Fairy Tales - And They Lived Happily Ever After Fairy Tales And They Lived Happily Ever After Fairy Tales When I named this website "And They Lived Happily Ever After" my intention was to show that marriage truly begins after the wedding. I also wanted the rosy, romantic images brought to mind by fairy tales to carry through into the realm of matrimony. But in choosing this name, I was aware that I might be implying a dislike of fairy tales, or a dissatisfaction with the way they end. This is not the case. I simply chose an image that most people can relate to: two people riding off into their unknown together, hoping for the best. But as I did more research on fairy tales themselves, I came across countless writers and psychologists who use fairy tales to describe disorders, like The Cinderella Complex and The Peter Pan Syndrome, and still more who lambaste these gentle tales as some sort of evil we spring on our children, an assault from which they never quite recover. Feminist publications in particular usually attack fairy tales for what they consider to be the sexist and beauty-focused treatment of women in these stories.

Some feminist writers pen tongue-in-cheek re-writes of classic tales to show what relationships are really like, what selfish jerks men are, how hardworking and hard-done-by women usually are, and how silly it is to even tell stories like these in the first place. Some approach this as a scholarly concern, claiming that these stories perpetuate the idea that women are only ideal when they're sleeping - Snow White and Sleeping Beauty - and that a woman's only position in the world is that of decoration for some power hungry man. I am not primarily concerned with whether a group of feminists find fault with value oriented stories of love and romance. My issue is whether fairy tales truly leave us dangling, so to speak, by ending abruptly after the wedding vows and saying nothing further of the couple's success. I suspected they did, as I mentioned in the opening page of this site, but I found it hard to believe that this was some sort of oversight or some attempt to leave readers confused. I wanted to know why we never learn how it is the happy couple stayed happy.

After reading through several of the most popular fairy tales, I determined why these stories only go as far as the wedding and no further, or end with the catch-all "and they lived happily ever after." It's because the whole story is set up to show us why marriage is their ultimate goal and that it is, frankly, a piece of cake compared to what they've just been through. Every popular heroine has tremendous strife to deal with: Cinderella lost her mother and then her father, and found herself exploited and abused by her step mother and sisters, eking out her existence among the ashes in her servants' scullery. Snow White was despised by a jealous old hag who wasn't content to simply banish the girl, she had to send someone out to cut her heart out. Sleeping Beauty was sedated by another such hag. Rapunzel was taken by an old witch as payment for a bunch of leafy vegetables, and locked up in a tower, alone, for her entire life, forbidden from enjoying love.

It seems to me that in each of these tales, as in real life, young, vibrant, attractive women have far more to fear from older, embittered, jealous women than they ever do from men...but I digress. The princes in each of these cases are also lonely men who long for a woman to love. The implication is that the burdens of their office are heavy, especially in the absence of a wise and wonderful queen with whom to rule. They pursue their dream woman relentlessly, even though they could have easily settled for someone else. They aren't concerned about her pedigree or family coat of arms; she can be a princess or a peasant, it makes no difference to the prince who wants to marry her. Cinderella's prince scours the countryside looking for her. Sleeping Beauty's prince hacks his way through a hundred years' worth of overgrowth at her castle just to get to her. And Rapunzel's love braves the wrath of the old witch and climbs precariously up Rapunzel's long hair.

The prince in Beauty and the Beast had to somehow convince a woman to fall in love with him in spite of his monstrous appearance, without being able to reveal that he was actually a prince, as did the frog whose true identity was hidden until that magical kiss. In every case, the couple faced almost insurmountable odds, often had to battle family prejudices and societal disdain, had to steal moments with each other with no assurances that they could ever marry, and, to top it all off, were often the victim of spells and supernatural curses meant to make them miserable. With these kinds of problems to deal with, settling into marriage in a nice cozy castle with the one you love safely your arms seems like a walk in the park. Or it should be. Another lesson we can learn from the simplistic happy endings of these tales is that once you've overcome hardship in your life, have the common sense to know when you've got it good, and celebrate it. So many people achieve every conceivable happiness in life, yet still need something to complain about. Never rich enough, never thin enough, never something enough, seems to be the mantra of our culture, when most of us are more comfortable, more loved, more well off than we think we are.

