Fairy Tale

"Fairy tale" is the English name for a specific type of fantastic folktale. The term "fairy" in this case is not a reference to the creatures now called fairies, but to the word's original meaning, the "faery"; the "place of the fae" (c.f. "nunnery", "rookery"). Originally meant to refer to the otherworlds where fairy beings like the elves and the sidhe live, it eventually took on a more generic meaning as "land of magic". Very few fairy tales actually feature fairies; even those European countries with a developed fairy folklore preferred to use Talking Animals instead. The name of the genre can be traced to Madame d'Aulnoy's Les Contes de Fées, which appeared only after literary fairy tales became all the rage.

Folklorists prefer to describe these stories using the German word märchen, which is usually translated to English as "fairy tale" or "fairy story", but a better translation might be "wonder story." Several extremely popular tales such as Perrault's "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" did feature fairies, helping give weight to the name, while others like "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Kate Crackernuts" alluded to a more sinister kind of folkloric fairies. On the other hand, Perrault's "Cinderella" is an odd-ball; normally the Cinderella figure is helped by her dead mother, and "Sleeping Beauty" is as likely to be a victim of prophecy as a curse). Many, such as "Rapunzel", "Puss in Boots", "Hansel and Gretel", and "Snow White", contain no such figures. Fairy tales may include creatures from folklore such as goblins, witches, and dragons, but they don't have to. Likewise, they may include magic, but they don't have to. Some, like "Bluebeard", contain no supernatural elements at all.

What fairy tales do share is a distinct and consistent set of narrative conventions. They usually take place "Once Upon a Time", with few (if any) references to real people, places or events. They are typically told in an extremely spare and laconic style, using archetypical characters and locations that require the audience to fill in the details with their own imagination. Even the fancy dresses the heroine wears to a ball are discussed briefly; "three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as bright as the stars" and the story goes on. Likewise, characters are defined by their actions. When motives are provided (which is only for human characters), they are short and simple: the heroine is out to find her fortune; the hero wants to marry the princess; the Wicked Stepmother is greedy and doesn't want her stepchild to have an inheritance, or envious of her beauty, or if she has a stepson, destroy his wife; the false hero wants to marry the princess; the king falls in love with the strange woman he meets in the woods because of her beauty. And motives may not be provided at all; in the Grimms' "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", we never find out why the princesses are going to the nightly dances, and indeed never discover whether they are doing so voluntarily or not. The limits between a fairy tale and Legends, Fables or epic poetry are blurred, but overall, it is considered that fairy tales can be distinguished from legends and epics for usually not exploring any specific real events, beliefs, locations and/or people, being more timeless and able to happen in several places. Furthermore, fables, differently from fairy tales, mainly focus on delivering and illustrating moral lessons and often feature anthropomorphic animals, inanimate objects, plants and forces of nature as characters.

"Fairy tale" is often used in modern times to depict an idealized romance or ending, but this is largely a result of Disneyfication. Many classic fairy tales are quite dark in their original form, and a few are outright horrific. Heroes may be the victims of such violence as having hands chopped off or eyes gouged out; at the end of the story, villains may be disposed of by such methods as having them wear red-hot shoes and dance until they die or putting them in a barrel lined with nails and having a horse drag it until they die. The spare style helps minimize the impact, as it can deal with the violence briefly and without gory detail, but even so many fairy tales have produced Nightmare Fuel. In some cases, this is intentional, to Scare 'Em Straight. In many others, however, the reason why they were so much darker and more adult than later versions is simply because some of such folktales were never intended for children in the first place, but for adults, only being associated with Children's Literature after being removed from their folkloric roots and portrayed as children's stories by the end of the 18th century.

Fairy tales are found in cultures all over the world. Many tale types have wide-spread variants. However, only a tiny handful of them are widely known in modern culture. Consequently, when a writer goes to rewrite a fairy tale into Fractured Fairy Tale, with parody or subversion, it generally invokes one of that handful. For instance, the Fairy Godmother is a relatively rare figure in fairy tales, but having featured in "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty", is epidemic in the Fractured Fairy Tale. Even retellings that do not parody the fairy tales generally stick to the best known.

