissance of the 1990s. An adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale that is conducted with an enormous degree of energy, colour and good cheer
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Modernised Hansel and Gretel
An early film from Francois Ozon, this offers a modernisation of Hansel and Gretel where the two are teenage lovers on the run before the story turns into a remarkable gay coming out parable
The Pied Piper (1972)
Fairytale Adaptation
The first dark adult fairytale. Before this, fairytales on film had been in the realm of Disney. This roots the familiar tale in an historical reality surrounded by the Black Death, The Inquisition and Anti-Semitism
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)
Adult Fairy-Tale
Beautifully made and very adult version of the fairytale, which seems determined to play up the terror aspect of the title, resulting in a work that seems a long way away from Disney
Woodenhead (2003)
Surrealist Fairytale
Strange surrealist New Zealand made film that emerges as a Brothers Grimm fairytale as directed by a David Lynch or a Guy Maddin
Belle (2021)
Anime/Beauty and the Beast in Virtual Reality
A beautiful anime from Momoru Hosoda that retells Beauty and the Beast and spins it in SF terms as tale about a girl who finds fame as a singer in Virtual Reality
Tale of Tales (2015)
Anthology of Fairytales
A trio of tales from the world’s oldest fairytale collection – but quite different to anything you expect … While there is all the magic, ogres and princesses, this is a beautifully lush film made for adults and less about simple homilies that about fate and its cruel twists
The Swan Princess (1994)
Animated Fairy-Tale
Nicely animated film from Richard Rich that tells the story of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in which a princess is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer
Maleficent, Mistress of Evil (2019)
Sleeping Beauty Continuation
Nobody much liked Maleficent but did make a reasonable amount of money, hence a sequel. The surprise is that in the hands of Norwegian director Joachim Rønning, it is far better than one expected
Meridian (1990)
Erotic Fairytale
A much better than usual film from Charles Band, an erotic fairytale in which Sherilyn Fenn becomes involved with a circusmaster and his twin brother who turns into a werewolf
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)
Grand Old Dame Thriller
From the great and overlooked Curtis Harrington, a Grand Old Dames film with Shelley Winters going mad in the Baby Jane vein. This also becomes a modernised retelling of Hansel and Gretel
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Disney Animation/Animal Transformation
One of the more enjoyable Disney animated films from the latter half of the 00s. Featuring Disney’s first Black heroine, this embraces its New Orleans setting and turns Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale on its head with enjoyable results
The Princess and the Goblin (1992)
Animation/Fairytale
Likeable animated fantasy made for young children
The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
Cinderella from the Ugly Stepsister’s Viewpoint
An adult and frequently horrific retelling of the Cinderella story from the Ugly Stepsister’s point-of-view
Hansel & Gretel (2013)
Fairytale Horror Adaptation
Amid the 2010s spate of fairytales rewritten as dark adult fantasies, this was a quite good mockbuster copy from The Asylum. From the director of Sharknado, this is Hansel and Gretel by way of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Beauty (2004)
Modernised Beauty and the Beast
A quite enjoyable attempt to modernise the story of Beauty and the Beast with Martin Clunes as a disfigured reclusive aristocrat and Sienna Guillory as a plumber who connects with him
The Ugly Duckling (2010)
Claymation/Fairytale
Charming Claymation animated adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale from Russia that manages to be a mordant satire on Communism into the bargain
Cinderella (2015)
Fairytale Adaptation
Live-action remake of the Disney animated film. This varies little from the well-worn elements of the story to the point of over-familiarity but director Kenneth Branagh manages a lush and beautifully staged effort
The Ugly Duckling (1997)
Animation/Fairy-Tale
Amiable British animated film for young children based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Fairy-Tale/Disney Live-Action Remake
