"The Wound and The Gift" - A Film Screening @Home MAY 16, 2020 w/Illustrations by Victo Ngai

HAPPENING TODAY!!

A special film suitable for all ages, about an animal rescue program inspired by an ancient Japanese fable of a wounded crane.

From artist and illustrator Victo Ngai (all images in this post are by her):

Verified

I created artwork for a very special project back in 2014 called “The Wound and The gift” - a documentary exploring the relationship between animals and humans directed by Linda Hoaglund and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave. 

The narrative spine of the film is an animated ancient Japanese Fable about a wounded crane, saved by a couple of peasants, and attempts to express her gratitude with a gift. Scenes from the folklore are woven into real-life footage of rescued animals. As the fable and the film unfold, the question begs to be asked is - “who is saving who?” 

The @nikkeimuseum in Vancouver is hosting an online screen of the film throughout this week with a Zoom Q&A session this Sat (May 16). 

The link to the tickets ($5 suggested donation) is (below), 100% of the sales will benefit the museum’s activities. Please spread the word!

LINK:

Film screening @Home - The Wound and The Gift

by Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

Here is the lovely trailer with sneak peeks of how the folktale and illustrations are woven in:

The Wound and the Gift - Trailer from Linda Hoaglund on Vimeo.

It's suitable for ALL ages (no worrisome footage to be concerned about!) and has lovely reviews regarding the cinematography, animation and the weaving together of stories. Here's one review, to give you an idea of the tone and how the project and folktale are woven together:

Saw this... at the Vancouver Film Festival, and it is spectacular. The cinematography is what drew me in from the trailer and I was not disappointed, and the stories unfold within the animated story of the Crane perfectly. And I really appreciated that it wasn't cluttered with information and stats. The film breathes slowly and elegantly. Highly recommended. (review by Saints Rescue)

About this Event

Film: Available for viewing at your leisure online May 9-17, 2020

Meet the director Linda Hoaglund online presentation of stunning still images from filming in beautiful Hokkaido, and a moderated Q&A session.

Saturday, May 16, 2pm PST | 5pm EST

The Wound and The Gift is a film about the animal rescue inspired by ancient Japanese fable about a wounded crane, saved by peasants, that attempts to express her gratitude with a gift - 鶴の恩返し. The fable is illustrated by Victo Ngai. The film is suitable for viewers of all ages. (83 minutes).

The film will be available on Vimeo, and the talk will be hosted on Zoom. 

Official Website: http://www.thewoundandthegift.com/

Director: Linda Hoaglund

Narrator: Vanessa Redgrave

Ceinematographer: Kirsten Johnson

Animation Artist: Victo Ngai

Editor: William Lehman

Music: Satoshi Takeishi & Shoko Nagai

Animation: Joe Wu

Producer: Hashimoto Yoshiko & Maryanne Culpepper

Assistant Director: Takaaki Okada

See HERE for full illustrations, some storyboards & an animated scene preview.

'We Are All Connected' (for World Wildlife Day)

In honor of World Wildlife Day we're posting this incredibly gorgeous short film, made for the World Wildlife Fund and presented by National Geographic, with origami art and stunning paper animation, that beautifully and artistically highlights the message of Wildlife Conservation.

The film's title and message is 'We Are All Connected':

Different miniature paper animals move across the various landscapes of an office environment, underscoring what was affected for each supply, telling their stories as they go, and showing us how they are all connected to us. It isn't too much of a stretch to see a folktale connection of storytelling and animals fables, with stunning use of origami, folding itself out of ordinary lined and colored work papers, coming to life and racing away.

From the description on YouTube:

Paper predators and prey spring to life in this visually stunning short from directors Dávid Ringeisen & László Ruska. An ordinary desk and typical office supplies are the backdrop for this micro-universe that carries the macro-message of wildlife conservation. While humans are left out of the piece, their impact is still present in a discarded cigarette butt that sparks an imaginary forest fire and an overflowing wastebasket that pollutes a fantastical rolling-chair river. This piece is part of the filmmakers' MOME thesis project, the animation department at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary and was created for WWF Hungary.

Dávid Ringeisen & László Ruska: https://www.facebook.com/paperworldfilm/WWF Hungary: http://wwf.hu/en/wwf-hungary

Simply gorgeous. It's no surprise it's the winner of multiple notable awards!

