Three Wishes for Cinderella
Jun. 4th, 2007 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baleanopteraI don't know why but summer always makes me rather nostalgic. Last year that resulted in listening to a lot of old music, this year I've apparently turned my head towards tv shows I've loved. Be warned etc...
--------
:..or if you will:
Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel,
Tři oříšky pro Popelku,
or Tre Nøtter til Askepott
Granted she does wear beautiful dresses and gets her prince, but the Cinderella of my youth was also a cross-dressing, crossbow shooting girl who rode to her ball instead of doing that whole carriage thing. That’s because my Cinderella was the one shown in the Czechoslovakian and German production "Three Wishes for Cinderella".
This is Popelku, or Cinderella if you will, with her rather wonderful horse. When I was little I was so envious of that horse. Also the first scene of her riding showed her riding without a saddle. This impressed me greatly!
Out on this riding trip she also meets the Prince and throws a snowball at him, ruins his hunt and steals his horse. Ahh...young love.
Then there is the Prince, here seen with his friends. The Prince loves riding, hunting and wearing brightly coloured tights. Here he is seen sporting a rather fetching red pair. To be honest I never cared that much for the Prince. He might be charming, but he isn't very clever and our Cinderella has to spell everything out for him again and again.
Also when the King tells him it's time he married someone he moans:
"But it was easier for you father. You got to marry Mother. I have to find some complete stranger!"
So um...yeah, not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
The twist with this version of the Cinderella story is that instead of a fairy godmother Cinderella gets three hazelnuts. Thanks to an owl and some never properly explained magic they crack to reveal different sets of clothes. The first is a hunting outfit, then a ball gown and the last is her wedding gown.
(In fact I was so used to this Cinderella version that when I first saw the Disney version the whole fairy godmother thing confused me. Imagine me at around nine going:" Huh? Who is this woman in blue? Why is she waiving a wand - and what's the deal with those mice!?")
As a result of these outfits a lot of the plot centres around Cinderella, in various disguises, meeting the Prince and him falling in love with her. As mentioned above on of the hazelnuts contain a hunting outfit. Since Cinderella's late father obviously believed in gender neutral upbringing he taught his daughter to ride like a boy, and how to hunt and be very good with a crossbow. So Popelku dresses up like a boy hunter, joins the Prince's hunting party and ends up winning a shooting contest.
In addition to this all the classic tropes of the fairytale are here, including the annoying stepsister. Here the stepsister is doing her "I get to go to the ball and you don't" routine. Well, we all know that is going to come back to bite her in a karmic way.
And of course the wicked stepmother who alongside being wicked has a rather fascinating taste in hats and headgear. This being the most infamous one.
Nut number two contain this ball gown, and solves Cinderella's problem of not having anything to wear for the ball. (Take that wicked stepsister!)
I've been trying to find a picture that shows the whole gown, but sadly no.
At the ball the Prince truly falls for Cinderella, and says he has found the bride he wants. Cinderella remains rather cool and collected and says he has forgotten one thing.
"What is that?", the Prince asks.
"To ask if she will have you."
When you’re around eight this sort of dialogue makes a huge impression. ;D
Now it turns out she does want him and he is allowed to place the famous shoe on her foot. At this point I still didn't care that much for the prince - however I really liked the dress and the horse.
I grew up with this show on Norwegian television. It's broadcast every 24th of December in a very strange, dubbed version. The songs on the other hand were kept in their original Czech, so it wasn’t until I heard the German version I realised what the lyrics were about. Now the songs might be cheesy, but I don’t care. I love them like you can only love something you’ve grown up with and always adored. Above is the German version and here is the Czech version.
The best fanpage about the show is here.
Also I must thank![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sillyheart for a post that inspired this whole nostalgia trip.
Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel,
Tři oříšky pro Popelku,
or Tre Nøtter til Askepott
Granted she does wear beautiful dresses and gets her prince, but the Cinderella of my youth was also a cross-dressing, crossbow shooting girl who rode to her ball instead of doing that whole carriage thing. That’s because my Cinderella was the one shown in the Czechoslovakian and German production "Three Wishes for Cinderella".
This is Popelku, or Cinderella if you will, with her rather wonderful horse. When I was little I was so envious of that horse. Also the first scene of her riding showed her riding without a saddle. This impressed me greatly!
Out on this riding trip she also meets the Prince and throws a snowball at him, ruins his hunt and steals his horse. Ahh...young love.
Then there is the Prince, here seen with his friends. The Prince loves riding, hunting and wearing brightly coloured tights. Here he is seen sporting a rather fetching red pair. To be honest I never cared that much for the Prince. He might be charming, but he isn't very clever and our Cinderella has to spell everything out for him again and again.
Also when the King tells him it's time he married someone he moans:
"But it was easier for you father. You got to marry Mother. I have to find some complete stranger!"
So um...yeah, not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
The twist with this version of the Cinderella story is that instead of a fairy godmother Cinderella gets three hazelnuts. Thanks to an owl and some never properly explained magic they crack to reveal different sets of clothes. The first is a hunting outfit, then a ball gown and the last is her wedding gown.
(In fact I was so used to this Cinderella version that when I first saw the Disney version the whole fairy godmother thing confused me. Imagine me at around nine going:" Huh? Who is this woman in blue? Why is she waiving a wand - and what's the deal with those mice!?")
As a result of these outfits a lot of the plot centres around Cinderella, in various disguises, meeting the Prince and him falling in love with her. As mentioned above on of the hazelnuts contain a hunting outfit. Since Cinderella's late father obviously believed in gender neutral upbringing he taught his daughter to ride like a boy, and how to hunt and be very good with a crossbow. So Popelku dresses up like a boy hunter, joins the Prince's hunting party and ends up winning a shooting contest.
In addition to this all the classic tropes of the fairytale are here, including the annoying stepsister. Here the stepsister is doing her "I get to go to the ball and you don't" routine. Well, we all know that is going to come back to bite her in a karmic way.
And of course the wicked stepmother who alongside being wicked has a rather fascinating taste in hats and headgear. This being the most infamous one.
Nut number two contain this ball gown, and solves Cinderella's problem of not having anything to wear for the ball. (Take that wicked stepsister!)
I've been trying to find a picture that shows the whole gown, but sadly no.
At the ball the Prince truly falls for Cinderella, and says he has found the bride he wants. Cinderella remains rather cool and collected and says he has forgotten one thing.
"What is that?", the Prince asks.
"To ask if she will have you."
When you’re around eight this sort of dialogue makes a huge impression. ;D
Now it turns out she does want him and he is allowed to place the famous shoe on her foot. At this point I still didn't care that much for the prince - however I really liked the dress and the horse.
I grew up with this show on Norwegian television. It's broadcast every 24th of December in a very strange, dubbed version. The songs on the other hand were kept in their original Czech, so it wasn’t until I heard the German version I realised what the lyrics were about. Now the songs might be cheesy, but I don’t care. I love them like you can only love something you’ve grown up with and always adored. Above is the German version and here is the Czech version.
The best fanpage about the show is here.
Also I must thank
sillyheart for a post that inspired this whole nostalgia trip.
