'Bao' - A New Pixar Short Reminding Us of Precious Little Tales

Press release:

Pixar's latest short, Bao is set to release alongside Incredibles 2 on June 15, 2018. The 8-minute short film (Pixar's longest to date) is written and directed by, Domee Shi, (Pixar's first Female-directed Short Film) and focuses on the ups and downs of the parent-child relationship through the colorful, rich, and tasty lens of the Chinese immigrant community in Canada. The official short film synopsis reads: 

An empty-nesting Chinese mom gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life. But she must come to terms with the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever.

 

In seeing the short preview, we cannot help but be reminded of Momotaro Peach Boy and Thumbelina (especially with the "another chance at Motherhood line there), but also Tom Thumb and Kaguya-Hime! The idea of precious little children (as in teeny, thumb-sized, etc) having to grow up and all the difficulties that come with that (especially from the parent's point of view) seem to be echoed here. We're looking forward to the rest!

You can see the 30 second preview below:

In a recent EW interview, director Domee Shi noted, "Often times it felt like my mom would treat me like a precious little dumpling, wanting to make sure I was safe, that I didn’t go out late, all that stuff", Shi tells EW. "I just wanted to create this magical, modern-day fairy tale, kind of like a Chinese Gingerbread Man story. The word ‘bao’ actually means two things in Chinese: Said one way, it means steamed bun. Said another, it means something precious. A treasure.”

Bao will premiere on April 21, 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival.

"Storybook" Opens Tomorrow at Modern Eden Gallery

See the whole announcement HERE

While not limited to fairy tales, childhood classics definitely include them so this exhibit which reinterprets childhood favorite stories through an adult lens has more than a few works of interest for us fairy tale folk.

Since most of us won't be able to pop by San Francisco to head into the Modern Eden Gallery and check it out in person, here are some of the fairy tale specific works.

Jack and the Beanstalk by Chris Leib

Where the Wild Things Are by Leilani Bustamente

Thumbelina by Ciou

Alice and the Mushrooms by Brianna Angelakis

James and the Giant Peach by Richard J. Oliver

Beauty and the Beast by Jana Brike

Someone's Been Eating My Porridge (Goldilocks) by Edith LeBeau

Nightsong in the Jungle (The Jungle Book) by Helice Wen

Paper Bag Princess by Megz Majewski

Supper (LRRH - I think) by Erika Sanada

The details on the Goldilocks one are just stunning.

And, yes, I added James and the Giant Peach because it always reminds me of Peach Boy - Momotaro, though it really has very little in common with the folktale, and Where The Wild Things Are because oh-my-goodness-do-you-see-the-Japanese-monsters?! Straight out of Japanese fairy tales... Love it! And a bonus because I heart it:

Ferdinand the Bull by Isabel Samaras

Some surprise interpretations: Are you There God? It's Me Margaret (the scaly girl)
Winnie the Pooh - the bottom left with added Taoist symbology
I am super curious as to what the girl holding the invisible 'something' is, in the upper right corner by Chris Leib - ideas? (I found no clues from the artist anywhere.)

You can see more previews of the pieces at the various article sites below:
Platinum Cheese
Hi-Fructose
Warholian (puts some pieces next to books were inspired by - I would have bet the bunny above was from The Velveteen Rabbit - but I was wrong!)

Happy Mothers' Day!

Thumbelina and her mother by N. C. Wyeth

♚❊❊❊❊❊❊♚

I found out today that a friend of mine who has been praying and wishing for a child for about fifteen years, has finally had her dreams come true on Mothers' Day. 

I couldn't be happier that the empty arms of a childless mother, and those of a motherless child, have finally been filled with each other's embrace, their hearts full to over-flowing with a real and lasting case of love at first sight. 

There is more magic in this phrase than we could ever truly realize: 

Happy Mothers' Day.

Congratulations P&S! xx

♚❊❊❊❊❊❊♚

Annie Stegg's Thumbelina Collection

Thumbelina in the Marsh (from the Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

 If you love fairy tale illustrations and haven't heard of Annie Stegg, do yourself a favor and go look her up right now. [Her blog and gallery are HERE and HERE - you're welcome. :) ]

Ms. Stegg's work is inspired by folklore, mythology and nature so it was only a matter of time before she illustrated a fairy tale and right now she's currently hard at work on a "Thumbelina Collection". I don't think I could have chosen a better tale for her to focus on.

