Uh, the original tale is set in Europe, specifically Scandinavian - Finland, Norway, Denmark, and in their histories/legends wolves are usually the bad guys. Germanic tradition goes back to Greek times where lycanthrophy and things related to wolves were related to cannibalism and thus given a negative tilt. Hans Christian Anderson pulled on what most folklorists like Aesop did, which was traditional symbolism that the culture would understand. People STILL understand wolves as a negative cartoon symbol as wolves eat livestock/etc back in the day and now in some parts of the world. We rely on archetypes in order to understand things in a half second. Archetypes being different from stereotypes, of course.

No one is defending the demonization of wolves and the killing of them, but folklore/history cannot be revised just because we know better now. People are already crying that Frozen is far flung from the original Snow Queen tale, no matter what translation you pull from, and honestly I think the writing is 'eh', but the new snow engine they developed piques my interest as a CG animator. It really isn't a double standard, though, especially since people understand archetypes when you boil it all down. That's all.

I want to agree with you, I really do, but I don't endorse perpetuating archetypes for their own sakes. Wolves are far more complex, fascinating animals than that, and I don't get why they always have to be these mindless monsters in movies. Of big budget films, I can only recall Balto making an effort to have wolves featured in another light, as a kind of spiritual guide. I wish I could believe that people could differentiate between fantasy and reality like that, but our feelings don't make that distinction. As a bit more extreme example, look at what happened to sharks after Jaws was released. The fear that movie instated in us about sharks didn't end with people after they left the theater.

Why can't folklore/history be revised? Doesn't Little Red Riding Hood keep teaching kids the wrong idea about wolves? I'm afraid people in general are not smart enough to tell between fiction and reality. Just because wolves have been misunderstood, I don't agree with you that it makes it okay to keep doing so in fiction.

The point is, wolves are and have always been scapegoats, their danger to humans far exaggerated (when they are one of the predators least threatening to humans statistically), and besides; it's the 21st century, not the times of yore you mentioned, so we SHOULD know better by now.

The reason folklore can't be revised is the same reason history/1st persona documents shouldn't be revised. Just because it's uncomfortable to our morality now, doesn't mean it didn't happen or people didn't believe in such things. It's important to know what people did/thought in the past even if it makes us feeling mildly uncomfortable now.

Though I believe, too, as someone in the media field, that media has a responsibility to educate and represent minorities/truths/etc, I also believe that it's going a little far to suggest that not everyone can differentiate between fact and fiction. It's not necessarily the media doing it, it's society at large. If a /movie/ can make people go insane and /kill/ a animal, then we need to examine what's wrong with society at large. It's easy to blame a movie for perpetuating something already wrong with society and ban the movie or a book or music, but the harder thing to do is look inwards and ask why we do what we do.

True, and I wish people - especially creative people - would dare more to look beyond the stereotypes. I'm very interested now in what part wolves will play in Zootopia, coming out in 2016. I really, REALLY hope they aren't the bad guys there too.

Well, I just saw the full trailer for Frozen yesterday, before that it looked like it was a movie about a snowman and a moose... (now it looks too much like Tangled)
Wolves and Rats, they almost always are depicted as the bad guys. but for now I'll stick to talking about wolves.
Recently there was an episode of China IL where Pony had to escape Mexico, and she was attacked by wolves and kicked their asses, murdering them. (there's even a call back to it, "have you ever danced with the wolves in the pale moonlight?")
Then a while back there was this Liam Neeson movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey_(film) where he has to survive and fight wolves through a good portion of the film.
I still need to see it, but there is a movie called Alpha & Omega that has wolves as the protagonists... and I certainly hope that there are more movies that show wolves as more than just "the bad guy".

The Grey was very infamous for the cast and crew actually eating wolf meat to prepare for their roles. Now that you mention it, that movie is far more offensive than Frozen in that regard (which indeed looks like it's becoming a Tangled 2 - I loved the teaser with the snowman and the moose, now they're relegated to sidekicks). I too wish people would stop just typecasting wolves as bad guys. I never wanted to see A&O myself because the character designs are hideous.