Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2018

'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.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Untapped Treasures: Art Installation "Forest Fruit" (Please DO Touch the Display)

Note: This article is from our giant store of almost-complete-but-unpublished posts. We've been cleaning up our bedraggled drafts, archived images and incomplete stories that were never quite posted due to the constant deluge of fairy tale news (it's a good problem to have) and are finding a treasure trove of un-shared things! We can't bear to hit the delete button on these awesome nuggets and are choosing, instead, to share, so are beginning a new semi-regular column titled Untapped Treasures. The stories posted under this title are all new, not re-posted or from our archives, so it's still news to many people. It's just not as current as our usual content, though we will endeavor to post any updates to the story at the bottom of the article, should there be any current news on the subject.  Enjoy!
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Described as "following a Hansel and Gretel style trail" this textile installation, which showed at the Norfolk and Norwich Art Festival in 2015, and exhibited in February this year as well, encouraged children to play and feel, find the stories hidden in the installation and to also create their own.

From the Norwich Evening News:
The installation - called Forest Fruit - is by Belgian artist Naomi Kerkhove.
It is described as an installation where “a child’s imagination is king,” and people are invited to follow the threads of Ms Kerkhove’s intricately woven textile landscape and untangle their own unique patchwork of stories.
From WP Zimmer:
In her performances Naomi Kerkhove invites the audience on a poetical trip through a black and white miniature universe stitched together with a sewing-machine. In her youngest interactive installation, the audience can enter this world of wonders by themselves. With Forest Fruit Kerkhove assembles elements out of old and recent work, touring the audience around a world that reminds us of a workshop and a playroom, towards a place where your own imagination becomes tangible. You activate the different installations yourself and disentangle a patchwork of impressions and stories by following a thread which inevitably leads back to you.
Sounds pretty neat we think!

Here's a little explanation from the artist and a festival coordinator.
You can see the full trailer for Forest Fruit art installation HERE.

Update October 2016:
From the February 2016 Exhibition in Holland (via auto-translate):
Naomi Kerkhove
Embroidery is hot and sewing is not only home industry. It may also be art. That shows the installation of the young artist Naomi Kerkhove.Naomi discovered one day that you can draw with a sewing machine. Meanwhile, she sews smooth miniature worlds.'Forest Fruit' is the place where you can see and feel all sewn stitching her wonderful white miniature world. If you are in her black and white world enters you fall from one surprise to another. 
You will be guided in a world that is a cross between a workshop and playroom. In this universe walk shapes and thoughts together and your imagination is slowly taken in tow. You can also get to work with many construction and gently unravels a patchwork of impressions and stories, along a thread which inevitably leads to yourself.An interactive, poetic and playful installation for all ages.

Naomi Kerkhove is currently an artist in residence at wpZimmer in Antwerp.

Friday, April 24, 2015

The New International Trailer for "The Little Prince" Is Lovely

I've seen things about this film for a while, watched various trailers, only one of which was in English (and had Japanese subtitles over it) and liked what I saw but this one, just released this week, caught my attention.

Being on the subject of the importance of wonder and imagination, it should be no surprise the classic is well loved by fairy tale folk.

If you don't already know, this animated version of Le Petite Prince (which is being scrutinized by many people who are very protective of their childhood classic) has the framework of the story being told to a little girl by an eccentric neighbor. (Did you ever wonder who was being told the story in the book?) It has the potential to work really well but no matter how good a trailer is, we won't really know until we see the film.

Take a look!
There's a new poster too. I really like the top half in particular.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

"Dark Fairy Tales" Being Published for Chinese Children

Garri Bardin’s The Ugly Duckling (Russian animation 2010)
What's so new about these trends you ask? Isn't everything getting a dark make-over these days?

Not quite in this manner. This has popped up quite a few times in the past week or so with the fairy tale pages spreading far and wide through Chinese social media so I thought it was worth a full post rather than just the darkly retold fairy tale pages link I put on Facebook last week.