The Toad in progress (Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

(If it's been a while since you read HCA's story of the thumb sized girl born in a flower, it's worth brushing up on HERE [link goes to the tale overview at Wikipedia] and be sure not to miss SurLaLune's wonderful annotations [and lots more] on the tale HERE.)

Faerie Queen (Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

 Though the "Thumbelina Collection" apparently began as a project for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2* Ms. Stegg has been  adding to the series since the event ended (on May 19, 2013) and boy are we glad about that.

On Tuesday June 4, she posted a sneak peek of another piece, "The Duchess of Oak Nut" (shown below) and announced she'd be working on "The Duke" next.

Could this hail a book in the making?! *closes eyes tight and wishes very hard*

The Duchess of Oak Nut - in progress (Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

Justin Gerard at Muddy Colors got a pre-Spectrum look at the collection a few weeks ago, with bonus interview to boot. Ms. Stegg  discusses her love of Hans Christian Andersen's tale and how it represents, for her, a special childlike wonder people, far too often, lose.

From all I've seen in response to Ms. Stegg's work (on blogs, Tumblrs, Pinterest boards etc) it's clear that one of the special things about her art is that it helps bring that sense of wonder back. ("There's magic in that there paint brush!")

Here's an excerpt from the Muddy Colors interview:

JG: So speaking of your work, you are currently working on a series of paintings based on Hans Christian Anderson's Thumbelina fairy tale. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Thumbelina in the Marsh - sketch & final (Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

AS: I have wanted to do a series on this fairy tale for a while now. The reason I like Thumbelina has largely to do with the magic and mystery of childhood.

When we are young, the world is so big and magical and I think you lose some of that when you grow up. I like to imagine a place where everything is still a little unknown, and there is so much left to discover. Stories like Thumbelina help you to see your own commonplace world with fresh eyes and you can begin to appreciate just how amazing the world really is again.  It's like being a child again in many ways, and capturing that sense of wonder about the world around us.

The Swallow (Thumbelina Collection - framed) by Annie Stegg

You can read the whole interview HERE and see different views of the various works shown in this post (Psst! Check out The Swallow full size - the colors & details are stunning) and, of course, even more wonderful artwork too.

While Ms. Stegg's pieces reminds me of the work of beloved fairy tale and fantasy artist Kinuko Y. Craft, and, like Ms. Craft's work, shows the influence of Roccoco painters, it is most definitely her own. It's no wonder she's quickly becoming a favorite fantasy artist all over the world. 

You can follow Annie Stegg on Twitter HERE, where she posts regular artwork updates or on Facebook HERE where she does the same. Her official - and gorgeous! - gallery is HERE.

[Hidden Fairy Tale Bonus: If you check the video promotion for guest artists featured on Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2 link you'll catch a glimpse of Charles Vess' Little Red Riding Hood.]

The Toad (Thumbelina Collection) by Annie Stegg

 * Spectrum Fantastic Art Live is a three-day celebration of the art and artists that bring to life the fantastic worlds of (our) favorite science fiction, fantasy, and horror books, movies, and comics. SFAL allows fans and artists to mingle, shop, learn and be inspired through exhibits of original works of art, panel discussions and workshops hosted by some of the most notable members of this artistic community. They can get their personal portfolios critiqued by leading industry Art Directors and revel in the vast creative energy that permeates every facet of the experience. (Their) goal is to honor our industry, celebrate the creators and mentor new talent. (from the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live website)

A Thumb Princess

Almost every time I see a fairy tale fashion shoot by Vogue, particularly one that includes tale/story elements, it's from Vogue Korea.

It says a lot about the cultures' love of fairy tales, especially as they don't always use the most well known ones, nor do they tend to portray their models in a Disney-fied fashion. You never know if it's going to be a dark version, a contemporary take or an illustration-brought-to-life shoot. Confession: I don't read or subscribe to fashion magazines but I do love seeing creative photography and themed spreads - especially when they're fairy tale themed. Vogue Korea have done this often enough I've actually considered subscribing so I can have the print in front of me but I always seem to find some other fairy tale thing that is a little cheaper or I believe I need more... (eg if Maria Tatar or Jack Zipes release a new book).

