The Green Book Of Oz (A Project We Want To See Completed!)

The Green Book of Oz by Alessandro Previti (An indiegogo Project)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends of Fairy Tales, I'd like you to meet the very talented Alessandro Previti!

Although you may feel as if there are Oz projects everywhere you look with the 75th celebrations looming (and there are), I promise you this one is worth your time and, hopefully, your support. It's also a very nice and different way to celebrate a milestone anniversary of America's most famous fairy tale.

From Previti Art Studio's Facebook page with many updates on the project

While many current projects seek to update The Wizard of Oz by "cutesifying" characters (eg for toys) or aiming for the dark side (like the video America McGee has been developing) - and while many of these are beautiful - Previti's approach is gallery-worthy fine art with a refreshingly different take.

Take a look at the video explaining the project:

Although we all think "Emerald City" when looking at green + Oz, Previti has taken an eco-friendly view to the idea and will be printing it on specially recycled paper in an eco-friendly manner, complete with the following certificates:

           

The art is also unique, taking the styles of Marc Chagall, Giacomo Balla* and a sort of modern-meets-impressionist-meets-stained-glass approach (among others), making the art (and different aspects of the story) accessible to children without "dumbing it down". The resulting pieces are gentle, pleasing to look at, layered in meaning and encourage further adventures in art and imagination. I'm so impressed by the effect that I'll be sharing some of these images with my son's first grade class in our future art lessons together**. As a bonus I get to share a fairy tale the school system won't have a problem with me referencing! :)

Previti is no stranger to fairy tales either. One look at the Previti Art Studio Facebook page will tell you he has a long time fascination with them and you'll see peeks of his Le Petit Chaperon Rouge project as well (HERE). There's a lovely video for that HERE too.

Pages from Previti's Green Book of Oz

Although I'm late to finding out about the Green Book of Oz indiegogo project (a crowd funded site very similar to Kickstarter) and the clock is a-ticking down to the final days of the deadline (8 DAYS TO GO!), if all the readers here just put in one dollar we could easily see this beautiful book become a reality. Note: Though the indiegogo page appears in Euros, if you click on contribute, after you enter the "Euro amount", you'll be taken to a PayPal button, which will convert and process any currency automatically for you (as a guide, currently, $10USD= ~ €14).

Here is an excerpt from Alessandro Previti's statement on the Indiegogo site. You can see how his personal sentiments are clearly reflected in his art:

My name is Alessandro Previti, I'm an illustrator and a dreamer. 

While illustrating the story of Oz I had in mind parents and children reading the book together, enjoying the vibrant, expressive pictures.  

The main inspiration to draw these illustrations were children and their artistic expression. I studied hundreds of children’s drawings and combined them with the style of italian futurism. 

The resulting pictures offer the joy of vivid colours and leave a wide space for deeper contemplation.  “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, one of the most charming and enchanting stories ever written is in the public domain. It is a great privilege for independent artists to self publish this masterpiece of fairy tales gifting it a personal touch.

Personally, I'd love to see this book on my own library shelf and share it with my son. The art style is so different to many children's illustrated books today and I love the idea of exposing him to children-friendly creativity and imagination outside the typical.

Thank you Mr. Previti! We wish you every success with your beautiful project and hope to see your book soon.

* The links take you to Pinterest pages full of examples of each artist's work so you can see some of Previti's style inspirations.
** Note: I'm not a regular school teacher. I volunteer and also teach art lessons through the school's Art Appreciation program. My aim is to help make sure the students (including my son) have exposure to - and opportunity to create - Art. :)

How to Read Fables, A Handy What-Next?! Guide (& A 99c Sale To Help Catch You Up)

If you're curious to catch up on Fables, you've picked a good time. Right now there's a sale until the end of September on most of the Fables comics (click on the image below the How to Read Fables Guide to be take to the sale site) and as a unrelated-yet-completely-relevant bonus, I've received permission to share a post with you on how to navigate this can-be-overwhelming-and-ever-expanding universe of Bill Willingham's.

