Animated fairy tales
The 100 best animated movies: the best fairy-tale movies
World-famous animators pick the best animated movies ever, including Disney and Pixar movies, cult movies, kids movies, stop-motion, anime and more
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Now we know which are the 100 best animation movies of all time. But which are the best Disney movies and which are the best Pixar or Studio Ghibli films? Which are best for kids and families and which are strictly arty, political or edgy?
We’ve applied 26 handy labels to the 100 great animations in our list. Here you’ll find all the films in the list that feature fairy tales at their heart.
But how many have you seen? Take our poll to find out.
RECOMMENDED: Explore the 100 best animated movies ever made
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Pinocchio (1940)
A wooden puppet yearns to be a real boy; he must prove himself worthy.
Directors: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Norman Ferguson, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson and T. Hee
Best quote: “Always let your conscience be your guide.”
Defining moment: Playing pool, drinking beers, smoking cigars: Who knew it could transform kids into jackasses? (Literally.)
And so we reach the top of our list—we’d be lying if we didn’t say it was by a nose. Pinocchio is the most magical of animated movies, a high point of cinematic invention.
Its influence on fantasy is massive: Steven Spielberg quotes the soaring ballad “When You Wish Upon a Star” in his dream project
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and remade the whole picture with his aching robot-boy adventure, A.I.). Disney’s second feature—originally a box-office bomb—begins with a sweetly singing cricket, yet plunges into scenes from a nightmare: in front of a jeering audience on a carnival stage; into the belly of a monstrous whale; beyond all human recognition. (Pinocchio’s extending schnoz is animation’s most sinister and profound metaphor.) It’s staggering to think of this material as intended for children, but that’s the power here, a conduit to the churning undercurrent of formulating identity. The takeaway is hard to argue with: Don’t lie, to yourself or others. Cultural theorists have, for decades, discussed Pinocchio in psychosexual terms or as a guide to middle-class assimilation. But those readings are like cracking open a snow globe to see that it’s only water.
A swirling adventure flecked with shame, rehabilitation, death and rebirth, the movie contains a universe of feelings. Pinocchio will remain immortal as long as we draw, paint, tell tall tales and wish upon stars.—Joshua Rothkopf
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Not the first animated feature, but the start of the Disney empire.
Directors: David Hand, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce and Ben Sharpsteen
Best quote: “Magic mirror on the wall…”
Defining moment: Snow White’s headlong dash through the moonlit forest is expressionistic, beautiful and terrifying.
They called it Disney’s folly. It took years and millions of dollars to produce Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and one huge question remained unanswered right up to the day of release: Would an audience really sit still for 83 minutes of cartoon antics? Of course, the movie was a huge hit, and kick-started Uncle Walt’s decades-long domination of the painted-cel scene.
It may not have been the first feature-length animated film—that honor is held by Argentine animator Quirino Cristiani’s 1917 El Apóstol, though all copies have since been destroyed—but it was the first to receive a global release, and the first to wake up audiences (and producers) to the seemingly limitless potential of a brand-new medium.
What makes Snow White truly special is not its success, however, but its originality: Working without a rule book, Disney and his animators created—fully formed—an entirely new genre. Just look at last year’s Frozen and ask yourself how far mainstream animation has actually developed: Snow White has a dashing fairy-tale heroine, a hunky but slightly dull dude, lovable pratfalling sidekicks, important life lessons, groundbreaking and gorgeous animation, whistleable tunes and, perhaps most notably, the greatest femme fatale in film history. It just goes to show: You can’t improve on perfection.—Tom Huddleston
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Alice (1988)
This Lewis Carroll adaptation, from a brilliant Czech surrealist, is too wild and wonderful for kids.
Director: Jan Svankmajer
Best quote: “Alice thought to herself, Now you will see a film…made for children…perhaps.”
Defining moment: The Mad Hatter’s tea party: hilarious, anarchic and a fabulous example of Svankmajer’s ability to make the impossible seem absolutely real.