While the clothes in these shoots are almost always not for regular wear and wouldn't look particularly fairy tale-y without the settings what I enjoy is seeing different takes on both the tales and iconic scenes.

This beautiful Thumbelina themed spread is from 2006 but I don't think I've posted it before. Since I've just noticed that the 2012 Fall Fashion week has officially begun in New York (yes, don't worry, it's still Winter in the US and yes, I'm a little confused by "fashion seasons" too), it seems appropriate to post now, for a few reasons (which you'll see if you keep reading).

You see, this post isn't just about the pretty images. There's a dark side here too. Sadly, the model in these pictures, Daul Kim, committed suicide at age 20 in 2009.

From Huffington Post posted 11/19/09, the day of the morning she was found in her Paris apartment:

The South Korean model kept a blog called I Like To Fork Myself, and yesterday made her last posting under the title "say hi to forever." The post was a song called "I Go Deep" by Jim Rivers, under which she wrote "best track forever."

While her death has nothing specifically to do with fairy tales I thought I should make note of it here to give a slightly different perspective than we usually do on fashion shoots (I didn't mean to use the word "perspective" as a pun - there's no joking about this topic - but as it may help in remembering this in future I'm leaving my first word choice intact). 

One of the comments Daul apparently made about herself is that she felt that the more success she had, the more she was fading away, that she was becoming a ghost. It seems her sense of self grew smaller and smaller until she felt she couldn't live anymore. I don't know why some people give in to this sense while others resist, fight and find their way through. She was obviously adored by many, including those close to her. I guess if there were an easy answer/fix to that there would be far less tragedies like this in the world.

Behind every glamorous image there are people who need to be noticed for who they are - not just what they are. One of the things that worries me about the "princess culture" is the idea that achieving goal 'x' completes you but if you have not found worth in yourself in your journey any emptiness seems only echoes more when you have everything money and fame can buy. Happily ever after is supposed to be the beginning of your stories, not the end of them. 

Tell someone you love how you feel about them today - that you love them for 'them'. If it only makes a little difference it may be all the difference to them.

Images source HERE.

Fables Spin-Off "Fairest" Free Preview Now Available

Fairest Issue #3 cover art by Adam Hughes for April 2012 (just released)

Now is the time to head to your local comic book store and try out the soon-to-be-released Fables spin-off, Fairest, for FREE. The Vertigo 2012 32 page sampler is completely free and one of the four Vertigo monthlies being previewed is the brainchild of Bill Willingham. Many of the stories are apparently going to be "pre-Fables" stories so if you are curious about the Fables graphic novels but are daunted by the 100+ issues available, this is a good way to start, and we're told you don't need to know anything about the Fables world to enjoy it. If you're a dedicated Fables fan you can also put your fears to rest. Mr. Willingham assures there will be plenty of surprises for you too.

In case you haven't heard of Fairest before, here's the copy:

New York Times best-selling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others. 

The first 6-issue arc follows the misadventures of Briar Rose after she is stolen away by the goblin army in FABLES #107. Fan-favorite artist Phil Jimenez (WONDER WOMAN, THE INVISIBLES) returns to Vertigo to pencil the opening storyline. Award-winning cover artist Adam Hughes (WONDER WOMAN, BATGIRL) provides covers, starting with a wraparound cover on issue #1. 

Future arcs will be written by 2011 Arthur C. Clarke winner Lauren Beukes with art by Inaki Miranda, and iZOMBIE scribe Chris Roberson with art by Shawn McManus! And remember: They may be beautiful, but there will be blood. 

story by BILL WILLINGHAM
art by PHIL JIMENEZ
cover by ADAM HUGHES
PRICE: $2.99
IN STORES: March 7, 2012

In an interview HERE from January 20, 2012, Bill Willingham talks about his plans for Fairest, including the writers and artists, their approaches to the stories and his use (and other writers' uses) of fairy tales in this new "sister-series". Here are three excerpts that caught my attention:

