While many magazine are doing features and lovely huge photo spreads on the new movie (such as Empire Magazine's spread, shown at the bottom of this post), there are a number of magazines out in a limited edition run at present, all of which bring insight to the film, its changes and updates to the new version of the story, as well as the original Disney one. But are they really different? Is it worth spending around* $15 each, to get them all? It depends on what you're looking for. (*actual prices vary but all are over $10 and at least one is over $15 with tax included.)
Here's the breakdown:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast Official Collector's Edition - featuring lots of little tidbits about the story differences, so it's worth reading those brief inserted text boxes, as well as some nice detail close-ups you won't see elsewhere (eg Maurice's music boxes and their significance). There's also quite a bit on the costume art and the inspirations behind the details, (again, the text inserts hold some great info) along with huge full color movie shots and scenes.
Entertainment Weekly's The Ultimate Guide to Beauty and the Beast (Collector's Edition) - this is the interview heavy edition with cast and creators but also has a lot on the original animated movie's 'making of' as well as the stage musical, Disney history, Disney princesses and a couple of nice pages showing concept art of the sets for the new movie
Life Magazine's Beauty & the Beast: The Story of a Fairy Tale (Time Inc Special) - this magazine is broken into six chapters, and goes into great detail on the history of the fairy tale, including the real life Petrus Gonsalves in 1550 (which some believe may have been an inspiration at some point on the tale's journey), tracking the tale from The Golden Ass, to Cupid & Psyche, touching on A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bluebeard, The Frog King, The Ram, Madame d'Aulnoy's influence including The Ram, Leprince de Beaumont, the Grimm's Snow White & Rose Red and The Singing, Springing Lark, through to modern adaptations. It also looks at Cocteau's influential film in historical context and all this in good detail with classic illustrations from a huge range of tales along with old photos, well before it even begins to discuss both Disney versions (the classic animated film and the soon-to-be-released live-action remake. It finishes on the never-ending appeal of fairy tales and quotes The Golden Key (always published as the last tale in any decent Grimm's collection).
You may have already guessed but if fairy tale fans were only able to buy one, the one we'd highly recommend is Life Magazine's surprisingly in depth, yet easy to read, volume. Although the cover isn't, perhaps, as appealing, if you're looking for a tie-in with the film, the fairy tale content is worth the price. As far as we can tell, the writers for this are J.I. Baker (Editor and Writer), Amy Lennard Goehner (Writer-Reporter) and Kostya Kennedy (Editorial Director, also credited in the Introduction).
Empire Magazine's Beauty and the Beast 2017 feature spread in the February issue (which features a lot of other movies as well)
Note: the D23 Magazine has a lovely cover and does indeed spotlight the movie, but it is not exclusively about the film.
All aboard the roller coaster ride to the release of Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast!
About an hour ago, Entertainment Weekly shared the cover for their upcoming cover, which has exclusive photos and cast interviews on the movie. Already going viral, the EW website has shared nine stills from the movie, giving fans the best taste to-date of what the film will be like.
For this week’s cover story, EW visited the film’s U.K. set and spoke with [the cast], as well as director Bill Condon and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who talked about creating the new version of the iconic yellow dress Belle wears in the original film’s ballroom scene. In addition, we chatted with Ewan McGregor, who voices the enchanted, “Be Our Guest”-performing candelabra Lumière, and Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the clock Cogsworth and was apparently desperate to get his own big production number. “I kept singing what I thought would be a rather good addition to the score,” says the X-Men franchise star. “‘My name is Cogsworth!/ And I’m a clock!/Ticktock!’ But I didn’t get my own song.”
Readers can also find out about the film’s new songs — penned by Alan Menken and Tim Rice — and feast their eyes on an array of exclusive photos featuring all of the aforementioned characters as well as Belle’s father, Maurice (Kevin Kline), Mrs Potts. (Emma Thompson), and Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
Clark Collis, Senior Editor for Entertainment Weekly, gave a brief and entertaining interview, talking about writing the cover story for the upcoming issue, which you can see (along with sneak peeks) below:
G-nome. Heh.
Okay then.
Are you ready for the images?
Here they are:
We have no doubt there are fans out there in happy tears right now, while others are still scratching their heads over those enchanted objects. Overall, it doesn't appear to be a great departure from the animated classic at all. Our one query is that it seems a bit dark with lots of browns and dark, moody lighting, but then, these are production stills, and they can often look quite different in tone from the movie. Either way, everyone in the office here has announced they'd happily cough up for silver screen tickets.