Jan Svankmajer’s first feature is a characteristically inventive but rigorous account of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, faithful in spirit to the original while remaining conspicuously true to his own highly distinctive brand of surrealism. Blending live action (Kristyna Kohoutová, who plays the heroine, is the only human in the film) with various forms of stop-motion animation, Svankmajer creates a wonderland notable for its bizarre dreamlike logic and its grotesque beauty: Skeletal creatures scuttle and steaks crawl while Alice, no stranger to thoughts of cruel whimsy, changes size and becomes her own doll. It’s brilliantly imaginative, bitingly witty and fittingly Freudian.
This is no saccharine celebration of innocence, but a foray into the darker recesses of childhood fears and desires. And therefore, perhaps not a film for children.—Geoff Andrew
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Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Romance, music and comedy combine in a latter-day Disney milestone.
Directors: Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale
Best quote: “It’s no use. She’s so beautiful. And I’m…well, look at me!”
Defining moment: The camera sweeps through the ballroom as the couple hits the floor.
Disney had long been in the doldrums when The Little Mermaid showed it could entertain a new generation, but this adaptation of the classic fairy tale pushed the quality threshold to a new level, making it the first animated feature to be Oscar-nominated in the Best Picture category. The key was taking the emotional heart of the story entirely seriously, bolstered by a soaring, Broadway-on-steroids score from Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.
So while there are jaunty high jinks from the anthropomorphic fixtures in the Beast’s imposing castle, they never overshadow the tale’s pent-up yearning, as the hairy protagonist must find true love before the petals fall from a rose or remain forever in bestial form. Crucially, the visuals convey enough heft and scale to wow the grown-up audiences who truly appreciate the story’s romantic spell.—Trevor Johnston
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The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Handcrafted silhouettes captivate in the first-ever animated feature.
Director: Lotte Reiniger
Best quote: It’s silent, so you’ll have to provide your own dialogue.
Defining moment: The good witch takes on the evil sorcerer in a shape-shifting smackdown.
Given the immense visual sophistication of today’s computer-aided animation, is there still any point in watching a silent film where paper cutouts move across illuminated sheets of glass? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is a resounding yes, since this fairy-tale adventure from Germany’s Lotte Reiniger is no fusty historical artifact, but a mesmerizing viewing experience, precisely because (unlike modern animation) we can see the handiwork involved in creating the exquisite silhouettes peopling this classic Arabian Nights tale.
There’s a flying horse, a dashing prince, an evil sorcerer, a damsel in serious distress, and even a special appearance by Aladdin and his “wunderlampe.” It’s all rendered in filigree detail that brings the time-honored story to life. There’s not quite the seamless movement we’ve come to expect these days, but when Reiniger fills the screen with spiky winged demons, the sheer craft on display is genuinely breathtaking.—Trevor Johnston
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Cinderella (1950)
Who needs a caring stepmother when you’ve got glass slippers, an enchanted lifestyle and a hunky Prince Charming at the end of the day?
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske
Best quote: “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep.”
Defining moment: A pumpkin and some mice get a magical makeover.
Even today, when you watch a Disney film, the impact of Cinderella can be felt from the very first frame: That iconic castle, the studio’s logo, comes right from this picture.
It was the make-or-break gamble that, had it failed, would have meant the end for Walt & Co. Instead, his film’s runaway success allowed him to finance the theme parks and cement his name forever. The elements of the story are bedrock components of the Disney formula: plucky, charming heroine, helpful sidekick animals, the promise of total transformation. Yet there was innovation here, too; musical numbers would, for the first time, be commissed out to Tin Pan Alley experts, while live-action footage was shot as a model for most scenes. When Disney’s own remake comes out in 2015, it will have a huge debt of charm to repay.—Joshua Rothkopf
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The Little Mermaid (1989)
The calypso-inflected Hans Christian Andersen adaptation that revived the Mouse House’s ailing fortunes.
Directors: John Musker and Ron Clements
Best quote: “Somebody’s got to nail that girl’s fins to the floor.
”
Defining moment: In the infectious “Under the Sea,” Sebastian the crab attempts to convince wayward Ariel of the merits of ocean living.