We know that fairy tales are Older Than Dirt because clearly recognizable fairy tales turn up, occasionally, in written form as far back as there has been writing. A 2016 Linguistic study suggested that two ("the Boy steals the Ogre's Treasure' (Jack and the Beanstalk in English) and various Faustian Bargain stories) date back to the very beginnings of civilization (3500-4500 B.C.E.). The story of Jason and Medea is a form of "The girl helps the hero flee" like The White Dove; a whole cycle of Chivalric Romance are tales of "The girl without hands" like The One-Handed Girl. However, many of these are also clearly written in literary form, and the others may also be far removed from the orally told tales of their time. Nor were they distinguished from other types of story. Giambattista Basile's The Pentamerone in 1634 (or so) was the first collection to contain only what we would recognize as fairy tales, but heavily rewritten into a literary style. The Brothers Grimm were the first to even try to save the folk version, and all tales collected from the oral tradition post-date theirs.

Fairy tales were originally intended for all ages, but for a long period of time, they were only written or presented as children's stories. Disney is rather famous for adapting fairy tales into movie musicals, often with changes to make them more light-hearted. Writers who seek to restore fairy tales to their original intensity may intensify it to the point of Grimmification.

See also Fairy Tale Tropes for a list of tropes common to fairy tales, Propp's Functions of Folktales, and Fairytale Motifs. If they're parodied, you get a Fractured Fairy Tale. Not to Be Confused with the similarly-named manga Fairy Tail.

For works about fairies, see Fairy Fiction.

• Gianfrancesco Straparola — author of the first notable collection of European (specifically, Italian) fairy tales, The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550/53)
• Giambattista Basile — The Pentamerone (1634/36); the first collection solely of fairy tales
• Charles Perrault — Tales of Mother Goose (1697)
• Madame d'Aulnoy — coined the term "fairy tale" with her Les Contes des Fées (1697/98)
• The Brothers Grimm — Children's and Household Tales (1812)
• Asbjørnsen and Moe — Norwegian Folktales (1842/43)
• Ludwig Bechstein — Deutsches Märchenbuch (1845) and Neues Deutsches Märchenbuch (1857)
• Johann Wilhelm Wolf — Deutsche Märchen und Sagen (1845) and Deutsche Hausmärchen (1851)
• Božena Němcová — National Tales and Legends (1845/48) and Slovak Fairy Tale and Legends (1856/57)
• Svend Grundtvig — Gamle Danske Minder i Folkemunde (1854/61) and Danske Folkæventyr (1876/78)
• Alexander Afanasyev — Russian Fairy Tales, 8 volumes (1855/67)
• Manuel Fernández y González — La Alhambra: Leyendas Árabes (1856)
• Franz Xaver von Schönwerth - Aus der Oberpfalz (1857-1859).
• Laura Gonzenbach — Sicilianische Märchen (1870)
• Francesc Maspons i Labrós — Lo Rondallayre: Quentos Populars Catalans (1871/75) and Cuentos Populars Catalans (1885)
• Jean-François Bladé — Contes populaires de la Gascogne (1886)
• Petre Ispirescu — Legende sau basmele românilor (1872)
• Giuseppe Pitrè — Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliane (1875)
• Paul Sébillot — Contes Populaires de la Haute-Bretagne (1880/82)
• Pavol Dobšinský — National Slovak Tales (1880/83)
• Evald Tang Kristensen — Æventyr fra Jylland (1881/97)
• Zófimo Consiglieri Pedroso — Portuguese Folk-Tales (1882)
• Teófilo Braga — Contos Tradicionaes do Povo Portuguez (1883)
• Emmanuel Cosquin — Contes Populaires de Lorraine (1886)
• Heinrich Von Wlislocki — Märchen und Sagen der transsilvanischen Zigeuner (Fairy Tales and Legends of the Transylvanian Gypsies) (1886)
• François-Marie Luzel — Contes Populaires de Basse-Bretagne (1887)
• Elek Benedek — Magyar mese- és mondavilág (1894/96)
• Charles Polydore de Mont and Alfons de Cock — Dit zijn Vlaamsche wondersprookjes, het volk naverteld (1896) and Dit zijn Vlaamse vertelsels uit den volksmond opgeschreven (1898)
• Jonas Basanavičius — Lietuviškos pasakos (1898-1926)
• Andrew Lang — Colored Fairy Books, 12 volumes (1889-1910)
• Joseph Jacobs — Fairy Tales, 5 volumes (1890-1916)
  • European Folk And Fairy Tales
• Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić — Croatian Tales of Long Ago (1916)
• Carmen Lyra — Cuentos de mi tía Pachita (1920)
• Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa — Cuentos Populares Españoles (1923/26)
• Aurelio de Llano Roza de Ampudia — Cuentos Asturianos Recogidos de la Tradición Oral (1925)
• John Sampson — Welsh Gypsy Folk Tales (1933)
• Henri Pourrat — Le Trésor des contes (1948/61)
• Italo Calvino — Italian Folktales (1956)
• Geneviève Massignon — Contes de l'Ouest (1954), Contes Corses (1963) and Folktales of France (1966)
• Marie Voříšková — Cikánské pohádky (Gypsy Fairy Tales) (1959)
• Jerzy Ficowski — Sister of the Birds and Other Gypsy Tales (1961)
• Angela Carter — The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book (1990/92)
• Ana Cristina Herreros — Libro de Monstruos Españoles (2008)
• Hedina Sijercic — Rromane Paramicha: Stories and Legends of the Gurbeti Roma (2009)