But first, for those who need (another) reason to read Fables, consider this little nugget of information I pulled out of the first Fables (prose) novel, Peter & Max. Turns out Willingham not only went to Hamelin to research but ended up writing much of the novel IN RUDYARD KIPLING'S HOUSE, USING KIPLING"S LIBRARY! This insight into Willingham's approach actually explains a lot of why this series works as well as it does. Transcribed from the author's note at the end of Peter & Max - A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham. here's an excerpt from his thank you's:

"The first half of this book was written in Vermont, in the house once owned by Rudyard Kipling, painstakingly restored by the Heritage Foundation, using Kipling's original books, furniture and fixtures, which they were happily surprised to discover stored in an old barn on the property. Peter and Max were created in the same room, on the same desk in fact, that Kipling created Mowgli, the rest of the Jungle Book characters, Kim, the Captains Courageous, and many others. To say that it was an inspirational setting in which to begin a fantasy adventure story is to be guilty of criminal understatement. Thank you to the kind men and women of the Heritage Foundation, for opening the property to me and for your hard work in making my stay so comfortable, restful, and productive. Thank you, too, to the good ghost in that home for the use of your writing room and library, which always seemed to have just the right text on some obscure subject of medieval history, technology or nature, within arm's reach, whenever I needed it."

This is something I'm attempting to catch up on properly myself right now, having never read all of them in the correct order. With eleven years (and counting) of monthly comics to wade through, along with special issues, cross-overs and more, I must admit, without a guide I would feel quite lost. Although the Wikipedia page has a lot of great summary information it's still very daunting to wrap your brain around.

Thankfully, blogger/reader - and Fables enthusiast - Kailana (aka Kelly Rogers) put together a super-simple, easy to follow step-by-step guide to reading (and purchasing) the Fables issues in an order that not only makes chronological sense but makes for a fuller experience. And now I'm able to share it with you!

Without further ado (and with enormous thanks to Kailana for giving me permission to repost this) here is your handy "How-to-read Fables Guide":

So You Want to Read Fables...?

by Kailana of The Written World

Originally posted June 29, 2012

(with one update and additional notes & cover images inserted by FTNH)

✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line) ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ 

Disney to Reboot Classic With "The Beast"

Disney's Beauty and the Beast statue & writer Joe Ahearne in the upper right

Let's see, so far as Beauty & the Beast goes, either currently in production or on the small screen, we have: 

Fan made "wish" poster for del Toro's B&tB

• Christophe Gans' luscious looking French live action Beauty and the Beast (based on the original) with a release date of February 12 (or maybe 14), 2014.
• There's the Guillermo del Toro live action version with Emma Watson confirmed as attached to play the female lead (the only news is that production won't happen this year as planned but at Cannes Ms. Watson confirmed that it IS going ahead in early 2014).*
• And don't forget the CW's  hit Beauty & the Beast drama which is heading to ComicCon soon with spoilers & treats while gearing up for a second season (starting Monday, October 7 @ 9/8C)
• Or the Belle/Rumple-beast ongoing story line of ABCs (also Disney) Once Upon A Time.

These are, of course, just the versions currently playing or in production and note I'm just counting reboots here - not replays of classics, or Broadway shows. Or books. Or art... (Is this one beloved tale or what, right now?!)

The CW's drama Beauty & the Beast

But would you like one more?
How about The Beast? By Disney.

Yes. You may have heard rumors about this earlier in the year but there's definitely going to be a Disney live-action reboot of the beloved animated film franchise. Although there isn't a whole lot of news just yet we have a few clues as to how this is going to go. The writer (still unconfirmed) in talks with Disney is Joe Ahearne, whose recent credits include the thriller, Trance. 

From First Showing:

The title alone (The Beast) seems to throw the fairytale nature of the story aside, and bringing on a writer like Ahearne seems to indicate this will be a bit darker. Of course, this is Disney, and they just had a clash with Mark Romanek over his take on Cinderella which was said to be a little too dark for the studio, so they won't be going too crazy with a revisionist take on the story. This just goes to show you that the fairytale revamp trend isn't going anywhere...

