Disney's "Descendants" Trailer

It's coming and this made-for-TV-movie is premiering on Disney Channel in July. Looks like the advertising is about to get intense.

There is a prequel book, a whole toy line (already, yes - I think that's why they're making this movie actually), and accessories popping up all over the place.

Here's the main trailer (there are also character trailers which you can watch HERE):

I'm... not quite on board with this whole thing.

Ever After High already does it better. Way better.

My biggest problem with it, is that any substance in any of these stories, fairy tale, mythic or otherwise, really appears to have been watered down very significantly and left without much of a leg to stand on, Instead of being a fun fantasy with substantial roots, it's turned into dismissible fantasy fluff (with what-the-heck costumes). The character promos at least talk about the 'origin stories' of their 'parents', and it does look like the cast had fun at least, but these villain-kids don't hold a candle to what the Ever After High characters (who are also descendants of fairy tale characters) have to deal with and make decisions about.

If you'd like to read up on it though, here's a little about the book, available for pre-order:

Description:

Evil tree. Bad Apple?

Twenty years ago, all the evil villains were banished from the kingdom of Auradon to the Isle of the Lost--a dark and dreary place protected by a force field that makes it impossible for them to leave. Stripped of their magical powers, the villains now live in total isolation, forgotten by the world.

Mal learns from her mother, Maleficent, that the key to true darkness, the Dragon's Eye, is located inside her scepter in the forbidden fortress on the far side of the island. The eye is cursed, and whoever retrieves it will be knocked into a deep sleep for a thousand years. But Mal has a plan to capture it. She'll just need a little help from her "friends." In their quest for the Dragon's Eye, these four kids begin to realize that just because you come from an evil family tree, being good ain't so bad.

Benjamin Lacombe's Snow White: Animated Book Trailer

One of my favorite books ever (which I desperately want my own copy of but have never been able to afford every time I look it up) has a trailer, and I only just discovered it! They've taken Lacombe's beautiful art work and animated it, laying some music underneath to tell the story we know so well.

I just had to share because: gorgeous! (Plus the imagery he uses in his illustrations is just wonderful.)

I believe the text is in Portuguese but you don't really need it translated. The images speak for themselves. (I kind of want this on a DVD I can play over and over...)

Enjoy!

 

News From "The Lunar Chronicles"

Lots of news coming from Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles this Monday. So much, in fact, it even got dubbed #CYBORGMONDAY.

First, for those who are having trouble waiting for the third installment of Ms. Meyer's sci-fi fairy tale series, Cress, (based on Rapunzel) you'll be happy to know that the first FIVE chapters of Cress are now available for reading (or download in the US only) for free HERE.

There's also a new book trailer for Cress HERE.

Possibly the most exciting news, though, (for me at least) is news of a just released preview/teaser of a new companion short story for The Lunar Chronicles. It's based on yet another fairy tale and is, apparently, the most requested tale Ms. Meyer gets asked to consider retelling. The story is titled The Little Android and is based on.. you guessed it: The Little Mermaid. 

What does that mean? It means we're getting a legitimate sci-fi retelling of The Little Mermaid by an author who's proven she knows both her craft and her fairy tales. I can't wait to read the whole story. Hopefully it will be released via Tor.com like Ms. Meyer's other short stories, complete with some new and gorgeous artwork to boot (Ha! Punny. Cinderella, boot... sorry. Couldn't resist.) They'll be releasing the whole story when Cress reaches a pre-order goal set by the publisher but for now you can read a teaser HERE.

There is an extra  - and Cress exclusive - incentive to pre-order when you do it through HERE and you can keep abreast of more news, and lots of pics and fan art, care of the new Tumblr HERE.

Bring on those release dates!

The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey (book trailer)

Heidi over at the SurLaLune Blog posted a lovely review of The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey not long ago and included the book trailer but I wanted to post on it anyway for three reasons:

1) it draws on a Russian snow child tale I've always loved
2) the book trailer is beautifully animated and a joy to watch
3) it's being highly recommended by Ali Shaw, author of The Girl With Glass Feet

Take a look:

Official book blurb:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. 

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

The text begins like this:

THE SNOW CHILD EXCERPT

Excerpt from CHAPTER 1

Wolverine River, Alaska, 1920 

Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbor children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence.

She had imagined that in the Alaska wilderness silence would be peaceful, like snow falling at night, air filled with promise but no sound, but that was not what she found. Instead, when she swept the plank floor, the broom bristles scritched like some sharp-toothed shrew nibbling at her heart. When she washed the dishes, plates and bowls clattered as if they were breaking to pieces. The only sound not of her making was a sudden “caw, cawww” from outside. Mabel wrung dishwater from a rag and looked out the kitchen window in time to see a raven flapping its way from one leafless birch tree to another. No children chasing each other through autumn leaves, calling each other’s names. Not even a solitary child on a swing. 

                                                                                    ***** 

Norwegian cover

Italian cover

You can continue reading the excerpt HERE, which, if I wasn't sold on this book before, would have sealed the deal. It's just beautiful.