Fairy tales show us that when you've got it good, there's no excuse for complaining or moping or trying to find problems where none exist. The prince and princess do live happily ever after; they suffered enough before hand, they're definitely going to enjoy a life filled with love once they're lucky enough to find it. And even if real life is more complicated than fairy tales, I think it's worth remembering that these are largely stories for children, who have not yet developed the sophisticated cognitive abilittes we have. They need black and white, good versus evil, sorrow versus joy, in order to learn anything about life. Later they will learn about the gray areas, as we all do. Later they will learn that not all beautiful women are good and sweet and lovable, and that not all powerful men make good husbands. Later they will understand that happiness can be far more difficult to attain than we initially think. But we have to give them these archetypes to begin with, we must show them that struggling for love and happiness and good things is rewarding, and that a joyful life is possible if we pursue our values with integrity and morality.

We can't forget that for adults, the world's architecture is already built; we simply live within its walls and try not to complain about the design. Children are in the process of building their world, though, and need to see vaulted ceilings and bright, open windows if they're ever going to grow into happy adults. And looking back, it was probably those first fairy tales I read that gave me the idea of lifetime love and romance in the first place, and the vision I carried with me through to adulthood that it was indeed possible to live happily ever after. I'll gladly read fairy tales to my children if doing so will engender that same spirit of hope and promise in them. The Bible and Interpretation The Bible and Interpretation Jonah and Genre Readers who have misconstrued the genre of Jonah as history have therefore approached it with an erroneous set of expectations and have often tried to force it to fit their expectations. When it is discovered that the book does not fit those expectations, the tendency is often to blame the book, declaring it ï¿½untrueï¿½ and implying that it is somehow of less significance because it does not describe historical events.

From How to Read the Bible (Oxford University Press, 2005) Permission Granted from Oxford University Press By Steven McKenzie, August 2005 Genre and Expectation The key to understanding the message of Jonah is recognizing its genre. "Genre," borrowed from French, is a term used to refer to the type or category of a piece of literature. There are many literary genres. Broadly, there are fiction and non-fiction. But within each of those genres there are other genres or sub-genres. Novel, short story, and science fiction, for instance, are sub-genres of fiction. Biography, instruction manual, and catalogue are sub-genres of non-fiction. Each of these sub-genres in turn may have its own sub-genres. Autobiography, for example, is a sub-genre of biography. Genre categories are not firm or fixed but are fluid and flexible. Thus, a work might be both short story and science fiction. Also, the line between science and science fiction is not always clear. It is even possible to combine genres that seem mutually exclusive as in the case of science fiction or historical fiction.

Additionally, a literary work can incorporate different genres, just as the book of Jonah incorporates the psalm in chapter 2. In modern literature, a novel may include a poem or a letter from one of its characters to another, as occurs frequently in Alice Walkerï¿½s The Color Purple. Discernment of genre is an essential part of the process of communication between author and readers. It provides a literary "frame of reference" within which the reader interprets and makes use of a text. Misconstruing the genre of a piece of literature, therefore, can be disastrous. This is nicely illustrated by the movie Galaxy Quest. [1] In it, a science fiction television series about the cast and crew of a space ship is mistaken by aliens for history or journalism. The aliens draft the crew members, played by Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub, and others, to help them fight a real interplanetary war. The film illustrates how confused someone who read science fiction as history could become. Similarly, imagine the disaster that might ensue if a surgeon took an instruction manual as fiction, or a work of fiction as a medical guidebook? Such scenarios may seem farfetched.