And from Slashfilm:

From cartoon to life by Jirka Väätäinen

In short, live-action fairy tale reboots have been good business for Disney so far. So they’re keeping a good thing going by putting yet another one in the pipeline. This new one will be a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast called The Beast, and there’s some indication that it could get a little dark. The studio is currently in talks with writer Joe Ahearne, whose last script was Danny Boyle’s rather twisted-looking Trance.
Deadline reports that The Beast is likely to be in 3D. No plot details have been given at this time, but the title suggests that it’ll center around the Beast, rather than Beauty as traditional tellings usually do. Maybe we can finally get a good explanation as to why the witch in Disney’s 1991 cartoon thought cursing an entire household, servants and all, was an appropriate punishment for a young boy’s momentary rudeness.

Have you noticed one thing? They're all supposed to be "darker than Disney". All. Of. Them. Even the Disney one. (Although, perhaps not quite in the goth update manner shown below...)

As always the big concern is: "WHY?" If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? But people can't get enough of this story right now (as proven in the list above) and if Disney want to do another, they should go right ahead. There's been a trend of rebooting franchises over the past few years (Batman, Man of Steel, Captain America, Spiderman, The Avengers etc) and it's been met with a roaring success from the crowds - the same crowds that swore any attempt at retooling the stories was going to ruin it all forever. So it IS possible to do a good - and fresh - reboot of something people love (for the most part) and not stuff it up. (Not completely anyway.)  ;)

And, it turns out, Disney has a good chance of getting it right on this one too because there's another bit of interesting information quietly out there as far as Disney being interested in retelling THEIR Beauty and the Beast story...

Author Serena Valentino, who has a publishing contract with Disney and wrote the truly wonderful Fairest of All (a retelling of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from the perspective of the Wicked Queen) is working on a retelling of Disney's Beauty & the Beast, titled The Beast Within. Ms. Valentino really knows her fairy tales and is a very gifted writer. To be honest I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Disney having someone retell their blockbuster Snow White from the villains perspective but I was blown away by how Ms. Valentino handled it. (I can't say enough good things about all her writing and stories! I think she must have a "olde" fairy godmother muse with a dark sense of humor and some deep roots in myth. You can read my blog entry on that book, with samples included to give you a taste, HERE.)

Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast

As a result I've been waiting for this book, The Beast Within,  ever since reading Fairest.

From Serena Valentino's website:

I am currently writing a new novel for Disney Publishing based on the Beast from Disney’s film Beauty and the Beast. I am very excited to explore the Beast’s past and what he did to become cursed, while weaving in my own sensibilities, and drawing upon inspirations from Jean Cocteau’s version and a bit of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray for good measure.

I will be interviewing Ms. Valentino shortly so don't want to say too much more right now, but clearly this has been an idea in the works for Disney for quite some time - ever since Fairest Of All was released in mid-2009 at the least, and I'm fairly certain they were looking at a number of movies 9SleepingBeauty included) for the potential to make into "something else" as well. (Hello Maleficent!)

 It's been quite a while now so I had forgotten about Ms. Valentino's pending release until the news that Disney was looking at rebooting their version popped back up. I can't help wonder if the ideas (of book from the Beast's POV and the proposed movie) are related in any way and if Mr. Ahearne will be chatting to Ms. Valentino about his version...

Even if these two (very different) writers don't get to talk about The Beast, the fact that Disney would consider retellings like Fairest of All, under their brand name at all, along with some of the very different things they've allowed on Once Upon A Time, shows me they more open to true retellings** and are branching out beyond being just a sequel studio or repackaging past successes. So I'm just going to sit back and see what they do. (Besides, I like good surprises.)

Belle & the chipped cup from ABC's Once Upon A Time

And of course, everyone will be wondering: Are we going to get a Once Upon A Time movie version of visuals (see above)?

Or a live action version of the animated visuals? 

(Like the Annie Liebovitz version here.)