• E. T. A. Hoffmann
• Wilhelm Hauff — The Caravan (1825) and The Spessart Inn (1827)
• Hans Christian Andersen — the maybe most famous author of literary fairy tales (Fairy Tales Told for Children and New Fairy Tales, 1835-44)
• Zacharias Topelius — Läsning för Barn (1865/96)
• George MacDonald — Phantastes (1858), The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and many more.
• Frank R. Stockton — The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales (1881) and The Bee-man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales (1887)
• Luigi Capuana — C'era una volta (1882), Il raccontafiabe (1894) and Chi vuol fiabe, chi vuole? (1903)
• Oscar Wilde — The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranate (1891)
• Helena Nyblom — Debuted in 1897, and since then published several fairy tales, some of the most well-known included in the anthology Among Gnomes and Trolls
• Mimei Ogawa — Deemed in Japan as the Japanese Hans Christian Andersen
• Godfried Bomans — Sprookjes (1946)
• Jan Drda — České pohádky (1959)
• Jan Werich — Fimfárum (1960)
• Pierre Gripari — Contes de la Rue Broca (1967)

• Joseph Campbell — The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• Christopher Vogler — The Writer's Journey
• J. R. R. Tolkien — On Fairy-Stories
• Vladimir Propp — The Morphology of the Folktale
• The Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale classification system, an attempt to catalog every folktale plot there is.

