Double Baba Yaga News: Worldwide Popular Game Fortnite Adds A Baba Yaga Skin/ Prof & Pints Have Dr. Rappoprt Talking About Baba Yaga Live Online TONIGHT!

Baba Yaga and her chicken-legged hut, designed by Epic Games for Fortnite

It's "Halloweek" (week of Halloween) and this year we have a good reason to talk about our favorite witch! Though she wasn't originally a character to be pulled from folklore and fairy tales just for this season (any Slavic kid will tell you, she has the ability to scare you all year long!), Baba Yaga has slowly and steadily been entering Western pop culture during the spooky season for some time now and she - and her chicken-legged hut - are now familiar figures. This year, however, she's achieved another pop-culture milestone via the worldwide gaming community of Fortnite. There's enough interest in her now that experts are running live lectures online for special presentations about her... (Read on for details.)

1. Fortnite (one of the most popular video games in the world in 2020) Releases a Baba Yaga "Skin"

Do you hear the sound of chicken legs...?

Baba Yaga has been making appearances in video games for many years but they have tended to be more independent games for niche markets. Then came Baba Yaga in the Hellboy comics and last year the most recent Hellboy on the big screen had Baba Yaga and her walking hut as a very scary antagonist (rated R). She's been appearing more in pop culture references the past few years and has become a stock character in dark fantasy offerings in books and on screen, but this week, Fortnite, one of the most popular video games in the world, introduced her - and her hut - to over 350 million active players around the world. 

Epic Games' video game creation Fortnite is a powerhouse in the gaming industry. Their e-sport tournaments are intensely competitive and the world's top players vie for big money.  If you have a gamer in the house they either tend to love Fortnite and play a LOT, or they hate it with other allegiances but are still fully aware of just how big this game is. (It's a third-person shooter game with a few creative components and lots of emphasis on teams.) While they do have narrative arcs and themes (currently they are running a Marvel-superhero crossover) they still often dip into legends, myths, and even fairy tales for little bits of story and various special character "skins" that players can "wear" and play as, fully animated. Fortnite's Baba Yaga is clearly a folkloric witch, complete with sprouting mushrooms and forest vibes, sporting a red-eyed crow in a cage on her back (called a "back bling"). Along with her chicken-legged hut to function as a "glider", and a special broom with sprouting mushrooms and chopped off chicken feet hanging from its twigs to be used as a "pickaxe",  the Baba Yaga skin which any player can "wear" (by purchasing it with "v-bucks" ie., virtual dollars), is the first crone skin (read, senior female skin), and possibly the most ancient-looking skin to be added to the game (as far as we can verify - vampires not being counted as they're all timelessly youthful). She became available in Fortnite item shop on Sunday evening October 25th at the 5pm item shop change and remained in the item shop for the Monday 26th update too (usually skins change every day, although new ones often get a couple of days spotlight). The Baba Yaga skin has no special powers in the game - none of the skins do, so as not to disadvantage players who can't purchase them, but she can do everything others characters can, including all those infamous Fornite dances, and wield any weapon she finds in treasure chests, or takes from her kills, including seasonal pumpkin bazookas through to the classic Fortnite LMGs (light machine guns). While there's a good chance she will return later in the week for Halloween, chances are, after this week, we won't see her again in the item shop until Halloween 2021, so if you know a folkloric gamer, make sure they get her today. There's nothing quite like being run down by a Russian witch!

2. Prof and Pints Online Are Hosting A Special Baba Yaga focused lecture by Professor Philippa Rappoport Live TONIGHT 

Come join us as we tune in to hear a fascinating lecture by Slavic folklorist Dr. Philippa Rappoport, on Baba Yaga TONIGHT! All time-zones welcome!

Prof and Pints Online are dedicated to bringing faculty members into bars, cafes, offices (and now living rooms!) to share their knowledge, without the pricey cost of tuition, or the stress of quizzes or grades. Since moving all presentations online due to the pandemic, tickets cost just $12 for an approximately 90-minute lecture, complete with Q&A. Prof and Pints curate presenters (faculty members) on a very wide variety of topics, including politics, history, sociology, and, of course, folklore and fairy tales. (Our Carterhaugh Profs are frequent presenters!) We are HUGE Prof and Pints fans and have attended many lectures, by various experts over the past few months and remain impressed at the quality of educators invited to speak and how generous in sharing their knowledge and expertise they are. We highly recommend them.