This live-action remake of the Disney animated film is mounted with a lavishness. On the other hand, the romance at the centre never fully warms up, while the human characters have the show stolen from under by the cutlery and furnishings
Donkey Skin (1970)
Absurdist Fairytale
Eccentric French fairytale filled with appealingly absurdist and surreal touches and with visuals that remind of the extravagance of a Barbarella. Charming and visually engaging
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Anime/Japanese Fairytale
Studio Ghibli adaptation of a classic Japanese folktale from Hayao Hiyazaki’s mentor Isao Takahata. This is a slower, very different film than Hayao Miyazaki’s, the animation designed like a traditional Japanese woodprint. Never quite soars like Miyazaki’s films do but not without its charms
Cinderella’s Curse (2024)
Horror Version of Cinderella
From the people behind the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey films, a horror version of Cinderella. And yes, the glass slipper is used to stab people
Snow White (2001)
Fairy-Tale
Caroline Thompson, a regular Tim Burton scriptwriter, directs a uniquely revisionist version of the fairytale in which she digs in to explain the origins of many of the familiar aspects of the story
Snow White (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the better of Cannon Films cheap fairytale adaptations featuring a grandly over the top Diana Rigg as the Wicked Stepmother
Bluebeard (2009)
Fairytale Adaptation
Catherine Breillat, a director known for her full-on explorations of sexuality, takes on an adaptation of the French fairytale about a multiple wife murderer
Beastly (2011)
High-School Version of Beauty and the Beast
The interesting idea of the fairytale Beauty and the Beast retold in a modern high school setting. Despite itself, the film manages to wring a reasonable sincerity out of the premise
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1998)
Anime/Werewolf Anti-Terrorist Squad
A conceptually ambitious anime that builds a complex metaphor out of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf in a story centred around the self-doubting member of an anti-terrorist squad
Under the Rainbow (2013)
Romantic Comedy/Modernised Fairytales
No relation to the disastrous Chevy Chase film, a French romantic comedy that has modernised retellings of various fairytales wound into the plot, often being deflated or turned on their head
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The third animated film based on the popular girl’s doll Barbie. This places Barbie into Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake in an okay telling, if one that suffers from the usual limited animation of Mainframe’s early films
The Piper (2023)
Cursed Music
One of the last films made by Julian Sands before his death, this concerns a cursed musical score that ties back to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Sands plays an autocratic orchestra conductor
Barbie Presents Thumbelina (2009)
Animation/Barbie Fairytale
Another animated Barbie film, this appropriate the name of the Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale and makes it now about a fairy who preaches conservation. As these films go, this is one of the better made and comes with quite a degree of colour
The 10th Kingdom (2000)
Fairytale Parody Mini-Series
Hallmark mini-series set in a world 200 years after the classic fairytales have occurred, this wittily deflates or contrasts classic story elements with the present-day
Puss in Boots (2011)
Animation/Talking Cat Adventurer
Spinoff of the popular Antonio Banderas voiced character from the Shrek sequels, this is lightweight and amiable but can be quickly forgotten
Enchanted (2007)
Animated Fairytale Characters Enter the Real World
Disney film where an animated fairytale princess emerges into the real world to become Amy Adams. This becomes the opportunity to wittily puncture the unreal world of the Disney fairytale
Snow Queen (2002)
Fairy-Tale/Epic Quest
The Hallmark tv mini-series version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale is lushly produced but tends to plod when it should come to life as fantasy
Thumbelina (1994)
Animated Fairy-Tale
Animated film from Don Bluth, an insipid adaptation of the fairytale that eventually bogs down as a comic picaresque (*)
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
