Our understanding of classic fairy tales has changed
substantially over the last two decades. Once the vanguards of the popular
contemporary takes of Happily Ever After, studios like Disney and Dreamworks
have been taking a long, hard look at the olden tales and applying the thematic
scalpel. From Shrek to Frozen to the slew of live-action remakes Disney has
been churning out, and will continue to do so for quite a while yet,
revisionist fairy tales have provided a lot of food for thought about how much
perceptions have changed. Of course, with that trend comes the unavoidable
cash-ins, those who see dollar signs in the act of revising and retelling these
old stories but never manage to figure out why
these revisions are happening. Charming, in all ways possible, fits that mould.