Tickets to join live via Crowdcast (no app download needed) are available right up to a few minutes before it starts and anyone can join. (Please be advised, content is aimed at adults, so should be screened before being shared with anyone under 18.) Live chats are very active during the lectures and proposing questions for the end Q&A is open to anyone attending. Lectures are also recorded so are available to watch again later, or tickets can then be purchased to watch at leisure after the event.

TONIGHT at 4pm PST/7pm EST, Slavic folklorist Professor Philippa Rappoport, whose lectures are truly excellent, is talking about Baba Yaga, along with other "dark denizens". (She's also a good storyteller and wonderful to listen to.)

Description:

Profs and Pints Online presents: “Tales from Netherworlds,” an evening with Baba Yaga and other dark denizens of the imagination, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link for tickets and access given via this site. ]

The traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain—now known as Halloween—marked the opening of a door between our world and the world of deities and the dead. In honor of that day’s approach, Philippa Rappoport returns to the Profs and Pints Online stage to tell Slavic folktales about journeys to a strange netherworld beneath us.

Baba Yaga by Ivan Bilibin

The ticket to taking such a trip is being in possession of a magic doll. A mysterious element of folktales in Russia and other East Slavic nations, they’ll open doors in the earth for you. Beware, though. Although you might escape danger on one side, you’re likely to face it on the other.

Professor Rappoport will tell the tale of one heroine, Vasilisa the Beautiful, whose doll-aided plunge into a netherworld leads her to confront the witch Baba Yaga and a host of ooglie booglie spirits. She’ll take us on a journey of our own, exploring what such folktales tell us about beliefs about women, witches, fairy godmothers, and magical helpers. We’ll tour netherworlds as places where we can find both terror and refuge. You’ll be surprised by how relevant much of what you’ll encounter is to spiritual beliefs and practices all around us today.

Professor Rappoport has also wowed Profs and Pints audiences with talks about Russia’s house spirits treacherous mermaids. Her latest effort will change how you think about Halloween.

Hope to see you there!

New "Tangled" Teaser Poster from Disney + Some Development Art

Lots of hair...

(click image for a larger view):

The vibe is 'mischievous'. Think it will grab the boys attention? Personally I'd like to see more of the fencing horse, as in, a horse with a sword (artwork below).

Here's a reminder of the synopsis:And below is some uncredited development art that's been released (though much of it it looks like Glen Keane's work). I'm just posting a small selection. You can see a whole lot more HERE. I see a "lather, rinse, repeat" regarding some of the motifs (most of which I did not include here) - I'll leave you to discover what I mean by that - but I'm guessing it's supposed to be a tribute to the classics.Looking forward to seeing what they do with the chameleon. I hope he still doesn't talk by the time it gets to the big screen.This one below is lovely, although again a 'tribute' sort of piece to the classics and yes, there's a book for the beginning too - at least in the development art. That makes me happy. :) The mosaic is gorgeous.Again, you can see a whole lot more behind-the-scenes art HERE.

In case you missed it on the SurLaLune Blog, here's a behind-the-scenes featurette recently released by Disney on creating Tangled.


Sources for poster HERE and development artwork HERE.

Snow Queen Confirmed As Next Full-Length Disney Feature

The rumors about Disney working on Snow Queen have been around for a long time now and it's true it has been in development and then taken off the boards in the past (so to speak). Now, however, it's been confirmed as being back in the development stage of production (with a release likely in 2013).Pixar's John Lassiter made it very clear he wanted to do more fairy tales when he took over the revamping of Disney Feature Animation and he was just as passionate about returning to hand drawn animation. Snow Queen has not been confirmed as the next full-length hand drawn animated feature going into production after the Winnie-the-Pooh feature (which doesn't appear to be full-length from the way it's spoken about, but I could be wrong on that count). It appears they're fully on track with the announcement that they plan to "release a hand-drawn animated film every 2 year keeping in with the tradition and work that built Disney to where it is today".You can see a very brief announcement HERE by Producer Peter Del Vecho and a little speculation about it. (Whether the project is titled "The Snow Queen" or just "Snow Queen" isn't clear.)