Fairest Issue #1 wrap-around cover art by Adam Hughes for March 2012 

Let's understand that the tone and the diversity will come from the writers themselves because we're not assigning them stories. We're not saying, "Here, do a Cinderella story and have this, this, and this happen to her." It's more, "Do you have a Cinderella story?" Of course with Chris and Shawn, not only were able to answer yes to one of those, they were able to answer yes to many of those. That's the same template with the others. Lauren Beukes had a very particular Japanese mythology-based, folklore-based Rapunzel story in mind, which answers the question, "Where does the wishing well come from?" and it answers it nicely with a very sound folkloric base. We said, "Yes, of course that has to be what that story is!" These are different characters; we want them to be considered wildly different. We don't want a bunch of cookie-cutter beautiful female leads, we want vastly different ones, so having different writers is obviously the way to do that.

...Why did you want to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty in this very first arc rather than, say, Spratt or any of the other characters?

Well, interestingly enough I didn't think about Sleeping Beauty -- if I was to be one of the regular returning people in this rotation I was going to go with Thumbelina. The idea of a tiny character in a very big world appealed to me and I think there's a lot you can do with that that hasn't been explored yet. But Thumbelina couldn't really be the first arc in this because one thing we discussed is, if we are going to do this we've left poor Briar Rose sleeping away for years if not forever. So the very first thing we have to do with "Fairest" is get her awake and back in action, and we thought it was politic to kick off the series with me doing the first arc. So that's why those two combined together. We have a very specific place where all three of those characters -- Ali Baba, Briar Rose the Sleeping Beauty and the Snow Queen -- are going to be left in at the end of this arc. But they're places where other writers can pick them up and run with them if that turns out to be the case. My job is to kind of get these characters in the right place to be part of the whole "Fairest" rotation, the whole "Fables" rotation again, and hopefully tell a good story in the process of doing that. 

Fairest #1 variant cover by Phil Jimenez with color by Romulo Fajardo Jr.

...What is it about fairytales that originally captivated you as a storyteller?

Several things. One of the, I don't know if you'd call it faults, but one of the aspects of the way I write stories that I don't think is as strong with me as it is with other writers is I don't feel I introduce characters well. It takes me a while to get to know them. With using characters that have already been established, everybody's read and knows a little bit of, "Well of course I know Snow White, at least I know this much about her." That kind of awkward, ice-breaking introductory moment at the beginning of this kind of storytelling is bypassed. We can move right beyond that into the meat of it. Sure there are some introductory aspects in that, sure this isn't the Snow White you thought you knew and this is what's happened to her lately. But that's not quite the same, because that builds more intrigue. The reader interest is already written into the equation. You don't have to romance the reader into liking that character. That's one aspect of it.

The other aspect of it is just the idea that these are folktales in every sense of that. They're not just public domain characters that anyone can use because of vast collective ownership. If everyone owned every 100% piece of this character in some kind of multiple universe overlap kind of way, everyone who wants to can come along and do their own Snow White. That kind of just absolute freedom -- it's like the universe of a million previous authors and writers and story-spinners has left this to you in their will. Why not make use of these treasures that have been handed down to you? Interestingly enough they left it to everyone else too, but that's OK! It's having a treasure trove where you can play any kind of game you want. How could I resist that?

Fairest Issue #2 cover art by Adam Hughes for April 2012

You can read the whole interview HERE (please note that there is a large gap in the middle making it look like a short article but scroll on down for the rest).


Fairest Issue #1 is scheduled to go on sale March 7, 2012.

(I'm beginning to feel like there should be a fairy tale release calendar we can collaboratively keep plugging things into somewhere online. 2012 is a busy year for fairy tales!)

Tiana Makes A Nice Thumbelina

I came across a small set of re-envisioned Disney Princesses recently painting recently and particularly like this one. If you're at all familiar with Disney's The Princess and the Frog you'll know one of the (many) outfits designed for Tiana was based on lilies and lily pads to echo the frog theme. What it reminds me of, of course, is of another teeny fairy tale heroine* who is often illustrated dressed in petals or seated on lily pads: HCA's Thumbelina.

Tommelise Very Desolate on the Water Lily Leaf, in "Thumbkinetta" by Eleanor Vere Boyle

Yes, the illustration at the head of the post is a little provocative, but then, so is dressing in petals, when you think about it.

