I love folk tales and fairy tales. I have The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault and the Complete Fairy Tales and Stories and Hans Christian Andersen. I have tales from China and tales from Russia and tales from India. And of course I have The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

So of course I was interested when I discovered someone had filmed a movie called ‘The Brothers Grimm’ and more even interested when I watched the preview and saw it was going to be about fairy tales. Thus Michael and I ended up at the theater yet again this summer (I’m pretty sure this is a record for me).

I liked it. It wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen (that would be ‘Batman Begins’) but it was amusing and fun. And I really enjoyed looking for all the folk and fairy tale elements dispersed throughout the movie; they managed to get repeat references to all the major stories, as well as some minor tales, although I didn’t see reference to some of my favorite tales. Then again those tales aren’t German, so I really didn’t expect them to be there. (Though I really would have loved seeing Baba Yaga and her hut on chicken legs. Or the Fool and his Flying Ship.)

They also seemed to omit any takes children seem to bring their fate upon themselves–like these sisters in Cinderella or the lazy sister in Mother Holle

On the down side, I could have done without the French army. Maybe it was historically correct, but I thought it was distracting at times.

I caught elements of the following tales:
Cinderella
Snow White
Hansel & Gretel
The Gingerbread Man
Little Red Riding Hood
Jack and the Beanstalk
Sleeping Beauty
The Princess and the Pea
Rapunzel
The Snow Queen
The Frog Prince
Rumplestiltskin

I know there were more that I missed. And some that I can’t think of now. There were also plenty of generic folk elements, like Trolls under the bridge (Three Billy Goats Gruff), the forest shifting to keep people lost, tree limbs reaching out and grabbing people, the old crone, and crows.

There were also bits that I couldn’t place in any particular story off the top of my head. Like the insects. And the magic ring.