Wanted: The Right Shoe (Literally)

I got a little note from eBay UK last week, letting me know the "Cinderella status" of their website.

While I wasn't surprised to hear just how many products were tagged "Cinderella" (over 66,800 - "from tutu-style dresses to blonde wigs") and how many Prince Charming costumes they had sold in the past three months alone (over 1,000) or that somehow over 550 glass slippers have sold in the same time period (no reports on whether they actually fit or not), I was surprised to hear this:

eBay is drowning in shoes, specifically right shoes. They have over 4,100 right shoes available for sale but only 260 left shoes available*, and yep, you guessed it - they don't match.

What the...??

I have visions of people scrolling and clicking through hundreds of eBay pages looking for just the right shoe, or just the right size... and a lot of bare right feet on the part of the customers.

Is that a scientifically provable thing? That you're more likely to lose a right shoe than a left one? And what are people thinking in putting up single shoes for sale? Is there a market for this? (And what are people doing that they have all these right shoes to sell in the first place?!**)

And if you put in the search parameters "just the right shoe" you end up with a host of very fancy right shoe collectibles and displays. Who knew this was a thing?

It also makes you wonder about where a Fairy Godmother might "borrow her magic" from these days. eBay UK thinks she might be going incognito online, or people are being too impatient to wait for her to show up and taking matters into their own hands. This was the publicist's introduction:

As Cinderella hits the silver screen it appears that those who can’t find a Fairy Godmother of their own are flocking to online marketplace eBay.co.uk instead.

It's a different take on Cinderella I never considered, but clearly it's a more common "modern variant" than I could ever have imagined.

Someone is going to have to do a study of some sort - and soon.

My brain goes right from this to the whole concept of shoes being meant for individuals and reflecting their owners. This is actually something they've forensically proven. Shoes worn over time come to take the 'imprint" of the wearer and become unique as a result. It's even possible to identify which shoes belonged to which individual by way of looking at the wear, how the sole and heel were worn down, what the internal shape of the shoe ended up being, even in shoes that were fairly solid.

Shoe manufacturers and designers have known for centuries that shoes tell stories (and some evidence points to over 5,000 years of this). Shoes have something to say, both about where and why they were made, but, more interestingly to me, about the individual wearer and owner.

(If this subject fascinates you, take a look at this article HERE about vintage shoes found concealed in a wall and the history of such a practice. It wasn't the article I was looking for to reference but it will start you on a treasure hunt if you as so inclined!)

Shoes in fairy tales are fascinating too and there are many, many examples that immediately come to mind: The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Red Shoes, The Cobbler and the Elves, Puss In Boots, The Seven League Boots, The Girl In The Iron Shoes, just to start, and there are whole books on that subject as well.

Take a look at this journal entry from a gifted writer who passed too early:

"Suum Cuique," said Cicero, translating as "To Each His Own." And that is the way with this shoe, designed by his countrywoman Miuccia Prada.
To me this object is as astonishing as anything in nature, so clever in its mixing of color and so sensually pleasing in its juxtaposition of materials, and all pulled together in a mind bogglingly inventive way.
Look at the sleek wet scarlet slick of the top and the ancient Grinling Gibbons curls on the heel. All that gilt and heft on the bottom decorated with tender vines carved with the “loose and airy lightness of flowers.” And then buckled up on top with the little belt that kept Red Riding Hood’s picnic basket with grandma’s gift of wine inside closed up safe and snug.
After I first saw this fashion photo in Vogue magazine I couldn’t get it out of my head for a month. Then I encountered the same image on a smart, stylish woman’s blog, where the shoe was being completely dismissed and utterly ridiculed. The cost! The height! The vulgarity!
One can think of what a shoe will set you back, I suppose, but I prefer to think of all the places one can take you, as Eugene Field did in his nursery rhyme:
“Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe -
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew… “
So now you see as I do. Or not. Suum cuique, then, but you know I’ll have an excellent view of any standing-room rock and roll stage come fall.
Theresa Duncan, Wit of the Staircase, July 10, 2006 

What we've done to the Cinderella story in the West (in particular) by changing her shoe to glass has changed the emphasis of the story overall, something which I was interested to see explored to some extent in the new Cinderella movie, by the way (more on this with my eventual review).

But if the Prince had figured out who Cinderella was from the individual imprint of her shoe (which would have had to have been worn more than once, and likely not been made of glass), he would have learned a lot about his bride-to-be while searching for her. In that case, if he still insisted on finding her after learning all these details about her and believed more than ever that she was "the one", that would make for a very different story!

It also makes you wonder what you could do if you just had the "right" shoe.