Two years later, Beauty and the Beast received more acclaim, but it was this cheery musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s bleakly fatalistic fairy tale that redesigned the template of contemporary Disney animation and returned the studio to pop-culture prominence. The formula—take a story everyone knows with a plucky princess, then add a bunch of hip, catchy-as-chlamydia show tunes—still works, as the recent success of Frozen demonstrates. But alongside the witty, verbally intricate contributions of ingenious songsmiths Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, it’s the depth of yearning for other lives and other forms that gives this one emotional resonance and staying power. Well, that and the lasciviously tentacled, Mae West–and–Divine-inspired sea witch Ursula, surely among the greatest Disney villains.
—Guy Lodge
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Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
A modern woman’s breakup is paralleled with a musical retelling of the Ramayana.
Director: Nina Paley
Best quote: “Assemble the monkey warriors!”
Defining moment: Sita wonders, “Whooooooooo’s that knockin’ at my door?” in an energetic battle-scene-cum-musical-number.
Fiction, somehow, helps us deal with fact: Reeling from a divorce, animator Nina Paley found solace in the Hindu epic the Ramayana, specifically the section dealing concerning Sita, a woman fought over by two of the tale’s male protagonists. For this eye-popping DIY feature, almost entirely animated by Paley herself, the symbolically pure and virtuous Sita becomes the narrative focus. Paley adheres to the basic outline of the Ramayana—with its multiheadeded gods, monkey armies and heroic warriors—adding her own distinctive touches.
The most delightful of these is giving Sita the voice of Jazz Age singer Annette Hanshaw, whose cheery musical stylings (especially during the literally earth-shattering climax) add a defiant layer to a story normally defined by paternalism and machismo.—Keith Uhlich
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Tangled (2010)
No more little miss shy and retiring, this princess means business.
Directors: Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Best quote: “I’m malicious, mean and scary/My face could curdle dairy.”
Defining moment: Escaping the tower, Rapunzel feels grass under her feet for the first time, and breaks into song (as you would).
The brothers Grimm’s “Rapunzel” must have presented modern Disney with a bit of a head-scratcher. Long gone are the days when a Disney princess would spend her hours mooning around a tower dreaming of a knight in shining armor to rescue her.
So in this version (with Pixar’s John Lasseter executive-producing), gone is the handsome prince, replaced with an egotistical thief, Flynn Ryder. When he first smarms his way upstairs, Rapunzel thwacks him with a frying pan. This sparky princess will do her own escaping, thank you very much, twirling all that hair like a lasso. Tangled has energy and humor in spades. Best are the beasts: Maximus the army horse (on a mission to capture Flynn) and Pascal the chameleon.—Cath Clarke
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Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Never has a party snub had such dire consequences.
Director: Clyde Geronimi
Best quote: “Now you shall deal with me, O prince, and all the powers of hell!”
Defining moment: Evil fairy Maleficent turns herself into a fire-breathing dragon and goes to battle.
In the Disney villainesses hall of fame, Maleficent ranks up there with Cruella De Vil.
The self-proclaimed “mistress of all evil,” Maleficent is the badass fairy who casts a spell on Aurora at birth, causing the princess to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die before her 16th birthday. Why? All because the king left her off the guest list at Aurora’s christening. After nearly a decade of preparation, Walt Disney wanted Sleeping Beauty to stand out from existing princess-led fairy tales Snow White and Cinderella, and so it does. Inspired by medieval art and tapestries, this is Disney as its most wow-worthy, best of all in the lurid scenes at Maleficent’s lair. Sleeping Beauty marked the end of an era—it was the final animation overseen directly by Walt himself, now busy building theme parks and making TV. That said, rebellious, feisty Aurora also harkens to the sparky princesses of Disney future, even if she’s muscled into a supporting-actress slot by a certain scene-stealing bad fairy.—Cath Clarke
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The 'Why' of Fairy Tales and Animation -
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Nearly half of the data points in our FTTV database come from animated shows or specials, including the oldest entries in our database, the 1922 animated short “Cinderella” (video) and “Three Little Pigs” from 1933 (video).
This led me to a question. What is it about fairy tales that lends them so well to animation? Furthermore, what is it about animation that makes it such a great medium for telling fairy tale stories?
As Paul Wells states in Animation: Genre and Authorship, fairy tales lend themselves naturally to animation for two main reasons: their open vocabulary and the long tradition of illustrations in fairy tales books.