Brothers Grimm Anthology/Biopic
Anthology of Brothers Grimm stories from George Pal where the brothers are wound in as characters. The film’s effectiveness is killed by Pal pitching everything down at a mawkish and simple-minded level
Maleficent (2014)
Live-Action Prequel to Disney's Sleeping Beauty
Another in the early 2010s fad for fairytales rewritten as dark adult fantasy films – in this case, a version of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty told from the viewpoint of the witch
Sleeping Beauty (1987)
Fairytale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films in the 1980s. A dreary impoverished run through by the numbers with Morgan Fairchild as the Wicked Stepmother and Tahnee Welch in the title role
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Adult Fairytale Adaptation/Epic Fantasy
The second of 2012’s Snow White films after Mirror Mirror, this turns the fairytale into an epic fantasy. Well produced but ultimately a film that lacks anything unique nor pushes far enough into the dark fantasy it promises to be
Witchslayer Gretl (2012)
Faiirytale Adaptation
A low-budget film that prefigures the big-budget Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters in turning the fairytale brother and sister into witchslayers in a generic fantasy adventure plot
Snow White (2025)
Disney Live-Action Remake
The live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White comes surrounded by controversy on every side and served to make it a critical and box-office flop that left doubt over the future of the Disney remake industry
Mirror Mirror (2012)
Snow White Adaptation
Tarsem Singh makes a Snow White film. Tarsem’s sets, costumes and visuals are expectedly exquisite and extravagant but all is unwound by a campy, unserious approach
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Fairytale Adaptation
Big, no-expense-spared Disney production of the fairytale. The film is stunning to look at it in terms of design and costuming but has a simplicity that leaves little for adults to engage with
Once Upon a Crime (2023)
Fairytale Detective Story
A very strange Japanese-made blend of fairytale and detective story that takes place in the realm of fairytale where Little Red Riding Hood turns detective to solve a murder at Cinderella’s ball
The Sleeping Beauty (2010)
Fairytale
Catherine Breillat, a director usually known for tackling issues of female sexuality, adapts the classic fairytale in a muddled effort that singularly fails to fly either as fairytale or deconstruction
Red Riding Hood (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations that Cannon Films made during the 1980s
Sleeping Beauty (2014)
Fairytale Adventure/The Asylum Mockbuster
In the early 2010s, we had a series of fairytales rewritten as dark adult fantasies; The Asylum served up their own cheap copies – this was their version of Maleficent. Directed by actor Casper Van Dien, this not uninterestingly plays out as a fantasy adventure that follows the prince’s attempts to enter the castle
tom thumb (1958)
Miniature Boy/Fairy Tale
George Pal adapts the Brothers Grimm fairytale with Russ Tamblyn as a miniature youth amid colourful effects and extended slapstick scenes
Prince Charming (2000)
Fairytale Prince in the Modern Day
Fairly silly fairytale parody with a prince transformed into a frog trying to find a modern girl to give him the kiss of true love
Shrek the Third (2007)
Animation/Fairytale Spoof
The third of the Shrek films settles in with a formulaic blandness where the characters turn up more because everyone expects them to than the film finds much for them to do
Shrek 2 (2004)
Animation/Fairytale Spoof
Shrek was a fresh and original hit. The first of four insipid sequels, this seems to merely coast by on our liking of the characters while upping the fairytale parody
Tangled (2010)
Disney Animation/Rapunzel Adaptation
Disney fairytale Lite. The story of Rapunzel gets hiply modernised and is now no more than a cute adventure/romance about a handsome rogue and a girl who has magical hair. Eminently forgettable Disney animation.
The 7th Dwarf (2014)
Animation/Adventures of the Seven Dwarves
German animated film about the adventures of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves. Lightweight and trivial, this feels like it has come along ten years too late to the fad for fairytale parodies and mash-ups we had in the mid-2000s with films like Shrek and Hoodwinked!