The images posted are variations on the cover, of which I'm glad there are so many (Heidi already posted some of the others). This is one tale I'm, again, mystified by the lack of illustrators tackling the subject. The visuals and the emotions in the story are so poignant. It's almost begging to be given form! (Kind of like the snow child herself.)

Ms. Ivey's website is HERE and you can now purchase the book HERE (it was released February 1st).

Relatedly, there's a Welsh theatrical production of a version of The Snow Child, which is where I found the above image. You can read more information and see more production images HERE.

EXTREMELY LATE UPDATE!

The designs were created by artist/illustrator Fiona Woodcock and the trailer was animated by Verdant Films - something which seemed difficult to pin down when this book was getting so much attention. Such beautiful work needs to be acknowledged! Thankfully, book trailers are now eligible for Moby Awards so hopefully a) people will be more aware of those artists behind the scenes who are doing beautiful work to promote writers b) more effort will go into the quality of book trailers in general. Congratulations to Fiona Woodcock & Verdant Films! This is beautiful and unforgettable work.

"The Thorn & The Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story" by Theodora Goss

 

Writer/poet, Theodora Goss

We have a new book to look forward to in January from Theodora Goss, whom you may know from her gothic-styled fairy tale short stories of her book The Forest of Forgetting.

This particular work The Thorn & The Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story is more legend than fairy tale, being loosely based on the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it's unique form - and I mean physical form here - is making even those people completely won over to e-books and digital formats sit up and take notice.

 

You can read and see more about the construction and format of the book on Ms. Goss' blog HERE. (Bonus - she has her book propped up on some lovely William Morris pillows. Nice.) She also mentions she was going to write about her challenges with this particular story construction but I haven't managed to find that yet in my already-borrowed-more-than-planned computer time today!* I do recommend having a browse and read through her blog if you're interested in writing. She has a lot of interesting observations on life, myth and much much more that will appeal to fairy tale people.

You can choose to either read  side of the star-crossed lovers story: Brendan's version or Evelyn's. They're both incorporated into the binding on opposite sides by being printed in an accordion-style.

Check the images in the post and the book trailer below and you'll see what I mean.



 I have a feeling this will be a big seller for Valentine's Day. :)

*My apologies: I'm SO behind on fairy tale news and emails this week with hardly getting any time online. I will have to do a catch up post if I possibly can. There's too much good stuff happening right now to not at least comment on it. I can't promise I will but I do promise to try.

"Il Etait Une Fois": A Pop-Up Book of Fairy Tales by Benjamin Lacombe

Today , yesterday (don't you hate it when your planned computer time just doesn't happen?), Heidi posted my Fairy Tale Favorite Things Christmas Wish List on her SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog and the first two items had something in common: they're both by the amazing Benjamin Lacombe*.

If you don't know who this artist is, this is the best way I can think of to introduce you to the wonder that is Benjamin Lacombe.

Just have a look at this amazing book trailer, which is for the second "most wanted" item on my wishlist:



The book is a brilliantly realized and beautifully printed pop-up and although there isn't a whole lot of text, you really don't need it (which is extra fantastic if you don't know much French). Take a closer look at some of the pages.

Peter Pan

Bluebeard

 Mr. Lacombe is not only talented in illustration,  he writes, was very particularly involved in the process of creating the cut outs and design for the pop-up and if I understand correctly, he was not only intimately involved in planning and designing the animation for the trailer, he even tried his hand at the actual animation himself (with amazing results!). It helps, of course, that he's obviously very drawn to fairy tales and even his other illustration that isn't based on fairy tales still has a fairy tale feel to it. I haven't found anything he's illustrated I don't like yet. :)

Red Riding Hood

Thumbelina

I'll write more about his many talents and the variety of his work another time but for now you may have noticed I wrote this amazing book is not Number 1 on my list but Number 2.

Why?

Because Mr. Lacombe has also illustrated his own version of "Blanche Neige" (Snow White), which has been on my must-have-as-soon-as-possible list since I first saw it and has been my number one wish item for the entire year...

Amazing, no? And the cover has this illustration wrapped around it.

Although Snow White (or Little Snow White) has been a favorite tale of mine since I was small (for different reasons at different times) it's not the only reason I'm drawn to this book. Wait until you see how Mr. Lacombe handled the telling (showing) of the story and oh-so-familiar scenes and you'll see why. This beautiful book is something even those skeptical about the Snow White tale seem drawn to.

I will (hopefully!) add another post just for this amazing book tomorrow (also known as the very next time I get some computer time to put the finishing touches on my post and make it live!). Stay tuned!

*Yes! Benjamin Lacombe IS on Facebook (that's where the link goes). And you get to see lots of lovely previews and extras if you 'like' his page. :)

Book Trailer for "White Cat" by Holly Black

Holly Black is well known for her fairy tale based writing and has been called one of this generations greatest writers. We're eagerly awaiting her new release "White Cat", based on the fairy tale "The White Cat" (you can catch up on the tale HERE), which is due out on May 4, 2010.

Author Holly Black

Here's the synopsis from Holly's website:

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

There's an excerpt available to read HERE while we're waiting and also a new book trailer to introduce the story and the series, called "Curse Workers".


You can find out more about Holly at her website HERE and her blog HERE.