A still from Looney Toon’s Episode “Cinderella Meets Fella,” using a technique (the difference in size between the characters) that would have been much harder to convey in live-action.Wells’ first reason that animation is a great medium for fairy tales is that animation’s “open vocabulary” helps accommodate the “more surreal narrative dynamics and thematic complexities of many fairy tales” (83). In other words, an animated world doesn’t have to be confined by the realities or rules of our world.
When something is animated, all of the events, both the supernatural and the realistic, happen on completely even ground.
A character transforming from a animal to a person (or vice versa) is completely seamless, simply the transition between an artist (or a computer, I suppose) drawing an animal hand, a few intermediate steps, then a human hand. This can only be done uninterrupted by using animation, even the largely “live action” movies of this decade rely on animation for their fantasy sequences to show things that don’t happen in reality and can’t be portrayed by actors or practical effects.
Animation pulls us into a world of simple shapes and bright colors that is clearly not our own and therefore must have its own rules. In this world where bunnies can talk and where there’s time before gravity kicks in to look at the audience and say ‘oh no,’ it just follows that there may well be a bean that grows a hundred-foot beanstalk or a colony of giants in the sky.
The second reason that connects animation and fairy tales is the long tradition of illustration in fairy tale books. Fairy tale books have been illustrated since the Grimm’s Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children and Household Tales) and Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books, which first packaged literary tales as something for the consumption of children.
When fairy tales were oral performances, they belonged to anyone who could hear the story being told. Illustrations were important in the literary texts because they give the children who can’t read yet a way to engage with the story while being read to. When fairy tales transitioned into something for children, they also got linked with illustrations.
This “migration of fairy tales from the communal hearth into the nursery” happened in the 19th century and is the source of the general notion that fairy tales are ‘for kids’ (a notion we, a bunch of adults running a fairy tale blog, clearly do not agree with).
In conclusion, the prevalence of animated children’s shows in our database is result of the intersection of natural connection between fairy tales and animation and a natural connection between fairy tales and child audiences. Fairy tales may even play a role in explaining why animation is nearly always assumed to be for child audiences.
Join us next week for an excellent post on the romcom tropes and fairy tale themes in the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!
Posted byPosted inWorking With the DatabaseTags: children's TV, fttv.humwp.byu.edu, Lauren ReddingInteractive fairy tales for children - play online for free
Interactive fairy tale "Turnip"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale game "Turnip": grandfather planted a turnip in his garden, but over time it grew to a huge size. Now it is impossible to get it on your own, so you have to call all the inhabitants of the house.
Interactive fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale-game "The Princess and the Pea": one rainy evening, a young girl knocked on the door of the kingdom.
But to find out if she is a real princess and what happened next, you can read a fairy tale.
Interactive fairy tale "Puss in Boots"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale-game "Puss in Boots": an old miller who left his sons a windmill, a donkey and a cat. But the son does not yet know that this cat is not at all easy.
Interactive fairy tale "Ugly Duckling"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale-game "The Ugly Duckling": one day ducklings were born to a duck. But one of them was very different from his brothers and sisters...
Interactive fairy tale "Mrs. Metelitsa"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale game "Mrs. Snowstorm": a fairy tale about two girls: hardworking and lazy. Once a hardworking girl pricked her finger on a spindle. The girl wanted to wash him in the well, but...
Interactive fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"
Interactive fairy tales
Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale game: one day a little girl named Little Red Riding Hood goes to her grandmother to bring her presents.
Interactive fairy tale "Wolf and seven kids"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale game "The Wolf and the Seven Kids": in the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Kids", familiar from childhood, a cunning wolf tries to get into the house of the kids when the mother goat leaves the house.
Interactive fairy tale "Three Bears"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale game "Three Bears": the fairy tale about Masha and the three bears, familiar to everyone since childhood, has found not only new colors in the form of beautiful illustrations, but also a new life.
Interactive fairy tale "Teremok"
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale-game "Teremok": a mouse found a teremok in the forest, it was empty and the mouse began to live there. Later, a frog, a bunny, a fox and a wolf cub joined her.
Interactive fairy tale "The Snow Queen" (part 1)
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale-game "The Snow Queen" (part 1): one of the most touching fairy tales in world literature.
This is a story about friendship, love and selflessness.
