Tags for this video have been changed from 'disney, roger allers, don hahn, sad' to 'disney, roger allers, don hahn, sad, borodin' - edited by Deano

awwwwwwwwwww

Wow... Disney are douches.

A: They sugar coated this like everything else they touch. This would have been 100% more powerful if it ended like the original story.
B: And even after sugar-coating it, they STILL buried it in some extra features on a dvd.

This is why Ghibli > Disney. Disney doesn't want to challenge our kids, just feed them shit they can use to sell toys to trips to disneyworld.

Edit: I'm voting up because I feel it is about as close as Disney has gotten in recent years to a good piece of animation.

>> ^ponceleon:
Wow... Disney are douches.
A: They sugar coated this like everything else they touch. This would have been 100% more powerful if it ended like the original story.
B: And even after sugar-coating it, they STILL buried it in some extra features on a dvd.
This is why Ghibli > Disney. Disney doesn't want to challenge our kids, just feed them shit they can use to sell toys to trips to disneyworld.
Edit: I'm voting up because I feel it is about as close as Disney has gotten in recent years to a good piece of animation.


Actually, Disney's version here is almost EXACTLY like the original Hans Christen Anderson story, with some minor changes to accommodate the style. The beginning of the story (which gives a bit more detail about the grandmother, as well as the girl's family) has been cut out because it wouldn't fit with the rest of the short, which is supposed to be a silent film of sorts. However, this omission does nothing to change the theme and impact of the story, as the rest of the short more than makes up for it. The only other difference is that the animation takes place in Russia instead of Holland, a change which I rather prefer for the visual style.

As for the ending, make no mistake about it, the girl dies. You can see her body after her "spirit" fades into the distance with her grandmother's spirit. Perhaps you missed that.

For comparison:
http://www.online-literature.com/hans_christian_andersen/981/

The little girl seems much to healthy and happy for someone who's on the breach of death. It's seems to be me that the social critic of this tale has been smooth out (like in most of Disney's work btw). It disappointed me since the story and the animation has otherwise great potential. Adding this to the less compromising social critic and depth of emotion in which someone like Isao Takahata dare to go would have made a great animation of this.

The reason I posted the original story above was to show that the Disney short was a near exact translation of the original literature, so as such, Disney couldn't have done much in the way of "sanitizing" the story. The original theme of Anderson's work was to portray the terrible living conditions of children in Eastern Europe at the time, and that theme carried over to the animation quite well. Yes, the girl is bright and optimistic in the beginning, but it's her innocence and hopefulness that make her eventual fate all the more heartbreaking. Would the animation have been quite as touching if she had been a dirty urchin?

And if you study Anderson's original work, you'll see that he makes several allusions to her being "beautiful." In fact, in the text she's described as being fair-haired, something which was changed in the animation, and could arguably have LESSENED the beauty of the character portrayed.

As to comparing to Takahata's works, do note that Studio Toei did make their own interpretation of this work, which can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvGKPMXRa0
(Do note that at the time it was made, Takahata WAS working at Toei, so it's quite likely he was involved with the project as well.) It is notable that while Toei's interpretation is more accurate with relation the girl's look and the location of the story (Holland), the story itself has been altered quite a bit more than Disney's version, and in fact has less of an emotional impact. One could argue that the dubbing contributed to that, but the overall meaning of the scenes is not lost, and in this case they prove to make the Toei version inferior. (Or as inferior as one could call it. It's still a decent animation.) While in the Disney version the girl was friendless and alone, with everyone indifferent to her predicament, in the Toei version people either treat her like dirt, or feel a great sense of remorse over her death. These extremes are too exaggerated, whereas the Disney version feels a lot more like something that would happen in real life.

And on a side note, enough comparing Disney's works to anime, people. While Disney is indeed guilty of producing quite a bit in the way of lousy works, a lot of it was the result of the leadership during the Michael Eisner era. The Walt Disney era was full of great works (which despite their changes with relation to the original stories were quite beautiful), and the Rob Iger era seems like it's on route to turning the company around. It's also important to remember that Disney animations and most anime target different audiences. Disney targets a younger crowd (in general), while anime targets an older crowd (mostly adults). Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies," for example, is most definitely not for children. They would find it boring, and perhaps a bit too sad in the end.

Disney's version of The Little Match Girl does walk a fine line here, as it has a more adult theme, and perhaps would be too sad for the children who did catch that ending. However, I think this one was made just as much for adults, as it was meant for the next iteration of Fantasia, and Fantasia is meant to be for both children and adults.

I still loved this, despite the fact that this was made by Disney. Beautiful and sad. I adore the Borodin soundtrack as well.

Oh, and *promote!

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 8:04pm PST - promote requested by Issykitty.