With the advent of the Disney movie “Frozen” being another example of Disney not being as inclusive as they can be with their fairy tale themes and European tales not having a reason to have Poc. I think back to this show from my youth.
When I was 10, I used to love this series called “happily ever after”. It took my favorite fairy tales and reinvented them for a modern age. At the time I never appreciated just how amazing these reinventions were. Taking on an inclusiveness and feminist twist.
Some I remember are. Princess and the pea was set in Ancient Korea where the prince was fighting against the forced marriage and the ridiculous way his mother was determining what made a woman worthy. He fell in love with the less glamorous, but kind, funny and intelligent woman who was only proven to be a true princess by the pea test. The story kept its intent, but gave it importance. Margaret Cho was the voice of the Queen so extra awesome.
Rip van winkle was a about chauvinistic hippie husband who silenced his wifes voice, he falls asleep and 20 years later awakens to find she found it again and changed the world for the better.
Or the frog princess about challenging gender roles and the showed that the frog was a beauitul black woman who married a white prince. At the time I didn’t understand the social importance of interracial couples.
As a kid, I didn’t know why it was important there was non-white representation in a kids show. I do recall falling in love and drawing the representations of other cultures, but never questioned why. I just liked it because I liked cartoons and strong female characters. It was presented with such easy earnest and loving care, it never felt political or forced. It just was and it was loved all the same.
As a young white person then, the import of non-white characters never hit me, but I am sure there are girls out there that were thrilled to see their culture and strong representations of their race/ethnicity presented. I am a strong believer that inclusiveness is important for childrens media and that children will lovingly accept any princess that is created with tender care.
I know this from personal experience, because I loved this show and after tracking down these photos I never noticed how few white people there were. So perhaps Disney should take a hint from this 20 year old show. You don’t need white princess to sell a franchise, give society a chance. We’re ready for some diversity.
Episode synosis herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happily_Ever_After:_Fairy_Tales_for_Every_Child
Edit 2: the response to this is inspiring and amazing. If you have HBO they play reruns on hbo family, or on HBO go they have 6 episodes every month cycle out. You can also find a few of them on youtube. I wonder how many notes it would take for HBO to release the whole series on dvd? I would love to buy it for my niece. Edit 3: found some episodes on dvd on amazon here and here
The video quality sucks but since HBO can’t be arsed to actually put out a full series DVD set, guess this is what I have to work with. Just wanted to post this because THIS is my favorite version of the Rapunzel fairy tale.
Just passing around a PoC adaptation of The Snow Queen from a series that isn’t very well-known, at least from my experience. :)
Eartha Kitt’s in it!
I miss this show SO much.
Seeing all these racebent takes on Frozen is making me think of the Snow Queen episode. The protagonist was a little Inuit girl and the titular Snow Queen was voiced by Eartha Kitt.
God, why was that show so ahead of its time and WHY were no lasting lessons learned from it? :(
YES! I can’t remember specifics, other than Tia Carrere being the voice of the Mermaid and being OBSESSED with the art style and the elongated mermaid tails. I think it was set in a mythologized Korea, if I’m not mistaken? I do remember preferring it to the Disney version… but honestly, thinking back, I think I preferred the majority of Happily Ever After’s takes on specific fairy tales more than Disney. It’s such an underrated show and I WISH it would come back on DVD or something… More people need to see that kind of thing.
With the advent of the Disney movie “Frozen” being another example of Disney not being as inclusive as they can be with their fairy tale themes and European tales not having a reason to have Poc. I think back to this show from my youth.
When I was 10, I used to love this series called “happily ever after”. It took my favorite fairy tales and reinvented them for a modern age. At the time I never appreciated just how amazing these reinventions were. Taking on an inclusiveness and feminist twist.
Some I remember are. Princess and the pea was set in Ancient Korea where the prince was fighting against the forced marriage and the ridiculous way his mother was determining what made a woman worthy. He fell in love with the less glamorous, but kind, funny and intelligent woman who was only proven to be a true princess by the pea test. The story kept its intent, but gave it importance. Margaret Cho was the voice of the Queen so extra awesome.
Rip van winkle was a about chauvinistic hippie husband who silenced his wifes voice, he falls asleep and 20 years later awakens to find she found it again and changed the world for the better.
Or the frog princess about challenging gender roles and the showed that the frog was a beauitul black woman who married a white prince. At the time I didn’t understand the social importance of interracial couples.
As a kid, I didn’t know why it was important there was non-white representation in a kids show. I do recall falling in love and drawing the representations of other cultures, but never questioned why. I just liked it because I liked cartoons and strong female characters. It was presented with such easy earnest and loving care, it never felt political or forced. It just was and it was loved all the same.
As a young white person then, the import of non-white characters never hit me, but I am sure there are girls out there that were thrilled to see their culture and strong representations of their race/ethnicity presented. I am a strong believer that inclusiveness is important for childrens media and that children will lovingly accept any princess that is created with tender care.
I know this from personal experience, because I loved this show and after tracking down these photos I never noticed how few white people there were. So perhaps Disney should take a hint from this 20 year old show. You don’t need white princess to sell a franchise, give society a chance. We’re ready for some diversity.
Episode synosis herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happily_Ever_After:_Fairy_Tales_for_Every_Child
Edit 2: the response to this is inspiring and amazing. If you have HBO they play reruns on hbo family, or on HBO go they have 6 episodes every month cycle out. You can also find a few of them on youtube. I wonder how many notes it would take for HBO to release the whole series on dvd? I would love to buy it for my niece. Edit 3: found some episodes on dvd on amazon here and here
Y’know, I grew up with Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child which features MANY stories not only taken from old Anglo fairy tales and setting them in different cultures, but they included several stories featuring MULTICULTURAL settings where it actually mirrored real life and NO ONE ever questioned their inclusion. That’s the kind of thing that we need more of and goddamn it somebody needs to do it. Now.
I just realized that with HBOgo I not only get things like Game of Thrones,
but also Happily Ever After: Fairytales for Every Child and Crashbox as well.
thesylverlining replied to your post: Thinking about racebending and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child
homfg what are these and can I find them online??? I WANT THEM.
There are some few scant episodes on Youtube (like the latin@ take on Sleeping Beauty), but sadly the series isn’t being sold in DVD boxsets the way they SHOULD be. It’s so sad to me that such an awesome series got basically ignored and forgotten and overlooked by an entire generation who could have greatly benefited from seeing it.
The series even kind of tried to tackle gender, sexuality, and bullying issues with a special called The Sissy Duckling which, while not completely perfect, is pretty heartwarming and great all things considered.
It’s just… very few people even know such a show existed, let alone remember anything about it and it’s policy of diversity for diversity’s sake.
Thinking about racebending and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child
Their Rapunzel (perhaps my favorite rendition of the tale) is black and the story takes place in a mythological version of New Orleans. I don’t think it’s ever stated that it’s New Orleans, but everything from the accents to the fact that the farmer was stealing herbs for his pregnant wife’s gumbo screamed NoLa. It featured a prince and an evil Hoodoo Diva named Xenobia (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg).
Also, they had TWO renditions of The Princess and The Frog… and they both featured black princesses. The first one was the traditional story set in an African setting (I believe the princess was voiced by Cree Summer but I’m not sure) and the second one was gender-bent so that the princess was the frog (voiced by Jasmine Guy) and her prince was actually a white guy.
Also, Native American Snow White is my favorite take on that particular fairy tale… and I think I’ve already shared on here once before my love of Rasta Goldielocks.
It’s funny that something made back in the mid-nineties is in many ways more progressive and interesting than the shit that gets put out today. Makes me wonder what the hell happened to change things…