Someone as educated as a surgeon would not likely mistake a work of fiction for an instruction manual or vice-versa, at least as long as that surgeon is reading literature from his or her own culture and time period. The potential for confusion increases when a reader confronts literature from an entirely different culture and timeï¿½such as the Bible. Despite the importance of determining a workï¿½s genre, there are no firm rules for doing so. Rarely does a literary work expressly identify its own genre. In fact, the idea of identifying genre as an important step in the study of texts is a relatively recent phenomenon, though ancient readers and authors were certainly aware that they were using or producing different kinds of texts and documents. Discernment of genre is something readers do subconsciously. It has been compared to speaking a language. It is an interpretive tool that is engrained within culture. People typically learn to speak a language without memorizing its grammatical rules. They "absorb" the language as they grow up in a culture. They can tell if someone makes a grammatical error or is not a native speaker even though they may not be able to describe the grammatical rule that has been broken.

People learn to speak their native language first, and then they learn the grammar. Similarly, people "automatically" recognize the genre of a work produced within their culture even if they cannot explain the process or "rules" by which recognition has occurred. It is an interpretive tool we possess for documents produced within our culture simply by virtue of having been raised in it. We apply it without thinking, without even being aware of what we are doing. Only when we encounter texts from a new genre or a culture with which we are unfamiliar do we become cognizant of the issue. Genre recognition, like learning a foreign language, is always harder for people outside of the culture of a work. But, just as a language has grammatical rules, so there are guidelines, or better, clues, for determining genre. Sometimes those clues come in the physical form of a literary work. Newspapers, magazines, and books are easily distinguished from one another, even when they are in an unfamiliar language. In the ancient world, there were inscriptions, royal decrees, letters, and other documents that might be distinguished by the way in which they were presented.

Unfortunately, such physical differences disappeared in the formation of collected works like the Bible, and readers must now rely on clues within the texts themselves in order to discern genres. Such clues typically come in the form of features in a text that signal its genre through the use of conventions established within a particular culture or readership. These clues often occur at the beginning or end of the text and lead the reader to certain expectations about its content. For modern American readers, the words "Dateline New York" indicate that they are reading a newspaper article, even if it does not appear in newsprint. The greeting "Dear Sir/Madam" is the typical beginning of a business letter, and we expect it to end with "Sincerely," or the like followed by a signature of some sort. Fairy tales commonly begin "Once upon a time" and end "They lived happily ever after." The creation of literature has always been, to at least some extent, a creative activity. Theoretically, an author could create a new genre that was unlike any work previously in existence. But if that were to happen, no reader would be able to recognize or understand it. Hence, authors vary or mix genres to creative ends, playing upon the knowledge and expectations of their readers.

A business letter that begins "Dear Sir/Madam" would hardly end with "All my love," unless it were part of some kind of publicity or advertising campaign. By the same token, a personal letter between (former) lovers that is written on letterhead rather than personal stationery and that ends, "Sincerely," instead of "Love," may be making a not-too-subtle point about the relationship. Similarly, a fairy tale that begins "Once upon a time" but ends without "They lived happily ever after" does not bode well for the relationship of the couple who are the subject of the story. These examples illustrate how a textï¿½s genre in and of itself may convey a message. The features of the texts just described do not match conventions that readers in those cultures would expect, or they mix features from different genres, or they mix genres in such a way as to make a point. The message is subtle to the extent that only readers who are intimately familiar with the usual genres and their features are able to pick up the changes. Authors can use genre just as effectively and creatively as they can word choice, sentence structure, allusion, and a host of other features of language and writing.

In so doing, an author plays upon the readerï¿½s expectations. This means that there is, by necessity, circularity or give and take between a textï¿½s genre and its content, to which readers must be sensitive. Just as one must properly discern a textï¿½s genre in order to understand it, at least in the way intended by its author, so it is also up to readers to recognize subtle variations in genre employed by an author if they are to profit fully from a text. Our previous treatment of Jonah illustrates the importance of the discernment of genre for interpretation of the Bible. As we have seen, Jonah, like many literary works, does not identify its genre but leaves it to the reader to discern. Still, the book gives significant clues about how it was meant to be read. Readers who have misconstrued the genre of Jonah as history have therefore approached it with an erroneous set of expectations and have often tried to force it to fit their expectations. When it is discovered that the book does not fit those expectations, the tendency is often to blame the book, declaring it "untrue" and implying that it is somehow of less significance because it does not describe historical events.

