The porn world has always appropriated successful movies and franchises. Well-known porn parodies include: Whore of the Rings, Missionary Position Impossible, Raiders of the Lost Arse, Edward Penishands, Forrest Hump, Bi-Tanic, Pulp Friction and Octopussy, perhaps the only porn movie parody that required no title change.

Why porn producers make these parodies is clear: They’re keen to cash in on the recognition of the franchise or hit movie, and to target the audiences of mainstream offerings. You can easily imagine that a subset of the audiences that saw movies such as The X-Files or Tomb Raider would also be interested in seeing their porn renderings (The Sex Files and Womb Raider respectively).

The potential for sex is already embedded in all the movies mentioned: The sexual tension between Mulder and Scully simmered, unconsummated for a decade; the leap from a Bond love scene to something altogether more adult is no great leap at all. Equally, masked, heavy-breathing, domineering, black-leather-clad Star Wars characters require little more than a nudge to push them to the dark side of the bed.

But in the 1970s, in addition to movie parodies of Star Wars (Star Babe), Jaws (Gums) and West World (Sex World), there was also a spate of fairy tale porn adaptations.

How and why did producers feel that within the innocent, child-like world of talking bunnies and magical pumpkins there lay the potential for unbridled sexuality, albeit literally tongue-in-cheek? Furthermore, who on earth decided that it would be a good idea to turn some of them into musicals?

It’s not entirely clear who these movies were aimed at, nor is what viewers are expected to feel as they watch a semi-naked Alice in Wonderland sing musical numbers such as “What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing on a Knight Like This?” to a woman who is riding said knight in the company of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.

The comedic elements in these movies rarely produce even a titter, and, ultimately, the only thing that may be aroused is curiosity or bafflement.

Below is a selection of vintage posters.

“All Your Fantasies Come True”. Whose fantasy is it to be mauled by a gang of stunted blue-collar miners?

“It’s not his nose that grows”. Bringing new meaning to the expression ‘getting wood’, and I don’t just mean the acting.

“An X-Rated Musical Comedy” Surely there’s at least one oxymoron in that claim.

“What the prince slipped the princess was not a slipper” My memory of the original story is hazy, but didn’t the prince ‘slip’ the unnamed item to a couple of ugly sisters and several other party attendees before he finally settled on Cinderella? And take a look at the actor who is playing the Fairy Godmother. I’ll put money on there being at least one reference to the size of his magic wand.

One can only hope that this poster is not meant to be taken literally. I realise that there were several infamous, underground bestiality porn films in the 1970s…but a frog? Really?

Most images from http://wrongsideoftheart.com