# Modern Day Fairytales? (movies only) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753 "2011-02-26T22:33:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/21 "2011-02-27T23:10:34Z")
[Freeway](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1072957-freeway/) is a very twisted black comic retelling of _Little Red Riding Hood_. It’s very good. Also, the big bad wolf is Jack Bauer. How cool is that? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/22 "2011-02-27T23:15:11Z")
_Freeway_, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland is a cool and interesting take on Little Red Riding Hood (in a modern, urban setting with a serial killer as the “wolf”), and features a great, early performance from Reese Witherspoon. Crap, ninja-ed. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/23 "2011-02-27T23:25:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _Ondine_ is the story of an Irish fisherman who finds a strange woman in one of his nets, who may or may not be a selkie - a kind of water fairy. I couldn’t really get into it the one time I tried to watch it, but that had more to do with my state of mind at the time than anything inherent in the movie. Its reviews were generally positive. That reminds me of another movie about a selkie – John Sayles’ **The Secret of Roan Inish**. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/24 "2011-02-28T00:54:03Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > _Alice in Wonderland_ and _The Wizard of Oz_ aren’t fairy tales. True, but the nature of their magical elements and having child protagonists do make them somewhat fairytale-like. 🙂 > [@](#): > > I thought _Coraline_ (based on Neil Gaiman’s YA novel) was a good fantasy/horror movie set in contemporary times, but I wouldn’t call it a fairy tale. Yes it’s a pretty good fit alongside the examples **elfkin477** offered whether or not it is strictly a fairytale. I’d suggest _Bridge to Terabithia_ as another – although I found a particular aspect of the story emotionally distressing. :eek: Haven’t seen the movie version of _Where the Wild Things Are_ yet, but that would also seem to fit. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/25 "2011-02-28T07:05:40Z")
Bit unconventional, but _Lady in the Water_ is about storytelling. The tenants of the apartment building become characters in the story. ---
**Author:** ![Aikochan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Aikochan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aikochan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/26 "2014-02-22T09:53:13Z")
I can’t seem to find a fae movie I saw a couple of years ago. It was simuliar to pan’s labyrinyth but it was more realistic. It was about a story of a man and his two kids trying to show the existance of faeries small winged ones. They made a faerie home and put stuff in it to lure the faeries in. One day they find a fae in it. Also it was the timeline was back around 1900’s I think somewhere around there. but its more realistic. I know it was made in the 2000’s but no site has any name for it since I don’t know the name. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/27 "2014-02-22T12:40:14Z")
Zombies in our fairy tales! Ahem. I read an interesting blog post just the other day about how fairy tales differ from myths. Myths, it claimed, are about superhuman heroes destined for greatness, in which the evil seems to exist almost as a means for the hero to show off. Fairy tales are about ordinary people encountering the world of fairy and how it changes them. The author made a very entertaining (if not entirely persuasive) case that many modern action movies, including _Die Hard_, should be watched as fairy tales. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/28 "2014-02-22T13:12:47Z")
> [@Aikochan](#): > > I can’t seem to find a fae movie I saw a couple of years ago. It was simuliar to pan’s labyrinyth but it was more realistic. It was about a story of a man and his two kids trying to show the existance of faeries small winged ones. They made a faerie home and put stuff in it to lure the faeries in. One day they find a fae in it. Also it was the timeline was back around 1900’s I think somewhere around there. but its more realistic. I know it was made in the 2000’s but no site has any name for it since I don’t know the name. Is it possible that you’re thinking of [Fairy Tale: A True Story](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119095/)? It’s about Conan Doyle, I think (I’ve not seen it), and it matches some but not all of your clues. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/29 "2014-02-22T14:24:26Z")
Well, _[The Meteor Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meteor_Man_%28film%29)_’s tagline was “A Magical Inner-City Fairy Tale.” Having watched the film, I can confirm that this is partially true. It does, in fact, take place in a city. The plot was too disjointed to call it a “tale,” however. > [@Lamia](#): > > There are people who would answer that question differently than I would, but my quick answer is that a fairy tale is a short folktale that includes magical elements but (usually) has an ordinary human as the protagonist and (usually) ends happily, or a short literary work written in the style of a folkloric fairy tale. …y’know, if you squint right, and fudge the definition of “short” and “magical,” you could probably consider some action movies as modern “fairy tales.” “Culture hero” tales, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753/30 "2014-02-22T15:28:57Z")
[Here’s the blog that analyzes Die Hard as a fairy tale](http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/02/die-hard-and-fairy-tales). It’s a fun read. Another cheaty addition to the list is the weird and wonderful **In the Company of Wolves**. The vast majority of the story happens in a nonspecific fairytale village, but there’s a framing story set in modern times. It’s a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Oh–if we cheat by including television, the show **Dollhouse** has some pretty strong callbacks to Sleeping Beauty. One episode in particular has a lovely multilevel Briar Rose storyline going on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-day-fairytales-movies-only/572753.md?page=1)