• Arabian Nights
  • Aladdin
  • Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
  • The Ebony Horse
  • Sinbad the Sailor
  • The Story of Sidi Nouman
• Ansige Karamba The Glutton
• Ara the Handsome
• The Baba Yaga fairy tales
• The Baker's Daughter
• Bearskin
• Beauty and the Beast
  • Little Broomstick
• The Bee And The Orange Tree
• Biancabella And The Snake
• The Big Fancy House
• The Black Spider
• The Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen
• Bluebeard
• The Blueberry
• The Blue Bird
• The Blue Mountains
• Boots Who Made the Princess Say 'That's a Story!'
• The Brave Little Tailor
• The Bremen Town Musicians
• Brother and Sister
• The Brown Bear of the Green Glen
• The Buried Moon
• The Canary Prince
• Cap o' Rushes
• Catherine and Her Fate
• The Cat on the Dovrefell
• Catskin
• "Chicken Little"
• Childe Rowland
• Cinderella
  • Yeh-Shen
  • Tấm Cám
  • Bawang Merah Bawang Putih
• The Crab Prince
• Cupid And Psyche
• The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird
• The Daughter Of Buk Ettemsuch
• David of Sasun
• The Death of Koschei the Deathless
• "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs"
• Dick Whittington and His Cat
• The Discreet Princess
• Donkeyskin
  • Allerleirauh
  • Dona Labismina
  • Mossycoat
  • The Princess In The Suit Of Leather
  • The Princess With The Gold Star On Her Brow
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• Egle, the Queen of Serpents
• "The Enchanted Quill"
• The Elf Maiden
• The Elves and the Cobbler
• The Enchanted Pig
• Fair Brow
• The Fair One with Golden Locks
• Fairer Than A Fairy
• The Famous Flower of Serving Men
• Farmer Weathersky
• The Feather of Finist the Falcon
• The Fire-Bird, the Horse of Power, and the Princess Vasilissa
• The Fisher Girl And The Crab
• The Fisherman and His Wife
• Florinda
• "Follow Me, Jodel!"
• The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
• Foundling Bird
• The Four Skillful Brothers
• The Four Travelers
• Frau Trude
• The Frog Prince
• "The Frost, the Sun, and the Wind"
• "Gambling Hansel"
• The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
• The Gingerbread Man
• The Girl And The Dead Man
• The Girl Without Hands
• "Good Day, Fellow! Axe Handle!"
• The Grateful Prince
• The Grave Mound
• Godfather Death
• The Golden Bird
• The Golden Goose
• The Golden Phoenix
• The Golden Roebuck
• The Gold Mountain
• Goldilocks
• The Goose Girl
• The Goose Girl At The Well
• Graciosa And Percinet
• The Grateful Beasts
• Gullible Men and Mean Wives
• Hans the Hedgehog
• Hansel and Gretel
• Heart of Ice (Andrew Lang)
• The Homunculus of Maimonides
• Hop-o'-My-Thumb
• How Jack Sought The Golden Apples
• How The Six Made Their Way In The World
• Iron Hans
• The Iron Stove
• Ivan Turbincă
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Jack the Giant Killer (predecessor to "Jack and the Beanstalk" and itself a variation of The Brave Little Tailor)
• Jesper Who Herded the Hares
• The Jezinkas
• Jorinde and Joringel
• The Juniper Tree
• Kate Crackernuts
• "King Goldenlocks"
• King Thrushbeard
• The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate
• Kintaro
• "Kolobok"
• The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh
• The Lambton Worm
• The Lazy Spinner
• The Liar (folktale)
• "Little Master Misery"
• The Little Old Woman With Five Cows
• "Little Otik"
• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward
• The Lord of the Winds
• The Love of Three Oranges
• The Ludicrous Wishes
• "The Magic Mirror"
• Maid Maleen
• Malin Kundang
• Molly Whuppie
• Momotarō
• Morozko
• Mother Holle
• My Own Self
• The Necklace Of Princess Fiorimonde
• The Nettle Spinner
• "Nine Bags Of Gold"
• The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples
• The Nix in the Mill-Pond
• Nourie Hadig
• "The Old Dame and her Hen"
• "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes"
• The One-Handed Girl
• Peter and the Wolf
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin
• The Pig King
• Pintosmalto
• Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun
• Prince Lindworm
• Prince Wolf
• Princess Belle-Etoile
• The Princess on the Glass Hill
• Prunella
• Puddocky
• Puss in Boots
• The Queen Bee
• Rapunzel
• The Rose Tree
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Schippeitaro
• The Sea Tsar And Vasilissa The Wise
• The Seven Foals
• The Seven Ravens
• The Singing Mermaid
• The Singing, Springing Lark
• Sir Aldingar
• The Six Servants
• The Six Swans
• Sleeping Beauty
  • Sun, Moon, and Talia
• Snow White
  • Giricoccola
  • Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree
  • The Magic Needle
  • Marigo Of The Forty Dragons
  • Richilda
  • The Unnatural Mother And The Girl With A Star On Her Forehead
• Snow-White and Rose-Red
• Snow-White-Fire-Red
• "The Soldier And Death"
• "Soria Moria Castle"
• The Star Money
• St. Joseph in the Forest
• The Story of King Odd
• "The Story of the Yara"
• The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was
• "The Swan Maiden"
• Sweet Porridge
• Sweetheart Roland
• "The Table, the Donkey, and the Stick"
• The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
• "Tam Lin"
• "Tattercoats"
• Tatterhood
• The Three Aunts
• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• "The Three Enchanted Princes"
• "The Three Flowers"
• The Three Little Men in the Wood
• The Three Little Pigs
• The Three May Peaches
• The Three Princes And Their Beasts
• The Three Snake Leaves
• Timun Mas
• The Tom Thumb tales
• The Troll's Daughter
• True and Untrue
• The True Bride
• Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf
• Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard
• "The Turnip Princess"
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses
• The Twelve Huntsmen
• The Twelve Months
• "The Twelve Wild Geese"
• The Two Brothers
• Udea And Her Seven Brothers
• Urikohime and the Amanojaku
• Vasilissa the Beautiful
• The Water Of Life
• The White Cat
• The White Dove
• The White Duck
• The White Snake
• The White Wolf
• Whuppity Stoorie
• Willie's Lady
• The Wise Little Girl
• The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
• The Woodcutters Wealthy Sister
• The Wounded Lion
• The Yellow Dwarf
• Young Beichan

