Top Ten Tuesday: Fairy Tales I Love

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's theme is all about fairytales!  I chose to list the top ten classic fairytales I adore, mostly because I am a Disney freak.

1.  The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen (a Hans Christian Andersen story) is what Disney's Frozen is loosely based on.  I am in love with Frozen, so therefore I am in love with The Snow Queen, too.

2.  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland\

I've never been the biggest fan of either of the Disney adaptations, surprisingly.  The book is just so insane and ludicrous and I love it for that.  Plus, I was the Queen of Hearts in a play as a child.

3.  Cassandra

In this Greek tragedy, Apollo gifts Cassandra with the power of prophecy in order to seduce her.  When she refused him, Apollo cursed her so that she could see the future but to never be believed.  She ends up going insane after attempting (multiple times) to save others and watching them all die when no one believes her.

4.  Twelve Dancing Princesses

My love of this tale started with the Barbie movie adaptation.  Seriously.  In this Brother's Grimm story, twelve princesses sneak out every night to dance until their shoes are worn through.  The king, their father, offers up one of them in marriage to any who can figure out where they escape to.

5.  The Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth supposedly restores the youth of any who can find it.  There are a million accounts of this mythical spring, and I am too lazy to list them all.

6.  Icarus

Another Greek myth, Icarus was said to be Daedalus' (who created the Labyrinth) son.  Daedalus fashioned wings made of wax and feathers so they could escape from Crete.  Icarus flew too close to the sun, which caused the wax to melt and him to plummet to his death. 

7.  Beauty and the Beast

This classic fairy tale is best known as the Disney version, with the talking furniture and famous yellow dress.  The plots don't differentiate too much, actually.  Although it wasn't my favorite Disney movie as a child, it is one of my favorites now.

8.  Pandora's Box 

Yay, another Greek myth!  This one is pretty well known.  Pandora, created by Hephaestus, was given by Zeus to Prometheus' brother for vengeance (Prometheus stole fire and gave it to us puny humans).  Pandora was then presented with a "box" that contained all the evils in the world.  Since she was created to be curious, she opened it and released all of those demons into the world, except for hope.

9.  Swan Lake

Swan Lake is actually a ballet.  The princess Odette has been cursed by an evil sorcerer to transform into a swan by day, and it can only be broken if a prince falls in love with her.  There are a lot of different versions of this one, and it is one of the most famous ballets.

10.  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I was obsessed with this movie as a child.  I have been told I watched it on repeat and knew how to do the tin man dance.  I wore sparkly red shoes for years.  Then I read the book by L. Frank Baum and found out that the famous ruby red slippers are actually silver.  I still love it anyway.