*Note from Ebay Publicist: *Data taken from the past three months (10.12.14 to 09.03.15)
** I probably shouldn't write posts like this after watching shows like Criminal Minds... my imagination just scared me.

JC Penney Debuts Cinderella Ad During Oscars

This glass slipper is made of ice... has anyone told THAT story yet?

I told you it would be hard to escape! JC Penney has joined forces with Disney to bring (yet another) line of Cinderella fashion and merchandise and debuted their ad during the Oscar coverage last night.

Not the most creative of ads but it was sweet nonetheless.

Here 'tis:

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

JC Penney also held design contest for ten fashion school graduates to design a gown for that #CinderellaMoment, something which must have felt like spinning magic out of paper and pencils for those designers (complete with the sweat and hard work) and a royal-like party to celebrate the effort:

(Ten) talented graduate students in the Fashion School of Kent State University (had) under two hours to conjure up a glam outfit-inspired by this wondrous Cinderella ballgown-that was straight off the live-action film's set (eta March 2015)---in homage of the store's collaboration with this modern day take on the timeless tale.

You can see photos from the event and the designs HERE.

Glass Slippers & Conspiracies

Remember how I mentioned I hadn't seen anything regarding marketing of an iconic Cinderella shoe as a marketing/consumer tie-in to the upcoming movie (and that I wouldn't have been surprised if it ended up being an exclusive thing)?

Ta da! Disney has approached nine luxury shoe designer brands and asked them for their interpretations of a Cinderella 2015 shoe.

(In other words, they went the exclusive route.)

The distinguished designers, in alphabetical order, are: Paul Andrew, Alexandre Birman, René Caovilla, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, Nicholas Kirkwood, Charlotte Olympia, Jerome C. Rousseau, and Stuart Weitzman. Each brand has created its own interpretation of the famed glass slipper Cinderella accidentally leaves behind when the clock strikes midnight. 

...Swarovski, which produced the iconic glass slipper for the film under the direction of Academy Award®-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, provided the crystals featured in the designers’ shoes.

 

The words: PVC, perspex, transparent - these all make me think of ugly, squished, sweaty and deformed feet (especially in these heels! Are any under 3 1/2 inches??) Yikes. Feet can be very beautiful but, ironically, this combination seems a conspiracy against that ideal..

You can see the rest of the shoe designs HERE (none of which seem particularly innovative, but what do I know), along with statements from the designers about creating a new iconic Cinderella shoe. The rest of write up from Consumer Products is HERE, including a list of where you're able to order these shoes, if you are so monied, er, inclined. (!)

In other Cinderella movie updates, there is a new TV Spot, focusing on an apparent conspiracy the Stepmother is "in" on, with regard to keeping Cinderella hidden and apparently there's a new full trailer due out tomorrow.

Here's the conspiracy:

I want to be excited, I do, but it's not feeling very unique - not even a different spin on a classic (and fairy tale writers out there know there are many, many ways to do that, even when restricted by using required/classic/iconic material). I know Branagh did his research. I know he read many versions of Cinderella in preparation for making this movie but I'm not seeing lots of evidence of that yet. Cinderella "pre-meeting" the prince so it's not love at first sight has been done so often (heck, Disney made sure this happened for Snow White so she'd have a little history with her guy before being woken up!), I just can't see it as being a different take (Ever After easily did it better and that was a very less-than-perfect movie.)

But... this little featurette came out today about the love story between Cinderella and the Prince so, for people who've never seen Ever After or The Slipper and the Rose (highly recommended) this may feel very fresh.

Without doubt, whatever it is, it will be beautiful.

"Into The Woods": New Movie Poster, New Website & Random Thoughts on How We (& the Media) View Fairy Tales

And one more bit of Into The Woods news for Thursday:

Today also saw the launch of the official website (although there's not a whole lot there apart from the trailer, cast list and the photos you've already seen) and new promo poster variations (see above and below).

The Facebook page is finally becoming active too.

The important thing this confirms is that they're still releasing on Christmas Day in theaters in the US. I can see the Winter merchandise and decorations now... although they're mixing up with Narnia a bit in my head at the moment, which I wouldn't mind too much since so much of the first Narnia movie merchandise at the time of the release was just stunning.  I'm going to do my best to be optimistic about this.

One note does concern me though: we're a little tired of fairy tale stories backstabbing us, or the media doing their level best to "shock" the public by uncovering their dark sides via these "OMG did you know..!" lists. Adam over at Fairy Tale Fandom has a great and timely post on this very subject.