Bustle grabbed this preview from the video shared above, a cropped shot of one of the spreads from the upcoming EW issue, specifically discussing costuming and design. If you look closely you can see comments about that famous yellow dress.
The one we like best is:
“For Emma, it was important that the dress was light and that it had a lot of movement… In Emma’s reinterpretation, Belle is an active princess. She did not want a dress that was corseted or that would impede her in any way.”
To see more you'll need to pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly, which will be on stands this Friday, and/or subscribe for the exclusive access features.
The current Twitter header for Entertainment Weekly. You can see a larger version, showing all the nuances in expressions, HERE.
Update at 1:16pm, same day: We have just learned that Emma Watson has been participating in the Books in the Underground movement, leaving copies of books they love, all around the London Tube. The BBC reported:
“The star left the novels as part of the Books On The Underground movement which sees ‘book fairies’ leave their favourite reads for people to enjoy. Watson left about 100 books with some including a hand-written note….Books on the Underground started in 2012 and leave about 150 books in stations across London each week.”
Emma Watson is a book fairy! Can we like this woman any more?
Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day:
Ever wonder who was Linda Woolverton's inspiration for writing Belle as she did? (Woolverton was screenwriter of Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast.)
EW and Bustle shared some behind the scenes on this earlier in May this year, which we're now sharing some of below:
Entertainment Weekly... interviewed the legendary screenwriter behind the movie, Linda Woolverton, to ask her about Belle's development as a character — and, in turn, to uncover one big thing about Beauty and the Beast that even hardcore fans don't know... Probably the most unexpected part of the interview centers on how Hollywood back then was dominated by "the whole idea of the heroine-victim" — something hard to imagine post tough-Disney heroines like Princess Jasmine, Mulan, and Merida. Woolverton discovered her own background in the feminist movement in the '60s and '70s meant she "definitely couldn’t buy that this smart, attractive young girl, Belle, would be sitting around and waiting for her prince to come."
"That she was someone who suffers in silence and only wants a pure rose? That she takes all this abuse but is still good at heart? I had a hard time with that," she told EW.
And then she revealed her inspiration: Katherine Hepburn in 1933's Little Women (playing Jo).
When EW asked Woolverton about her having said she modeled the character after Katharine Hepburn in Little Women, the screenwriter responded:
Yes. That was a real depiction of womanhood. I think you can take on current issues of today through fairy tales or the mythic. And so that was my fight, always saying, 'The audience is just not gonna buy this anymore.'
It's not difficult to see some parallels between Belle and Hepburn/Jo, like the wandering, book reading and love of outdoors, is it? We think she made a good choice.
Here's some great news from Timeless Tales Magazine's Editor, Tahlia Merrill. See her personal message below:
We're celebrating hitting 1,000 fans in a big way!
All summer we've been seeing the number of our facebook fans increase, thanks to our crazy talented social media dragon tamer, Carina Bissett. We're so excited about all our new readers and wanted to celebrate in a BIG way. So all this week, we'll be opening our basket of goodies and sharing the treats with you.
Let's start with the biggest reveal first...*drumroll*...
A royal makeover for our Pandora's Box issue:
I can't even begin to tell you how lucky we are to have found Ugly Tree Graphic Designs to help us design a 2nd Edition for this issue.
First off, let me show you the gorgeous new cover:
Previous readers of this issue have had to endure clunky formatting and a sad lack of graphics, which is why we asked Ugly Tree to redesigned the entire issue, including a complete overhaul of all the pages. For the first time ever, our stories look like something you'd find in an actual magazine.
But wait, there's MORE!
Thanks to Write Jobs each story is now fitted with a custom designed mini-cover:
You can read all our Pandora's Box retellings in their newly restored glory HERE.
What do you guys, think? We're hoping it's not only our most attractive issue yet, but also the most user-friendly. If you notice anything that is less that ideal, though, that we may have missed, please email me (Tahlia) with your feedback at timelesstalesmagazine@gmail.com
There's even more new stuff on the website that we'll be blogging about later this week. Stay tuned!
Although mythology isn't really our focus on here on OUABlog, it is a big element of our partner, Timeless Tales', business. They alternate between publishing retellings of fairy tales and myths and have just released their latest issue.
All the stories for this particular issue have the theme "Perseus and Medusa". Here's a look at the main cover (above) and just a small sampling of the many mini-covers they designed for each individual story (below). It's pretty neat and you're guaranteed quality stories and a good read, (we're talking a good 75+ pages here!) , along with the option of audio, as well as a variety of (good) surprises.
Here's a quick note from TT's editor herself, Tahlia Merrill Kirk:
Here I am again, standing on the other side of a release date, thinking, "why do I do this to myself?". Give it a week and I'll remember the answer. It's because I love seeing writers teach me something new about a well-worn tale.
