Tags
1980's, 80's fantasy, 80s, 80s television, ancient fairy tale, anthology, anthology series, arranged marriage, ball, balls, blog, brothers grimm, cobbler, Comedy, contest, dance, dancing, dancing princesses, dream prince, enchanted, Faerie Tale Theatre, faerie tale theatre reviews, fairy, fairy tale, fairy tale adaptation, fairy tale history, fairy tale origin, fairy tale origins, fairy tales, fairytale ball, fairytale wedding, Fantasy, german fairy tale, good witch, grimm, grimms fairy tale, Ian Abercrombie, jacob grimm, Kate Crackernuts, Lesley Ann Warren, marriage, Max Wright, Peter Weller, princess, princesses, proposal, quest, review, review series, Romance, romantic comedy, Roy Dotrice, royal, royal challenge, series review, shelley duvall, sisters, stepsisters, television, television review, television series, the brothers grimm, the dancing princesses, the twelve dancing princesses, tv, tv review, tv series, underground, underground kingdom, wilhelm grimm, Zelda Rubenstein
“The man of my dreams is a prince among men.”
– Princess Jeanetta’s wish for a prince
And so Faerie Tale Theatre concludes as it began, with a story from the Brothers Grimm. The Twelve Dancing Princesses isn’t remembered as fondly as fables like The Frog Prince or Hansel and Gretel, but by all accounts it should be. It’s got intrigue, royal balls, magical subterfuge, an underdog hero, interclass romance, and princesses subverting their father’s control through a mix of spells and cleverness; qualities that lend themselves to a potentially infinite amount of reimaginings. Unfortunately Cinderella’s had the fairytale ball/dancing princess market cornered for centuries, and popular culture isn’t ready to let twelve newbies have the floor.
This is yet another fairytale with alternate versions spanning the globe, mainly in Europe, Russia, Africa and Asia. My personal favorite is a gender-flipped retelling from Scotland called Kate Crackernuts: not only does the titular princess save the prince this time around, but she defies the evil stepsister trope by rescuing her adopted sibling from their abusive mother (Disney adaptation WHEN??). There are also some differing German versions from Hesse and Paderborn competing with the one Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm recorded, which were later folded into their take on the story.
Knowing this, don’t be fooled by the whimsical title. There’s still plenty of darkness beneath the glamor. For example, in the original the princes who failed to solve the riddle of the princess’ whereabouts were executed, which makes the princesses stringing them along seem like actively malicious characters (Women portrayed negatively in a Grimms’ fairy tale? The devil you say!) Victorian editors wisely saw fit to remove the death penalty and sympathize the princesses in their retellings. Andrew Lang’s version temporarily imprisoned the failed suitors in the enchanted dominion they tried to sneak into. Other renditions have the princesses under a spell where they’re compelled to dance each night with evil giants or demons in disguise until the hero liberates them. The most common alteration, however, is trimming the number of dancing royals to as little as three or one in order to keep things simple.
Continue reading