Hanseldee & Greteldum

There are lots of stories that are spin-offs of the classic fairy tales. These stories enable/give parents an aid or creative way to teach/show their children that happy endings do come true. Or not to do certain things - aka the basic things a child needs to know/learn about. They provide children with a way/idea to expand their creativity and imagination. I know as a child the fairy tales my mother read to me helped me escape everyday life. To this day, when I'm having a bad day and I feel as though all hope and light are gone from the world, I hold the book close to me and reread the stories that are written on its pages. I find it incredible that society is still trying to keep these fairy tales alive with movies and "series" (their lives about what happened to them after their stories ended). Such as Ever After High which is about the teenage sons and daughters of famous fairy tales. It also reminds kids to be themselves and stand up for what they believe in because the main "conflict" is about how Raven Queen, who's the Evil Queen's daughter decided not to follow in her mom's footsteps and "writer her own story". The new Disney movie Descendants is  very similar to it as well. Except instead of 'Royals' and 'Rebels' its about Maleficent's, Cruella De Vil's, Jafar's and the Evil Queen (from Snow White)'s children going to a school with the 'good guys' children and deciding to be 'good' and not 'evil'. There is also Enchanted, Frozen, Tangled that are in some way based off of the famous original fairy tales.
Everyone knows the stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. We read the books and watched the movies on repeat as kids. We know the characters, which ones are bad. We know the story lines. How it began. How it ended. They are the most recognizable stories for everyone, and people would surely be able to identify exactly which fairytale the reference came from. With more complex stories from literature however, it is more difficult for the reader to understand the motives behind certain characters, the literal meaning behind certain symbols, or the reason for the plot structures. One might not recognize these elements in a story they read if they’re not very familiar with the literature it came from. With fairytales however, we have all pretty much memorized the stories so well that they’re carved into our minds. Therefore we will be able to immediately point out a reference to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Snow White in a movie or book we read. When writers borrow these plots, characters, or symbols, they don’t identically recreate the fairytale as their own, but they simply use small portions and use it in their own writing to create a subtle parallel to a certain story. The most common elements that may be borrowed from fairytales include a young girl who is probably innocent and naïve, a young woman who will serve as the love interest (usually forbidden), an evil antagonist who creates difficulty for the main character, some sort of task or journey, and usually an indication of poverty or royalty.