This movie is similar in a way to the version of Snow White that we saw, because of its humanization of certain elements. In Snow White, instead of the "magical" element of the mirror, we got a clever machine. In this movie, the devil is very human looking. There is not necessarily an aspect of "devilish" nature, like I would necessarily expect. While the devil does have horns and a tail, they are very minimal in terms of the whole. His magic is also overdone, and could be explained by special effects.
I found the medium of this film to be told in a very humorous way, especially the part with the boy taking care of the devil. There is no devil's grandmother as in the Grimms novel. Instead, the boy is left handling things himself. He watches the devil play piano, combs out his hair, makes him dinner...I interpreted this part of the plot as an additional way to make the concept of this movie ridiculous, and fake. This society didn't want to acknowledge that there was magic, or stories other then the ones they were telling.
Its interesting that you mention the humanization of elements in both films - I never thought about that. It would also be interesting to think about what effect this humanization has on the way the audience perceives the stories...
ReplyDeleteI agree that the boy handling it himself makes it ridiculous. It relates to communist ideals: that everyone is equal, regardless of age or experience, or schooling, even.
ReplyDeleteThe film clearly did not want to acknowledge magic, or adapt to any other stories than the point of view it wanted to tell, and explains why the devil is human looking. The devil's magic being so over-done, especially with the special effects, paradoxically contributes to the lessening of the overall magical effect of the film.