Whatever happened to fairytale endings?

***********Spoiler Alert: This blog tells the end of several movies.***********

There used to be a day when movies were made about underdogs who triumph against all odds.  You know what I mean.  Something like Sister Act 2 (1993), where a Catholic School that is about to close, located in a down and out area ends up competing in the state choir championships and not only wins but saves the school.  Sports variations like Champions (1992), or Rocky (1976) come to mind as well.  You knew if there was a contest at the end of the movie, and everything was stacked against the hero/s then they would definitely win. 

Then in the mid nineties, something changed, particularly with "teen" movies - those starring 'teens' (whether actual or supposed) and aimed at the young teen/ preteen market.  For example: in Bandslam (2009) a bunch of misfits are brought together by a former head cheerleader, and molded by a music loving loner to compete against the school's popular band Glory Dogs (among others) in a battle of the bands type competition - the eponymous Bandslam.  The odds are stacked against them.  Not only are they misfits, but they are betrayed by the former cheerleader, and the loner is targeted cruelly by the leader of the Glory Dogs.  Finally their song is sung by the Glory Dogs just before they go on, and they have only minutes to change their song.  A perfect set up for the typical fairytale ending.  But of course we are too sophisticated for that now.  A third party, neither Glory Dogs nor our heros, wins the competition.  The happy ending is instead supplied by the popular response to their performance that leads to a record contract with David Bowie's indi label.

The Camp Rock (2008) franchise also follows suit.  The camp builds to the Final Jam, the winning of which leads to recording with rock star Shane Gray (Joe Jonas).  The heroine has been banned from activities until 'the end of Final Jam', so the stage is set for the rival to win.  The rival falters, and the heroine is given a last chance to perform (though it is unclear whether it is included in the competition).  Once again, a third party wins the prize.  In this case the happy ending is that hero and heroine are reunited after an earlier problem.  The sequel (Camp Rock 2 (2010)) sets up a competition between Camp Rock and a rival camp: Camp Star.  To cut a long story short, the odds are stacked against them, and they lose despite a spirited performance.  The happy ending here is that the Camp, which had been threatened, is saved because it seems more fun than Camp Star. 

An earlier example - somewhat left field- is Jingle All the Way (1996) where the Governator's character finally gets a 'Turbo Man' action figure for his son for Christmas - beating his rival (played by Sinbad)- only for his son to give it to the rival.  The fact that the father had forgotten to get the doll was symbolic of his self-absorbed neglect of the son.  The reconnection between the father and the son in the later moments of the film has rendered the giving of the doll less important.

These are just a few of the many examples in recent years where the hero/s of the film fail to win the competition that provides the crux of the storyline, but supposedly attain "something better".  Very few follow the traditional fairytale ending.

Stories play a large part in shaping the way we, as individuals and as a collective, view the world (as well as being in part shaped by the same).  So the question is why have we had this collective shift in the stories that we tell?  What message about our world are the film makers giving, whether wittingly or otherwise?

Among the many possibilities two stand out to me.  The first is that the message of many of these films is that there are more important things than those that seem so all consuming:  Connecting with your child is more important than finding the popular Christmas present; having fun and relationships are more important than winning the music competitions; losing a competition is not the end of the world. 

However I suspect that the film makers want to make their stories more 'realistic'.  It is true that in real life the fairytale often does not come true.  However there are those occasions when they do - the truth is stranger than fiction category.  I can't help but think of Steven Bradbury the first person from the Southern Hemisphere to win a winter Olympic gold.  He made the semi finals because one of his opponents was disqualified.  He made the final because three of his semi final opponents crashed, and he won the final because all of the other finalists went down.  These are the stories that get told precisely because they are extraordinary (cf. Remember the Titans (2000) which was made because the team was still being talked about decades after the events).  When filmmakers abandon the fairytale endings as unrealistic, they forget that we expect the stories told to be extraordinary.  They also forget that such stories provide a glimmer of hope: no matter how bad things might be, it may still be possible for a fairytale ending.  While realism is good sometimes, the fairytale endings are needed too.