Note: this is just a list of personal favourite live-action fairy tale movies, not a list of “what are the objective best fairy tale movies”.
To make the list slightly organized and consistent, i setted up some basic rules:
1° They must have been theatrically released. Direct- to-Video or Made-for-TV releases, like the Hallmark Hall of Fame series, the Muppets Fairy Tale TV specials or Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, will not be counted here.
2°They must be adaptations of pre existing fairy tales, be they directly collected from oral tradition like the Brothers Grimm tales, or literary tales slightly inspired by elements of oral tradition, like the works of Andersen. Movie script original stories like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal or adaptations of fantasy novels like Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan and Pinocchio will not be on the list.
Now that the rules are set, let’s go onto the countdown.
10° Snow White and The Three Stooges (1961)
Got the tenth place on this list because of how much i love the found family dinamic developed between Snow White, the Prince and the Three Stooges (who got the role of the Seven Dwarfs)
09° Jak se budi princezny (1977)
Princess Ruzhenka is a very outspoken and charismatic encarnation of the princess Sleeping Beauty, and because of that her and the movie she stars in has winned my hearth.
08° The Glass Slipper (1955)
This is one of the early cinematic adaptations of the Cinderella tale that experimented with turning the supernatural elements more subtle, exploring a more grounded love story between the heroine and the Prince, wich would be a very influential aproach over later adaptations. The highlight are the performances of Leslie Caron as the strong tempered but vulnerable EllaandEstelle Winwood as the unconventionally wise Mrs. Toquet.
07° La Belle et la Bete (1946)
Probably the most historically influential fairy tale movie of all time, in his masterpiece Jean Cocteau tooked what was considered a simple morality tale about a woman preparing to marriage, and turned it into a study about the minds of two complex characters in search of deep connection and their place in the world
06° Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973)
The late Libuse Safrankova brought with her performance one of the most funny, adventurous energetic and sassy encarnations of Cinderella. This is her movie, where she gets to be a scrappy maid, a confident warrior, and am elegant damsel, all at once, and i forever will be glad of finding her.
05° The Scarlet Flower (1977)
This live action film adaptation of SergeyAksakov’s take on the ’Beast and Beauty’ type of story is very unique in its exploration of the russian countryside and its folklore, the plant inspired design of the Beast, and in its slow paced storytelling that invests more in the characters facial expressions and body language than in dialogue, all factors that have captivated me.
04° Zolushka (1947)
My number one favorite Cinderella live action movie. When i watch this movie and see the costume and set designs, the theatrical acting styles, the coloring work, the music, the small nods to other Perrault tales, i feel transported to my childhood, touched by how those artists joined together to bring one of my favourite storybooks to life with all emotional sincerity and no hint of irony.
03° Panna a Netvor (1978)
While Jean Cocteau set the stage for using the ’Beast and Beauty’ type of tale as the basis for a cinematic psychological character study, 1978’s Panna a Netvor went even deeper with the idea, choosing not to use any villain or external antagonistic force and instead completely centering the heroine and the Beast’s characters as they interact in the closed space of the old castle and talk about the fears they have of their own feelings. Both get equally developed in this beautifull coming of age gothic fairy tale.
02° Donkeyskin (1970)
A loving homage to the storytelling legacy of both Charles Perrault and Jean Cocteau, this movie is the combination of a Medieval Book of Hours with the 1970s Psychodelia, wich when mixed resulted in something uniquely beautifull and colorfull.
01° The Company of Wolves (1984)
Based on Little Red Riding Hood, wich is my favorite fairy tale, i love the fact that this movie explores the fairy story at its root: the people, most of wich were working class women, who reunited their loved ones to tell them a story they learned in their dreams, and from those stories people would take different lessons about topics such as nature, spirituality, love, family, sexuality, life. Following Rosaleen’s dream, where she and her Grandmother shares tales about humans turned wolves, we are invited to reflect about the roles of man and women in society and their arbitrareness, and how those roles can be subverted once we take consciousness that we all share a dark, wolf like side. All this, and more, are what makes The Company of Wolves my number favorite live action fairy-tale film adaptation.
Honorable Mentions:
Beauty and the Beast (1960)
This movie presented an interesting combination of fairy tale romance with political drama in an italian renaissance setting and a Beast who would turn human during day light, all very creative ideas that deserve to be complemented.
The Slipper and The Rose (1976)
This adaptation of the tale of Cinderella has great performances, beautifull costumes and magnificent songs by the Sherman Brothers. It was just that The Glass Slipper, wich shares the same 18th Century Setting, has personally touched me more.
*cries* The transfer on the 1947 Cinderella looks so gorgeous, but all the versions with English subtitles I can find online look so blurry; it’s a shame. I think there’s a Russian Blu-ray but it doesn’t have subtitles, I don’t think? Alas… But I want to see it so much!