"Feather, Paws, Fins, and Claws" Illustrated by Lina Kusaite

Mentioned in our Mother Goose Refigured announcement yesterday, was the book, by the same author, titled Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts. We realized we hadn't had the opportunity to post on this book and wanted to share the available artwork (of which the book has much more) by mythic artist Lina Kusaite.

Lina has a wonderful collection of these on her Behance account, showing the process of her illustrations. (And her official website has a number of other amazing looking projects which you can see HERE.) What we really like about seeing these is that her process is a for of story building and informs us about the tale even more. Here's what she has top say about being commissioned for the project:

The Maiden and the Fish

In 2013 I was invited by Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones to join their project, the collection of the world fairy-tales. The collection contains of 10 different fairy tales form England, Portugal, India, North America, France, Norway, Hungary and Italy. Some of the tales are dated to 16 century. 

Once we started to chat about drawing styles, we all agreed, that it would be very interesting to create illustrations that are inspired by the country the tales are originated form and the time of its writing. Such idea required research time on cultural styles and different visual materials. This process allowed me to familiarize with some cultural aspects, that later on was used to create illustrations. All illustration where inspired, created and improvised by its countries cultural and visual styles and through my own creative processes. It was very interesting and challenging task to change the styles after every illustration.Some fairy tales were more challenging then others, like “The Rat's Wedding” - Indian tale. In the beginning I wanted to follow traditional Indian drawings, but it was so far from my own style, that I had to scale down and was following more on some details and colour combinations.

Here's the write up:

“Ballad of the Bird-Bride”

A wide variety of creatures walk, fly, leap, slither, and swim through fairy-tale history. Some marvelous animal characters are deeply inscribed in current popular culture—the beast redeemed by beauty, the wolf in pursuit of little girls and little pigs, the frog prince released from enchantment by a young princess. But like the adventures of many fairy-tale heroes, a curious reader’s exploration in the genre can yield surprises, challenges, and unexpected rewards.Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts presents lesser-known tales featuring animals both wild and gentle who appear in imaginative landscapes and enjoy a host of surprising talents. With striking original illustrations by artist Lina Kusaite and helpful introductions by fairy-tale scholars Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones, the offbeat, haunting stories in this collection are rich and surprisingly relevant, demanding creative reading by audiences aged young adult and up.

"The Rat's Wedding"

“Prince Chéri”

Schacker and Jones choose stories that represent several centuries and cultural perspectives on how animals think and move. In these ten stories, rats are just as seductive as Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf; snakes find human mates; and dancing sheep and well-mannered bears blur the line between human and beast. Stories range in form from literary ballads to tales long enough to be considered short stories, and all are presented as closely as possible to their original print versions, reflecting the use of historical spelling and punctuation. Beasts move between typical animal behavior (a bird seeking to spread its wings and fly or a clever cat artfully catching its prey) and acts that seem much more human than beastly (three fastidious bears keeping a tidy home together or a snake inviting itself to the dinner table). 

Kusaite’s full-color artwork rounds out this collection, drawing imaginatively on a wide range of visual traditions—from Inuit design to the work of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Together with the short introductions to the tales themselves, the illustrations invite readers to rediscover the fascinating world of animal fairy tales. All readers interested in storytelling, fairy-tale history, and translation will treasure this beautiful collection.

“East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon”

"The Story of the Three Bears"

"Nanina's Sheep"

Snake Skin

 

Babiole

Disney's "Lion King" Next To Go To Live Action

Why are we posting about Disney's announcement of this on a fairy tale news site? Despite it's story roots being widely acknowledged as Hamlet, Disney's The Lion King was received as a fable in the general public, and one people responded to - personally and with their wallets. (Until Frozen, The Lion King held the title of biggest money spinner for the Mouse House in history.) While fable and folklore are obviously fairy tale related, there is a more compelling reason that this interests us.

Since the Broadway re-imagining by the amazing Julie Taymor, with actors and dancers playing the parts of animals as if they were coming alive from ancient stories, the folktale representation and resonances of this story got stronger. A lot of this was aided by the representation of the characters, both in their designs, the integration of puppetry and tribal designs, but also, very importantly, the live storytelling aspect that captured audiences everywhere, instilling a love of theater and story exploration in a way the Broadway hadn't seen for a long time.