One thing my forced downtime made me do, since I couldn't handle computer screens, was to do a lot more reading. While I plan to get to the various books in more detail in the coming weeks, I have to admit my favorites were not the novels but the collections, specifically Jack Zipes' recent wonderful book, The Golden Age of Folk & Fairy Tales from The Brothers Grimm to Andrew Lang and to a lesser extent, though still great to read, Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (with the English version and the German version side by side so I could look at Shaun Tan's sculptures while reading).

Why? Because they were just "as is" - no emphasis on the happily ever after or the magic but also no emphasis on the dark, gruesome, grimness either. They were just tales in which something out of the ordinary happened and people had to choose how to respond and what, if anything, they should do about it.

When I started getting a lot better and could watch TV again, I also spent some time showing my kid some more of Miyazaki's movies and discussing extraordinary, ordinary things (if you follow me) and it struck me just how similar the sensibilities are - which is probably why I love the movies so much. While the fantasy creatures and impossible things were notable, it was clear that many of these things could have been either frightening or wondrous, depending on the context they were seen in and particularly how the child (usually it was a child) at the center of the story saw it. We weren't told "this is beautiful" or "this is scary", we had to hold our breath and see what the kid thought.

Here is an excerpt from a wonderful set of images, illustrating Miyazaki's philosophy in storytelling. It's something I sincerely wish more filmmakers, especially regarding family films, in English speaking countries would adopt:

The excerpt above is slightly out of context so you can see the full five illustrated page summary HERE.

Anyway - these are my random musings as I watch fairy tales being presented to the public once again. I'm actually hopeful that Into The Woods will work in favor of balancing some of the glitter vs gruesome polarization we currently see when the public contemplates fairy tales.

Boys Need Mythic Merchandise To Help Fantasy Stories Stick Today and Stella McCartney Gets That (aka Maleficent [& Fairy Tales] for Boys - 2 of 2)

This is part 2 of 2 o the topic of fairy tales (especially those considered girls tales) being marketed to boys and the importance of doing exactly that. (You can find part 1 HERE.)

Today, not only is there a new "creature feature trailer" for Maleficent (harking from Walt Disney Studios Australia), there are even more creature concept designs to share! Continuing on from yesterday's post, here is part 2 of "Maleficent [& Fairy Tales] for Boys"...

First, though, here's the new trailer, which is full of Henson-esque goodness (and oh, so toyable! And yes, that's actually a real word these days... *eyeroll*)

I still only see one dragon, though, and I'm fairly sure it's Diaval... *crosses fingers for an awesome Maleficent-dragon to be revealed in the movie*

But why am I focused on this being marketed to boys? Don't boys have plenty of tales? I would argue that, especially since the "princess culture" has asserted itself over every toy store in every country, that fairy tales are in serious danger of being thought to be only for girls. If you've read any traditional collection of fairytales (I'm not even talking about Grimm's and Perrault, but the much newer, pre-princess illustrated volumes of tales) it was clear that most fairy tales were both for boys and girls.

What's so interesting to me, is that Maleficent is not being marketed primarily at little girls per say,  even though:
1) Maleficent is Disney - the same Disney that has made a mint on princess culture propaganda and
2) the original animated film is considered a "princess movie" (despite having possibly THE best Prince ever created in the Disney canon, which is going to be doubly ironic when the live action version is so two dimensional - hah!)*

My thoughts on marketing fairy tales to boys began in earnest back when Disney started changing the names of their fairy tales to sounds less... fairy tale (or, as they thought, girly). When marketing Frozen, however, (which Disney continually says "is inspired by The Snow Queen", meaning, they keep putting that fairy tale association in front of us, no matter how unlike a fairy tale it actually is), the marketing team decided they needed to grab the boy-audience early and entice them to the theater in a way they hadn't yet managed.

Enter the re-arrange-able snowman, Olaf, and a very goofy reindeer in a short film used as a teaser for the movie.

Despite my misgivings at what seemed to be an obnoxious approach, the humor of the Olaf and Sven short did, indeed, catch the attention of little boys and they weren't disappointed when they saw Olaf, Marshmallow and Sven on the screen. They even enjoyed seeing Elsa using her powers and her character be a little conflicted about the whole thing. But then, Disney kind of shot themselves in the foot (as far as marketing to boys, anyway), as there was hardly any merchandise suitable for a boy who loved the movie to acquire, keep and play with. Instead, it was Princess-city. Even the Olaf plushes were kept in the "girl's aisle" with very "girly" packaging!