I found an article HERE from June which effectively assembled all the rumors and past tidbits on Snow Queen and is quite informative with interview quotes. It was one of the first places to give some substance to the idea Snow Queen was back in the feature plan this year, though it hasn't been updated with this news from the last couple of days (the comments section confirms it as of November though).The concept art you're seeing here is by development artist and animator Harald Siepermann who released a ton of old sketches from his portfolio a while back. These Snow Queen pieces were among them (you can see all of the sketches from the different projects HERE). He was interviewed back in 2008 and had this to say about the designs he was working on:

HS: I worked together with Dick Zondag on The Snow Queen. I’ve known him since Balto, actually, which we did for Steven Spielberg animation. When the time came for The Snow Queen, they gave me call and then I did some first design based on a young Meryl Streep kind of character. Unluckily, the project was canceled because Disney didn’t want to go into fairytales anymore at that time. They said that they wanted something wise, witty and more modern, because at that time, you know, everybody said that the Disney formula was dead and nobody wanted to see princesses and stuff like that. So, that project was canceled, sadly. But I spent a couple of weeks on some Queens, trying different levels of caricature on her, some more cartoony, others less.

No news on the artists attached to this project yet, though Alan Menken ("Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid") is said to already be at work on the score.

You may want to note that ABC (owned by Disney) is looking to produce a TV series adaptation of Fables, which features Kai and the Snow Queen as characters, is currently in the Pilot production stage (i.e. greenlit and beyond). No news on whether Kai and the Snow Queen will be featured yet, of course. It's probably not at all related but considering it's very early in Snow Queen's development (assuming they start from scratch - which, since having the opportunity to see some development a few years ago, I sincerely hope they do) I'm sure artists (at Disney Feature Animation) will be taking note at how the characters are handled if they appear, despite that they're Bill Willingham's versions.

Hmm. Perhaps that announcement should have been in a separate post. OK - I'll repeat that info shortly... ;)

Pixar's First Fairy Tale: "The Bear and the Bow"

NOTE: If this post looks familiar, you are not seeing things. I'm re-posting it as I felt it got buried in other news a few days ago.

Pixar are busy working on their first fairy tale titled "The Bear and the Bow".

Apparently writer and director, Brenda Chapman*, loves Grimm's fairy tales and Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Her story is a combination of her love for those tales and a reflection on raising her daughter. (source: Wikipedia)

The "Bear and the Bow" takes place in "a rugged and mythic Scotland", where Merida, a member of the royal family, decides to give up her family name for her dream of becoming an archer. Merida makes reckless choices, preferring to run wild through the Scottish highlands than put on a dress and behave herself at court, resulting in peril for her father's kingdom and her mother's life. "Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right." (quotes from slashfilm.com)The characters made public so far are Princess Merida - whose hair is constantly tangled (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), King Fergus (Billy Connolly), Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), a witch - who prefers to be called a wise woman - baddie (Julie Walters), a fifteen foot bear and Merida's younger triplet brothers.

Here's Reese Witherspoon on her character Merida(from pixarplanet.com):

"I get offered a lot of animated movies… [then] Pixar came along with [a] great character. A girl from royalty who would rather be a great archer? And she has a Scottish accent? Who could turn that down? You always go for the great character to play, even if she’s animated."

And here's a very interesting report from empireonline.com:

Though it's tempting to roll one's eyes at yet another female lead character that's a princess -- especially coming from Disney-owned Pixar now -- the movie is already displaying a refreshing change of pace by reportedly focusing more on the princess' relationship with her mother than the quest to find a prince. Even the inclusion of a non-evil queen is a big step for animated features which, often based upon Grimm's fairytales, overwhelmingly feature evil stepmothers and the like.

[Once Upon A Blog's FTNH: How interesting! This sounds like a long overdue updating of the independent/rebellious princess genre that doesn't rely on a romantic plot - there has yet to be mention of a prince, other than Merida's younger brothers, at any point, though that bear is looking a little suspicious to me. Reports are that the story does, indeed center more on Merida's relationship with her mother, so I'll reserve judgment on the bear! ;) ]

While only early concept art was shown at the event, Empire Online reports that it was indeed gorgeous. See what else they had to say by clicking over to the source.

(Source for quoted text: latinoreview.com )

The tone of the film is reported to be a mix of fantasy, humor and exciting adventure in a rich and mythically lush tale. I'm really looking forward to finding out more about this film.

"The Bear and the Bow" is scheduled for a Christmas 2011 release. NOTE: *Brenda Chapman was one of three directors on "The Prince of Egypt" for Dreamworks and was involved in story/development in varying capacities on Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (story trainee), "Beauty & the Beast" (key story artist), "The Lion King" (head of story) as well as for "The Rescuers Downunder" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".