Or will we be treated to something entirely new? (Note: the Valentino design below is one of a series of "princess dress designs" based on the Disney movies and although you can see Disney in there, more than a few of them are beautifully original "reboots" which I wouldn't mind seeing on a screen.)

My other question is, Cocteau having bodiless, silent candlestick servants is a (very much darker) world away from singing cutlery. I wonder how they're going to handle that?

As far as the movie goes, there is no director attached yet or any rumors of stars being considered for roles but if I hear anything otherwise I'll let you know!

* We do know that del Toro's work load is rather... loaded! He already had multiple projects all further along in development or filming when B&tB was announced so we're not expecting to see anything for a while yet. The next fairy tale we'll see from him will likely be Pinocchio.
** It doesn't mean I like everything they're doing that different - obviously. I have a lot of issues with Once Upon A Time, for example but at the same time, I'm so very pleased to see types being stretched (and combined) beyond what has been typical of Disney in the past.

Herakut: "My What Big Tales You Have!"

"The little giants & the goddess of dreams" - 2nd mural in Lexington KY, USA

Herakut are taking their new fairy tale to the streets, then leaving it there, one chapter at a time...


 The Giant Storybook Project by German street artist-duo Herakut is one of my coolest discoveries of late. The artists are creating a new children's book (chock-full of fairy tale themes), wall by wall around the world.

Waking the Giant from The Giant Storybook Project - Montreal, Canada

The project began in September 2012 and is continuing throughout 2013 so we can watch as the story of Lily, Jay and two giants unfolds (if you're lucky and live in a town they will be painting in - literally!) in murals and on buildings (from warehouses to monasteries) around the globe. Check HERE for some very cool pics on the development of a few different paintings. There is also a fantastic and beautiful promo video below which shows some of the process too.

The Giant Story Book Project - Trailer

If you aren't familiar with Herakut here's a little background from Inspire Me:

1st mural "Lily & the silly monkeys" also in Lexington, KY USA

Herakut is comprised of Hera, a classically trained painter who “creates gestural, emotional figures in a freestyle manner using numerous tools including spray cans, brushes, and her hands.” and Akut, a completely self-taught yet skilled painter, creating hyper-realistic images of animals and flesh using only a spray can. 

Their pieces range from traditional canvases to urban decay art installations / murals and can be seen clear across Europe. Their pieces are loaded with symbolism and context and you’d be hard pressed to stand before their work and not feel a piece of you reach out in appreciation or possibly discomfort. (More on their work, book releases and projects at the Inspire Me link above.)

I've also created a Pinterest board dedicated to their artwork - which includes a number of The Giant Storybook Project pieces - and chose pieces that display their use of symbolism, metaphor, animal people and fairy tale themes in images and words, painted in unexpected urban places. You can see that board HERE.

Miami FL, USA - 8th mural of The Giant Storybook Project

You can follow The Giant Storybook Project (and Herakut) on Facebook HERE, on Pinterest HERE and on Tumblr HERE.

Here's their description from Facebook:

"I am different" painted on side of a monastery in Eresing, Germany

We are Giants and Children and Monkeys and Chameleons. Come along and see our story...

The Giant Storybook Project will follow the creation of a new children's book being created by the internationally-renowned street artist duo Herakut. Launched in September 2012 and continuing through 2013, the project follows the artists as they introduce the story's characters on murals that they are painting around the world. If you're in one of the cities where we're painting, come on by! If not, follow the progress through this (Facebook) page. Either way, get to know Lily, Jay (her brother), the giants, and the other interesting characters as they reveal more of themselves over the coming months!

Jay's Creative Spirit - The Giant Storybook Project installment in Leslieville, Toronto, Canada

And here's an excerpt from Chapter 1; the first draft, of Herakut's Giant Storybook:

They were also involved in the (crazy-popular music event) Coachella, teaming up with Poetic Kinetics Inc. this year in April with their giant (seriously giant!) snail Helix, to help promote their project and spread inspiration.

Helix in the sunset at Coachella 2013

Currently they have completed eleven storybook page murals (I believe Helix's paint does not count as a storybook page) and are working on fundraising projects (via some truly beautiful looking prints, among other things) before they continue traveling, painting, storytelling and inspiring...

