Showing posts with label live action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live action. Show all posts

Friday, December 11, 2020

Pst! Disney's Just Announced 100-ish Projects: Here Are the Fairy Tale-Related Ones To Watch For

Not "1001",  just around 100, which is still incredibly huge, but then so is the Disney reach these days with all the recent company acquisitions of the past few years.  Thursday, December 10, was Disney Investor Day so there were project announcements from every entertainment arm of the company, which includes Disney Animation, Pixar,  Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm Animation, National Geographic, Disney+, 21st Century Fox, ESPN, Hulu, FX Networks, and of course, the Walt Disney Studios. All the projects are set to air over the next few years, with a good portion of them appearing in 2021.

You can read the sequential tweet-announcements that occurred over 6 hours about "the big ones" (about 50 of them) HERE, but we thought we'd list the higher-profile projects likely to be of most interest to fairy tale and folktale fans (as well as some folklore). Read, there will likely be more but these are expected to cause a buzz.

Raya and the Last Dragon - Disney Feature Animation - March 5, 2021 in theaters and Disney+ (more characters were revealed).

The Handmaid's Tale - returns for Season 4 in 2021 and has also been renewed for Season 5. (The Handmaid's Tale series makes great use of fairy tale motifs, with Red Riding Hood being the most obvious, but the last episode of last season also made heavy and effective visual references to The Pied Piper, Snow White, the Dying Swan some Hansel and Gretel, some Bluebeard, as well as the Exodus story.)

Mandolorian-adjacent series, among them: Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. here are about 10 new Star Wars properties on the way which, if they're hoping to grab the same audience, will include those fairy tale doses that keep appearing in the currently-airing The Mandolorian. (Seriously: errant knight, chosen child, a quest/search, talismans, castles, even dragons - it has a lot. Be on the lookout for scholarship papers being written right now, that will prove it to you!)

Willow - a new original series, based on the film, including Warwick Davies starring. Coming 2022 to Disney+.

Children of Blood and Bone (20th Century Film & Lucasfilm) based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Tomi Adeyemi. (Quote) "This coming-of-age adventure follows a young African girl’s quest to restore magic to her forsaken people, the Maji."

Hocus Pocus 2 - a sequel to the original Halloween classic coming to Disney+.

The Little Mermaid - Disney's live-action film based on the Disney animated classic, with Halle Bailey (Ed. - NOT Halle Berry - typo corrected with apologies to the actress! 3-18-21) as Ariel, directed by Rob Marshall (production has yet to restart on this film after stopping due to Covid19, as far as we know, so the release date is currently December 2022).

Pinocchio - live-action movie, based on the Disney animated classic, starring Tom Hanks, directed by Robert Zemeckis, coming to Disney+.


Peter Pan & Wendy - live-action coming to Disney+. Starring Yara Shahidi as Tinkerbell and Jude Law as Captian Hook.


Disenchanted - live-action sequel to Enchanted, coming to Disney+, with Amy Adams returning as Giselle.

Tiana - original animated series by Disney Animation for Disney+ (from the world of the animated feature film The Princess and the Frog). 2022. Tiana as a new princess in a country she's never been to before, with Prince Naveen at her side. Musical series.

Moanaoriginal animated series by Disney Animation for Disney+ (from the world of the feature animated film Moana). 2023 Musical series -drawing on storytelling traditions of Oceania and Polynesia.

Iwájú - (Quoted)"In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, @DisneyAnimation and Pan-African entertainment company Kugali will team up to create an all-new, science fiction series coming to @DisneyPlus in 2022: Iwájú. Check out a first look at visual development art from the series." Not a lot is known about this one yet but with Gigantic having failed to move forward, we expect some fairy tale echoes in this one.

Encanto - Feature Animation, Fall 2021. (Quoted) "Encanto takes you to Colombia, where a magical family live in a magical home. Directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, co-directed and co-written by Charise Castro Smith, and music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda."

Turning Red - Pixar short film. (Quoted) "Director of the Academy Award-winning short Bao, Domee Shi, brings us Turning Red. Meet Mei: she experiences the awkwardness of being a teenager, with an added twist: when she gets too excited, she transforms into a giant red panda. Turning Red comes to theaters March 11, 2022"

Untitled Beauty and the Beast, Live-Action Prequel with Gaston and Lefou - 6-part musical live-action limited series, with Luke Evans and Josh Gad reprising their roles, concentrating on the backstory of the two antagonists.  (They have GOT to include some fairy tale notes in this to keep fans happy!) Heading to Disney+. Alan Menken will write new music and songs.

Lots to watch for,

and you know there will be many more things bubbling up too. ;)

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Matteo Garrone's "Pinocchio" May Be The Movie Collodi Fans Have Been Waiting For

 

Matteo Garrone (Tale of Tales, Gomorrah, Dogman) has long said he wished to bring Pinocchio to the screen.

