Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama
Folk tales about princesses and magical creatures were originally cautionary tales designed to scare children, with the aim of instilling contemporary social mores or protecting them from tempting dangers. Authors such as the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen took some of the edges off when they published those stories in books, and Disney changed them completely in order to give movie audiences a sunny, colorful experience with a happy ending.
Into that transition came the well-regarded Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen, who moved to Hollywood in 1936, hoping to work in the movie industry. By then, Walt Disney was already thinking of how to bring the story of The Little Mermaid to the silver screen.Kay Nielsen strode into this Disney-studio atmosphere in 1940 ready to embrace the uncanny, the odd, and the unnerving. According to Noel Daniel, a sort of internationalism followed in the wake of Romanticism, bringing a more cosmopolitan version of folk and fairy tales with it, and “took a seat at the same table of widespread interest in…
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