"Will power always consume the ones that seek it?"
Possible children´s-book-version of our wall in Rochester, NY.

Here's a list of where the The Giant Storybook Project murals are so far:

Lily & Jay meet up in Kathmandu, Nepal

• Lexington KY, USA (murals 1 & 2)
• Eresing, Germany (3)
• Montreal, Canada (4)
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada (5)
• Rochester NY, USA (6)
• San Francisco CA, USA (7)
• Miami FL, USA (8)
• Melbourne VIC, Australia (9)
• Kathmandu, Nepal (10)
• Lily at Coachella (on Helix) Indio CA, USA (no notes on where Helix can be seen sorry)
• Bad Vilbel, Germany (11)

Print of Lily for fundraising*

Oh and YES! 

There will definitely be a book of The Giant Storybook Project (on the various pages I've linked to, you can see Herakut making mock-ups of how a mural could be adapted for print as a page or double-page spread for a book). It is yet to be named although, really, The Giant Storybook Project seems just fine. :)

The release date is, understandably, yet to be announced. 

"How you do something reveals your talent. Why you do something reveals your character." Lily uses her gift to make gifts. June 2, 2013 - The Giant Storybook Project latest installment: Bad Vilbel, Germany

*The print is (adorably) titled "You know there is something wrong with you if you don't even get along with your imaginary friends."

Article: A Short History of Beauty and the Beast in Pop Culture

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

Easy to read and navigate this article does a nice job of highlighting the "big" Beauty and the Beast pop culture highlights from its beginnings. La Belle et la Bête is hard to beat for me, though seeing a contemporary dance performance choreographed by Graeme Murphy for the Sydney Dance Company, in Australia, came close. (Neither that ballet or any other Beauty & the Beast dance work appears on the list unfortunately.)

Go over and have a look at A Short History of Beauty and the Beast in Pop Culture. It's highlights only, not a definitive works/major works timeline and will be nothing new to readers of this blog but it's great to see all in one place.

A little more obscure is this article, also by Flavorwire, of "Beauty and the Beast-style" Love on Film.


Knowing Beauty and the Beast is a personal favorite of Heidi Anne Heiner's (of SurLaLune fame), I'd love to see a visual-plus-notes pop culture timeline from her. (Like she hasn't got a gazillion things on her plate already! We're REALLY looking forward to her Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World anthology which she aims to have out sometime this year.)

In the meantime, I found this little gem below, showing various incarnations of Beast over the years for comparison. Originator unfortunately unknown, though I did find it HERE. (Sorry about the resolution. It's as large as I could make it without the image pixilating badly.)

Illustrations by Walter Crane, Rebecca Guay, Ron Embleton, Nilesh Mistry, Judy Riggenbach, Glen Keane, Warwick Goble, Anne Grahame Johnstone, Edmund Dulac, Eleanor Vere Boyle, Paul Woodroffe, Errol Le Cain, Anne Anderson, Kirsi Salonen, Scott Gustafson, Alicechan, Margaret Tarrant, and various Anonymous

Now with Once Upon A Time about to make their mark and two Beauty & the Beast TV series projects currently in development, there are only going to be more...

Here's the Once Upon A Time promo (somewhat spoilery) for the February 12th Beauty and the Beast Valentine-themed episode (photo previews, also with slight spoilers HERE):

Posters By Mondo, A Fairy Tale Book Collection & More Coming from ABC's "Once Upon A Time"

 

From TV Overmind:

Mondo, the Alamo Drafthouse's collectible art boutique, uses world class artists to create limited edition screen printed posters based on television shows and movies.

Now, Mondo has partnered with ABC to create a series of posters based on the series Once Upon a Time, as well as the fairytale stories that have inspired the show's writers.  Six posters will be released for sale throughout December and January:

12/8 – Rapunzel
12/15 – Little Red Cap
12/22 – Sleeping Beauty
12/29 – Snow White
1/5 – Rumpelstiltskin
1/12 – Cinderella

ABC is revealing the posters on the dates shown HERE.