It is important to recognize, therefore, that the problem in the interpretation of Jonah does not lie with the book itself but with its readersï¿½readers, who fail to discern its genre from internal clues and thereby fail to appreciate its true nature and purpose. The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that Jonah is an ancient piece of literature from a foreign culture and written in a foreign language. This problem of failing to discern a bookï¿½s genre goes beyond Jonah to much of the literature in the Bible. Fortunately, biblical scholarship has long been aware of the importance of properly discerning a workï¿½s genre and has recently made crucial insights about various genres present in the Bible that allow for a more precise understanding of their nature. The treatment of Jonah earlier in this introduction was basically a form-critical one. We began with matters of Form or structure. Because we were interested in discerning the genre and purpose of the book as a whole, there was no question about its extent, i.e., where it began and where it ended.

We did have to consider the question of whether the psalm in Jonah 2 was an original part of the book and this involved form-critical issues, specifically having to do with the original setting of the psalm which appeared to be a poem of thanksgiving for rescue from near death that was adoptedï¿½not entirely appropriatelyï¿½for Jonahï¿½s predicament. While the extent of the book was not an issue, its beginning and ending proved to be extremely important form critically because of the uniqueness of each of the prophetic books. They indicated that there was something different about Jonah. An outline and survey of the bookï¿½s content further confirmed its uniqueness among the prophets as a narrative with a plot rather than a collection of oracles. The outline of the book alone led to the recognition that its plot revolves around the interaction between Jonah and the other characters in the story. Further examination of its contents showed that the interaction of God with Jonah is the focus of the book. On the basis of these form-critical observations, we were able to make a determination about Jonahï¿½s genre. Determination of the bookï¿½s genre is the key to its interpretation. It is not a historical narrative but a fictional story.

Biblical scholars generally characterize the book as a "novella." This is a kind of short story in which a series of episodes involving the same set of characters leads to a conclusion or resolution of a problem that has arisen. [2] Other examples of novellas in the Bible, to which Jonah might be compared, include the books of Esther and Ruth and the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. The unhistorical nature of certain details in Jonah, such as those concerning Nineveh, suggests that its setting was considerably removed from the eighth century when the story is set. A number of late linguistic features in the book indicate a date in the post-exilic period (around 400 bce). This date fits well with the themes of Yahwehï¿½s universal dominion and concern for all people, which surface in Jonah and which became especially pointed issues of debate in the post-exilic period. These matters loom large in other biblical books from this period, such as Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. Jonah was likely written to contribute to this theological debate.

Determining that Jonahï¿½s genre is not history frees us to examine the question of the storyï¿½s intent and purpose, which is the main objective of interpretation and the focus of our form-critical analysis of Jonah. Jonahï¿½s intent must be inferred from the bookï¿½s content, as there is no place in it that articulates the authorï¿½s purpose in writing. The many exaggerations and ridiculous elements in the story are good indications that the story was not intended to be read as a historical novel or biography. Rather, these features, along with the stereotypical nature of its characters (or caricatures) lead to the reasonable deduction that the story was intended as a satire or parody. The concluding interview between God and Jonah, especially the question with which the book ends, further indicates that its purpose was didacticï¿½Jonah was intended to serve as an object lesson, illustrating in bold relief the stupidity of the attitude that the author perceived in the bookï¿½s intended readership. The book of Jonah furnishes a paradigm example of the importance of identifying the genre of a piece of biblical literature for properly appreciating its intent and of form criticism as a tool for genre identification.

