“Once Upon a Time…” According to Walt Disney

All children know the story of Snow White. Walt Disney knew her very well. It is known that at the age of 14 he was fascinated by a silent short film based on this fairy tale. And in 1934, he almost put his studio on the verge of bankruptcy by starting the first full-length cartoon in its history, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film was released in 1937 and immediately became an animation classic. Since then, the Disney studio has released many adaptations of the fairy tale classic, taking the plots loose or even changing them beyond recognition. Is it so harmless?

Thanks to the work of the psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim and the Jungian psychotherapists Marie-Louise von Franz and Hanz Dieckmann, we know that fairy tales tell about the collective unconscious, about the life experiences of various people accumulated over millennia. They tell through archetypes – universal images (figures of kings and queens, wise old men and old women, dragons and witches, heroes and villains) or significant plots that are understood by all people (at least in this culture), such as wanderings, falls and ascension. They carry within them a psychic power that can, as Jung claimed, “captivate and fascinate people”*. So, listening and reading fairy tales, children acquire knowledge about life, about good and evil, heroism and humility, about loyalty and betrayal, and at a deeper level – about their soul. What changes in the child’s perception when archetypal characters and plots come to life on the screen? We asked Jungian analyst Konstantin Slepak to explain this using five famous fairy tales as an example.

But first, one remark from a psychologist: “Listening, reading encourages us to fantasize. Such work of the imagination is extremely important: through these images, the psyche both expresses and recognizes itself. And when a child watches a cartoon, he perceives ready-made images created by someone. It’s not bad if they retain a deep meaning. But often, filmmakers adapt fairy tales to “children’s perception”, simplifying them, “cleansing” of suffering and drama – and thereby deprive them of depth, and the child – space for imagination. Of course, this is not about depriving children of cartoons. It is important not to forget to read and discuss with them books that feed the imagination.

* C. G. Jung “Soul and Myth. Six archetypes” (Harvest, 2005).

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• What they tell us … fairy tales

The Little Mermaid: from the search for the soul to earthly love

What Andersen tells us. The little mermaid dreams of finding the soul of a person and being close to the handsome prince with whom she is in love. The witch helps her turn into a human, but in return takes away her beautiful voice. When the prince marries another, the little mermaid sacrifices her life for him and turns into a spirit – an ephemeral daughter of light.

What does the cartoon suggest?. The writers change the tragic ending to a happy one. Prince Eric defeats the witch and marries the little mermaid Ariel.

What does this mean for children. The little mermaid is a victim of her fantasies. From a dramatic point of view, she strives to follow the prince into the world of people, but from an analytical point of view, she seeks to rise, to get in touch with the spiritual aspect of life, and this is most often possible only through suffering. She undertakes a deadly journey, leaving the underwater world (the world of the unconscious) into the earthly (the world of the conscious), and then ascending to the heavenly (the spiritual aspect of the unconscious). It is unlikely that anyone will want to share her fate, but the fairy tale Mermaid teaches us that not only intentions related to achievements (for example, marrying a prince) can lead to a lofty goal, but also refusal from them (leaving the prince for another, perhaps more suitable bride). In the cartoon, the theme of suffering and self-sacrifice associated with unrequited love has disappeared. But another archetypal plot arose: a battle with a witch who personifies the unconscious in its destructive aspect. “For all the merits of the cartoon, children from it do not learn about the difficult choices that sometimes have to be made, and do not learn that finding their soul is more important than finding a prince,” concludes the Jungian analyst.

Peter Pan: from sadness to carelessness

What James Barry says. Peter Pan is a boy who doesn’t want to grow up. He left his parents as a baby, and when he returned, he saw through the closed window in his room, in his bed, a new baby. From that moment on, Peter decided that his parents did not need him.

What does the cartoon suggest?. Peter Pan, a carefree prankster who has forever remained a child, carries away the girl Wendy and her two younger brothers to his magical land of Neverland. After going through various adventures together, defeating the pirate Captain Hook, the children return home, and Wendy announces to her parents that she is ready to become an adult.