“’Pinocchio’ is a dream of mine that goes back to when I was a child,” says Garrone. “On my desk I still have my own personal ‘Pinocchio’ story-board that I drew and colored in when I was a kid, and which is one of my most cherished mementos.”  (Variety)

That storyboard reportedly accompanied Garrone to many of his development and production meetings during the creation of his movie to help remind him of the boyhood vision and heart he was trying to put on screen, and many reviews indicate he may have achieved exactly that. Not only has Garrone intended to make this film for most of his life but his intent was always to make it very faithful to the book - or more correctly, the serially-released stories which were essentially strung together (pun intended) and eventually collected into a book (in 1883). Having captured his own imagination as a child we suspected Garrone's Pinocchio, would be a family film, which it is, unlike his other works, though perhaps caution should be taken if the family has little children. It is likely to be rated PG in the US when it's released here, as it has been in other countries.

Take a look at the trailer (in English): 

The Lure & Challenge of Pinocchio To Filmmakers

Many filmmakers - more than one might think, confess to an obsession with Pinocchio and it's not unusual to see those themes running through seemingly unrelated movies. Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, and many others have been fairly overt about their love of the story and created deliberate homages in their films, (A.I., Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands, and many more), even if the story hasn't quite been the same. At the time of writing Disney is crafting a new live-action version (based on their own classic, not Collodi's book, with director Robert Zemeckis. Being a Disney recycling, it's likely to have even less relation to the Collodi classic than the 1940 version did, but, unless Zemeckis good terribly in his judgment, it's likely to still find a wide audience. Fan-favorite director and master of the fantasy-horror genre, Guillermo del Toro is working on a completely different (and highly anticipated) stop-motion version, in collaboration with Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop veteran artists, due to be released next year. It's set in fascist Italy and has a stellar cast of voices including Tilda Swinton as the Fairy with the Turquoise Hair, Ewan McGregor as the Talking Cricket, and Ron Pearlman as the fearsome puppet master, Mangiafuoco (literally "Fire-Eater"). 

 

If searching for film incarnations worldwide, it becomes apparent that a LOT of directors have tried to bring their vision of Pinocchio to the screen. It also becomes apparent that more often than not, these attempts, despite a love for the source material and access to talented cast and crew, have failed - both with audiences and critics.

Pinocchio is quite a challenge to take on - one that many directors have known and been determined to take on, but success has been largely elusive, especially when trying to keep the same spirit as the classic. Only Disney's animated version (1940) was, and remains loved and has become a new family touchstone, but the truth is, Disney's version bears little resemblance to The Adventures of Pinocchio and the character Collodi created. To put it bluntly, Collodi's Pinocchio is less likely to wish on a star as he is to moon it (pun intended), and "Jimminy Cricket" (the cricket's name given by Disney), is killed almost immediately on appearing and can only follow along in the story as a ghost. While that may sound dark and dastardly to many Western audiences, the book remains a classic and is still read fondly both in Europe and in the UK and the US; there is something about Collodi's classic Disney's version did not capture, which still attracts people today.

 

Concept art (Garrone)

Why Is Pinocchio Still A Story People Want to Tell (And See?)

Pinocchio is not only Euro-centric in its humor and storytelling approach (something which folks in the US and UK sometimes find too dark, too irreverent, randomly nonsensical and too non-linear*) but, being originally released serially, the flow of the overall story tends to be episodic, erratic and doesn't always appear to know where it's going. In some ways, this organic approach actually works better than a lot of large-work storytelling because of the subject of "becoming real" (often summarized as "growing up", though that is actually a limited parallel when looking at Collodi's work here). As a result, people have found it relates very well to the awkward spurts during childhood and adolescence as people try to discover who they are, complicated by discovering the combined beauty and harshness of the world at large at the same time as they, themselves, are changing. 

*NOTE: We mention randomly nonsensical and non-linear as having traditionally been a problem for UK and US audiences but we have noticed a rising increase in acceptance of the bizarre and ridiculous this last year in particular. The crazier real life gets, the more those "fevered dream"-type animations and films of Soviet and European origin seem to, not only make a strange sort of sense, expressing the nonsensical is almost cathartic. In this sense, perhaps grownups are beginning to understand why these sorts of bizarre episodic-type storytelling vignettes are so impressionable and beloved by children (see the paragraph below which touches on this). It also shows just how much we - as humans - need art to express our discomfort and process our world when things are topsy-turvy. Art is our way to finding our feet, our purpose, and our return to hope again. But back to the film.

But there's another aspect to Pinocchio too - one that warns children about the darkness of the world, in a metaphor even kids tend to intuitively understand, and it's not just about trying to find who you are in the world either. It looks at the imbalances in morality and justice and explores them very frankly in a way kids "get".

 

Garrone spoke a little bit about this to inew.co.uk:

Why, though, does a fable almost a century-and-a-half old feel so contemporary?

“It’s always talking about us, about our fear,” Garrone answers. “It’s also giving a warning to kids – how life can be violent and dangerous. Don’t make wrong decisions! I think this is the lesson Collodi gives. I think there is some dark – it’s necessary for the kids to grow up, to learn – but by the end there’s the light.”

