5 Best Fairy Tale Adaptations That Will Have Your Kids Believing in Magic

5 Best Fairy Tale Adaptations That Will Have Your Kids Believing in Magic
Image credit: Walt Disney Pictures

Modern cinema and its special effects are more capable than ever of immersing you in the world of a magical fairy tale.

Magical, fascinating, and familiar to everyone since childhood, fairy tales are unlikely to ever lose their relevance. With inexhaustible energy, they separate good from evil and make you believe in miracles.

Time and again, beautiful princesses and wicked sorceresses, ever more radiant and irresistible, appear in the cinema, combining their charms with the magic of the screen.

1. Belle, 2021

Anime director Mamoru Hosoda turned Charles Perrault's fairy tale into an isekai. The main character is a schoolgirl named Suzu. She loved to sing with her mother, but after her death, she stopped performing. Suzu creates an avatar on the popular VR social network U and names it Belle.

Soon, Belle becomes one of the most popular singers on U – it's easy for Suzu to sing there because no one knows who she really is. One day, the Dragon interrupts her concert and kills several avatars. Suzu decides to find out who this villain is and why he's acting this way.

2. Into the Woods, 2014

A Disney musical based on the Broadway production of the same name. The Baker's family is cursed – he and his wife cannot have children. One day, the witch appears on their doorstep and tells them how to lift the curse.

To do so, they must give her a white cow, a red cloak, a corn-colored braid, and a glass slipper. The two embark on a magical quest, meeting Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Cinderella along the way.

Like the original musical, Into the Woods is a play on the happy endings of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. It is a more down-to-earth and realistic look at what happens after "happily ever after."

3. Disenchanted, 2022

In the first part, called Enchanted, Princess Giselle left a fairy tale land and found herself on the streets of New York.

She was banished from her home by an evil witch, but Giselle did not get lost and brought a little love to modern New York, and at the same time she learned human emotions – sadness and anger.

Ten years have passed. Giselle still lives with Robert and his daughter and misses the magical world. So much so that when she gets the chance, she asks for magic to return. But something goes wrong. Magic infiltrates Giselle's real world, only now her home is threatened, as is Giselle's own sanity.

4. Cruella, 2021

Estella, a petty crook and thief with a talent for fashion design, gets a job at a fashionable department store. One day, she redesigns a window display in her own style and almost gets fired.

But the famous fashion icon Baroness von Hellman takes an interest in Estella's work and hires her as an assistant. However, the woman soon realizes that the Baroness is somehow connected to the death of her mother.

The story of The Hundred and One Dalmatians is told from the point of view of the main villain – Cruella de Vil.

5. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, 2018

On Christmas Eve, Clara tries to figure out how to open the metal egg her mother gave her before she died. The girl's godfather, Drosselmeyer, gives her the key, but it is stolen by a mouse. Together with the Nutcracker, Clara travels to a magical dimension to fight the Mouse King and return the gift.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms"is a colorful adaptation of the famous Christmas tale. Director Lasse Hallström, together with the production designers, managed to create a bright and memorable world of the Four Magical Realms on the screen.