Once Upon a Dream

A long time ago, my aunt was thinking about getting rid of her copy of Sleeping Beauty because of all the magic. I told her, "No way!"

See, it's another spiritual parallel story along the same vein as Snow White.

See, Sleeping Beauty falls into temptation and falls into a deep sleep, which can represent the sleep of sin. Her prince (savior) wakes her up with love and redemption.

And this is really literal in the ending of Disney version. Every one of the enemy's attacks is turned in something good: flowers, rainbows, bubbles. And the fairies give Prince Phillip a sword of truth and a shield of righteousness. Phillip fights the personification of hell itself and wins in part because of the fairies' admonition: "Thou sword of truth fly swift and sure that evil die and good endure."



Pretty awesome stuff.

Side note: Maleficent is a great villain. In fact, a film about her is coming out in 2013. I wonder if they're going to make her a "good bad guy" or have her be the bad guy in her own story.

Now that I saw Sleeping Beauty for the first time in while, I realized that she doesn't really appear much in the movie. She comes out, she sings, she falls in love, and then spends most of the rest of the movie crying that she can't be with her true love.

She, of course, has her forest creatures for friends, and is really sweet to the fairies who take care of her. But she's obviously miserable without Phillip. I don't see anything wrong with this. It's kind of the way that we're miserable without God.

What I think is really funny about this movie is how the two fall in love in about two seconds. And there's also lots of focus on the principal male characters: King Hubert and King Stephan . . . and that court minstrel who literally drinks himself under the table.

What's also funny is how she keeps running away from Phillip at first, because she's not allowed to talk to strangers. But when he convinces her that he's not a stranger, that in fact they've met in their dreams, she easily falls into his arms. We've always longed for a savior, and when we meet him we don't know how we lived without him.

"I wonder if my heart keeps singing, will my song go ringing to someone who'll find me and bring back a love song to me," she sings. She wants to experience true love but insists that the fairies still "treat her like a child" because they don't want her to meet anyone. In fact, they are protecting her to ultimately bring her to her true love. Sometimes, our guardians are doing what's best for us, but we don't see it at first.

When Aurora finds out that she's a princess, it doesn't matter to her because she believes she will be married to someone else instead of her true love. Even though she dreamed about "a prince" all she really wants is true love, whether he be a prince or not.



This song is AWFUL!



And this song is beautiful.



Conclusion: Sleeping Beauty is another beautiful story of redemption and salvation, and Maleficent is a great villain.

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Cinderella . . . perhaps the most famous fairy tale; it's main character is the epitome of the passive heroine.

Cinderella was my first fairy tale. It was the one that we had a video of, and I watched it often. When my sister was three or so she went through a Cinderella phase and would watch it over and over. Now a little cousin of mine is going through the same thing.

It's the story that's been through countless convolutions and revolutions and remakes and updates. And it's been blamed for teaching girls to just sit around and not try to improve your life. Even The Cheetah Girls sang about it: "I don't want to be like Cinderella, sitting in a dark, cold, dusty cellar, waiting for somebody to come and rescue me. I don't want to be like someone waiting for a handsome prince to come and save me. No, no, no no, no. I'd rather rescue myself." I guess those words were the first Id' heard about not wanting to be like Cinderella.

And yet it's classic.

Yes, Cinderella is a passive heroine. She lets herself be pushed around by her stepmother and stepsisters even though she is the daughter of the man who used to own the house. Apparently, he was a lord since her stepmother is announced as Lady Tremaine.

She obviously lives in France. Most of the names are French and it's Madame Tremaine.

She is gentle beyond all reason, although she hates the town's clock. "Old killjoy!"

She tries to see the good in everything. She even tries to see the best in Lucifer, that terrible cat.

Probably, the coolest part of her life is that she's got little birds and mice that do everything for her. They help her dress in the morning; they make her bed; and they help her shower. That's awesome. I'm not a big animal fan, but I could certainly learn to love animals who waited on me.

Cinderella dreams about something wonderful, but she can't tell us what it is because it's a wish and won't come true if she reveals it. So technically, we don't know what her dream is. We presume it's about romance but who knows, maybe she was dreaming about her stepmother suddenly being nice to her or something.

After her stepsisters ruin her dress, she sobs in despair and says, "It isn't true. It's just no use. No use at all. I can't believe--not anymore. There's nothing left to believe in" while the theme song is playing in the background so she's responding to the song. She realizes that no matter how big she dreams, her step family will always crush her dreams. But it's interesting to note that in spite of this, not all of her faith is gone because as her fairy godmother says, "If you'd lost all your faith, I wouldn't be here." Her faith in her dreams and her hope helped to redeem her situation. Furthermore, when she sees her new ball gown, she says, "It's like a dream--a wonderful dream come true."

Side note: I always loved her pink dress more than the ball gown and thought she looked prettier in it. It took a couple of years to come to like the ball gown better.

Who knows if she's looking for romance really?. The only reason she wanted to go to the ball was because it would be "completely wonderful." That's completely natural. I mean, who doesn't want to go to a royal ball? I'd love to at least once.

Cinderella cares about love not being royal. She doesn't realize the man she met at the ball is the prince and yet she loves him anyway. Of course, when she finds out he's the prince, she's completely shocked.

Now, the main thing about Cinderella is that she supposedly just sits there. But, in a way, I completely understand that. I mean, back when this story was written, women didn't have the same rights that they do today. If she had left her home, where was she going to go? She couldn't just rent an apartment and get a job. It wasn't that simple. And this movie is set in the past, so it makes sense that Cinderella would act this way. Plus, psychologically, she must've needed lots of help. In real life, that girl would've needed years of therapy to deal with the psychological torment her stepmother and stepsisters gave her.

Which is why I agree with modernizing the story to make Cinderella more proactive in her own escape.

Maybe that's why Disney decided to make Cinderella more active in the second and third movies. I kind of like the second one, and the third movie isn't horrible. But I just can't get over the fact that they completely changed the story. And I also don't like that they reduce love to a feeling of "Oh he touched my hand and I felt something. It's love!!" Um . . . no. Definitely not. Sure, the couples in fairy tales fall in love really fast, but that whole "touching the hand" thing is just pushing it. Besides, Cinderella and the prince fell in love spent some hours together, not just a moment.

Conclusion: I love Cinderella, and I want these beds.