Set in a head-spinning rustic 19th-century world where animals take human form, Garrone’s Pinocchio points to the more “anarchic” qualities of Collodi’s book, and its musings on justice, when the gorilla judge sends Pinocchio, and not the scheming Cat and Fox, to jail.

“The meaning, it’s very modern,” says Garrone, “where, in many countries, the innocent go to prison and the guilty, especially the rich and powerful, are out.”

 

So What Are People Really Saying About Garrone's Pinocchio?

Pinocchio remains resonant and loved, but capturing its soul on film has been largely elusive, especially with regard to remaining true to the tone of Collodi's book, but reviews seem to indicate that Garrone has done just that, or if not, he's come the closest of any filmmaker yet.

From IndieWire:

“Pinocchio” gets better as it gets weirder, and taking cues from its Homeric origins, it gets very weird.

 

...Once the movie enters its loony collage-like trajectory, the hits keep coming. Pinocchio endures a range of imaginative horrors, from that terrifying whale to the eventual donkey transformation that in this version includes a hat-tip to Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar.” Of course, no “Pinocchio” is complete without a few white lies and a growing schnozzle, though this one seems like a pretty blatant metaphor for puberty (if it wasn’t already baked into the material from the start). Garrone’s penchant for juggling eerie soul-searching with ebullient storybook visuals matches Terry Gilliam in his prime, and the whole thing has been laced together by Dario Marianelli’s inspired cosmic score.

Above all, “Pinocchio” imbues its circumstances with a surprising degree of naturalism, thanks to the filmmaker’s careful handling of practical effects that suit the unusual tone. Unlike recent effects travesties of the “Cats” variety, “Pinocchio” understands the inherent disturbing quality of human faces melded to non-human bodies — from gastropods to a very funny tuna fish — and exploits that disconnect at every turn.
Concept art (Garrone)
...This story can only end one way, and when it does, “Pinocchio” tops off the silly-strange rhythm with a poignant finish. By the time it gets there, however, the movie has accrued many layers. Garrone doesn’t dig deep into the material as much as he revels in its surfaces, though the director of zany sociopolitical dramas like “Reality” and “Dogman” can’t help but inject a few contemporary zingers. Sitting in front of an ape judge, Pinocchio proclaims his innocence. “In this country, the innocent go to prison!” he’s told.

Such is the nature of Pinocchio’s plight, and no matter its otherworldly nature, Garrone’s version shows how the premise has grown more relatable with time. Pinocchio’s an innocent creature at the mercy of ever-changing surroundings who learns to take charge, which is enough to make him a walking zeitgeist. More than that, however, he embodies the endless frustrations of a cruel world, as well as the emotional charge that comes from learning to roll with its merciless twists and hope for a happy ending.

Regarding the approach to effects (and avoiding the "Cats curse") there is a shortish article and video overview showing the steps taken for the effects work in Garrone's Pinocchio HERE. It turns out that the boy Pinocchio is not a CG creation but instead largely prosthetics (at least until his nose grows) and these are what make him look wooden yet still manage to convey the acting nuances of ten-year-old (Federico Ielapi) playing the character. For folks interested in the creative visualization process, and the effect of blending live-action with puppets, prosthetics, and more, especially in fantasy films, this is a recommended side trip.

From The Guardian, who titles their review "Garrone Crafts a Satisfyingly Bizarre Remake":

Drawing on the original children’s story for his new live-action version, the Gomorrah director combines sentimentality and the grotesque in a unique way

There is something rich and strange and generous in Matteo Garrone’s new live-action version of the Pinocchio story, for which the director and his co-screenwriter Massimo Ceccherini have gone right back to the original 1883 children’s tale by Carlo Collodi. They have given us a story that combines sentimentality and grotesqueness in a really startling way. 

 

...There is so much that Garrone’s Pinocchio appears to resemble: there’s a bit of Tod Browning’s Freaks (and a bit of Frankenstein), echoes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the Old and New Testament. The moment when Pinocchio’s nose grows because he is lying is still fascinating. It’s a parable that has taught generations of little Disney fans never to fib. Audiences for this film, however, will notice that Pinocchio’s nose does not grow when he lies to the gorilla judge. The point is that the normalisation of lying is part of the humanising process. Pinocchio’s wooden face really is very strange. It does not look like that of any sort of boy, but rather a man or woman or cyborg in early middle age. There’s more than a touch of R2D2 about him, or even a lost figure from George Franju’s Eyes Without a Face. 

...In the end, Pinocchio is a parable of parenthood: when we have a child, there is something uncanny and strange about him or her, like a doll brought to life. In our hearts, perhaps, we can’t quite believe that this is a human being like us, who will come to have thoughts and feelings independently of us – become “real”, in fact.

Whatever is to come in the anticipated versions from Zemeckis and Del Toro (and the many filmmakers after who can't resist it), Garrone has set a new bar for filmmakers to achieve and that is a good thing. It's already a hit in Italy - a much bigger hit than Benigni's ever was, and critic reviews there and elsewhere in the world it has been released, are averaging four stars out of five - a vast improvement in critical rating as well.

Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio is only the second live-action movie version of this classic book to actually be made in Italy (as far as we can find), the same country the story was born in. While Roberto Benigni directed the first one (2002) and captured the Italian flavor in many ways he, unfortunately, not only had himself star as Pinocchio (a 49-year-old man at the time), he also attempted to bring a touch of Fellini to the movie, (you can read about the Benigni-Fellini-Pinocchio connection HERE), moves which didn't sit well with audiences anywhere, and essentially killed the rest of the interesting approach to the story. Garrone appears to have successfully hurdled this issue and the resulting audience skittishness about a live-action Pinocchio from an Italian director, even while embracing Benigni in this legacy in the much-more suited role of Gepetto. We are looking forward to seeing it when it becomes available to see safely!

Where Can I See It?

This is a tricky question to answer, entirely complicated by the pandemic.

Garrone's Pinocchio was released in Europe in December 2019 but coronavirus (COVID-19) has complicated the sales and theater release deals and contracts all over the world since, disrupting the usual roll-out of films intended to eventually reach English speaking audiences. Even in France, the release went directly to French Amazon Prime, rather than having the planned theatrical release. 

The film was released in theaters in the UK and Ireland from mid-August 2020 but other theatrical releases have been canceled due to lockdowns and theaters closing. 

In the US, Netflix has bought streaming rights (and currently has a blank placeholder page) but the streaming launch date is still undetermined, though likely to be in 2021.  Otherwise, it would appear that the film is still seeking a US release partner for any possibility of ever achieving theatrical release here, including for DVD and Blu-ray. 

We hope this is resolved in the near future!

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

As Pretty As It Is, The New "Lion King" Leaves Little To The Imagination

Quick Q&A before we start:
Q:   Is "The Lion King" a fairy tale?
A:   No.
Q:   Then why is it on OUABlog? 
A:   Since Julie Taymor brought her culturally-aware adaptation to the Broadway stage, it's been retold using aspects of tradition, folklore and folktale.
Q:   How?
A:   The theatrical adaptation connects us to (South) African folklore, culture and storytelling, echoing traditional folktales, in a way the original film never did.
Q:   OK but isn't the subject here the new CG/live-action film, not the stage musical?
A:   Yes - and because cultural representation is a big aspect of this remake, we're doing our due diligence to make sure we don't overlook a new folktale-based connection.

So let's get into it:
When Things Get Real
The first wave of reviews are in for Disney's live-action Lion King and they are... not great. It's opening week (the film opens in regular theaters on Thursday July 18th) and the film has already made a mint, of course, but will it be the billion-dollar baby Disney is expecting? The trailer was one of THE most viewed trailers ever online, so it's clear that curiosity is high and people are very motivated to see it (aka spend their money). But the "such-good-CG-animation-it's-hard-to-tell-what's real-and-not" appears to be both its strength and its curse.

While it does look a lot like real animals (there will be generations of misinformation for National Geographic and Animal Planet to undo!) it's not quite real enough to find the sweet spot between realistic animal expressions and anthropomorphization. (Note: The Disneynature film, Born In China, is a perfect example of how careful filmmaking with live animal footage can be both emotive and unforgettable.) With just days before the general public gets to see what all the fuss is about, a lot of 'sneak peeks' have been released, trying to "hit them in the nostalgia" and entice folks toward the box office this weekend. But no matter how you frame it, the scenes look... well, lifeless. The leaked scenes look downright flat in comparison to the animated classic. What hand-drawn animation did so very well - brought a sense of humanity and impossible expressions and sentiments to wild animals, a sense that not only told an exciting story but sparked the imagination of children and adults everywhere, it would seem that this hyper-real CG approach cannot.

Disney Represents
"But that's OK", an enthusiastic group people are saying. "Look at what it has done!"

So what has it done?

Perhaps it has pushed the technical possibilities of CG animation further but not in a way audiences are really caring deeply about. (It's unlikely it will hold the same special place in young ones' hearts as Paddington 1 and 2 has managed to do.) What people are usually referring to, however, is the casting. It is a mostly black cast - African American people creating African characters - and that is wonderful to see. Even the musicians for the updated score show a much larger diversity in their number this time around. It seems most agree it's overdue and very important.

But it's not new.
Not by a long stretch - not for The Lion King.

Julie Taymor's vision for The Lion King on Broadway completely reworked the aesthetic of the animated film, and updated aspects of the story too. Instead of trying to replicate what the film did so well, it took the characters, revealed the real - and authentically cast - actors behind them and showed us who was telling the story. It was all about storytelling and the suspension of disbelief. Suddenly it didn't matter that there was a male lion in charge of the pride, because it became a human story, told through animals, just like a folktale. And boy did it resonate!