Each reader of a given text makes an assumption about the genre of that text. The reader then adjusts that assumption in the course of reading according to the signals in the text and the readerï¿½s familiarity with literary and cultural conventions. Since the book of Jonah does not expressly identify its genre, the assumption that it is history has no special claim to correctness or legitimacy at the outset. Its genre must be adduced from its content. The attempt to read Jonah as history gives priority to an assumption about its genre over its actual content. A historical reading ignores or struggles to explain the clear exaggerations, caricatures, and ridiculous features that are essential to the nature of the story as satirical fiction. Worst of all, the historical reading of Jonah is monolithic and runs the risk of missing the bookï¿½s richness. It misleads the reader into focusing on relatively insignificant detailsï¿½such as whether a man could live in a whale for three daysï¿½and missing its main pointï¿½the stupidity of bigotry.

Ironically, religiously conservative commentators who advocate the historical veracity of the story, [3] may actually cause problems for the faith of readers who observe features in the story that conflict with what they expect from a historical account. Recognition that the story is satirical allows the reader to perceive truth in its message about prejudice apart from the question of historical accuracy. Once Upon a Time - TV Tropes Once Upon a Time You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share — Philip Pullman For the book series, click here and for the ABC series, click here . Once upon a time there was a trope . This trope was a Stock Phrase and a very old one . In fact, according to Webster's, it goes back at least to 1380. It began almost every Fairy Tale there ever was. It was a very popular trope . In French it was il était une fois (Literally:"It was a time") and in German it was es war einmal, which literally meant "It was once." Sometimes it was translated as "Once there was" or "A long time ago," but most often, this trope was simply translated as " Once upon a time ." Other languages have translated it directly.

Russian fairy tales often start "Zhyl-byl...", that is, "Once there lived...". In Ireland it was " There was this man...." which comes from the Irish language " Bhí fear ann fadó...." (There was a man a long time ago...). Armenian folk tales would typically start with "There once was and was not", indicating that the story was fictional. Now, stories that began with " Once Upon a Time " often ended with "...and they all lived Happily Ever After ." But Once never got to the end of the stories — he always stayed at the beginning . And that is where he will always be. Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time... note there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TV Tropes . Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web.

And then the boy knew his parents were right — that by surfing TV Tropes , he had ruined his life in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TV Tropes , haunting the Trope Launch Pad , quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named Trope-tan . Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped Happily Ever After . Examples Sabrina "Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, some thirty miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate. The estate was very large indeed, and had many servants. There were gardeners to take care of the gardens, and a tree surgeon on a retainer. There was a boatman to take care of the boats: to put them in the water in the spring, and scrape their bottoms in the winter. There were specialists to take care of the grounds: the outdoor tennis court and the indoor tennis court, the outdoor swimming pool and the indoor swimming pool.

And there was a man of no particular title who took care of the small pool in the garden for a goldfish named George. Also on the estate there was a chauffeur by the name of Fairchild who had been imported from England years ago together with a new Rolls-Royce. Fairchild was a fine chauffeur of considerable polish, like the eight cars in his care, and he had a daughter by the name of Sabrina. It was the eve of the annual six-meter yacht races, and as had been traditional on Long Island for the past thirty years, the Larrabees were giving a party. It never rained on the night of the Larrabee party. The Larrabees wouldn't have stood for it. There were four Larrabees in all - father, mother, and two sons. Maude and Oliver Larrabee were married in nineteen hundred and six, and among their many wedding presents was the town house in New York and this estate for weekends. The town house has since been converted into Saks Fifth Avenue. Linus Larrabee, the elder son, graduated from Yale, where his classmates voted him The Man Most Likely To Leave His Alma Mater Fifty Million Dollars.

His brother, David, went through several of the best eastern colleges for short periods of time, and through several marriages for even shorter periods of time. He is now a successful six-goal polo player and is listed on Linus's tax return as a six hundred dollar deduction. Life was pleasant among the Larrabees, for this was as close to heaven as one could get on Long Island." The remake uses this phrase in both the opening and closing narrations. "Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, not far from New York, there was a very, very large mansion-almost a castle-where there lived a family by the name of Larrabee. There were servants inside the mansion, and servants outside the mansion. Boatmen to tend the boats, and six crews of gardeners-two for the solarium, the rest for the grounds, and a tree surgeon on retainer. There were specialists for the indoor tennis courts, and the outdoor tennis courts, the outdoor swimming pool, and the indoor swimming pool. And over the garage, there lived a chauffeur by the name of Fairchild, imported from England years ago, together with a Rolls-Royce, and a daughter named Sabrina.