While the film has always been a family favorite, it's the stage version and blending of human and animal (along with storytelling and song) that has inspired a generation to further explore story telling, folktales, folklore, fables and representation of "world peoples" in Western pop culture. While we've met many people who loved the film, for the majority it's their experience of the Broadway play that changed their world view and inspired them in different creative fields.

The clear success - even by Executive standards - of Favreau's approach to a live action re-imagining of The Jungle Book for Disney, has inspired confidence that the company can repeat, and hopefully eclipse, that success with one of it's hottest animal properties, The Lion King.

Here's the announcement:

We can officially confirm that The Walt Disney Studios and director Jon Favreau are putting a new reimagining of The Lion King on the fast track to production. The project follows the technologically groundbreaking smash hit The Jungle Book, directed by Favreau, which debuted in April and has earned $965.8 million worldwide. 

...Like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King will include songs from the animated film. Disney and Favreau are also in development on a sequel to The Jungle Book. No release date has been announced for either film. (Source)

With the word "reimagining" (a hot word in the media right now, if you hadn't noticed) being key to this announcement, you can be sure fable, folklore and fairy tale folk will be watching how this is done, and how it's received by the public. Will they have singing animals, similar to The Jungle Book approach? Or shall we be treated to a new blending of human and animal which has more in common with the play? While the likelihood is that they will follow the successful formula of The Jungle Book, storytellers around the world should be watching too, as rumors of using a(nother) 'unique approach' to the narrative are strongly hinted as, as well.

While this fan trailer HERE does a good job of recreating key animated scenes in live action, (with generous use of the Aslan animation from Disney's production  of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), we can expect something very different.

It's a risky step, with such a unique and beloved stage play, already so different from the animated film. It's hard to imagine that a way of telling the story so very differently from the film, as was used on Broadway, will evolve. Disney has a long history of live action films and talking animals and without the use of unique media to change the delivery method from storyteller to audience (such as live puppetry that immerses the audience and involves them in the story), it's easiest to imagine this just use similar techniques to The Jungle Book, minus humans this time, and rely on the audience wanting more.

But you never know. We've been happily surprised once - thrilled even - by how this story evolved when it moved to stage and live action is a different medium to animation, so perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised again.

ALERT: Tomorrow we'll be posting as complete a list of fairy tale and fantasy movies in the works by Disney, both in live action and animation. Although it won't be a complete list of everything in the works (eg we won't be including Wreck It Ralph II since the fairy tale/folklore tie-ins are minimal-to-none as far as we can see), it's still a pretty long list, and deserving of it's own post. (Heck - you may want to bookmark it, just so you have the list handy!)

Of Flowers, Ribbons and Hobby Horses... Happy May Day!

Krista Huot* - The May Queen

Did you decorate a flowered maypole (or tree) with ribbons today?

Or get a visit from the "hobby horse"?

We did...

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, you can read a summary of the celebration - which has variations all over the world - (it's not just a UK/Celtic tradition) HERE. The short article explains the history, traditions and various characters that appear on the 1st of May. Beltane, also celebrated on May 1st, isn't discussed but isn't completely separate either, and there are definitely fairies involved with that celebration as well.

You can read a Scottish fairy tale (or perhaps it should be called fairy story) about a fairy horse appearing on Beltane's-eve HERE, titled The Water Horse of Poll Nan Craobhan.

Happy May Day!

*Krista Huot has created many fairy tale illustrations, as well as various fairies, and faery folk and events. What's a May Day without fairies?

Burton to Tackle Disney's Next Live Action "Fairy Tale" Dumbo ("Dumbo" is a fairy tale now?)

FTNH: *Answers incessantly ringing phone* Hello?

Chirpy PR Person: *yelling*"The famous flying elephant fairy tale is coming to the big screen - as live action!"

FTNH: *winces* Um, Dumbo isn't a fairy tale.

Chirpy PR Person: "But it's Disney and Tim Burton is directing it!"

FTNH: Those are not the criteria for a fairy tale.

