O Brother, Where Art Thou

In O Brother, Where Art Thou, some of the transformations that the Coen Brothers perform on The Odyssey are having John Goodman being basically a giant compared to the other three that escape, resembling Cyclops.  The blind man pushing a handcar (their prophet) in the beginning of the movie is considered to be the prophet Odysseus visits in Hades.  The blind radio owner seems to represent the boatman in Greek mythology who helps the dead cross the River Styx into Hades.  Clooney’s character essentially goes hand in hand with Odysseus.  With his crew being escaped convicts, Sheriff Cooley takes on the role of Poseidon and how the god was always behind Odysseus, hunting him down.  Another similarity was Clooney’s characters wife is named Penny, which can be inferred to be short for Penelope.  Additionally, both wives give their husbands a final test before accepting them back, which is essentially the same with The Odyssey.  

Fair Tales Part II

After reading and studying the different versions of Beauty and the Beast, some differences that stood out were that in the Norwiegian version, Beauty has to be talked into marrying the best by her father whereas in many of the other versions she volunteers to prove her love and gratitude towards her father.  This leads to another difference between versions, that some of them deal with the virtue of the beauty and 'being good' vs others dealing with the beauty being forced to marry the beast and 'doing well.'  Another difference that is closely tied with the others mentioned is that in Madama de Beautmont's version she values the essences of the beast over the physical appearance.  Her version is very virtuous, vs many of the other versions that are complete opposite and have the Beauty being completely turned off by the physical appearance of the beast.  

A couple similarities are that the transformation of the beast to prince does not happen until the morning after the wedding in basically all of the versions.  Each version expresses a woman's "anxieties about marriage" but now had turned into a story focused on the beast rather than the beauty.  It's almost has if the story has originally changed from the beauty in need of the beast, to the beast in need of the beauty.  Another similarity is that "defiance is, in fact, a characteristic trait of many of the folkloric heroines who find themselves pestered by beasts."  Basically saying that the heroine character in all of the versions deals with the same problem of defiance at one point or another throughout the story. 

I think that these changes were made based on where and when the version was written.  Each culture is different throughout the world from the US, to France, to Polish, to Spanish, to Russia, etc.  I feel like each version is based off of what their society and culture truly values.  

Beauty and the Beasts

After watching both of the films, right off the bat there are obvious differences.  Clearly the first video is black and white of real people, whereas the Disney is color and a cartoon.  The original is in French with English subtitles, and clearly takes place in a different time.  The Disney version takes place in the past as does the original, but being in what seems an American culture vs a French culture really changes the entire dynamic of both films.  The cartoon is a musical, which really changes the dynamic even further.  

In terms of the Beast, he physically appears different in both films.  In the black and white film, he is standing at the stature of a man, but his face appears to be a mix of a lion, bear, and vampire almost.  He has hair flowing all over, but he doesn't stand tall as an incredible giant, like he does in the Disney version.  In the Disney version, he stands massive and towers over Beauty (Belle) and is incredible hairy all over his body.  He looks again like a mix of a lion, vampire, and bear.  In this Disney version, he stands on both of his hind legs but also can move on all fours.  He does not do this in the black and white version.   

A huge difference that I saw between the two films was that Belle's father in the black and white version goes to find her a rose.  He gets lost and when he plucks the rose, the Beast appears and threatens to kill him for stealing a rose from his garden.  He offers in exchange for the man to bring back one of his daughters in his place to avoid death. He doesn't realize he will eventually fall in love with this girl, because he says to the man, I will kill her instead of you.  

In the Disney version, however, Belle finds her way to the Beast's castle where she is looking for her father who was locked up by the Beast for trespassing.  When she finds her father in a prison cell, the Beast comes out of nowhere where Belle offers herself in exchange for her father.  The Beasts rule is that she must stay there forever.  She is terrified at first, and asks the Beast to come out in the light.  When he does, she shrieks at the sight of him and this angers the Beast a lot.  He scoops up her father and basically kicks him out, not allowing them to even say good bye to each other.  She is shocked at first thinking she is now a prisoner to the Beast, but the Beast offers to show her to her new room.  She did not know that she was going to be more than just a prisoner to the Beast.

Another big difference was when Belle first arrives at the castles, there are two personified objects, a clock and candle, that see the girl and say "She is the girl they have been waiting for to break the curse."  So clearly this gives away that the Beast is a man who is under a curse that I did not catch in the original version.  It also shows a difference between the two films that there was no inanimate objects that were personified like this clock and candle.