I cannot tell you how unhappy my initially delighted child became. He went from not being able to stop talking about Olaf and the power of ice and snow, and even talking about Snow Queen characters, to desperately wishing Olaf wasn't part of a "girl movie". To date I have only been able to find a pair of pajamas that were suitable, one plush (that had no girly packaging) and one decent t-shirt that didn't scream "this is for girls!". Now, whenever there's mention of the movie, his, and other children's, lasting association is that it's really just a princess movie. Although I'm not as bowled over by the movie as many have been/are, this really does a disservice to everyone who worked so very (very!) hard on this movie. It also jams another giant nail into the "fairy tales are girls, only" coffin (except in cases like Jack the Giant Slayer, which, for reasons I wrote at length on yesterday, just wasn't as successful a boys fairy tale film as it should have been either).

Whoever would have thought making a fairy tale stick would rely so much on merchandise? But, I can hear you say, surely we don't have to rely on t-shirts and plushies to pass our fairy tales to our kids these days, do we? That's downright deplorable! (Isn't it?)

I don't think we have to rely on merchandise BUT I think we have a better chance of making the tales stick, if we support the telling of a tale via the means that communicate best to kids best today. It's all about passing on - and holding onto - the essence of the information, or in this case, fairy tale. While at first the thought seems strange and even objectionable, the signs have been here all along. Even the Grimm's knew if you could create something you could hold and look at whenever you wanted and grow attached to, after the fact of the tale telling, that those stories would stick better than ever before. Today that means t-shirts, costumes, plushies, dolls, video games and lunch boxes. (Yes, lunch boxes!)

Enter Maleficent and the wide array of marketing happening for this film.

I have to say, I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing team drew a giant grid on a board, listing all the various channels they could market via: music, fashion, high end accessories, dolls, pop-vinyl figures, stationary, cosmetics, costumes and cosplay, commuters, children's dress-up, classic Disney re-imaginings merchandise and newer pop culture versions, etc and what they could create for each. They even took into consideration all the social media options for sending things viral: lots of visuals, posters, "gif-able" clips, progressive image reveals, concept designs, featurettes etc etc, not to mention looked at demographics: fashion conscious women, edgy teens, social media, artists, lovers of the classic animated movie, fantasy buffs (aka LOTR & similar fans), dark fairy tale aficionados, romance fans, Disney lovers and, yes, children. (And yes, Subway is covering the "lunch totes".)

So where does it show they've been considering boys as part of their audience? It started with the trailers: first impressions of the movie were on the darker side, with powerful images of landscape changing magic and intimidating characters who needed fighting. Then came indications of a fight, the more imposing forest creatures and instead of early-gentle nature-loving Maleficent; we were shown impressive power that made a king shake in his boots, along with some serious battle scenes and the forces of nature rising up to this character's call. It was only around this time that the prettiest of images started emerging but with an underscore of ominous music which was at odds with how pretty and light these scenes looked, like the young child Aurora in a field. Then came the dragon and more knights in battle and a reveal of a landscape at war with the people. I have to say, by this point I was wondering if parents were going to be concerned about taking their little girls to this movie! My son, on the other hand, went from being concerned that this was going to be too scary to "this is awesome!". The more creatures were revealed, the more fantastic everything has seemed to him. From the cute (but still not too girly) goblins and troll-like creatures, which have assured him that there will be fun magic as well as dark, to Diaval's many forms in which he enjoys seeing the bird-like aspects of, all these remind him of... ET and The Neverending Story. I kid you not.

But this is still all pre-release, and Frozen did fine with their approach as well. What I'm already seeing as being a huge plus for my son is that, while there still isn't a whole lot, there is merchandise just for boys.  While I hope there's more, here I'm talking specifically about the Stella McCartney Maleficent children's line, who Angelina Jolie collaborated with in designing, as well as Disney, of course. (My son has already grabbed his various lego dragons, including his version of Smaug, and enacts battle scenes where the dragon wins. Having recently also watched Epic (bad name, pretty good movie), he's very interested in wild nature both in weather and in growing things and gets annoyed when people clip their trailing vines or cut down their trees.) What he's going to want, though, is a piece of Maleficent he can take home for himself, and the Stella McCartney boys' options do exactly that. (In fact, he's already begged me for both shirts, "...but if you can only choose one, Mama, please choose the trolls.").

I have been so struck regarding the difference in impact on boys in general for merchandising for this particular blockbuster fairy tale production (not just my son), and the obvious consideration for little boys of the same that was lacking in presenting Frozen, that I sent a note to the company to thank them, making sure to tell them why I thought what they were doing was so important.

It reads as follows (emphasis in bold is only for the blog post here):

To Whom It May Concern at Stella McCartney, 

A quick note to say thank you for designing some great Maleficent stuff for boys too! 

