Short Stories: Bowdlerize

Short Stories: July 22, 2026 Issue [#13852]


 


Bowdlerize
       Editor: annette
                   More Newsletters By This Editor  


Table of Contents
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions


About This Newsletter
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." attributed to Albert Einstein.

Letter from the editor
Bowdlerize

 Bowdlerizing is taking old stories and taking out all of the things that made them scary, gory, edgy, or thought-provoking.

One of the more common examples in the Western Hemisphere is the way that the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were reworked by Walt Disney to fit his sensibilities. Interestingly, his 1930s sensibilities are now considered too edgy and have been further toned down.

A classic example is the downward slope starting with the Snow White tale in which the original had a particularly violent and gory death for the evil queen. In the 1937 Disney cartoon movie, the evil queen ended up getting tipped over a cliff at the end. Still dead, but a lot cleaner. Everything else that the Disney storytelling machine has touched since has become even less edgy all around.

The Incredibles of Pixar from the year 2004 was an all out action adventure. The peril was real. The villain had a rainforest lair and henchmen who shot live rounds at the children. When one of their glass bubble vehicles burst into a flaming ball of fire, Dash (an elementary school age boy), laughed maniacally. Incredibles 2 of Disney from the year 2018 had a big cast of super heroes with a variety of powers. Nobody was ever in deadly danger. Everything is silly including the villain.

As a writer of stories, ask yourself whether you have a real message and how graphic you're willing to be. Packaging everything into a neat preschool appropriate package might feel like the right thing to do, but it can be more rewarding to tell stories where the characters have to tackle real issues and have to come up with solutions that may not always come across as clean, but they are the only way out. Think Hansel and Gretel.

Or if you're talking to a publisher who wants you to dull your stories, go with the Studio Ghibli tactic. When Miramax (of Disney at the time) wanted to make edits to Princess Mononoke for its US release in 1997, the studio boss didn't send them a letter or an email. There was no phone call either. What did come in the mail was a katana. The movie was not edited.


Editor's Picks
WRITING
The Magic Box  (E)
Can you imagine what's inside this magic box?
 
WRITING
Snow White & The 7 Dwarfs  (E)
One Year Later.....
#259424 by gresylMail Icon
WRITING
Da Hanzel und Gretal  (13+)
Winner of Belle's Fairytale Twist Contest
#1065721 by wdwilcoxMail Icon
 
WRITING
SIR TOM THUMBE  (13+)
re-telling of a fairy tale
WRITING
Courage and Sunflower Seeds  (ASR)
A story of courage and sunflower seeds
#845160 by mhicksMail Icon
 
WRITING
The Three-Headed Dragon  (ASR)
A children's fairytale of love and loss and happily-ever-after
#961430 by wdwilcoxMail Icon
WRITING
Moonlightning, The Black Unicorn  (E)
A fairytale for children- A very special Black Unicorn is captured. (revised)
#773270 by intueyMail Icon
WRITING
Fairy Princess Celine and the Dragon  (ASR)
A fairy Princess raises a baby dragon.
 
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Word from Writing.Com
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Ask & Answer
Replies to my last Short Stories Newsletter "Two Main Characters" 

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