Each theme presents its unique challenges. For Puss in Boots, the challenge was how to overcome the cliche of talking cats. For Twelve Dancing Princesses, it was often the problem of having a short story with at least twelve characters (twenty-six, if you include the princes, king, and witch). Perseus and Medusa's greatest obstacle, I learned as I read through submissions, was the snakes. I've never had so many writers treat an original element SO literally. Not even with Puss in Boots did writers seem compelled for their cats to wear actual boots.
At first, I grumbled about my submissions' lack of creativity. Must Snow White die by an apple or must Cinderella's slipper be glass? Of course not, so why did no one send me a Medusa with eels for hair or baby alligators? (Mostly joking on the second one).
And then I found the stories that gave the snakes a purpose. Like the "multiple slithering ids" which coo a Gorgon's darker thoughts in Elaine Pascale's story "Love in the Time of Athena". Convinced that their importance could not be denied, I even stuck a cobra on the cover.
So suffice it to say that you'll find plenty of scales in this issue. However I tried to pick stories where the hissing hair wasn't mere window dressing on Medusa. And of course, there are some notable retellings that are completely snake-free, like the Russian themed "Long Live the Personal Revolution". I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.
Courtesy of Team Jolie, those of us without access to this issue of Entertainment Weekly (#1302, dated March 14, 2014 - on stands March 7, 2014), can view and read the interview and bonus bits for ourselves. Although this is (obviously) not a dense discussion on fairy tales, fairy tale villains or Sleeping Beauty in general, Ms. Jolie does have a lot of insightful things to say and despite her ranging over a few subjects apart from the film, the themes and her emphasis for each of them clearly work together and, at the time, affected each other.
In fact, one of the reasons I think this interview is worth reading is because it shows how the issues raised by fairy tales are directly applicable to life, learning and raising better people (whether that's our children or ourselves).
Please find the pages below. As I mentioned in the previous post, I will be hunting down and purchasing a proper copy for myself, just in case this movie turns out to have significant impact on society's view of , not only the Disney movie but also (unavoidably) the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.
Just click on the images to view them full size so you can read the text a little easier.
Note: I'm a little vague on whether or not EW is OK with this being published elsewhere on the web at the moment, especially seeing as it's been up in other places for a short while already, but if it comes to my attention that EW want it taken down, I will do so immediately. Should that happen you should still have enough information from this post and the cover image if you need to hunt it all down at a future date.
The lovely Joy Siren has an obsession very much like mine. She adores everything mermaid and her Siren School is the place to go if you want to fish for what she knows. The depths of her knowledge on the subject are DEEP folks! (Puns intended as they're also completely true.)
Just as I find more than I can post on every day regarding fairy tales, Joy does the same for her mermaid students and siren scholars, and her daily magazine, la Vie Sirène, is brimming full of delights and treasures.
It's no wonder, then, that our paths would cross at some point (which they did not too long ago, thanks to Facebook) and this month I was delighted to find out that she is focusing on all things fairy tale, yours truly and this blog included.
I'm a little in awe of the life this amazing woman has led and the brave choices she's made. I'm also stunned by how just one person can accomplish so much on so little and inspire so many people in doing so. Because of this, I was incredibly humbled when she asked to interview me for the November fairy tale issue. Let me tell you, Joy's questions had me squeaking the rust out of my brain bolts to answer her insightful questions. She forced me to articulate - in black and white! - a lot of what I end up talking to people about when they ask "why fairy tales", so if you want the scoop, check with Joy. She is holding the key to all my fairy tale secrets. (And I believe I finally let out a little family "secret" I haven't shared before too...) ;)
In the meantime she has something new to read every day, and just posted an interview with the photographer she worked with, Love BEA Photography, to make the cover for the November "fairy tale special" issue.
And if you love mermaids, or inspirational women connecting and making their lives beautiful - which is so much of what Joy does - Siren School is everywhere online! You can find Joy and her school:
The daily magazine, la Vie Sirène - currently in fairy tale mode - is HERE
The blog is HERE (with cool regular features I might add)
And much, much more, which you can find on the main website, HERE
And you noticed the "school" aspect, right? It's not just a pun. Ms. Siren actually runs classes and workshops, activities, socials and more! Anyone is eligible to enroll and there are many choices, depending on how far you want to dive in. It's really quite amazing. You'll just have to go see her site for yourself.
Go! Enjoy! And tell her you love what you see. (And send some cheers to Love BEA Photography for their fantastic foray into the fairy tale realm as well.)