Beautifully conceived, staged, designed, acted, puppeteered and sung, and more, it was, is -over twenty years on stage and counting- live storytelling at it's best. It's outlasted all other Broadway shows and for good reasons. The experience is unlike any other - something people will often describe as "spiritual".
The first few minutes of that theatrical titan? Holy cats. Unforgettable. Giraffes, created by humans on stilts, strolling down the aisles. A rotating “gazelle wheel,” poetry in motion. An actress manipulating a wondrous rod-puppet cheetah creation, moving so that a feline licking its paw becomes a moment vividly recalled decades later. It was the stuff of dreams, and the highest sort of commercial art. 
(Michael Phillips for Chicago Tribune)
The Human Connection in The Lion King
The human heritage of ancient storytelling is echoed in the animals speaking, personalities overlaying the actors who wear animal masks almost as headpieces. As the audience watches the animals and the humans begin to blend together in their minds' eye, they become part of that storytelling.
Image result for lion king broadway
Taymor's vision and direction for the theatrical adaptation of The Lion King retold the same story as the film, yes, but she both adapted it for the medium in which it was told (the stage) and, very importantly, updated it (see below for the story and character modifications which have made a lasting a positive impact on the story) . The result was that it's a joyful celebration of life that stands on its own, not needing the original inspiration to validate it. It is its own, unique and separate experience and it's unforgettable.

Julie Taymor on the lasting legacy of The Lion King (emphasis in bold is ours):
Julie Taymor
“The characters in the animated film are so expressive and human,” she says, citing Jeremy Irons’s voicing of Scar, Simba’s villainous uncle. “I thought, ‘I’ll create this animal’s head to show the essence of who Scar is, but let his personality come through in the actor below the mask.’”

 Taymor was also keen to increase the presence and potency of female roles in The Lion King. She expanded the role of Rafiki, the shamanistic mandrill voiced by Robert Guillaume in the movie, making it a woman’s part and “the spiritual guide to the whole show.” She also buffed and toughened up the lioness Nala: “When you talk about lions, the females do all of it, including the hunt. So I threw out a lot of the soft stuff in the film and made Nala very strong. She’s got one of the best songs in the show, ‘Shadowland,’ which is about being a refugee, a subject that’s very topical right now.”
Indeed, for Taymor, a lifelong world traveler who has always integrated aspects of different cultures into her work, “The Lion King has lasted so long because it’s socially minded, and it has a sense of spirituality that connects with people all over. Everywhere I’ve been, there’s always something in the show that becomes distinctly political there.” 
At home, race is a particularly key factor. “You have to remember that 20 years ago, black people were mostly seen on television and movies as inner-city gangstas,” says Taymor. “And here we were, bringing Africa to the stage in this positive and powerful and beautiful way.” When tapped for The Lion King, Taymor says, she “told Tom and Peter I wasn’t going to cast white people in most of these roles. … This was way before Hamilton, before Obama. Lion King has given more presence to nonwhite performers than any show — as we now know, because many of them are now performing in Hamilton and in other shows.” (Source: Julie Taymor on The Lasting Legacy of The Lion King - Broadway Direct, Nov 2017)
The result is that the experience closes the distance between story and audience and makes the common humanity of the tale much more evident.  The actors bring the story, the audience brings their imagination - together it's a magic sweet spot.

Three Versions, Three Artforms? 
When the animated Lion King debuted, it wowed audiences with its stunning visuals, heart-stirring songs, and an epically presented setting. The impossibly-human expressions of the animals stirred hearts and made people care about the story. It was a new experience (at the time) to see animals in such an epic story (though animals as main characters in Disney films were common, a story on this scale with them was not), and audiences happily journeyed with them then relived the laughs and gasps on repeat when it entered their homes. It was animation as Art, telling a story in a way no other medium could. A live-action remake that does its best to replicate the original, without changing its form to accommodate a different medium (hyper-real CGI as opposed to hand-drawn) cannot hope to approach how unique the experience of the original was at the time.
On a conceptual level, (the 'live-action') “The Lion King” betrays the power of the hand-drawn artwork that once put the wonder into Disney animation from its earliest features. Favreau’s movie fails to grapple with how the unreality of the studio’s lush 2D artwork unlocked kids’ imagination and made it so much fun to suspend disbelief; the digital wizardry denies our minds the permission they need to dream. Julie Taymor’s award-winning Broadway adaptation is so transportive because it celebrates its artifice, not in spite of it. Favreau has likened the process of making this film to restoring an architectural landmark, but at the end of the day, he’s merely gentrified it. (David Ehrlich for Indiewire - emphasis in bold is ours)
The Power Of Nostalgia vs Imagination
But perhaps that's what the hype about the 'sound' is about. If you can, in fact, see the movie in a theater equipped to playback the full range of dolby+ surround-sound, then the vocal performances and songs might reach people in a new way, otherwise, they're relying on nostalgia being the driving force behind having people connect to - and like - the movie. It's certainly what the team keep talking about in their interviews - as if they know the visuals alone are not quite to par.
Nostalgia is not to be underestimated, of course, but the new film brings nothing fresh of lasting consequence to a now-tired story - one that was told better originally and also has a thrilling live experience as an option. In contrast, repeat visits to see The Lion King on stage make for a subtly-unique experience every time. With nothing new to say, creating a new and permanent place in people's hearts for the long term is less than likely. Perhaps listening to the soundtrack with an amazing sound system, with these new and powerful voices will create a much-needed new perspective on the story - which would be wonderful (we hope it does just that) - but then why have a whole new film? As Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote:
"The new “Lion King” has every reason to exist in fiscal terms. It has no reason to exist as a movie we might take with us into our futures."
What Might Have Been
Tweet posted by @joamettegil
Once you hear the rumor that Julie Taymor approached Disney to direct the live-action (but turned down) one begins to wonder just what that film might have looked like. Perhaps, instead of a hyper-realistic CG film, it might have been a VR film, based on the idea behind the stage adaptation, with perhaps some blending of live-filmed performance with hyper-real CGI to echo the animalistic ancestral spirits invited to a traditional storyteller's fire.

