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Comment
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stevecota
Unregistered User
(1/1/02 12:47:58 pm)
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princess pheona
what story did she come from
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Posey
Registered User
(1/1/02 2:31:59 pm)
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Re: princess pheona
Hi Steve - do you mean Fiona from "Shrek"?
If so, it's my understanding (based on a bit of research & a few discussions/presentations in class & at a recent conference) that Fiona represents the "kick-ass" heroine - a "new" kind of princess (hello, Robber Bridegroom?) that doesn't need saving (and actually saves others as well as herself). Have I just made some Dreamworks exec happy with that? Suspect so...
Anyway, I'm guessing it was their intention to have a princess free of the regular constraints of fairy tales - she has red hair (not black or golden) which underlines her dual/fiery nature, she wears green (what, no pink/white/pale blue?) and she has a Celtic name (Celtic women are usually depicted as pretty tough cookies) - plus she knows tae kwan do.
There's a bit more (outside of the basic intertextuality) that one can glean from her - but I'm sure that the experienced contributors here can provide you with it. Being new, I won't ramble on!
...and yes, I am an MA student
Posey
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(1/2/02 4:03:07 am)
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an "original" fairy tale princess
Posey:
The following is not chastizing you, but the movie execs!
If indeed that (" Fiona represents the "kick-ass" heroine - a "new" kind of princess")
was the thinking of the DreamWorks folks then they do not know their fairytales. Have they seen any of the following collections in which kick-ass princesses from folklore reign? THE MAID OF THE NORTH, FEARLESS GIRLS/WISE WOMEN/BELOVED SISTERS, or my own NOT ONE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS among many others.
And lately at least lots of princesses in literature have " red hair (not black or golden) which underlines her dual/fiery nature." And just because she "wears green (what, no pink/white/pale blue?)" puts her in line with the old fairy folk who wore green. She is, after all, a magic creature.
I enjoyed the movie enormously, but not because it was entirely original. Because it rediscovered something MOVIES had not portrayed enough of.
Hi, Mollie Whuppie!
Jane
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Posey
Registered User
(1/2/02 2:09:22 pm)
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re: an "original" fairy tale princess
Hi Jane & everyone -
Absolutely no offense taken, and please let me begin by saying that I totally agree with you, and was in no way trying to pass those views off as either new or my own - the point I ended up making in the seminar at the last IBBY conference was precisely that this is NOT new ground at all but a moderately clever pastiche of good bits of some very old tales. That's why I mentioned the Robber Bridegroom, because she's one of my faves in terms of a female protagonist who saves herself.
I do think that the *idea* of the K-A heroine coming from a big-bucks studio is refreshing, but I was sad to discover that at the root of the movie's plot, despite all the clever red-haired, green-clothed aspects, Fiona wasn't the purported feminist heroine at all but rather was just another "girl" waiting for male/societal validation. Otherwise, why wouldn't she have or freed herself, or not minded her duality? After all, in the original book, neither Shrek nor his Bride care a fig for what the world thinks of them... now THAT would be a refreshing film - but probably wouldn't make Eisner enough £!
Having said all that, I, too enjoyed the movie. But I think it was because of Donkey's editorials.
Thanks, Jane, for setting me straight!
Posey
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