Among other things, the Larrabees were noted for the parties they gave. Few people anymore give parties the way they did. It never rained on the night of a Larrabee party. The Larrabees wouldn't have stood for it. There was Maude Larrabee, who inherited the Larrabee Corporation when her husband died on the 13th hole at Pebble Beach. There was Linus, the older son, who graduated from Yale at 19, and took his mother and the company for a ride on the fiber-optic highway, and turned a hundred-million-dollar family business into some serious money. Linus was on the cover of Time. But most of all, there was David, the younger son, who was in and out of many schools and even more relationships. He was handsome and charming and funny and romantic. David did a Gap ad. Sabrina? She made him laugh." "Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, not far from New York, there was a very, very large mansion, almost a castle. And on this very large estate lived a small girl. And life was pleasant there and very, very simple.

But, then one day, the girl grew up and went beyond the walls of the grounds and found the world." Literature And ducks said, "Quack quack quack-o" Live-Action TV Bewitched "I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha (#1.1)" Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a typical American girl, who happened to bump into a typical red blooded American boy. And she bumped into him, and bumped into him. So, they decided they'd better sit down and talk this over before they had an accident. They became good friends. They found they had a lot of interests in common. Radio. Television. Trains. And when the boy found the girl attractive, desirable, irresistible, he did what any red-blooded American boy would do: He asked her to marry him. They had a typical wedding. Went on a typical honeymoon, in a typical bridal suite. Except, it so happens that this girl is a witch. Blackadder : In the third season, Baldrick reads the story he wrote: "Once upon a time, there was a happy sausage named Baldrick. And he lived happily ever after. The end." Buffy the Vampire Slayer .

While playing with their Cute Kitten , Tara tells her lover Willow a story of a stray kitten who was placed with a bunch of other strange animals in the pound and eventually adopted by a nice family . Music The Small Faces, "Happiness Stan Suite". Stanley Unwin: Are you all seaty comftibold two-square on your botty? Then I'll begin. (Song: "Happiness Stan") Now, of courst, like all real-life experience story, this also begins once upolly tie-toe... Total Eclipse of the Heart: Once upon a time I was falling in love But now I'm only falling apart There's nothing I can do A total eclipse of the heart. The James Taylor song "Our Town," used in the movie Cars , begins Long ago, but not so very long ago, The world was different, oh yes it was... Billy Joel 's "Falling of the Rain" begins: Once upon a time in the land of misty satin dreams There stood a house and a man who painted nature scenes... Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a coolibah tree...

Taylor Swift 's "Forever and Always", a bitter break-up song, begins with: 'Once upon a time', I believe it was a Tuesday when I caught your eye... Poetry Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary... Also from Poe, "Annabel Lee" It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; Puppet Shows Bear in the Big Blue House had a song titled this. "Once upon a time / That's the way the story goes / Now where it's gonna end up / No one knows." Tabletop Games In Exalted , Koans and sutras associated with the Sidereals inevitably begin this way: "Once, there was a maiden..." Theatre Into the Woods opens with this line being spoken by the Narrator before the music starts. The second act begins similarly: Narrator: "Once upon a time— [music starts] —later..." The Opening Narration from The Solid Gold Cadillac: This is a fairy story—the story of Cinderella and the four ugly corporation directors .

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Cinderella went down to Wall Street, not in a gold coach drawn by six white horses, but in the I.R.T. subway. Call Me Madam has the song "Once Upon A Time Today." Video Games In BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger , Hakumen's arcade ending is a telling of how the story of the BlazBlue franchise began. Rachel:"Once upon a time, there was a Black Beast." Sniper: Here's a touching story. Once upon a time, you died and I lived happily ever after. Web Animation Zero Punctuation : Red Faction: Guerrilla Yahtzee: Once upon a time, a fresh-faced youngster saved up all his pennies and bought his first PS2, and with it he bought a game called Red Faction 1, and after rushing home to play he discovered that Red Faction 1 was not a very good game. Actually it was total shite on a crusty roll. Web Video Lindsay Ellis begins part two of the Loose Canon episode about The Phantom of the Opera like so: "Once upon a time, there was this brilliant, brilliant composer, not the best looking guy.