Perhaps it might have been truly live-action with CG animation of the animals overlaid and intertwined as part of the story-telling, like @Joamettegil on Twitter suggested. (See pic on right.)

Either of these ideas has the potential to be breathtaking. Apart from avoiding the criticisms of hyper-real versus cartoon visuals, all the problems that come with trying to be 'too real' (and giving scientists and National Geographic a headache) are completely sidestepped, because it's clear it's not a lion story but a people story; one that you - the audience - can relate to. That could have been an AMAZING thing to see/experience! Thanks to a viewers' limited autonomy in VR, a slightly different experience for each viewer and viewing, would work to make the experience even more personal. In an era in which relevancy, representation, and authentic experiences that engage the imagination and connect with the viewer are very specific challenges, such an approach would have hit all those notes, and expanded story and legacy, still further.
Sure doing something unexpected would also have been a huge risk.

It may have been just what today's audience, stuck in the tug-of-war of "play-it-again-Disney-BUT-not-too-different-and-not-too-much-the-same" really need. 

Unfortunately, now we will never know.

Disney's "live-action" The Lion King comes to US theaters on July 18, 2019.

SOURCES REFERENCED:

YOU MAY ALSO WISH TO READ:

  • Let's Fact Check the Lion King by Naturalish - fun and light article, comparing some of the aspects of The Lion King to science (biology, ecology & species distribution - cool maps for the latter!) - great to share with kids, but with regard to the elephant graveyard myth, include this info from the University of Sussex: Research Shows Elephants "Remember" the Dead
  • New article published July 16, 2019, just as this article went live on OUABlog (not used for reference). This article acknowledges the stunning visuals created but also discusses how such an approach has brought a new set of unexpected problems. ‘The Lion King’ Review: Disney’s Circle of Lifelessness by Joe Morgenstern for The Wall Street Journal
Fanmade poster of the new Lion King 2019 by aliciamartin851 on deviantArt

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Will Disney's New Little Mermaid Be Part Of Your World, Or Is She #NotMyAriel?

Art by Denver Balbaboco (click name for portfolio link)
IG: denvertakespics (see IG & image details at this link)
Halle Bailey is to be Disney's newest princess as Ariel in the upcoming Disney live-action "The Little Mermaid"
"It was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role," said (Director Rob) Marshall. 
Exactly what Disney's live-action Little Mermaid needs to be - right?

Surprisingly Mer-ky Waters Stirred By Announcement
Artist: Alice X. Zhang
Halle Bailey as The Little Mermaid
(complete with red hair)
The announcement that black actress Halle Bailey (star of Grown·ish, half of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle) is set to star as Ariel in Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid has certainly polarized social media. While multitudes celebrated Disney supporting diversity in their live-action casting of a classic and beloved film, the #NotMyAriel hashtag took off in almost the same moment. In the too-long list of complaints, they appear to center around the change in look and image of a figure people have loved - and identified with - since they were kids. But that's kind of the point. People have seen themselves in Ariel for almost two generations, with the emphasis on "selves". When the disgruntled began to cite culture*, history, and even science (!) it became clear that these objections were actually outing a privileged and endemically racist viewpoint. For those watching, it should be noted that the #NotMyAriel reaction is not coming from kids. Kids across the board are responding with excitement. The disgruntled demographic is embarrassingly specific: 30yrs+ white women.

The "original Ariel", Jodi Benson, raised her voice on the matter too:

“I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters," (Benson) replied. "What you bring to the table in a character as far as their heart, and their spirit, is what really counts."  
Benson talked about how channeling Ariel's inner spirit is how she herself has been able to step into the role over the years, despite getting older: 

"And the outside package — cause let’s face it, I’m really, really old — and so when I’m singing "Part of Your World," if you were to judge me on the way that I look on the outside, it might change the way that you interpret the song. But if you close your eyes, you can still hear the spirit of Ariel. “We need to be storytellers," she concluded. "And no matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the color of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever color, we really need to tell the story.” (Source: combookmovie.com)

If it really comes down to "a certain look" that about puts it in a 
n̶u̶t̶shell and then to bed. (See what we did there? OK, sorry - moving on...) Unfortunately, if you look beyond the surface, it's easy to see that is only part of the issue here.