The digital illustration is by Jace Wallace and you can see the other three princesses (Snow White, Jasmine and Ariel) HERE, close-ups included, along with this rest of his deviantArt gallery.  Mr. Wallace also has a very large professional portfolio and gallery HERE filled with many beautiful and strange girls (some NSFW). After looking through quite a number of works it's clear that this piece is rather unusual for the artist in that it's quite conservative (at least compared to his regular approach). I think it's rather beautiful (check the detail below) and is one of my favorite artist renditions of Tiana showing her froggy (and perhaps also "tiny heroine") influences to date.

Illustrations originally found HERE.

Bonus: For Disney fans, here's a link to see a fan art illustration of Tiana in a completely different outfit: Tiana (Bad) Voodoo Slayer. It certainly tugged a smile out of me - mainly because I would have liked to have seen Tiana get her "Whuppie" on in the film to some extent (as in fairy tale heroine Molly Whuppie) but I think it would have worked better if they'd kept to a 1920's-esque style.

* I say "another" because Tiana-as-frog is definitely on the diminutive side for much of the Disney movie.

Google's 'Flipbook' Logo Tribute to Hans Christian Andersen

Please forgive the delayed news but it's worth a post for two reasons:

1) Hans Christian Andersen's 205th birthday was on Friday and Google had a special logo up all day to celebrate it and
2) It was a brand new style - a 'flipbook' logo which, when you clicked on the image/arrow went to another image, telling you the story of Thumbelina in Google logo form (all five are shown in order in this post).
Here's an excerpt from the story in Christian Science Monitor on April 2nd:

Google has made an institution out of swapping out its company logo for a special nod to great minds of the past. Today, it celebrated the 205th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author of "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "The Ugly Duckling."

But rather than stick to a single novelty image, Google chose five.

Google's tribute to Hans Christian Andersen riffs off his story of "Thumbelina." The tale revolves around a tiny girl that was born from a flower and sleeps in a walnut cradle. But to capture the twists and turns of Thumbelina's adventure, Google created a five-part image gallery, which users can advance by clicking the on the logo. It begins with itty-bitty Thumbelina amid her family's knitting tools. Next, we see the frog and mole that each try to marry her. Once she escapes the frog that kidnapped her, she must hide from a harsh winter, depicted in the third slide. Then, after gliding on the back of a bird (image four), she finds a miniature prince (the final picture).

The pair lives happily ever after, but what is Google's next move? This flipbook style is new to Google doodles. It's a clever yet understated way of honoring a story that's more about the wild journey than any individual scene.

How cool is that? Plus, new Thumbelina illustrations, yay!
I love that fairy tales were involved in another first. Thumbelina is a great choice too, as Andersen's birthday falls on the Easter weekend this year and I think of Thumbelina as a 'Spring' fairy tale, which, apart from the religious celebrations, is what Easter (or Eostar or Oestre, a.k.a. the Spring Equinox holiday) is about.

Lilliputian Brides and Grooms

NOTE: In honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day I'm going to post a few fairy tale romance related posts in the next week. There are also some blogs with wonderful fairy tale themed romance posts right now too.

1) Supernatural Fairy Tales has an awesome line-up for the month with movies, reviews, stories and more - all on the fairy tale love theme.
2) Heidi has just announced the SurLaLune Blog will be having a fairy tale romance week too and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she has to show us.

Fairy tales have a lot to teach us about true love - and I'm not talking about love-at-first-sight, though there's that too, along with consequences! - so Valentine's Day is a good time to focus on this aspect and find the good stuff normally overlooked (it's not ALL about happily-ever-after, or at least, not in the way many people think. ;)

It appears there's a new-ish trend in Asian wedding photography: using false perspective in wedding photos to turn brides into Thumbelinas and grooms into Tom Thumbs.

Via Trendhunter:

Girls are always dreaming of a fairytale wedding, and false perspective wedding photos are a way to weave a fairytale-like story through art.

Here's a different couple - the photography isn't quite as good in quality but the photos are still lovely, fun and memorable:

Stylish, sweet and humorous. I love it!