Colour Symbolism in Fairy Tale Film Adaptations. "Mirror Mirror" and "Snow White & the Huntsman"

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Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2, 0, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: Once upon a time - 200 years ago to be precise - two brothers put down a collection of previously orally bequeathed wondrous and fantastic stories that would continue to amaze children and adults all over the world. These so-called folktales or fairy tales with their simple stories, magical characters and educational morals fascinated people for hundreds of years. The stories written down by the brothers Grimm represent the sociohistoric and cultural context from their time. As the world changes old styles of oral storytelling give way to newer ones, particularly technologically advanced ways of narration: books, CDs, DVDs, video games, cinema, et cetera. Although there are numerous newer fantastic stories such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, the fairy tales' timeless themes like good versus evil, love, friendship, fear and bravery still reappear in contemporary narrative media. Today these fairy stories are still engaging for children, teenagers as well as adults. However, one may not find them very often being told in gloomy, fire-lit spinning rooms or read aloud at children's bedsides any more, but rather on a huge screen with surround sound, special visual effects in 3D and lots of popcorn and candy to nibble. One of the most popular of Grimms' folktales is S(ch)neewittchen (KHM 53), internationally known as Snow White, Snow Drop, Blanche-neige or Blanca Nieve. No doubt, Snow White is "die beliebteste, meistillustrierte, meist-verfilmte, aber auch vielfach parodierte und verkitschte Figur der Kinder- und Hausmärchen [der Gebrüder Grimm]". The tale of Little Snow White has been transformed into many media during the last 200 years, however, Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937 is supposedly THE classic feature-length animated fairy film par excellence. Since the film won a special Oscar and was one of the most successful films of the 1930s, it was a milestone in the career of the Disney studios and the genre of fairy tales as well. "Der Welterfolg dieses Filmes ist ungebrochen. Noch im Jahre 2001, 64 Jahre nach der Premiere und rechtzeitig zum 100. Geburtstag Walt Disneys, erlebte der Streifen ein Comeback als Video-Kasette für das Heimkino". (...)