 The Rapunzel poster has well and truly sold out already in both the silver and gold prints but there are more coming, as you can see from the list above. Here's the website you need to keep an eye on HERE. You can see a large version of the Rapunzel posters there right now. But there's even better news.

What I'm most excited about is this:

The artwork on the posters will also be featured in an upcoming fairy tale collection book entitled "Once Upon a Time." Show creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wrote the foreword for the book and their pilot script will be featured in the ebook version.

This is one of my complete-fantasy wishlist items that's becoming reality - a fairy tale collection book from Once? I'm hoping for something truly beautiful and magnificent - and very different. (Please let it be different!)

Your Favorite Fairy Tale/Retelling Suggestions Wanted for Reprint Anthology (Night Shade Books)

Announced through Tor.com, Night Shade Books has put out the call, looking for people's favorite fairy tales and retellings to put into a 'reprint anthology', titled "Happily Ever After" - and you can have a say in what goes into the new collection!Night Shade Book's editor for the new collection, John Klima, is aware of (and loves) the (totally awesome) fairy tale series by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, some of which I'm including images of in this post (I'm not sure if that includes the newer YA collections) but says if you want to see any of those stories reprinted, don't hesitate to recommend them. The only requirement for any stories put forward is that they've been published in some format before.Here's the blurb:

While I’m not doing a submission reading period like Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, I am looking for help in finding science fiction and fantasy versions of fairy tales. Following the lead of John Joseph Adams, I’ve created a story recommendation website for Happily Ever After. There, people can let me know about their favorite science fiction/fantasy fairy tales. My definition of fairy tale is pretty open. That is, you don’t need to stick to just Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Andersen stories.

Now, I’ve got the excellent Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling anthologies, but don’t hesitate to recommend stories out of them. Also, don’t worry if someone else has already recommended your favorite story; recommend it again. The only rule is that I’m looking for reprints so the story has to have appeared somewhere else. People who recommend a story that ends up in the anthology will get thanked in the book.

Typically I'm thinking of your standard European fairy tales (e.g., Cinderella, Snow White, Rumpelstilskin, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, and so on) but I would love to get recommendations on lesser-known fairy tales, as well as fairy tales from other countries/continents. I will need English-language material, however.

Mr. Klima says writers can even recommend their own work, provided it's been published before.

How cool is that? Here's the really cool part: the website where you can submit your picks! Even if you're shy about putting in your two cents, I recommend checking out the growing list. You may discover versions you're not familiar with and rediscover old favorites (which you can re-recommend).

You have until the end of December to add your suggestions to the database.

The fairy tale suggestions database is HERE.

Free Online Preview of "Drawing Down the Moon - The Art of Charles Vess" Still Available

Charles Vess, gifted artist of all things fantasy and fairy and close collaborative friend of Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint, has a new hardcover art book coming in December. And we get to have a free preview! (This hasn't just appeared but I re-checked today and the preview is still available, though it isn't clear how long it will remain so.)

From the illustrated version of "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

As per the announcement on Mr. Vess' BLOG:

My big, fat art book: Drawing Down the Moon, The Art of Charles Vess has taken a loooooooong while to wind its way from the completion of my initial layouts to actually seeing print this December. And along the way there have been multiple false alarms as to its publication date.

The folks at Dark Horse and I want to apologize for any confusion that these solicitations may have caused.

So, in an effort to make certain that you know that the book will indeed be available this December we are providing you with a sneak preview of the entire 200 pages.

The link to the 200 page free preview is HERE.

Go have a look at all this gorgeous artwork while you can (then order one for yourself - I mean someone else - for Christmas...).

From "A Circle of Cats" by Charles de Lint

Disney's Snow White Out On Blu-ray Today + Exhibition Coming To New Orleans

A while ago I posted the announcement that Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was being released on Blu-ray and discussed some of the new features, including the new artwork created specifically for this release. (You can find that post HERE.)