Chirpy PR Person: "Oh pshaw - it'll be BIG! Bigger than BIG! It'll be..."

Buddhist Folktale - The Elephant Girly-Face

FTNH: A circus.

Chirpy PR Person: "Well, yes!"

FTNH: -sigh-

Chirpy PR Person: "Doesn't it at least qualify as some sort of folktale? Or urban legend?"

FTNH: Can you think of one?

Chirpy PR Person: "Er, well how about that line "have you ever seen an elephant fly?" and the horse fly, house fly stuff? Isn't that some sort of folklore-y thing?"

FTNH: You're going to make me do the Grumpy Cat face.

Chirpy PR Person: "You mean.. flying elephants have NOTHING to do with fairy tales and folklore?"

FTNH: Well, if you must tie something in, it would probably be regarding the Indian legend of the origin of elephants.

Chirpy PR Person: "And how does that go exactly?"

FTNH: Well, one version says, that after the sun had been hatched out of some giant cosmic egg-thingy, Brahma (supernatural head honcho, god-style) picked up the left over shells and started chanting, only to have an amazing white creature emerge (aka the original elephant), followed by a couple of dozen-plus cloud elephants. These elephants and their elephant-kids could fly around...

Airavata-the elephant by Yuti

Chirpy PR Person: *interrupts* "Did they have huge ears?"

FTNH: *glares at phone*... and even change shape when they wanted to, but their partying disturbed some old grumpy dude who decided enough was enough, cursed them and clipped their wings - in some versions they have actual wings. Basically, they lost all their flying abilities and were stuck on the ground forever. ‡

Chirpy PR Person: "Harsh."

FTNH: *shrugs* Stuff like that happened a lot way back when, apparently.

Chirpy PR Person: "Soooo... *brightens* elephants have been part of circuses for a long time then!"

FTNH: What? No! They were free, not in cages performing... look, it's a legend and has nothing to do with circuses.

Chirpy PR Person: "But this will!"

FTNH: We're back to that, are we?

Chirpy PR Person: "'Cause it's going to be BIG!"

FTNH: Alright - make your announcement thingy and then we can call it quits because there are lots of elephants folktales and fables but they're a long way from anything remotely like Dumbo.

Chirpy PR Person: "Except for the cloud elephants."

FTNH: *Grumpy Cat face*

Chirpy PR Person: *Hurriedly pulls out press report and reads*:

"Disney is betting that the man to make you believe an elephant can fly is Tim Burton. The filmmaker behind “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Batman,” “Big Eyes” and “Alice in Wonderland” will direct Disney’s coming live-action remake of “Dumbo,” Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey said. ... The film is expected to be a mixture of computer generated effects and live actors, although details on the project are still scarce at this early stage of development. Mr. Bailey would only say of the plans for a new “Dumbo” story that “It’s a big world,” indicating that the story will be broader than the original tale of a circus elephant with large ears who learns to fly."

FTNH: By "big world" you mean the movie will be longer than the lovely concise 64 minute classic storytelling Dumbo is.

Chirpy PR Person: *ignores comment* "And it will be Circus-Circus! Burton loves a good circus motif so this is going to be..."

FTNH: *interrupts* A 90 minute version of Pink Elephants on Parade, Burton style? *shudders*

by Ruth Sanderson

Chirpy PR Person: "Can't you give me one thing to hang this on? I mean, Disney is going to be all: "This is our new live action fairy tale" about it, and people are going to call it that too, so can't you think of some reason to get excited about it?"

FTNH: Well, there are a lot of fairy tales about magic feathers...

Chirpy PR Person: *even chirpier* "There you go! Disney's newest live action fairy tale project doesn't have a release date yet, nor do we know what kind of "magic" Burton will use to make this classic story a reality but you'll believe..."

FTNH: *interrupts* I know, I know: anything is possible - even ruining one of the best films ever made.

Chirpy PR Person: "That's not what.."

FTNH: *Presses END CALL* - HEADDESK -

by  Larry T. Quach

Source: HERE

Note: This better not be why Ringling is taking another two years to finally stop using elephants in their circuses.

‡ See another folktale about flying elephants from Soara, India, HERE.

A Brave Cosplay Take on "Brave" (Yup, That's A Real Bear!)