Literary Fairy Tales

• Adalmina's Pearl
• The Adventures of Strong Vanya
• Agneta And The Sea King
• The Big Sister and Little Sister
• The Clever Princess
• Dwarf Nose
• The Egyptian Cinderella
• The Elf Of The Rose
• The Emperor's New Clothes
• Feathertop
• The Fisherman And His Soul
• The Flying Trunk
• Girls to the Rescue
• The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf
• The Girl With The Velvet Ribbon (and variants)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
• Gorgo the Ogre
• The Griffin And The Minor Canon
• The Happy Prince
• How Droofus The Dragon Lost His Head
• John The Valiant
• The King Of The Golden River
• The Lady Of The Lake
• Little Idas Flowers
• The Little Match Girl
• The Little Mermaid
• Loskutik And The Cloud
• Maraboe and Morsegat
• The Marsh Kings Daughter
• Nickolai of the North
• The Nightingale
• The Nutcracker and the Mouse King — A literary fairy tale known mostly for providing the basis for the ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
• Petronella
• The Princess and the Pea
• The Raspberry Worm
• The Red Candles And The Mermaid
• The Red Shoes
• Ruler of the Magical Keys
• RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant
• Saint George and the Dragon
• The Selfish Giant
• The Shadow
• Sleeping Beauty and the Good Fairies
• The Snow Queen
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier
• The Story of the Fire Swan
• Strega Nona
• The Tale of Norna-Gest
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Thumbelina
• The Tinder Box
• The Twelve Months
• The Ugly Duckling
• Undine
• While the Clock Chimes