Doing our best to get all sides of the story, our Fairy Tale News Hounds spent a long time reading through multiple responses to the news on various social media outlets and were very glad to find that there are many white voices being raised in support of sharing - and representing - the magic they felt as five-year-olds with children of every color, especially those with dark skin.

One response in particular melted our hearts.
This is it:
 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
That was a bit of a roller-coaster read, so we will now have a brief
--Intermission--
with some beautiful baby black mermaids
These lovely little merkids are by illustrator Raissa Figueroa, aka @Rizzyfig on Instagram. She created a series on this little afro-haired mermaid for Mermay one year and so many people fell in love with this little character that she's kept on drawing her and boosted her whole illustration career as a result.
You can purchase a print of these beautiful baby mers on Etsy HERE.
You can also follow her on Twitter and get in-process or glimpses of new sketches HERE.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Intermission Over ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Don't Worry: Classic Ariel Will Not Die - Ever
The level of distress on social media about the live-action casting is downright odd for another reason. Having a new black Ariel, does NOT remove, erase, eclipse, or in any way 'undo' the fact that red-haired, white-skinned Ariel exists. She will always exist. For thirty years this very Western image has represented the Little Mermaid story (thanks to Disney's worldwide influence). If you judged from the outrage evident in response to casting a live-action black actress and singer in the role, you would think these distressed Ariel fans think "their" Ariel would no longer exist, but that will never be. Both characters are Disney. Both are/will be lucrative properties for the Disney marketing department and they're not about to let a proven cash cow of 30 solid years disappear. When assured that the classic Ariel won't disappear, all that's left is that those who are attached to "their" Ariel just want all the new shiny for themselves. Put that way, the negative responses begin to look... well... spoiled. Eep.
Annie Leibovitz photography fro Disney Dream Portraits, featuring Julianne Moore as Ariel
Classic Ariel "In The Flesh"
Parody poster of Mera (artist unknown)
Amber Heard as The Little Mermaid, all grown up

But let's play devils' advocate for a minute and talk about representing the original classic, that is, Ariel with white skin and red hair. What look-alikes do "Ariel purists" have? See below for an "off-the-top-of-our-heads" list (not conclusive by a long shot):

  • Disneyland & Disney World/s live Ariel character performers (for 30 years)
  • The Little Mermaid musical - the title role in the big Disney version/s and the school-approved versions
  • Every Disney Little Mermaid Halloween/roleplay/cosplay costume ever
  • All the Ariel dolls
  • Not to mention her image on hundreds of products
  • The Annie Leibovitz poster photo of Julianne More as Ariel for Disney Dream Portraits (and Queen Latifah as Ursula)
  • Once Upon A Time's live-action Ariel  - a repeat role in the series (played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher) - note that this version is on film and includes many iconic scenes from the classic movie as they fit the story being told
  • Mera from DC's Aquaman 2018
Wait! Mera isn't even Disney and isn't Ariel! Why is she included?? Here's the reality: even though the character is not owned by Disney, the new live-action Mera looked exactly like (quote) "Ariel on crack", all grown-up and ready to fight and rule by her own merits. In fact, if Disney had decided to use a "spitting image human" of the animated Ariel she would look an awful lot like Mera (although younger and more naive), with the disadvantage that Disney's Ariel would look rather wimpy next to her. Mera is totally badass and a now a feminist icon in her own right. A live-action Ariel who looked similar would always be compared to her. We suspect Disney marketing folks are quite aware of this, just as they were very aware of needing to distance the new mermaid, aka Ariel, being created at Disney Feature Animation from Darryl Hannah's blonde mermaid sensation in the 1984 hit-movie Splash. A Splash sequel )(Splash, Too) was also in the works when The Little Mermaid was pitched and the to-be-animated-classic was "temporarily nixed" as a result: "Too many mermaids!" said the then-CEO, though that decision was later reversed. Eventually, the reasons for giving Ariel red hair, rather than blonde, were a) not like Darryl Hannah and b) because red is a complementary color - that is, opposite - of green (the mermaid tail). Yes, folks - that is the main reason Ariel became a red-head instead of the expected blonde. Red was not chosen for ginger-representation. It was for marketing.

Why did we bother with this list? There are many already-awesome options to choose from, should folks need a human-looking version of the classic Ariel to still feel 'represented'. Truly, there is such an abundance - why is it the 'purists' feel they are 'owed' (not our term!) the new live-action movie too?

Disney's Black Mermaid Trial Run
ABC OUAT special episode promo poster
 Tiffany Boone as young Ursula
with mer-tail (pre-tentacles)
(OUAT ep 4:11)
This seems like a good time to remind folks that Disney already had a successful trial run with a black Ariel-like mermaid**. The very popular Disney-owned and based series Once Upon A Time, was known for looking into classic characters and exploring their backstories, always with a twist on the trope. Villains weren't exempt from the treatment and often the black and white villains ended up eliciting sympathy from the viewers regarding their own difficult pasts and bad decisions (making it very possible for many of them to be redeemed). With Ariel having made an appearance in a couple of episodes, it wasn't unexpected that Ursula would appear too and that fans would learn how she came to be the villain she was known to be. In an inspired twist, it turned out Ursula's story was actually a Little Mermaid tale. 