Today's the day you can finally go buy it (please note the above image is actually the DVD cover which will be released seven weeks from today). Rather than link you to Amazon again I'm going to send you to the SurLaLune blog HERE, where yesterday Heidi gave details of a discount coupon available for a very limited period of time. She also linked to the various packages available for you (thanks Heidi!).In honor of this landmark film being released in the best quality available to us today, rather than talk about the Blu-ray product again I want to point you toward a couple of other related things.

The first is a very interesting article HERE in which Lella Smith, the Creative Director of Disney's Animation Research Library was interviewed about the restoration of the film and the sort of information the ARL staff are 'privy to' and 'keepers of'. I haven't seen more than small quotes from ARL librarians before so this extended article (it is longer than an average article) is a treat and uncovers more of Disney's consideration of the Grimm's tale than you usually hear of.
For example, here's an excerpt from the interview which describes Walt Disney (the man)'s awareness of the 'original' versions of the tale and his reasons for changing the things he did (please note - the article seems to essentially be an unedited transcript of a conversation, complete with all the odd speech fillers):

Can you talk about a few of the differences from the Brothers Grimm? We talked a bit about it from the Brothers Grimm telling to the Disney telling.

Lella Smith: Sure, one of my favorite subjects. Well, you know, Snow White was a story that had been around for decades and decades in an oral tradition. And in many different countries there were subtle changes and not so subtle changes. In one of the stories I remember I think it was in an Italian version the huntsman was supposed to cut off Snow White's toe and use it as a stopper in a bottle of her blood. You know, there were lots of changes in the story. And Snow White who was seven years old and the daughter of the queen, that was pretty frightening to think about. So when Walt began to decide about his Snow White although she is young, I've seen his story note that says look, she has to be old enough to be able to consider marriage. So, you know, and they thought out those differences. The huntsman depending on which fairy tale you read sometimes he had to bring back the liver, sometimes the heart. So that changed with different tellings. And in some tellings the queen was to dance in the hot - shoes that had been put in the hot coals until she dropped dead. So, you know, Walt Disney said wait a minute, let's get rid of the queen earlier so that we can celebrate the happiness of the story. So in fact he had the witch fall off the cliff so that the prince and Snow White could then celebrate their happiness together in the forest. So there were lots of subtle changes but they were all done with a purpose. Another change was that in the original version you remember that the queen came three times to try to kill Snow White and each time - the first two times the dwarfs arrived home in plenty of time to save her but the third time they didn't. And so, you know, Walt said well one poison apple is enough, let's get it over with so that change was made. But there were - they were changes that were not made without a lot of thought because to him, he was taking well known stories and transferring them to a different kind of medium, the screen. And so he had to in some ways expand the story to full length film. In some ways he had to simplify the story so that it wouldn't be overcomplicated on screen. And when you think about it, these were changes that were no different from changes made in one telling to the next telling. Often when tellers told these fairy tales they would make little changes depending on how, you know, they felt the story should go. So it was continuation of the idea that fairy tales are oral tradition and until, you know, they were written down by the Grimms Brothers, you know, they were just pretty much all over the place.

Lella Smith also discusses, in some detail, how the various dwarf characters were developed from name through to how they each moved and behaved differently in the same situation.The other thing I'd like to draw your attention to is, in the article Ms. Smith announced an exhibition that will show in New Orleans on Disney and fairy tales in November. She also mentioned some upcoming books the ARL are involved with (the bold is mine):

Lella Smith: ...we're opening an exhibition on November 15 in New Orleans called Dreams Come True, Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio. And that is an exhibition that celebrates fairy tales, talks about how Walt Disney Studio changed them, some of the reasons they did, the elements of animation are represented in the exhibition and there will be about 800 works. So I wrote the catalog and the text labels and then we'll go there for the opening. And then we're working on books. We're just coming out with a book now the second in the animation archive series on animation. And we've just finished designing the design book which this is the third in the series of books. It's called the archive series that goes back and picks out the finest of the finest of the stories from our library, the finest animation, the finest design pieces, and puts them into a big book available on Amazon.com.

It sounds like a fascinating exhibition. I only wish I could get to New Orleans to see it.