And one day, this beautiful, young, chestnut-haired, singing and dancing ingenue floats into his life, and he falls in love with her. And he decides, 'I'm gonna take you under my wing, and tutor you, and compose this incredible masterwork for you to star in.' And she was enthralled at first, but then, in the end, it didn't work out too well. I'm talking, of course, about the tragic, torid tale...of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sarah Brightman , during the creation of what would eventually become the longest-running Broadway show in musical theater history !" Sam & Mickey 's "Career Girl" has Barbie deliver a Career Day speech consisting of over 50 anecdotes with this template: "Once upon a time, I had a dream. A dream to be a/an (insert job here). So I studied hard, I bought the outfit, and eventually...I became a/an (job)." Webcomics The Ren & Stimpy Show : "Once upon a time, the sky grew black as blood.

" Most, if not all Fractured Fairy Tales begins with "Once upon a time." The Elmer Fudd/Daffy Duck outing "A Pest In The House" begins thusly: Once upon a time, there was a labor shortage... Samurai Jack : "Aku's Fairy Tales": "Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl, with a red riding cape and GREAT FLAAAAMING EYEBROWS! " Real Life Abraham Lincoln : Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. :: Indexes :: Walt Disney Synopsis Once upon a time… A widowed gentleman feels his beautiful daughter, Cinderella, needs a mothers care. He marries a lady from a good family with 2 daughters of her own who are Cinderella’s age, Anastasia and Drizella. Soon after, Father dies an ‘untimely death’. Stepmother’s true personality is revealed: horrible to Cinderella, she becomes the house servant. The brightness in Cinderella’s daily life is the animals around her. She talks with the birds constantly that assist her with her numerous tasks.

Cinderella is also friendly with a group of mice; particularly Jack and the clumsy Gus. The King is desperate for his son to get married as he wants to see his grandchildren grow up – so he announces a homecoming ball for the Prince in the hope that he will meet his future bride – Every eligible maiden is to attend. Stepmother announces the ball to her daughters. Cinderella hears this and is excited because she can go too. Step sisters mock her. Stepmother says that she may go if she gets all her jobs done and finds something suitable to wear. Cinderella plans to modify a dress of her mothers into a beautiful ball gown but has no time because of all the extra tasks she must do for her stepmother and sisters in preparation for the ball. The friendly mice transform Cinderella’s mothers dress into a beautiful ball gown by using materials they collect from around the house. Cinderella discovers the dress as her step sisters and mother are leaving. She catches up with them but is severely scolded for stealing their things to make a dress. They destroy the dress. A deeply upset Cinderella cries outside under a tree. A fairy godmother appears and offers to make her happy.

The fairy godmother transforms the following using her magic wand and the words “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”. - A pumpkin to a royal carriage. - 4 of the mice to grey horses - A grey horse to a driver - A dog to a coachman. - Cinderella’s ruined dress into a beautiful ball gown. Cinderella is warned that everything that has been transformed will return to its original form at midnight. Prince is besotted by Cinderella immediately. They dance, sing and walk together all night. Cinderella loses track of time – bells of midnight chime – she fleas the palace but loses a glass slipper in her haste. Prince does not know her name. Prince is determined to marry the beautiful girl and the King announces to his kingdom that the slipper is to be tried on by every maid in the kingdom. The lady whom it fits will be his sons royal bride. Cinderella is cheerful at this announcement and so sings whilst working around the house. Stepmother figures out why she is so happy and in a jealous rage locks Cinderella in her room.

