Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Clark, Maribeth

Area of Concentration

Music

Abstract

Retellings allow for new ideas to be forged from old gems. In Cartoon Network's 2014 miniseries Over the Garden Wall, modern ideas of growing up and sibling relationships are depicted through new imaginings of classic folk and fairytales. In this thesis, I show the ways Garden Wall's style of retelling is relevant and necessary for a modern young audience and as a display of modern American cultures and values. While films such as The Wizard of Oz and classics by Disney Studios (films discussed here will be Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and Tangled due to their spacing across different eras of Disney animation and, thus, different places in the history of American ideals alongside their existences as adapted entries in the canon of fairytales) likewise serve as markers of American values through animation and music, Garden Wall breathes new life into adaptation through its use of miniseries (as opposed to film), and its deeper considerations of reference material (Sacred Harp music, Dixieland Jazz, and musical quotes from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel) provide for a richer context to build cultural ideas within. Canonical fairytales, folklore, and larger literary contexts are also picked apart and reassembled within this original animation, allowing for traditional ideas of a fairytale to meld with historical American artifacts to create a uniquely American fairytale for the modern audience.

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