Ugly Duckling by Beleleu
This time we're talking about children's books - LITTLE children's books. Children's books with death, torture and revenge for the end of the story and no "happily ever after "anywhere in sight.
Netizens expressed disbelief over the dark ending of these children’s stories, which the online media Shanghaiist calls a “very Chinese twist.” (Source)

Although around 90% of children's books in China are imported (with their happily ever afters intact) the 10% published there showing a new trend of telling a different sort of story - on two levels:

From Offbeat China:
If what a person reads and learns in his childhood does have an impact on who he will grow into, then the story may shed some light on…well…a hell lot of why China is what it is today.
The Ugly Duckling by Andrew J. Purcell

From Global Times:
"And they lived happily ever after," is how a kid's fairy tale usually ends, but a number of classic fairy tales have been adapted here in China with different endings: the ugly duckling does not grow up into a swan but gets caught by a peasant woman and made into a dish; Cinderella is burnt to death as a burial object of the prince; and the sleeping beauty turns out to be a witch who takes revenge on the prince that gave up on trying to save her.  
Such adapted fairy tales also include The Little MermaidSnow WhiteLittle Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. Compared with the original versions of these classics, they contain more of the dark side of life that occurs in modern-day society. And because they have such dark endings, they have been dubbed "dark fairy tales" by Chinese netizens. 
(See the post on FB earlier in the week, showing The Ugly Duckling pages HERE.)
By emersontung
While these "new" stories are widely spread online and from printed books, they raise controversial discussions on whether they are appropriate for children.  
... (Some children's book publishers do not think) the new adaptations are good enough to exceed the classics. "Having been handed down for centuries, the classics contain meaningful educational benefits. [If there is no good cause,] I don't think the later generation should carelessly adapt them." 
...Yet, there are opposing opinions both among professionals and common people.  
Disney: Lilo & Stitch
A staff member surnamed Zhao at Blossom Press, one of the publishers of the adapted The Ugly Duckingstory, told reporters from Shanghai Morning Post that they were made aware of the controversy around the story and reread the piece several times but did not think there was anything inappropriate. 
"It is a fairy tale that is down-to-earth," she said, adding that there's no single writer for the new version of the story, but that it was adapted by a group and was examined carefully before being published.  
 
Also, some supporters argue that dark fairy tales can help raise children's awareness of possible bad things they might come across in daily life, especially since recent years have seen more and more violence against children in China.  
Ugly Duckling by Fernl
In a reader's opinion column in the Southern Metropolis Daily, an opinion holder with the name Wang Pan took the "dark version" of The Ugly Duckling as one example and wrote, "In real life, many children, [just like the duckling,] are rebellious. They do not listen to parents' warnings and leave home alone, and later meet some accidents." Wang believes it is more meaningful to warn the children than make them daydream of becoming a swan.  
...while disapproving of the "dark versions," Yang (Hongying, a popular children's author in China,)  believes that adaptations have appeared in the market because the foreign classics are no longer applicable to the lives of modern Chinese children.  
"So some people can make a selling point by adding in something more relevant to the society. But those made under the guise of a classic can do more harm."
And here's how The Ugly Duckling ends:
Chinese "Dark Fairy Tale": The Ugly Duckling
“At home, the lady prepared to kill the ugly duckling. The ugly duckling struggled like crazy. He cried: ‘Please don’t! I’m a swan!’ The lady didn’t understand a single word. She pressed him hard and killed him. ‘This is the most difficult duck I’ve ever handled,’ she murmured. Then, using her excellent cooking skills, she made the ugly duckling into a wonderful dish.”
“The darkest thing about this story is that it teaches kids not to be themselves and to follow the masses,” one netizen wrote... (Source)
You can read the whole article HERE and there's an interesting discussion on Reddit HERE. All the Ugly Duckling pages can be found HERE

(Note: Unfortunately, in order to get more information on any other stories I need to have an account for a Chinese social media site so I'm unable to find sources, images or more details about the other stories right now. If anyone does, please do leave a link or extra info in the comments. I'm sure we'd all like to learn more.)

Additional sources: Offbeat China, Reddit, EpochTimes

Monday, June 17, 2013

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.


