With Disney’s most recent fairy tale adaptation, Frozen (which was based on Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, The Snow Queen) having been a huge success, and a sequel being in the making, it seems that there are still a lot of classic fairy tales that Disney can work their magic on. Here is a list of 5 childhood favorites that would make perfect Disney adaptations.
1. Hansel and Gretel
The story of two siblings who nearly escape a child-eating witch taught a very important lesson about trusting strangers. But beyond teaching young kids stranger-danger, the fairy tale offers a whole cast of characters (the brother and sister hero duo and a larger-than-life villain) as well as a magical setting (the iconic gingerbread house) that will give Disney a whole lot to work with.
2. Little Red Riding Hood
Another tale about stranger danger, this one features the titular character, Little Red Riding Hood (perhaps Disney will give her a real name!) who finds out that her grandma has been eaten by the wolf. The setting in a forest is one that Disney is familiar: a friendly and peaceful sanctuary. But with an evil wolf sneaking about, it has the potential to be a dark and frightening place just like it was for Snow White when she ran through the woods as she tried to escape her evil stepmother.
3. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Not too boring, not too long, this fairy tale is just like the porridge that Goldilocks tried when she broke into the unattended house of a bear family: it’s just right. It gives Disney the potential to put a twist on an old scenario: when Snow White went into a house uninvited it caused some trouble for the dwarfs but this time around, Disney can really turn the tables and make Goldilocks the villain (personally, I always had more sympathy for the three bears anyway).
4. Rumpelstiltskin
A women forced to spin straw into gold is in tears until a mysterious man offers to help her – on the grounds she give him her first-born child. She agrees but when the time comes to give her child away, she refuses and is allowed three days to guess the man’s name which, due to his arrogance and carelessness, she finds out. This beautiful story offers a lot of plot and suspense build-up potential and if Disney fills in all the gaps, they’ve got a perfect fairy tale on their hands.
5. The Princess and the Pea
This is a much lesser known fairy tale but one that has the perfect princess movie formula: a women is chosen to marry a prince after she proves to be sensitive enough to be a princess because she notices the bump of a pea hidden under a stack of mattresses. This fairy tale is much more of a throwback to the earlier Disney princess movies, such as Cinderella, with the whole average-girl- gets- chosen-by-a-prince story line, but in the hands of the Disney studios, it can definitely be modernized for the new generation.
