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Post by roverpup on Dec 13, 2022 3:19:16 GMT
Peter Pan was the other "children's story", besides Pinocchio, I studied in uni and found the book appalling.
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Post by llminnowpea on Dec 13, 2022 8:39:28 GMT
I haven't watched it and don't intend to because I read the original book and found it cynical and sinister at its heart. I didn't like the political and social values (like its anti-intellectualism) it was imparting behind the disguise of a children's story. I really found the book distasteful. The book really creeped me out as a kid. And, the part where he kills the cricket really grosses me out. I saw a non-Disney version when I was little and the death of the cricket still stays with me. And, yet, I watched Watership Down a billion times (and read it, too).
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Post by llminnowpea on Dec 13, 2022 9:36:57 GMT
Peter Pan was the other "children's story", besides Pinocchio, I studied in uni and found the book appalling. See also: Narnia. Poor Susan.
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Post by queenzod on Dec 13, 2022 11:41:26 GMT
Wait. The cricket dies? 😭😭😭😭
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Post by llminnowpea on Dec 13, 2022 12:10:02 GMT
Should I put that under a spoiler? In the original story - yes. He is struck with a mallet by the long-nosed liar. In the Disney version - no, I don't think so? I think he might go off with the Blue Fairy Christian Allegory Angel Stand-In Character, though, but don't quote me because I haven't watched it in ages.
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Post by sgev1977 on Dec 13, 2022 12:34:17 GMT
That’s the plot point I have always seen when comparing how Disney “sentimentalized” things! Classic children’s literature is, in general, very cruel. They were basically horror cautionary stories: if you aren’t a good kid, a witch will roast you and eat you! But in modern times and thanks to Disney and others, the stories were extremely softened. Again, Del Toro version is kinda dark but it never really goes there. The cricket is smashed a few times but only for comical reasons and he survives all of them. Even a bigger spoiler… The ending is a sweet prologue about life and death and how dying is a natural thing so you see the dignified deaths of most characters But no real cruelty nor cynicism! It’s a nice sentimental ending I guess the only real cruelty thing is how the villain treats the monkey.
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Post by roverpup on Dec 13, 2022 12:46:57 GMT
Oh, I had no problem with the Narnia books. I just completely ignored the religious propaganda aspect of it and looked upon it as a rollicking adventure. It wasn't one of the children's lit books we studied in university. Maybe if I had examined it closer (like I did with Pinocchio or Peter Pan) I would have felt differently.
My favourite books from my early childhood were The Secret Garden and The Boy's Sherlock Holmes (read ALL of the Sherlock Holmes stories and some of ACD's other works too - The White Company , The Lost World). I read a lot of Agatha Christie too. And any stories that centred around horses - Black Beauty, Black Gold, King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague, Justin Morgan Had a Horse... I was just crazy for horses!
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Post by queenzod on Dec 13, 2022 12:56:49 GMT
I was a fairy tale girl. Read my way through every fairy tale book in the public library. I still have my copies of the Yellow, Blue, Purple, etc., books. The illustrations by Arthur Rackham are stunning. I did always feel sorry for the 13th brother who’s arm remained a swan’s wing. That might have been awkward, lol.
Maybe they’re what got me interested in tales of ironic cruelty and notions of goodness. I have a thing for them. Always loved it when the wicked stepmother caught on fire, and how purity and goodness were rewarded.
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Post by mllemass on Dec 13, 2022 13:23:29 GMT
The cricket does get smashed more than once in the new Pinocchio, but he actually lives a very long life. He literally dies of old age! And I’m sure he’s the one narrating the story, so he has to be around to see what happens.
What was saddest for me was that Pinocchio himself, because he wasn’t human, couldn’t die. Because he outlives everyone else, he’s the one to see everyone die and bury them and visit their graves. I was really craving the cute Disney version after that!
And yes, those old children’s stories were created to scare children into behaving! Today, children hear the less gruesome versions, but the originals are still out there, scaring kids!
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Post by mllemass on Dec 17, 2022 4:17:26 GMT
I’ve been watching some Netflix-made Christmas movies and series the last couple of weeks, and by far the best has been A Christmas Storm. It’s a six-episode limited series from Norway, but I watched it dubbed into English. It takes place at an airport in Oslo where people have become stranded when a winter storm forces flights to cancel. I liked it right from the start, but I had doubts that it would continue to be good right to the end - and it was even better than I had hoped. It’s funny and sad and uplifting all at the same time.
Earlier tonight, I had started watching the movie The Holidate, also on Netflix. It was so bad the I stopped it after 15 minutes and removed it from my watch list. It was trying to be a Hallmark movie, but with unpleasant, vulgar and unlikable characters.
The other day, I watched another Netflix movie called Delivery by Christmas. It was very good! It was Polish, about a package delivery driver who’s a single mother to an adorable son. Her jerk of a boss deliberately switches the address labels on her deliveries, so the wrong people receive the packages and it causes all sorts of problems. It was funny and sweet.
And The Noel Diary was’t bad, but it was kind of blah and predictable.
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