Interactive fairy tale "The Snow Queen" (part 2)
Interactive fairy tales
Fairy tale game "The Snow Queen" (part 2): continuation of Hans Christian Andersen's popular fairy tale about the Snow Queen, the boy Kai and his sister Gerda.
It is difficult to imagine the childhood of every child without fairy tales. Indeed, no matter how rapidly society develops, fairy tales always take pride of place in the upbringing of a small person. And the point is not even a pleasant pastime with a book, but the fact that the plots of these works introduce the baby to the outside world, teach the basics of communication, lay such qualities as honesty, dignity, courage. They set an example that you need to be tolerant, help your loved one, cherish friends.
On the other hand, despite the fact that many plots remain unchanged, interest in the book as a paper medium is disappearing.
It is not always possible to force modern children to read, but then how not to miss the full benefit of fairy tales? How to instill interest?
Interactive fairy tales for children come to the rescue. You say: but if you give a tablet, then you can turn on regular games or a cartoon? No, they don't do that much. With a fairy tale, the kid can not only look at the pictures and read the text, but feel like the hero of the work, be inside the plot. Moreover, the interactive format allows you to expand the boundaries of the story. Consider the benefits of such games on the example of the fairy tale "Turnip".
A well-known work from childhood, short and interesting, it attracts children from an early age. "Repka" teaches children to help their neighbor, talks about the fact that together you can solve any problem. All this is in the interactive version of the fairy tale. What else appears here?
The game starts from the very beginning, the grandfather is just planting a turnip, and the child already needs help finding tools, seeds, and a watering can.
This develops attention and introduces the planting process itself. Further, grandfather will talk about the benefits of this vegetable and other fruits that grow in his garden. During this time, the turnip will grow and the time will come to pull it out. Here the kid will have to call the grandmother and other heroes, the game itself calls the child to talk. At the end, the characters sum up, the dialogues are supplemented with proverbs and sayings, which expands the baby's vocabulary. It turns out, in addition to the general benefits of fairy tales, the development of speech, attention, and broadening of one's horizons are added.
For each fairy tale, you can choose a convenient format: the text is read by the author or the child. So you can teach the crumbs to read independently. Each game lasts no more than 10 minutes, that is, you should not worry about your eyesight, this is a safe period spent at the computer.
Plots of interactive fairy tales will be replenished all the time.
Include different works, let the child develop in an entertaining way, instill interest in folklore, teach how to spend time at a computer or tablet with benefit.
Thumbelina - interactive fairy tales for children
on the App StoreDescription
***** №1 in Russia in January 2014 *****
Listen, read, play fairy-tale characters, create and record your own puppet cartoon, share it with friends, make your own fairy tale. For all children from 2 to 70.
Interactive book for children and adults, useful and fun to help parents and amuse children.
Thumbelina has everything:
Teaching: reading and pronunciation, numbers and counting.
Games: attentiveness and logic.
Animation: New technology - create your own cartoon easily and simply: press record and create your own version of the fairy tale.
In our book, YOUR child is the director. Take characters, create new cartoons, record, voice - and admire the genius of your crumbs.
Invite your friends and voice your cartoons in roles. Save the first creations of young talents - this will be the beginning of the Hollywood collection. The simplicity and convenience of the application will help the child take the first steps in animation.
The heroes come to life in your child's hands begin to move, speak in his voice, they take children to a new fascinating world, the world of living toys.
Watch the trailer and walkthrough at www.tales.ipublisher.com.ua
Version 3.0.1
The app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
- optimization of the gameplay;
- fixed restoration of purchases;
- minor corrections.
Ratings and reviews
ratings: 2
Better and better
The new version has unexpectedly added a lot of new things.
Well done developer, keep it up.
001
Paid version - divorce. Nothing is updated or opened. Money wasted
Not updated
After purchasing the full version, it opens as free. There is no update. Money wasted.
The developer of iPublisher UA has not disclosed to Apple its privacy policy or data practices. Detailed information is available in the developer's privacy policy.
N/A
Developer will be required to provide privacy information when submitting the next app update.
Information
- Provider
- Sergey Nosenko
- Size
- 70.9 MB
- Category
- Books
- Age
- 4+, for children 6–8 years old
- Copyright
- © iPublisher.
Learn more
