ROMANIA — Most adults would be shocked to learn the truth about the gentle fairy tales they were raised to love. Unlike the sanitized versions handed to modern generations, the earliest versions of the ancient peasant stories re-told by the Brothers Grimm were often violent, bloody and highly sexual cautionary tales meant to reinforce social behavior and highlight the punishment that awaits those who deviate. Although nearly 200 years have passed since the brothers compiled their German, Serbian, Norwegian, Indian, Persian and French stories, some still feel the need to protect both young and old alike from their unvarnished origins.
Recently, Minimax television began airing episodes of the Hungarian Folk Tales series. It didn’t take long for Romania’s television watchdog, the National Audio-Visual Council, to cry foul or, more accurately “indecency.”
Watched by some of the country’s children each day at noon, the National Audio-Visual Council considers some of the cartoon capers to be too mature for young minds and eyes.
Among the overly adult action presented by Hungarian Folk Tales is a princess who removes her clothing in order to entice a farmer to sell her a collection of dancing pigs – and winds up spending time in bed with two men while dithering over which to marry. In another story, a young woman exposes her body as a gift to her emperor.
Minimax has no legal obligation to change its programming, since it is licensed in the Czech Republic, but Romanian authorities warn that if the clothes don’t stay on the cartoon characters, Minimax will find itself unable to broadcast into the country.
