The ‘Grimness' of Grimm’s Fairy Tales: An Analysis of "American McGee’s Grimm," A Video Game Adaptation

October 24^th, 2016

In the video game, American McGee’s Grimm (a 23-part episodic series), the titular narrator – a dwarf named Grimm – has become increasingly dissatisfied with the modern lightheartedness of fairy tales, and thus seeks to restore them to their darker, more gruesome origins. Each episode of the game details a different Brother’s Grimm tale; the first episode specifically tackles the Tale of One Who Set Out to Learn Fear, in which a young boy sets out on a journey to understand what it is like to be afraid (Grimm 9). The game’s narrator, along with the player, work together to adapt this classic story into a far more sullen form. Due to the unusual nature of the adaptation in question, this essay will first explain in detail how the game consciously subverts and often shows outright distain for traditional fairy tale motifs and themes. This essay will then explain how the original story – unique in the history of folk tales as it parodies the heroic virtue quest as well as Lüthi’s principle of “depthlessness” – loses its unique folk charm as a result of the adaptation’s darker tone. Overall, this essay will prove that American McGee’s Grimm does not faithfully adapt the Tale of One Who Set Out to Learn Fear, and is only interested in the story insofar as it is able to ridicule and deconstruct it.

The video game adaptation, American McGee’s Grimm, is first able to subvert and ridicule the story’s fairy tale motifs simply by virtue of it’s medium. The game begins with a cut-scene that gives a very brief retelling of the tale as it appears in Tales of Children and the Home by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, albeit heavily condensed and slightly changed (American McGee). Like many fairy tales, the original’s plot events are highly isolated and compartmentalized, such that the story can be heavily reshaped so long as its core premise remains intact (Lüthi 56). The problem arises, however, when an adaptation attempts to alter this core premise, as the narrator of American McGee’s Grimm so tries to do. This central motif – that of a boy setting out to understand fear – is absolutely critical to the story, and Appelbaum specifically identifies the boy as “one of folk-lore’s numerous ‘unpromising heroes’ who ultimately succeed” (xiii). The essence of the motif is the boy’s ability to overcome adversity (mostly through his own ignorance) and find success. In the case of the Tale of One Who Set Out to Learn Fear, this success takes the form of a happy ending in which the boy is betrothed to a princess (Grimm 23). However, the narrator in American McGee’s Grimm subverts this by expressing a great distaste for classical saccharine fairy-tale resolutions, imitating snoring sounds at the thought of it, and asking players if they can “make sure [the main character] fails” (American McGee). It is then the player’s job to enter the world of the storybook and run through the various locales referred to in the tale (e.g. the gallows, the haunted castle, etc.), spreading chaos and death throughout the boy’s world (American McGee). This culminates in a final dark retelling of the story where the boy is terrified at every turn, and runs away from his extremely overbearing and pig-faced bride (American McGee). This is done under the pretense of removing the lighthearted elements of the story, and restoring it to its original, unsanitized state (American McGee). In reality, however, this process completely strips the story of its essential fairy-tale motifs and happy ending (as outlined by Appelbaum), thus resulting in an adaptation more in keeping with the narrator’s own dark sensibilities than anything else. The game does an extremely poor job of faithfully adapting the story, as it is entirely devoted to the deconstruction of one of the original tale’s most important elements.