The internet has been wowed this last week (at time of writing) with Jessica Chastain's new Merida look (courtesy of Annie Leibovitz for Disney Parks) but before then there was a different Brave photoshoot, with a very different Merida (and a very brave model), and it's currently going viral in English speaking countries now that Chinese and Japanese cosplay sites have spread the word.

While it's a little difficult to see Pixar's Merida in these shots, they were inspired by the fairy tale movie. In fact the model is a Russian cosplayer named, Tina Rybakova, who invited/collaborated with Dasha Kond on this project. I'm sharing this shoot particularly because I noticed that there's a whole lot of fairy tale folk who ADORE the theme of women and bears in myth and fairy tales. It turns out too, that this photographer has a strong fairy tale sensibility in setting up her photos, particularly in showing animal-human connections.

The photos are from Moscow-based fashion photographer Dasha Kond, who often uses real animals in shoots, whether they are wolves, camels, horses, snakes, and more.

Russian photographer Dasha Kond* does a lot of work with trained animals (I can't find very much info at all on the animals sorry - I wish I could, to be sure they were being taken care of properly) but it's clear to see she has a strong sense of myth and story when she shoots people with animals in particular. Though all her photography is excellent, there's something special about how she shoots different species together, implying both have a story to tell.

I have fond SO MANY beautiful images I simply can't add them all here but below the jump is a collection of my favorites so far (I've run out of time trying to see every photo, there are so many!) You can see the 2 300, or so, more photos HERE.


In the meantime, jump on over and take a look at the other fairy tale-ish images. I included some that are most definitely fairy tale but without an animal but it's clear the magical human/animal connection is what inspires most of the photography.

Oh and yes, there are more 'girls and their bears' images too.
✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒

"Magic Hoofbeats" & "The Little Humpbacked Horse" (1947)

Russian laquer box painting - artist unknown

2014 is "The Year of the Horse" so it's high time we pulled out all the equus-centric tales we rarely hear about. While horses are an animal commonly appearing in fairy tales, having one as the subject or at the center of a fairy tale is somewhat unusual.

There's one collection I'm aware of, a lovely book called Magic Hoofbeats - Fantastic Horse Tales, and the eight tales from various places around the world are a nice addition to any fairy tale collection (especially for this new year).

The stories, which are preceded by information on horses from around the world and their history, are:

• Lone Boy and the Old Dun Horse (North America)
• Terror (North India)
• The White are (Basque Country)
• The Little Humpbacked Horse (Russia)
• Petit Jean and the White Horse (French Canada)
• The Boy Who Rode to the Land of the Dead (Albania)
• The Colt Qeytas (Iran)
• The Taltos Horse (Hungary)

One is better known than most and that's the Russian tale of The Little Humpbacked Horse. Not surprisingly, one Russian animation company produced an imaginative and lovely, almost hour long film in 1947. (It was restored from a damaged reel, remade, made longer by 15 minutes and translated into English as The Magic Pony in 1975-77. It's now available on DVD.)

This story features the typical Russian good-hearted fool, Ivan, a firebird and, of course, a magical little horse, among other equines (handled and stylized quite beautifully in the visuals). A little note: because this film was based on the poem by, Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov, everyone speaks in rhymes. You can find Yershov's poem with the original illustrations HERE (if you have google it should offer auto-translate so you can see it with the illustrations, otherwise you can read an English translation HERE.)

Here (and at the head of the post) are some different illustrations based on the fairy tale:

Little Humpbacked Horse by azzai (check the humps & wing-like ears)

Little Humpbacked Horse by Leroks (the humps aren't evident in this illustration, however)

Russian laquer box painting - artist unknown

Chudo-yudo (The FishIsland) from The Little Humpbacked Horse by Igor-Grechany-Ostrov"...Where, with giant head and tail,
Lies the Monster-Marvel Whale..."
(Yershov. "The Little Humpbacked Horse")

Little Humpbacked Horse by SapphireGamgee

Vintage Russian postcard by V. Grishin

Original title illustration for Yershov's poem of The Little Humpbacked Horse (artist unknown)

For a little New Years treat, I'm embedding the Russian film below (yes there are subtitles). Enjoy!

The Little Humpbacked Horse 1947 konek Gorbunov... by eus347