The Slipper and the Rose (1976)
Cinderella Adaptation
A musical adaptation of Cinderella from the Sherman Brothers, behind the hit of Mary Poppins
Puss in Boots (1999)
Animation/Fairytale
An obscure animated version of the classic fairytale that comes with excruciating puns, much slapstick and has clearly been animated on a low budget
The Snow Queen (1995)
Animation/Fairy-Tale
Lightweight British animated adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale made for children
Rumpelstiltskin (1987)
Fairy-Tale
Another of Cannon Films cheaply made fairytales with Amy Irving starring in an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin
Jack and the Beanstalk (1997)
Animation/Fairytale
An adaptation of the fairytale from Martin Gates, a largely unknown British animator. This embellishes the traditional telling of the story considerably
Little Dead Rotting Hood (2016)
Little Red Riding Hood Resurrected as a Werewolf Hunter
This had me watched on the basis of the title alone. An Asylum production, this is less a twisted take on the fairytale than one that turns Little Red Riding Hood into a werewolf hunter
Cinderella Moon (2010)
Chinese Version of Cinderella
This claims to adapt a Chinese fairytale that was the basis for Cinderella. Nicely made but what you get is a cultural portrait with occasional Magical Realist elements more than anything like the traditional fairytale
Fun & Fancy Free (1947)
Disney Animation Anthology
One of the Disney animated portmanteaus of the 1940s featuring stories about a circus bear and a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk starring Donald, Mickey and Goofy
The Legend of Jack and Jill (2021)
Backwoods Brutality
From the people who made Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a film where the nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill somehow morphs into a variant on The Hills Have Eyes
Fantasia 2000 (1999)
Disney Animation and Music Anthology
Disney’s sequel to Fantasia comes weighted with a sense of its own self-importance – the first theatrical release of the new millennium. However, it fails to produce much that has the stature of the original
The Emperor’s New Clothes (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the shabby fairytales produced by Cannon Films. Here the clear and simple moral sting of the Hans Christian Andersen original disappears under buffoonish comedy
Disenchanted (2022)
Fairytale Characters in the Real World
Enchanted in which Amy Adams played an animated fairytale princess entering the real world was a reasonable hit. This is the long-planned sequel that reunites the principals but feels like a joke that belabours in the retelling
Deadtime Stories (1986)
Anthology of Horror Versions of Fairytales
Horror anthology with the novelty where all of the stories are horror versions of fairytales. Particularly amusing is the second episode, a modernised version of Little Red Riding Hood
The Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2016)
Horror Version of Sleeping Beauty
This offers the promising idea of Sleeping Beauty reworked as a horror film (and set in the modern day). Never as interesting as it sounds in synopsis, this becomes more a Sleeping Beauty-themed haunted house ride
Cinderfella (1960)
Sex-Reversed Cinderella Comedy
The popular fairytale has the sexes reversed and is reworked as a comedy vehicle for Jerry Lewis, although the upshot of this is that we get a Cinderella who is now a near-imbecilic Beverly Hills stepchild
Cinderella’s Revenge (2024)
Horror Version of Cinderella
A horror version of Cinderella where she gets to stab people with the glass slipper. This also features several modernisms where instead of a pumpkin coach, the fairy godmother conjures up Elon Musk to drive Cinderella to the ball in a Tesla
A Cinderella Story (2004)
Modernised Cinderella
A contemporary take on Cinderella that relocates the story to a modern high school with a downtrodden Hillary Duff trying to make it to the prom
Cinderella (1977)
Adult Fairytale
One of the earliest films from Charles Band who has since become a prolific producer/director of low-budget films. Here Band offers a very adult take on the Cinderella fairytale
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1995)
Modernised Fairy-Tale
A modernised version of the Goldilocks fairytale, which now comes with the addition of an environmentalist subplot and where the bears are made into an endangered species
Cinderella (1950)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
A Disney animated film whose classic stature has been overrated. The fairytale is too familiar to hold much interest, while the cutsie talking animals get to take over proceedings
Charlotte’s Song (2015)
Mermaid Horror Film
There is potential to the premise here – a dark horror riff of sorts on The Little Mermaid in a 1930s Depression era setting – but it is squandered by an unimaginative script and direction
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Fairy-Tale Authors' Adventures
Probably the least satisfying of Terry Gilliam’s films that turns the real-life fairytale authors into scam ghost hunters in an adventure. Purportedly the subject of behind the scenes troubles, the film never quite comes to life on screen