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."

Friday, June 22, 2012

Pixar's Brave to Change the Fate of Princess Culture?

While it's a given that Brave will be a beautiful film it is interesting to see the smattering of mixed reviews surfacing in its debut week. There are the expected rave reviews and gushing over the lush animation and the feisty red-headed princess but there's been more than a little criticism too.

Why? Three theories:

1) Merida got upstaged
Pixar was a little late to the theater with their feisty heroine this year. Since we've had Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman provide audiences with larger-than-life kick ass girl-women, seeing Merida do much of the same is, sadly, a little like deja vu, despite that this is the first family film in that vein where the others were mainstream (or perhaps teen-stream).

The "Brave" wigs
2) Too much hair
There's waaaay too much emphasis on all this hair! Maria Tatar recently linked to an article and it seems Ms. Tatar has the right of it when she noticed the topic continually returning to Merida's hair. It's what everybody - creators and marketers - seem focused on. Hair! A quick story to illustrate: my husband is currently working in downtown Hollywood and, in his words, this is what he saw:
This morning when I came out of the Hollywood/Highland station I saw, walking down the street in front of me, two women with a little girl and a young boy. Both women had curly, curly long red-orange hair and the girl was carrying a chunk of red-orange hair. This seemed a bit odd to me until I realized that they were walking away from the El Capitan theatre and were wearing "Brave" wigs. The boy was having nothing to do with the females and was walking apart from them. He had no wig.
I think this scene is a good example of the response we're seeing all over. Despite how strong, feisty and brave Merida is, with marketing campaigns like Target's stating: "Look pretty and be brave, too" we've diluted anything important the film may have had to say. But that's not the whole story either.

3) Change your fate. Or not.
Even more importantly, it would appear the entire story has already been told in the promotional fare and there's really nothing more to Princess Merida than we've seen. Although she's feisty and defies convention she doesn't really have a direction or drive once she's able to do all the things she wants. In other words, we have a princess who is behaving like, well, a princess. There's no saving her people, the world or anything else going on. She makes a mistake and has to repair the damage she's done but, in reality, though she grows closer to her mother, nothing much else appears to change.

There's an interesting article in Time published today, titled: Why Pixar's Brave is a Failure of Female EmpowermentUnlike the writer, I don't have a problem with Merida being a princess. Nor do I have a problem that she has to deal with the marriage issue. For the era, that was primarily what princesses were useful for: forming alliances by joining in marriage and producing heirs. How she deals with that is where she has to show her individuality. What is a problem, though, is the lack of both growth and of personal purpose by Merida, beyond the crisis (of her own making).


From the article:
The best parts of Brave are the scenes involving the changed Queen Elinor, now a gigantic bear. But despite a lot of superficial talk of fate — “Our fate lies within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it” — her physical metamorphosis represents the main transformation. Other than deciding her mother isn’t so bad, Merida doesn’t really grow. She’s simply extended her time as a tomboy, another archetype, less a girl than a stereotype of a kind of girl.  “It wasn’t clear to me what her arc was,” Orenstein (FTNH ed: author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter) says. “What is it that we are imagining girls moving toward here? ‘I get to ride around on a horse all day’ isn’t really enough. That isn’t going to take her anywhere. There wasn’t a desire to do something.” 
This wouldn’t feel so vaguely unsatisfying if Brave were just one of many Pixar movies that featured a strong female lead. It’s the absence of others that turns the spotlight on Brave. And having a princess protagonist isn’t inherently bad. It’s just that she is so chapter one of what girls can be — and so many other Pixar movies skipped most known chapters and moved on to whole new volumes. (FTNH: bold emphasis mine)
You can read the whole article HERE.
There's one other issue that appeared in the comments regarding the grilling Brave gets in the article. I feel for the parents who are tired of every movie needing to "be a good example" for their children when all they want is good, clean entertainment. I would wholeheartedly agree except for one major thing: the marketing push and resulting peer pressure from the toy angle (even four year olds will influence their peers with regard to what is "cool"!) really does speak as loudly, often louder, than the most conscientious parents. and that's when a kid hasn't even seen the movie! When the best way for a child to recapture their personal movie experience is through a toy or book with the same images, that's the "message" that will sink in and stay.

