Novels are extended fairytales. Did anyone tell you cindrella's tragic backstory? Or how the crown prince fought the nobles to let a commoner be a princess?? How was the fairy godmother summoned? Which level magic circle as used blah blah... There was a hero who killed the villain.. that's what you were told when you were kid... But after reading the extended fairytale..aka novel.... the villain killed the hero cause the hero was such a jerk in his past life. Okay..no questions here cause I am tooooo lazzy and tired to answer..
Fairy tales belong to the oral tradition and would thus more likely resemble folk epics, ballads, etc. On the other hand, when they possess a didactic element, they would also be similar to beast fables, parables, etc. Novels and short stories of South American magic realism writers like Marquez and Luis Borges are the only ones which can be called extended fairy tales (of a sort) without running the risk of overgeneralization. As for villains and heroes, they are archetypes — recurrent (cyclic), patterned and widespread — and if Jung is to be believed, exist in the collective racial unconscious. To establish a relationship or even a familiarity on the basis of their prevalence is sheer folly.
Seems like you're too tired to think, too. Fairy Tale is a sub genre of Fantasy. It's folk fantasy, basically. Don't ruin this sweet summer child of an OP. Especially don't recommend "Perceforest" the earliest known story of "The Sleeping Beauty", or the Original Danish "The Little Mermaid". Oh how unfortunate it will be if OP finds out about these stories.
Idk much about folk literature >.> But I read somewhere that Peter Pan story is about dead children's ghosts...and I pretty much gave up on others after that. I wouldn't be surprised if Cinderella actually met with a succubus that sent her into an illusion before possessing her body.