Tales from the Enchanted Forest

Dance into the night with our episode on the Twelve Dancing Princesses. The original tale is a little less light-hearted than the Barbie classic and with less cursed looking animals!

To celebrate the release of the Barbie movie, we wanted to dive deep into one of our favourite Barbie stories: Barbie in the Twelve Dancing Princesses! The original story of the “Worn-Out Shoes” was collected by the Brothers Grimm. Specifically, Wilhelm Grimm got the story from Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff. Ironically, the Barbie movie was completely different from what we expected and that happens to be the case with a lot of Grimm fairy tales at first.

Of course, there are many differences to the modified Barbie script so listen out for all the differences! Listen below or on any podcast player!

The Worn-Out Shoes

There was, once upon a time, a King who had twelve beautiful daughters. Each was more beautiful than the last, and the girls shared one large bed chamber. Every night, the King would lock them in their room, but without fail, their dance slippers would be worn through the next day. The King finally had enough and declared that any man who could solve the mystery of where they danced at night would be rewarded with a daughter of his choice and become the heir to the kingdom. The catch was that if the suitors failed to complete the task within three days, they would forfeit their lives.

Many royals came to take on the task, and the King happily received them before being sent to the chamber connecting to the Princess’ so they could watch if the girls left.

However, without fail, every suitor fell asleep and awoke the next day with the same outcome- worn-out slippers.

Art by Ruth Sanderson

Just a Regular Old Woman

Now, it came to pass that a poor, wounded soldier found himself heading towards the palace. He came across an old woman who asked him where he was going. The soldier responded that he didn’t know, but he had half a mind to discover where the princesses danced their shoes and become the next King. He was joking, so he was surprised when the old woman smiled and said it was easy. All he had to do was not drink any wine offered to him and pretend to be asleep in the antechamber.

With that, she gave him a cloak and told him he should throw it to turn invisible and chase after the princesses. The Soldier was wonderstruck, and for the first time since his injury, he had a plan for the future.

Art below by Errol Le Cain.

The Suitor Arrives

When the Solider arrived and declared himself a suitor, the King received him as happily as the rest and led him to the antechamber.

As night fell, the eldest daughter approached with a glass of wine for his troubles. Heeding the old woman’s advice, the Soldier had tied a sponge under his chin, and so he pretended to drink and then let himself collapse as if in a deep sleep.

Upon hearing his snores, the princesses laughed and began pulling out beautiful dresses from their wardrobes. Only the youngest daughter seemed bothered by the fact that they were sending another man to his death. She was sure some misfortune would befall them, but the eldest scolded her. After all, they had bested royal sons- what was one soldier?

Into the Unknown

Art by Errol Le Cain

When the princesses were ready, the eldest tapped on her bed, and it sunk into the ground. They disappeared down the staircase, and the soldier sprung into action, throwing on the cloak and racing after them. It was darker than expected, and he accidentally stepped on the youngest princess’ dress.

She shrieked and cried out to her sisters, but the eldest rebuked her again for being silly and frightened.

Silver Woods

Art by Kay Nielsen

Carefully this time, the soldier followed them down to the bottom, where an avenue of silver trees lined the path. The soldier knew no one would believe him, so he quietly snapped a gleaming silver branch. The youngest heard it and swivelled around. She cried out that something was wrong, but the eldest joked that the crack was just a gunshot for joy at losing their prince so quickly.

The insult was not lost on the soldier, but he continued quietly following them through an avenue of golden trees and one of diamond trees. Each time he took a token, the youngest warned her sisters, but the eldest joked the concerns away.

Did you Gain Weight?

Finally, the princesses stopped by a great lake where twelve handsome princes were waiting on twelve little boats. The happy couples began rowing, and the soldier clambered quickly into the youngest’s boat before it set off. The handsome prince strained with the extra weight and remarked that he had to work harder to row.

Art by Elenore Abbott

The youngest grew uneasy as she had been all night and answered that it must be the heat. Underneath his invisibility cloak, the soldier watched as a brightly lit castle came into view and the noise of joyous trumpets played over the lake.

They landed, and each prince danced with a princess. The soldier danced his under the cloak as well, and when the youngest poured herself a glass of wine, the soldier quickly intercepted and slurped it up. When the princess went to take a drink, she was startled by the empty cup, but the eldest silenced her again.

Dance into the Night

At three in the morning, the princesses had worn down their shoes and were forced to head back. The soldier followed them, but he raced ahead when they reached the stairs so he could lie down on his bed and feign sleep. The princess warily checked in on him before heading to bed.

The next night, he followed them again, and on the final night, he took a cup with him as a token. Finally, the King called him to answer. The princesses were listening in, hiding behind a door. The soldier presented the King with the three magical twigs and the cup. Then, he told the King that his daughters were dancing in an underground castle with twelve princes.

Art by Kay Nielsen

Counsel with the King

The King summoned the princesses to understand if the soldier’s wild story was true. Seeing the twigs and the cup lying before their father, the girls knew they could not lie. One by one, they confessed to the dancing.

Satisfied, the King turned to his new son-in-law and asked which daughter he would take as his wife. The youngest was the most beautiful, but the soldier chose the eldest for his wife. He claimed he was no longer a young man and could not They celebrated their wedding that same day and were declared the heir to the throne following the King’s death.

