Fairy Godmothers & Helpful Hags

“As a female fairy, the godmother stands in implicit contrast to another image of woman” (Al-Barazenji, 2015). In our fairytales the princess’ are often aided against their respective stepmothers or witches by a virtuous female fairy that comes to them in their time of need, beginning with the most recognizable of these characters is the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella (1950). After having Cinderella's abusive family destroy her dress and having her dreams of attending the ball stolen out from under her, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother magically appears offering a solution to her distress. She can go to the ball and wear a beautiful gown as long as she’s home before midnight when the spell wears off. “Hence, the fairy godmother intervenes to redress the imbalance of the tale” (Al-Barazenji, 2015). This is seen in Sleeping Beauty as well. In opposition to Maleficent are Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, three good fairies predetermined to be Aurora’s fairy godmother’s. At the beginning of the story, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother only provides a spell until the evening of the ball and a major turning point in the story. Whereas Aurora’s fairy godmother’s are shown presenting their blessings at her christening, an act to directly oppose Maleficent’s curse, with Merryweather succeeding in altering the curse's outcome from death to one of deep sleep. They serve as Aurora’s protectors throughout the film, and urge the King and Queen to send Aurora to live in the woods under a new name. However, these three further affect the story, by unknowingly providing Maleficent the location of Aurora just before her 16th birthday. They further still affect the tales outcome by providing Prince Phillip, Aurora’s betrothed, with the weapons that will ultimately slay Maleficent.

The use of a fairy to aid the protagonist does not require the godmother title. Often, princess are told tales of helpful witches deep within the woods that will aid them on their quests. In Disney films these helpful witches often take the image of an older, small, wrinkled, eccentric woman with an animal sidekick. The examples I’ve identified in this role comes from Disney’s Princess and the Frog (2009) and Brave* (2012). The character Mama Odie from Princess and the Frog is only on screen for a short time and serves as the ‘fairy godmother role’ though it’s not discussed in the film this way due to its locational setting. This character also doesn’t provide the same direct help to the protagonists we’ve seen from some of our other godmother’s, instead, the character provides advice and assistance in place of a cure-all magic spell. This allows the character’s to find their own happily ever afters within themselves and their interpersonal interactions. This film was released just a year before Tangled (2010) and also showcases Disney’s changing representation of princesses towards being in charge of their own destinies. Possibly the best example of this representational change is seen in Merida from Brave (2012), one of the few Disney fairytales where there are no wedding bells to bring the curtain down on. After being told she will have to marry one of three princes from neighboring clans, Merida runs away and is brought by spirits of the forest to a Wise Woman. She asks the Wise Woman to assist in changing her fate. The Wise Woman complies and then disappears. In true trickster fashion, the Wise Woman provides no details into how this spell will change her fate only guarantees that it will. When Merida realizes the ill effects of the spell she’s been given, she embarks on a journey much more personal than what we’ve seen in fairytales up to this point. Completely flipping script on its head, she becomes the rescuer rather than the recued. Though this is a change in film content, the Wise Woman still provides the push towards Merida's character arc and indirectly her desired happily ever after.