Fantasy

• The 13 Clocks
• The Adventures of Pinocchio
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — Notable for being a fairy tale of nonsense instead of magic.
• At the Back of the North Wind
• Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus
• Barbie & The Diamond Castle
• Barbie and the Secret Door
• Beren and Lúthien
• The Book of Life. A story set in 1920 Mexico that involves God and magical items.
• The Black Swan
• Castle in the Air
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is built on mad science instead of magic, but fits many fairy tale tropes otherwise. Many other Roald Dahl works aimed at children qualify as fairy tales as well, and his Revolting Rhymes is a collection of tongue-in-cheek retellings of "Cinderella", "Snow White", etc.
• Coraline, a book by Neil Gaiman.
  • Coraline, a film adaptation of the same name.
  • Coraline: The Game, a game adaptation of the film.
• Corpse Bride
• The Cursebreaker Series
• DARLING in the FRANXX
• Eat Me — based on The Nutcracker
• Edward Scissorhands
• Erase una vez...
• Ever After Academy
• Ever After High
• Fairy Musketeers
• Fairy Tales Of Mourania
• The Fall of Gondolin
• Fantaghirò
• Farmer Giles of Ham
• The Farthest-Away Mountain
• The Gardens Of Dorr
• The Golden Horns
• Half Upon a Time
• The Hazel Wood
• Howl's Moving Castle — A novel in which a witch bewitched the hatter's daughter, as well as the loose anime adaptation of the same name.
• Into the Bloodred Woods
• Into the Heartless Wood
• Labyrinth
• Land of Oz
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the novel that started it all.
  • The Marvelous Land of Oz is its first sequel.
  • Ozma of Oz is book number 3.
  • Glinda of Oz is the 14th book and the last one written by its original writer.
  • Tales of the Magic Land is the Soviet version of Oz.
  • The Wicked Years is a revisionist novel series about the Wicked Witch of the West and her descendants, later adapted into a much more famous musical.
  • Wicked — The musical adaptation of the novel.
  • The Wiz is the original novel given a Race Lift; the movie adaptation also gives it a Setting Update.
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
• The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
• The Light Princess
• Little Otik
• The Lost Princess
• Merlin (2008), specifically the episodes "The Labyrinth of Gedref" and "The Hunter's Heart".
• Momo
• Moonflowers, an Urban Fantasy on hitRECord. It's written in the style of fairy tales, draws heavily on Celtic Mythology, and The Wild Hunt are the main antagonists.
• Namesake
• Once Upon A Time
• The Ordinary Princess
• The Orphan's Tales
• Pan's Labyrinth
• The Paper Bag Princess
• Penelope (2006)
• Peter Pan
• Phantastes
• The Plucker — An illustrated novel by Brom
• Poison
• The Princess and the Goblin
  • The Princess and Curdie
• The Princess Bride
• Princess Tutu
• Ranking of Kings
• Revolutionary Girl Utena
  • Adolescence of Utena
• Roverandom
• RWBY: Fairy Tales
• Satyrday
• The School for Good and Evil
  • The School for Good and Evil (2022) (Film adaptation)
• Smith of Wootton Major
• Son of the White Horse - adaptation of a Hungarian folktale.
• Song of the Sea
• Stardust, the novel by Neil Gaiman
  • Stardust, the film adaptation of the above
• Sylvie and Bruno
• Tales of the Big Bad Wolf is a fantasy web novel that is a loosely based retelling of a Red Riding Hood romantic polygon that incorporates other myths, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes.
• The Tale of Despereaux
• Tales of the Frog Princess
  • The first book inspired the film The Princess and the Frog
• The Thousand Year Rose
• Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
• The Velveteen Rabbit
• Les Voyageurs Sans Souci
• The Wide-Awake Princess
• The Wishing Maiden
• Wolfwalkers

Adaptations and retellings:

• Aladdin
• Alice in Wonderland (1949)
• Alice in Wonderland (1985)
• Alice in Wonderland (1999)
• Alice in Wonderland (2010)
  • Alice Through the Looking Glass
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (JP)
• Andersen Monogatari
• Animated Tales of the World
• Barbie as Rapunzel
• Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses
• Barbie of Swan Lake
• Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair — film adaptation of a Russian fairy tale
• Bearhead
• Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales
• Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
  • Rose Daughter, another retelling of that fairy tale by the same author
• Beauty and the Beast
• Beauty and the Beast (1946)
• Beauty and the Beast (2014)
• Beauty and the Beast (2017)
• The Bloody Chamber — Angela Carter's collection of popular fairy tales such as "Bluebeard," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Cinderella" rewritten with a feminist slant.
• Britannica's Tales Around the World — animated series that teaches kids a familiar tale from around the world, followed by two lesser-known stories that share similar themes or tropes.
• Bryony and Roses: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
• Cenerentola — A retelling of Cinderella set in post-war Rome.
• The Korean Movie Chunhyang is a more accurate version of the folk tale.
• Cinderella
• Cinderella (2015)
• Cinderella 3D: Has nothing to do with Disney. It's a bizarre twist on the Cinderella story, taking place in the west.
• Cinderella the Cat
• The Company of Wolves
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
• Creation Of The World
• Deerskin
• Delightful Girl Choon Hyang: A modern retelling of a South Korean Tale of a rich man's son and a courtesan's daughter.
• Dragons of Ether
• Emily and the Baba Yaga
• Erstwhile
• Ever After
• Faerie Tale Theatre: Live-action adaptations by way of British pantomime shows.
• The Fool and the Flying Ship: Rabbit Ears Productions adaptation of the Russian Folktale narrated by Robin Williams.
• The Frog Princess - Soviet adaptation of Russian fairy tale The Frog Princess.
• Frozen
• The Girl In The Tower
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
• Grim Tales
• Gypsy Tales
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child
• The Hare's Bride
• Heartless (2016)
• Hagenheim
• The Humpbacked Horse - Soviet adaptation of the homonymous verse fairy tale.
• Hungarian Folk Tales (Magyar népmesék) - Hungarian animated series that adapts Hungarian folktales
• Immortal - a Fantasy webcomic heavily inspired by Slavic Myth and Russian fairy tales
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1974)
• Jack the Giant Slayer
• Johnny Corncob
• The Legend of Snow White
• Let's Pretend — A Radio Series
• The Light Princess — Tori Amos and Samuel Adamson's musical adaptation for the National Theater in London
• The Little Mermaid (1989) — Disney's adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tale.
• The Lost Country, by Luminiţa Mihai Cioabă
• The Lunar Chronicles — a sci-fi dystopian novel series featuring Cinderella as a snarky cyborg Wrench Wench, Little Red Riding Hood as a part alien gunslinging farm girl, Rapunzel as a brilliant but naive Hackette and Snow White as a Cloud Cuckoolander space princess.
• Marvel Fairy Tales
• Marya Morevna
• Märchen — a Symphonic Metal Rock Opera that bases itself on seven of the Grimm's fairy tales.
• Mavka: The Forest Song
• Mire Bala Kale Hin
• Mirror, Mirror
• Mokku of the Oak Tree
• Morozko — based on the Russian Fairy Tale "Morozko"/"Father Frost"
• Mystery Legends: Beauty and the Beast - a Hidden Object Game that acts as a sort of sequel to the fairy tale.
• Panna a netvor
• The Path — based on Little Red Riding Hood
• Piccolino no Bouken
• Pinocchio
• Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
• "Prince Charming": A short story drawing on Cinderella.
• Prince Kaguya: A musical based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• Princess Arete: Animated film based on The Clever Princess.
• The Princess and the Pea: Animated film based on the eponymous tale.
• Princess From the Moon: A film based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• Pulchritude
• Queen's Tales: The Beast and the Nightingale
• Red Riding Hood
• Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
• Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
• Sandra the Fairy Tale Detective: A Spanish cartoon
• The Seventh Bride: A retelling of Bluebeard.
• The Sevenwaters Trilogy: The first volume draws on an old fairy tale for its plot.
• Shadows on the Moon: Japanesesque version of Cinderella
• Simsala Grimm
• Six-Gun Snow White
• Sleeping Beauty
• The Slipper and the Rose
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the ground-breaking Disney animated film from 1937.
• Snow White: A Tale of Terror
• Snow White & the Huntsman
  • The Huntsman: Winter's War
• The Story of Cinderella
• The Storyteller, TV series by Jim Henson
• Swan Lake
• The Swan Princess
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya: : An animated film based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• Tale of Tales
• Tangled
• Thumbelina
• Thumbelina (1994)
• Thumbelina: A Magical Story
• The Wizard of Oz
• White as Snow
• Wolves, Witches and Giants
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots

Parodies, pastiches, and deconstructions:

• The 10th Kingdom
• 7 Zwerge
• Alabaster — for "Snow White"
• Beauty And The Beast — A Webcomic
• Bronze — for "Beauty and the Beast"
• The Brothers Grimm — The Terry Gilliam movie.
• Castle Waiting — A comic series about what happens to various fairy tale characters after their well-known stories end.
• Cinderella Phenomenon — a Visual Novel Romance Game where there is a "Fairytale Curse" which forces the inflicted to deal with a warped version of the tale it is based on. The lead is a princess who is cursed with "Cinderella", turning her into a Fallen Princess and forcing her to find a way to break the curse.
• The Dark Parables — a series of puzzle games for the PC in which various fairy tales are intertwined with each other and the player must set right the things which have gone wrong.
• The Devil and Daniel Webster
• Dragon-in-Distress
• Dust City
• Everland
• Fables — A comic-book series that deals with the lives of classic fairy tale characters stuck in New York City.
• The Fairly OddParents! — Based loosely on Cinderella, but with a dose of other parodies in it.
• Glass — for "Cinderella"
• Grimm Fairy Tales
• Half Upon a Time
• Hófehér
• Hoodwinked!
  • Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
• Into the Woods
  • Into the Woods, the film adaptation of the above.
• Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story
• Knights of Buena Vista (in that it features a fictional roleplaying game that is based on fairy tales instead of the typical High Fantasy of similar games)
• Living Legends
• The Little Crooked Tale - a Horror Webcomic featuring a dark reinterpretation of the canonical Disney Princesses after their happy endings, crossing over with several other fairy tales.
• Maleficent: A Twice-Told Tale / Perspective Flip by Disney that takes elements from their earlier adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty, set in an Alternate Continuity. Noteworthy in that it plays with and deconstructs various tropes related to the original tale, a major one being True Love's Kiss.
  • Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
• Mary Skelter — A video game series about an alien force transforming Tokyo into a twisted landscape modeled after numerous fairy tales from around the world, the central cast struggling not only to escape but to balance their own personal existence with their enforced character traits from the stories that helped create them.
• Melisande
• No Rest for the Wicked
• Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
• Once Upon A Fairy Tale — A book-on-tape featuring four different fairy tales, told from the perspectives of each character.
• Once Upon a Time
  • Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
• Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Garner
• Prince Cinders
• The Princess Series — by Jim C. Hines. It's basically the Disney princesses meets Charlie's Angels
• Regal Academy
• Rule of Rose
• Shrek franchise
  • Shrek
  • Shrek 2
  • Shrek the Third
  • Shrek Forever After
  • Puss in Boots (spin-off)
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (sequel to the spin-off)
• RWBY - an animesque series in which every character is a subtle reference to literature, folklore, mythology, and even the occasional history
• The Secret Of The Crystal Castle – deconstructing the Engagement Challenge plot
• The Sisters Grimm
• A Song of Ice and Fire and the TV series adaptation Game of Thrones — takes a lot of characters and story conventions from fairy tales with the aim of applying Surprisingly Realistic Outcome and deconstruction elements.
• The Stinky Cheese Man
• Super Why!
• Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms — a world in which the Fairy Tale Tropes are the laws of nature.
• The Three Little Wolves And The Big Bad Pig
• Time Lord Fairy Tales — Twice-Told Tale retellings of fairy tales set in the Whoniverse.
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
• Revolve 8 Episodic Dueling — A strategy/tower defense game featuring bizarre reimaginings of fairy tale and literary characters.
• The Witcher: Many of the earliest stories were deconstructions of classic fairy tales, with the addition of a certain monster hunter to the story.