 Tiffany Boone as young Ursula
on land (
OUAT ep 4:11)
The exploration was short and kept within a single episode, which meant it didn't get as much media coverage as a story with a multi-episode arc. As a result, it's a great pity the episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul" didn't get more attention. In the OUAT "twist" Ursula was originally a beautiful young, black mermaid. She's seen with tail and fins, on land with two human legs and eventually transforms into having those classic and villainous tentacles. Fans loved it all. While it should be noted that OUAT included a red-headed, white-skinned Ariel (and her Prince Eric) in their character line-up throughout the series (and in the same episode!) to be on the safe side, Ursula's own mermaid story of a girl finding her feet and her voice was beautifully written, poignant, unexpected and immensely satisfying in its exploration of multiple issues and their resolution. While OUAT was inconsistent on many fronts throughout the series and draws a lot of criticism, it did have many moments where it struck a chord, was truly revisionist and a perfect exploration of the fairy tale in its pop culture era. Ursula's backstory as the "original" Little Mermaid was one of those.

Ursula and Uncomfortable Truths
"Mary Belle and the Mermaid" illustration by Leo & Diane

from Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton

(Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

With Melissa McCarthy now confirmed for the role of Ursula, we're already holding our breath for that moment when the white lady takes away the black girl's voice... yikes! 

But perhaps that's what Disney and Director Rob Marshall are planning to acknowledge and explore. Although women as a whole have had it tough for the majority of written history, when it comes to inequality it must be acknowledged that white women are not completely blameless. It would seem it's a hard conversation to have but that makes it worth having all the more. The negative reaction to the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel by a rather large (and vocal) demographic has been surprising, and uncovered a hidden white-privilege mindset among long-time (mostly female) fans - women who believe themselves to be progressive, inclusive and 'woke'.

That the negative response to Disney's casting of Halle Bailey was - and is - so very emotional and feels personal to those objecting is a clue to just how endemic white privilege is and that's a scary thing, especially seeing it come from intelligent people you know and love, and, let's be honest, in some cases ourselves. To be clear, there is no doubt many of these women are much more progressive than their predecessors but that doesn't mean there isn't still (a lot of) work to do. That this is happening at all should make it clear that this issue needs to be addressed, and attitudes - and assumptions - reassessed. Now. While we will admit we were hoping a wonderful drag queen (with all the singing and acting chops) would be cast in the villain's role to nod to the character's original inspiration (Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as Devine), putting a powerful white woman in the antagonist role opposite a lovely young black heroine is going to resonate... 

Uncomfortable? Yes. 
Worth the trouble and ruffled feathers (er scales)? Absolutely.

Congratulations Halle!
We are so here for this movie!
Disney's live-action feature film, The Little Mermaid, is scheduled to go into production in 2020.

*A Short Reference List on Mermaids & Mermaid Tales From Around the World
Every country with a coast has their version of mermaid tales but many of those mermaids look a little different than the popular images we've gotten used to. Here are some resources for you to find some different mermaid tales

BOOKS:

A Treasury of Mermaids: Mermaid Tales from Around the World – a diverse cultural collection of tales by folklorist Shirley Climo

Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales From Around the World (Surlalune Fairy Tale series) by Heidi Anne Heiner

Mermaid Tales From Around the World by Mary Pope Osborne

The Annotated African American Folktales edited by Henry Louis Gates, Maria Tatar, includes a mermaid tale with annotations



ONLINE RESOURCES:

** Other Disney "Trial-Runs" On OUAT:

  • black Rapunzel (huge hit! though they also had a white version as well)
  • female Jack (of the famous beanstalk)
  • lesbian Mulan (& Dorothy - a nice nod to the LGBTQ community and their famed love of the MGM movie)
  • a maternal Maleficent (which the Disney live-action movie also used)
  • a Latina Cinderella
The whole season 8 of OUAT had the Latina Cinderella (Jacinda) as the main character, with the premise of the eighth season being that there are multiple versions of the same fairy tale across universes - a valiant effort for inclusivity though a little late in the show's popularity to make a huge difference. Still, it showed that some people were considering the same stories with a different look, and that's a huge step toward inclusivity and diversity.
For further reading, you may enjoy
Mermaids, of course, don’t belong to one region. The earliest fish-women emerged in southwestern Asia’s ancient Mesopotamia, said Sarah Peverley, a cultural historian at the University of Liverpool in England.
“But almost every culture has a version of a mermaid,” she said. “They come in all shapes, sizes and skin color.”
When the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published “The Little Mermaid” in 1837, people across Africa were already swapping tales about Mami
Wata. (Washington Post)