'Fear of fairy tales'

Joanna Weiss, who covers television and pop culture for the Globe, Boston, makes an interesting critique of the modern-day fairy tale.

She argues that 'The glossy, sanitized new versions of fairy tales leave out what matters: the scary parts'. Disney is a business, though, and if that means it feels the need to define fairy tales for its target audience then that is what it will do. If parents want their children to learn life lessons from classic fairy tales, they should tell their kids themselves. A film shouldn't be expected to do a parent's job. And isn't part of the reason behind the dumbing down of the 'scary parts' of such films due to parents complaining about them in the first place anyway? Having said that, childrens' films are also there to stimulate the imagination and in that respect I take on board Weiss's views.