As the Snow White drama rumbles on, Tim Rice saying it's unnecessary recently, I wanted to show a case where it was retold in a better way.
Been reading 'I’m the Stepmother, but my Daughter is too Cute' which is the 'reborn as the story's villianess' trope in a Snow White setting. Snow White (Princess Blanche in this) is around only 10 in this take and the focus is more on the family relationship side with the stepmother now trying to repair and rebuild a relationship with her stepdaughter and more insisting her father, the king, BE a father (spoiler, he despises all women as Blanche is a product of when he was raped to 'continue the bloodline' when he was 14 by the former Queen).
Now let's compare this story to Disney’s projected train wreck. It doesn't belittle the male characters (in fact it provides more depth behind them), it isn't recasting characters for 'diversity' and clearly markets itself as an alternate take on a classic than 'a modern interpretation' subtlety implying the past version is inferior.
A western version I would also add is the Snow White tale in Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes where it's a straight up parody and takes the piss in a very humorous way. Kinda expected when Red Riding Hood pulls out a gun from her knickers and caps the wolf to make a new fur coat. But this does the same thing as the previous story, it honours the original and then goes in it's own direction.
The modern issue we are having is that modern, Hollywood especially, writers have the hubris to assume they can supplant a story that was passed through multiple generations than just provide their own take. Maybe it was started as a disenfranchisement campaign but seeing how many of those same writers are on the street striking because AI looking really good right now, hasn't worked out that well for them.
Anyway, thought I'd show how to do an alternate take of an old story well and just how shit mainstream western writers are. Have you guys got any good retellings you can list compared to Disney trash?
I like the honkai impact 3rd version of red riding hood where she asks the wolf if he ever wondered why her hood was so red before pulling out a scythe and killing him. The context being that the tale was intentionally altered violently to scare children who of course actually enjoyed the alteration and are now inspired to "reverse all creation".
Despite clearly being a joke (this occurs during "seele's one day adventure) it's still more creative and unpredictable than girl power saves the day.