What if the marketing for Brave was more gender-neutral, or perhaps aimed more toward tomboy-girls and boys at most, rather than at the princess culture girls? Instead of exiting El Capitan with giant red-orange wigs what if each kid got a sword or bow and arrow? (No floaty blue dresses in sight either, thank you.) Do you think the boy my husband saw would have been keeping himself so carefully separate from his "wimminfolk" then? I don't think so. I think he'd be (happily) trading blows and bruises with his sister, complete with sound effects of turning into a bear of which his sister would no doubt (happily) match him roar for roar.


There is one other interesting observation by a few of the commenters on the article that I want to highlight too. I'll quote the shortest one:
I'd appreciate if films with female leads had adequate male character. I don't understand why "female empowerment" films have the need to portray men as incompetent goofs.
They have a good point and there's more in the comments expanding on it too. The presence of a "strong" female character does not exclude the presence of strong men. The now go-to standard in family films (making the men less competent to make the women appear more so) isn't good for boys, for assertive/kick-ass girls OR for the princess set. I'll let you read the debate (and rants) for yourself.

One thing I do agree with the writer on, though, is that I hope Brave does well - really, really well actually. Why?
1) I would like to see more lead heroines from Pixar. With the marketing force of Disney behind them, Pixar does have a great influence on kids. I'd like to see what other female leads they come up with and hope that the results are as "groundbreaking" as everyone's been hoping Merida would be.
2) I'd like to see more fairy tale fare handled by Pixar (and Disney) story people, especially now that the public view on fairy tales has changed somewhat.

Friday, July 3, 2009

The Power of Stories in Childhood - New Book by Maria Tatar

There's a new book out by renowned fairy tale and folklore scholar Maria Tatar.

This one,
explores what happens when children are read fairy tales (and other classic fantasy) as part of their growing-up experience.

From Amazon:

Highly illuminating for parents, vital for students and book lovers alike, Enchanted Hunters transforms our understanding of why children should read. Ever wondered why little children love listening to stories, why older ones get lost in certain books? In this enthralling work, Maria Tatar challenges many of our assumptions about childhood reading. Much as our culture pays lip service to the importance of literature, we rarely examine the creative and cognitive benefits of reading from infancy through adolescence. By exploring how beauty and horror operated in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and many other narratives, Tatar provides a delightful work for parents, teachers, and general readers, not just examining how and what children read but also showing through vivid examples how literature transports and transforms children with its intoxicating, captivating, and occasionally terrifying energy. In the tradition of Bruno Bettelheim’s landmark The Uses of Enchantment, Tatar’s book is not only a compelling journey into the world of childhood but a trip back for adult readers as well.

Here's a short video in which she talks about why she wrote the book and what it's about:

Enchanted Hunters by Maria Tatar

And in the link below, John J. Miller from 'Between the Covers' at National Review Online talks to Ms. Tatar about her book.

There's also an excellent, in depth, review here by Michael Dirda for The Washington Post, which takes you through her approach and the contents of the chapters.


Maria Tatar recently (in the last few years) released her "The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales" (shown above) & "The Annotated Brothers Grimm" (shown below) which touch on some of the same issues, though in a very different way. Both volumes are beautifully presented with classic story texts, a gorgeous variety of fairy tale art and lots of fascinating annotations throughout. There's a lovely review of the "Annotated Classic Fairy Tales", from the Harvard University Gazette, here, which I completely agree with.

I've never regretted adding Ms. Tatar's books to my library. Although her academic prowess and respect in Harvard circles and beyond is formidable, her books are very lively, fascinating and accessible reads - not to mention a wonderful resource/reference to have handy.

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of her latest offering and read it for myself.


NOTE: I also just discovered her blog! I'm adding it to my Fairy Tale News Sources section. No doubt she'll give us a 'heads-up' on many interesting things...