[Lella F. Smith is Creative Director of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library]
As long as man has possessed the gift of language, fairy tales and their close cousins legends, fables, myths, and folktales have served the indispensable function of transmitting intergenerational wisdom. Through oral storytelling such traditions emphasize fundamental values that resonate across cultural boundaries. The enduring strength of such communication derives from an inherent flexibility to adapt to time and place so that the core message is understood most effectively. Over the years, the primary audience might have changed, the storyline may have been altered, or certain elements thought unnecessarily gruesome may have been eliminated so as to better emphasize the story’s message, but the essence of the story has survived.
Change and adaptability have been essential characteristics of classic fairy tales as they have moved from their oral roots to written versions to cinematic revisions. Walt Disney felt it was possible to “translate the ancient fairy tale into its modern equivalent without losing the lovely patina and the flavor of its once-upona- time quality.” Although sometimes criticized for making revisions to “classic” fairy tales, Disney’s animated versions of these tales have kept the stories alive and relevant for recent generations of children. The Dreams Come True exhibition, running from November 15, 2009 through March 14, 2010 at the New Orleans Museum of Art, provides the visitor with an extraordinary opportunity to learn how classic fairy tales such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty were adapted from written form by the Walt Disney Studio in order to create a compelling version for the movie screen.
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