Why I Love Fairy Tales (+ Disney's "Paperman")

Check out the host website for the challenge at The Cheap Reader.

Today is the beginning of the month-long Project Fairy Tale!  My fairy tale pick was an English fairy tale called "Mr. Fox".  This was my introductory post on the Project, and for today I wanted to post a little bit about what I find so appealing about the fairy tale genre and post about the fairy tale next week.

Since I was young, I've loved reading fairy tales.  Probably there was a strong Disney influence at first, but with how varied and fantastical these short stories are, I found so much to savor about them with every re-read.  And as I grew up there were different things I appreciated about them.  First it was the happily-ever-after aspect that made me look at life very idealistically, and the humorous, romantic or scary scenarios that held my interest and kept me reading.  Later, it was the depth of the storytelling, the nuance, the sometimes cynical or violent aspects that I found intriguing.  I'm also intrigued with the intertextual influence of fairy tales on stories I read now, which is something Project Fairy Tale is going to help me examine as I read related adaptations or spin offs based on my target fairy tale.  I can also look at films and musical adaptations, although, there's not many that are related to my tale.

Fairy tales are just good, entertaining, richly insightful stories, that I like to think of as historical pop culture.  The memorable settings and well-known archetypal characters are vivid and immediate, and capture a truth about life and capture the imagination.  For this month, I look forward to examining and celebrating the wonder and magic of fairy tales!

And just to make sure everyone remembers how awesome Disney is, have you seen the short film "Paperman" that was released in front of Wreck-it Ralph in theaters?  What are you Disney?  The BEST?  OMG, so many feels! This film is so simple, yet vivid and immediate, and captures that beautiful, wistful side of romance.  A modern day fairy tale.  And now one of my favorite short films.