The Dancing Demons

The last loose end is the Princes in the magical underground Kingdom. There are many different versions that describe their fate, but in short:

The Princes were really demons, and the King ordered his men to collapse the underground stairwell.
The Princes were bewitched, and once the Princesses stopped coming to dance, they were freed.
As punishment for luring the Princesses away, the Princes were bewitched to remain underground for as many days as they danced with the Princesses.

Barbie in the Twelve Dancing Princesses

So, that is the original tale, and anyone who has seen Barbie in The Twelve Dancing Princesses can tell where the story is the same and where it differs. In the Barbie movie, the Princesses only have their widowed father. He invites his cousin, Duchess Rowena, who tries to trap the princesses in the magical world and take over as Queen after poisoning the King. Barbie plays the character of Princess Genevieve and works with her sisters and her love interest, the cobbler Derek, to free themselves and save their father.

To hear us talk about the movie, check out the podcast episode here!

Barbie Cinematic Universe

With the Barbie movie making big waves, we knew we wanted to cover one of the stories told in the Barbie movies, so we did a little deep dive into the Barbie Cinematic Universe, which began in 2001 with Barbie in the Nutcracker. For those of you who aren’t aware, Mattel launched an in-house production company, and for their first era, they focused on existing stories that gave Barbie a softer look. One of their biggest competitors, the Bratz Doll, was more trendy at the time, so Mattel took a double-barrelled approach: they launched the MyScene Dolls as their ‘trendy’ collection while also softening Barbie on the silver screen with Fairy Tales and Princess stories.

Between 2001 and 2009, we had The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Princess and the Pauper, Christmas Carol, and Three Musketeers. There were also some original stories like Diamond Castle and the Mermadia and Fairytopia series.

There were three more Barbie eras, but after 2010, Mattel shifted from princesses to modern-day themes like fashion, pop stars, and the dream house. There has also been a shift away from Barbie as an actor with a frame story but with Barbie as herself. All-in-all, there are animated Barbie movies, and Barbie has mastered the art of resurgence.

Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)
Barbie as Rapunzel (2002)
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Barbie as Princess and the Pauper (2004)
Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (2005)
Barbie Diaries (2006)
Barbie in the Twelve Dancing Princesses (2006)
Barbie in the Christmas Carol (2008)
Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009)

Pointe Shoes

The King was suspicious of the princesses’ nightly activities because of their worn out dancing shoes. Now, I have never owned a pair of dancing shoes before, but the rate of wear and tear seems incredibly fast! So, I decided to look into this- specifically with pointe shoes since those are used in the Barbie movie.

And as it turns out, these shoes have very short life spans. Professional ballet dancers may only use a pair of pointe shoes for fifteen to twenty hours before being worn through. While this time may vary, if the princesses are dancing several hours every night, this wear on the shoes would be quickly visible and need to be replaced frequently.

Motion Capture Dancing

As mentioned before, the first two Barbie Movies were Nutcracker and Swan Lake, which already had well-known ballet productions, however, the Twelve Dancing Princesses needed to create its ballet choreography from scratch. The credit for the dancing goes to Maria Kowroski from the New York City Ballet.

To animate the dance scenes, Kowroski was the motion capture model, similar to how Disney animated the early Cinderella and Snow White movies. There was even an animator specifically in charge of Barbie’s hair to make sure it moved when dancing. It’s a shame there was no call-back or reference to ballet in the new Barbie movie since the dance scenes were a huge part of the earlier films. However, the Ken Dance is an excellent tribute to Barbie in Princess and the Pauper (the first Barbie musical)!

Locked Room Trope

This story begins with a mystery. Every night, the princesses were locked in their room with seemingly no other means of leaving. And yet every morning, their dancing shoes were worn through as if they were dancing all night. However, they were never seen coming or going. This is what you would call a Locked Room Mystery.

These specific mysteries always revolve around peculiar events that transpired within a locked room (usually a murder). Either nobody was in the room, so the death is assumed to be suicide, or there is one other person in the room who becomes the prime suspect. But more often than not, this person is being framed elaborately.

Normally, this is when I would list some specific examples, but then I would be spoiling a lot of fun mystery stories. So, I’ll just say that this is a common trope in a lot of detective stories like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. This is also a staple trope in the Ace Attorney game series, where many trials will begin in this way.

Magic Number Twelve

The title of the story may be The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but that still seems to be a lot of princesses. Not to mention, this number of characters can be difficult to manage from a storytelling perspective. Neither the original story nor the Barbie adaptation could properly give enough character meaning or explanation about each of the princesses. Some variations simplify this by only having six or three princesses instead. So, if the number of sisters could change and the story remained the same, it made me wonder if the number twelve was significant in another way.

It turns out that the number is often used to represent perfection in many religions and mythologies. In Greek mythology, 12 titans were usurped by 12 Olympian gods in the pantheon. We also see in Norse mythology that Odin has 12 sons.

Alternatively, 12 could be alluded to as the months of the year or the lunar rotations in the solar calendar. Perhaps each daughter simply represents different times of the year and thus the passage of time.
Whatever the case may be, it’s interesting to see the repetition of the number twelve in stories from all over.