Thumbelina (1994)

Thumbelina is based off of one of the few Hans Christian Anderson tales I like in its original format. So many times Anderson writes such bittersweet stories, but this one actually has a happy ending.

This particular movie adaptation begins with Thumbelina and her mother. Thumbelina has grown out of a flower given to Mother by a fairy. She soon meets the fairy prince, and since this is a fairy tale, fall in love at first sight. Unfortunately an ugly toad also falls in love with Thumbelina and kidnaps her. Thumbelina manages to escape and then makes the long and difficult journey back to her mother and her prince. In the meantime Prince Cornelius is also looking for her. It is a fun story worthy of any fairy tale princess lover.

Medea by Kerry Greenwood

Medea by Kerry Greenwood takes the ancient stories of Jason and the Argonauts and its sequal Medea and breathes new life into the story. Here in Greenwood’s book we meet a girl who is misunderstood more than anything else. She is not the evil creature that Eurpidies portrays in his own version of the tale. We see a woman, a priestess of Hecate, who gives up her vocation and everything she knows for the love of the wrong man. We see Jason as the supreme jerk he is and watch as Medea does eventually get her happily ever after. The book is a good example of someone taking an ancient story and showing a different side of the story.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

East of the Sun and West of the Moon is one of my favorite fairy tales. It is a Norwegian tale very similar to Beauty and the Beast where a huge polar bear appears to a poor merchant and says that he will spare their family if they give him the youngest daughter. The daughter goes to live with the polar bear in his castle and they spend many happy months together. But there are rules in this castle and when the girl viloates them, the witch that originally cursed the polar bear spirits him away. The girl must then go “east of the sun and west of the moon” to regain her true love. I love this fairy tale because the girl actually has to find and save the prince, so a very good story.

The Lost Empire (2001)

The Lost Empire takes the ancient Chinese tale of Journey to the West and brings it to a modern, American audience. In this version of the story, an ancient demon wants to destroy Journey to the West and send the world back centuries to how he believes the world "should be". Humanity's only hope lies in Nicholas Ortman (played by Thomas Gibson) an American business man living in China and the fabled Monkey King. Together with a goddess and the ever hungry Zhu Bajie they must defeat the villain and prevent him from wiping the Journey to the West from existence. Although I have never read the original epic, I know that both the Monkey King and Zhu Bajie do show up in the original story. This was actually my first introduction to the Monkey King, and since I always love the trickster it was his character that endeared me to this story and not really the slightly annoying Nick. A very great story and a great introduction to Chinese mythology. This movie can also be found as The Monkey King.