The new, morose adaptation created through the player’s actions also destroys the most interesting part of the original folk story: the fact that it was already a parody of the traditional heroic quest. In these tales, a skillful young man sets out to find adventure armed only with his upstanding heroic virtues (Tatar 97). The Tale of the One Who Set Out to Learn Fear parodies this tradition by creating a character who’s only defining virtue is his lack of virtue – his inability to be afraid. As Maria Tatar explains: “It is precisely the absence of the capacity to fear that enables the sprightly hero to withstand the horrors of a haunted castle … were it not for the comic overtones in his adventures, it would seem entirely appropriate to place him in the class of heroes who live by their courage” (97). The original story is so special and absurd precisely because the hero is unable to feel fear, or any sort of complex emotion (Grimm 11). This imbues in him a sense of ironic virtue and courage, as he is thus able to face numerous supernatural horrors unfazed (Grimm 21). American McGee’s Grimm proves itself to be either unaware or uncaring in regards to this important aspect of the tale, as the game forces the player to continually evoke fear in the boy, thereby imbuing him with more complex considerations (American McGee). In the final dark recreation of the story, the narrator explains that the boy leaves home not to understand fear, as he is already “very well acquainted with it,” but to discover what is worthy of fear (American McGee). When the boy finally spends a night at the castle, he does so simply out of fear of death, as the king threatened to execute the boy if he did not to exorcize the demons (American McGee). In the eyes of the narrator, this complete subversion from the spirit of the original tale is an achievement. He says, “This finally makes some sense. The boy never volunteered to rid the castle of its demons. He was shanghaied!” (American McGee). These changes are clearly not in-keeping with the core spirit of the original tale. The explicit goal of the game is not to provide a faithful interpretation, but to subvert the original narrative in as many ways as possible. As a result of the game’s attempt to darken the story, the boy’s only defining virtue is removed entirely. The tale no longer has a clear place within the heroic tradition, and its subtle comic overtones are abandoned in favour of more crude, morose humor.

The original character’s inability to feel fear is also significant in that it allows him to essentially embody Max Lüthi’s principle of ‘depthlessness’. This is the idea that fairy tale characters often lack psychological depth, and are defined only by external actions (Lüthi 15). As Lüthi himself explains, “One cannot even speak of the characters of folktale as being intelligent … Not internal emotions but external impulses propel the characters of the folktale onward. They are impelled and guided by … difficulties and lucky happenstances, not by the prompting of their hearts.” (15). This characterization is extremely consistent with the main character of the Tale of One Who Set Out to Learn Fear, as his only consideration is his desire to understand fear, and in his attempt to do so he consistently finds himself in difficult situations that no intelligent person would ever subject themselves to (Grimm 19). This depthlessness (lack of internal emotion) is taken to its comic extension in the tale, as the boy only comes to understand fear by experiencing the sensation of shuddering – the outward physical action that occurs when one is afraid (Grimm 23). American McGee’s Grimm takes issue with this specific plot point, however, with the narrator expressing incredulity at the fact that the boy “never learned what fear was … where’s the fun in that?” (American McGee). As a result of this distaste on the part of the narrator, the adaptation forces the character to experience genuine fear - an internal emotion (American McGee). It is this fear that then motivates all the character’s actions, as previously explained – fear of his father, fear of death, fear of marriage (American McGee). These are more complex emotions and considerations than the boy in the original tale ever had to contend with. Thus, American McGee’s Grimm adaptation further lessens the story’s authentic folk-tale feeling by stripping the story of it’s inherent depthlessness – an attribute required by Lüthi for a fairy tale to truly be considered a fairy tale.

Ultimately, American McGee’s Grimm makes no attempt to faithfully adapt the Tale of One Who Set Out To Learn Fear, as it removes or changes numerous important motifs of the original story, while also deliberately mocking them. In the pursuit of creating a story with a darker tone, the title character is made to experience deep dread and fear. As a result, the tale loses its main premise; the story loses its heroic, ironic undertones; and the main character is robbed of his one defining characteristic, upon which the story is named. In the end, the American McGee’s Grimm adaptation demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of the original story, and the intangible fairy-tale effect is lost as a result. While its intention was obviously to deconstruct the story and recreate it in a morbid fashion, this process ultimately removed much of what made the original story a tale worth telling.

Works Cited

American McGee’s Grimm: A Boy Learns What Fear Is. Season 1, Episode 1. Spicy Horse.

2008. Video game.

Appelbaum, Stanley, translator. “Introduction.” Selected Folktales: A Dual Language Book, by

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, 2003.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. “Tale of One Who Set Out to Learn Fear.” Selected Folktales: A

Dual-Language Book. Ed. And trans. Stanley Appelbaum. New York: Dover, 2003

Lüthi, Max. The European Folktale: Form and Nature. Trans. John D. Niles. Bloomington and

Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1986.

Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Princeton: Princeton University Press,

2003. Print.