What does it mean for children. The story told by Barry that childhood is by no means a cloudless time. Growing up is so hard that some choose to give it up. There is no trace of this sadness and melancholy in the cartoon. The world of childhood is shown only from a joyful side, the drama of Peter, which he experienced when he discovered that his parents did not wait for his return, disappeared. The children don’t recognize Barry’s most important idea either: Peter was wrong, a mother’s heart is always open to children. The cartoon is good because it shows the development of Wendy: from a girl who does not want to hear anything about growing up, to one who does not succumb to the charm of Peter Pan and declares her willingness to grow up. “At the same time, she seems to begin to realize Peter as her inner child – something beautiful, like childhood, which does not need to be completely abandoned,” notes Konstantin Slepak. “After all, Peter Pan – the eternal child – lives in each of us, this is the one who is constantly looking for thrills, is fond of his fantasies and seeks to break away from the usual reality.”

Read more:

• Marie-Louise von Franz Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales

Sleeping Beauty: From Anticipation to Impatience

What Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm Say. A beautiful baby girl is born to the royal couple. During the christening, the evil fairy casts a spell on the girl – at the age of 15 she will prick herself with a spindle and die. The good fairy softens the spell: the princess will not die, but will only fall asleep for a hundred years. The predicted is coming true. One hundred years later, a beautiful prince enters the castle and awakens the girl from her sleep.

What does the cartoon suggest?. On the day of the christening of the newborn Princess Aurora, she is betrothed to Prince Philip. The evil fairy curses the girl, the good fairy softens the curse. The princess is hidden in the forest, where three good fairies are engaged in her upbringing. On her sixteenth birthday, Aurora meets Philip by chance and they fall in love. But, pricking her hand on the spindle, she plunges into a hundred-year sleep. Philip defeats the evil fairy (in the form of a dragon) and awakens Aurora with a kiss.

What does it mean for children. This tale is about waiting, patience and everything must happen in its own time, explains Konstantin Slepak. The prince does not fight for the princess, he only appears in time and awakens her. The cartoon, on the other hand, is a heroic story about the liberation of femininity from the dragon’s paws of the unconscious: I saw – I fell in love – I wanted to save – I won. In other words, children will once again see the heroic plot where the prince frees the princess from the evil sorceress. But the fairy tale does not say a word about heroism, it is about what frees time – the natural course of events. A fairy tale is not patriarchal, unlike a cartoon, and this is its value, it tells children not that the awakening of femininity depends on a male hero, but that femininity has its own cycles, its own logic of development.

Snow White: From Growing Up to Passivity

What the Brothers Grimm Say. Fleeing the revenge of her stepmother, the queen, Snow White finds shelter in the house of the seven dwarfs. Upon learning that her stepdaughter is alive, the queen tries to kill her. Twice the girl is saved by the dwarfs, the third time she falls dead after biting off a piece of a poisonous apple. In “The Tale of the Dead Princess …” by Pushkin, the same thing happens to the heroine, only instead of seven gnomes, there are seven heroes. Snow White, sleeping in a glass coffin, wakes up by accident – the prince’s servants dropped the coffin, and the poisoned piece flew out of her mouth.

What does the cartoon suggest?. Disney puts the accents in a different way. Dwarfs are slovenly (in the fairy tale they are neat and diligent), unintelligent children, albeit with gray beards, and Snow White brings them up, at the same time dreaming about the prince. It is not surprising that the prince awakens her with his kiss (perhaps the creators of the cartoon followed Pushkin here?).

What does it mean for children. The most important plot in both the fairy tale and the film is parting with childhood, says Konstantin Slepak. It happens through death, which symbolically means the death of the former child’s identity. There is also an acceptable degree of cruelty on the part of the queen. This is important, because this is a vaccine that helps children withstand evil in the real world. But then the differences begin. In the fairy tale, Snow White is unable to distinguish good from evil: she succumbs to deception three times. The Disney princess busily commands the gnomes, establishing her own rules in their house. “She should have looked at them (and subsequently at her children) with open eyes,” says the analyst. In this sense, the fabulous Snow White behaves more psychologically: she is moderately modest and takes exactly as much as necessary.