While the step sisters try on the glass slipper, mice Jack and Gus pry the key from the step mothers pocket and free Cinderella with the help of all her animal friends. The slipper does not fit the step sisters. Cinderella is freed just in time. Stepmother trips the Grand Duke so that the glass slipper smashes before Cinderella can try it on. Cinderella produces the other glass slipper from her pocket and slips this on her foot – showing that she is to be the royal bride. Cinderella and the Prince marry immediately in the royal palace. They lived happily ever after. History and Tradition This animated version was produced by American Walt Disney (1901-1966). Charles Perrault is credited for the writing of this story along with 6 other authors who adapted and animated the story. It is thought that Cinderella was chosen for production because it resembled the ‘Snow White’ story, of which the film had been a huge success (Disney n.d.). Disney was struggling financially at the time Cinderella was made. All scenes featuring human characters were shot in live action before the animation process began to see if the scenes worked. They were deemed a success and production began.

Cinderella was one of the highest grossing films of the year upon its release at $4 million +. This Disney version has been re-released 8 times with the most recent being a digitally restored and remastered version released in 2005. Back to top Modified Elements Begins with ‘once upon a time’ and ends with ‘they lived happily ever after’ as is typical of Disney fairy tales. Several differences within the story. Cinderella’s fathers’ death is announced in the opening scenes. He is alive throughout the Perrault version but is controlled by his new wife. Stepsisters are named: Drizella and Anastasia. Inclusion of many animal characters (mice Gus and Jack, stepmothers cat Lucifer, birds and the dog Bruno) who play large roles in the story. Parallel story to that of Cinderella is the constant chase of the mice by Lucifer which adds a comedic element to the film. -They create a ball gown for Cinderella so that she can go to the ball. -They steal the key from the stepmother in order to free Cinderella from her room so that she is able to try on the glass slipper.

Stepmother is portrayed as extremely unattractive with a pointy chin and nose, which is not stated in Perrault’s version. All scenes that feature the stepmother are dark and have lots of shadows – symbolism of evil. The king holds the ball for one night only, not two as in Perrault’s version. There are 6 songs that are incorporated into the film, sung by characters. Each song is representative of the characters emotions at that time. Cinderella is allowed to go the ball if she completes the list of never ending jobs her step mother requests her to as opposed to not allowed to go at all in Perrault’s version. Some variation from Perrault’s version in the transformations that the fairy godmother makes. - 4 instead of 6 mice to horses. - A grey horse instead of a rat into a coachman. -Added element of a dog transformed into a driver. Disney gives the ending greater complexity, the stepmother locks Cinderella in her room so she is unable to try on the slipper. This creates great suspense for the viewer and presents the possibility that she may not live happily ever after.

Cinderella doesn’t actually try on the glass slipper as it is destroyed; instead she proves her identity by presenting the other glass slipper. Back to top Strengths and Weaknesses The film entertains viewers for 76 minutes as it contains much more detail than that of the Perrault version which varies between three and ten pages in length. The characters in Disney’s film cater for a wide audience; adults and children alike. Disney makes his characters accessible to viewers as we are able to ‘understand something of [their] personality, motivation [or] situation’ (Wood 1996: 30). A good example of this is Disney’s portrayal of Gus’s (the mouse) clumsy habits – which the audience can relate to as the audience is able to picture a real person who is similar to Gus. There is a lot of criticism of Disney’s adaptation of Perrault’s Cinderella. Zipes believes that Disney ‘robs the literary tale of its voice and changes its form and meaning’ (1999: 344).

This can be seen through the exaggeration of the stepsisters’ and stepmother’s unattractive physical features and poor child like behaviour, in comparison to the extent that these characters are perceived as having these traits in the Perrault version. The inclusion of additional minor characters such as Gus, Jaq, Lucifer, Bruno and the birds adds a comedic element to the film. The story of the adventurous mice and the hungry cat runs parallel to that of Cinderella’s quest to go to the ball. These additional characters ensure the story is continually ‘busy’ so that there is always something happening to hold the audience’s attention.

Question: What type of story begins "once upon a time" and ends "they lived happily ever after"?
Answer: Fairy tale