6/7/2023 0 Comments The pied piper of hamelin poemBrowning included a moral, warning young audiences never to lie or break promises. Authors who retold it include the Brothers Grimm, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Browning, and Bertholt Brecht. The Pied Piper story has been translated into over 30 languages. Disney changed this into a paradise or “Joyland.” Instead of drowning in the River Weser, Disney’s rats - who look eerily like Mickey Mouse - disappear into a giant cheese wheel. Earlier retellings have grim endings: the children are drowned or trapped in a cave or mountain. As revenge, he hypnotizes the town’s children with his music and leads them away, never to be seen again.Īs usual, Disney toned down a folktale whose traditional versions are even more harrowing. He does, but the town now refuses to pay him. The mayor promises him money if he succeeds. Here’s the basic plot: in the 13th century, a piper wearing pied, or multicolored, clothing promises to rid the German town Hamelin of a rat infestation. The Silly Symphonies Disney short is from 1933, but it’s an incredibly grim story for a kids’ cartoon in any era. I first encountered the story “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” when I was five, watching a marathon of Saturday morning cartoons.
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