With all the marketing thrown at little boys for Frozen and hardly any Olaf products in sight my son went from loving the Olaf & Sven parts of the movie, to believing it must only be for girls, because, there was only "girls stuff" available to purchase (mostly anyway). Maleficent, with all the trolls, ents, dragons and knights etc is great for boys to sink their fantasy teeth into and seeing these products he's already more excited about seeing the film.  

I wish more people understood how much impact these items have on kids perceptions of a story and film. The merchandise they (kids) see afterward helps create the lasting associations they have with the film, and if boys are going to tap into mythic stories, we need to cater to them too - so, again, thank you.

Sincerely.

(I should note here also, that Stella McCartney is sending a percentage of all sales to help disadvantaged children as well, which is another reason I'm considering pinching pennies and saving for one of these shirts my son wants so badly, when normally I wouldn't consider spending anywhere near that much!)

I do feel the need to add, here, that this is all before the film has been released, Perhaps it will all change after the fact and we'll have a re-run of the Frozen-is-a-girls-movie syndrome, but I really hope we don't.

In fact, I would be so very happy if legos bought the rights to making a mainstream (not a "Lego Friends" version *shudder*) construction toy for Maleficent. And then they made a lego video game... (I think I might have to go suggest this to them.)

I can tell you right now, if Disney made plushies of these troll-fae, they'll be half way to being beloved by everyone, including boys who adore ET, for generations to come!

* I'm actually wondering if Angelina Jolie, who is always thinking of her own children and continues to be a strong advocate of all children everywhere, had something to say about making sure her boys would love seeing the movie as much as the girls. I know she had a huge influence on almost every other part of the movie - from costumes and casting to directing and music - and it certainly feels that way to me. If that's the case, I am sincerely grateful to her on behalf of mothers of all little boys everywhere. 

Maleficent's Magical World - New Creature Concept art (aka Maleficent [& Fairy Tales] for Boys - 1 of 2)

I'm dedicating this particular post to my son, because, apart from the dragon, ("She's a DRAGON! Like Smaug!"*) he is completely enamored of the little creatures he catches glimpses of in the trailers and TV spots. Actually, it's going to be post 1 of 2, focusing on Maleficent for boys - this is the 'art' one and the other will be... well, you'll just have to tune in and see. ;)

(All this really means for you readers, is that you'll get another post of all the other Maleficent stuff that's been released this week very soon too.)

At the head of the post if one of the new character posters, featuring most of his favorite things about the movie (although I do believe he secretly finds Maleficent pretty awesome, what with her powerful wings and then showing serious magical clout).

The rest of the images are a whole lot of newly released concept art, all of which he's asked if they can come and live with us. I kind of wish they could too. About the only things missing merchandise-wise to date are creature sculpts/dolls/toys of these little critters, but more on that in part two...

The other thing my son is fascinated by? The best-buddy raven Diaval, and that he gets transformed into many different creatures (see the wolf above, although I don't know if there's a Diaval-wolf in the final movie), all keeping some of his bird aspects. I think he particularly likes that Diaval is annoyed at getting turned into a human, because he completely relates to that.

Why am I sharing this personal stuff? Because my son, despite having as balanced an upbringing regarding girls and boys things and fairy tales as I can manage (and it's been a priority of mine), he still has a very strong sense of "that's for girls" vs "that's for boys". What this movie is showing him, unlike much fairy tale marketing these days, is that there are aspects of fantasy and fairy tale stories (that aren't mainly focused on wars and knights) that are very appealing to boys. The creatures, the transformations, talking/communicating animals, the danger and the strength - he loves it all. He loves beautiful things too (most little boys I've met love beauty, especially natural/nature beauty), so has no problem with the pretty stuff, as long as there's balance. For example, in Adventure Time, he doesn't mind spending time with Princess Bubblegum story lines because, in his eyes, the candy kingdom is more a boys' idea of candy than the typical girl's representation of all-sugar-and-sweetness and Beemo, who is a very cute girl character, is awesome to him because she's tech savvy, creative, and rocks at video games.

He is not the only one enamored of these forest beings. I recently found a post by ex-Geeky Editor at Buzzfeed, Donna Dickens (@MildlyAmused on Twitter & currently blogging at HitFix HERE) I'm going to quote a ton of because the sentiments are so very similar in our house here (emphasis in bold, and underlined and yelled, politely, in Disney's direction, is mine):

Ignore the right side of the banner. Pretend it isn't there. Yes yes, dark and gloomy. Spiky thorns. Spooky rocks. We've seen it all before. Instead, look at these super cute sentient woodland species! OH MY GOD THEY ARE ADORABLE with their little spines and big noses and rock chins and floppy ears. Who are these tiny, cuddly people? A type of fairy perhaps? Or just more mythological creatures? Doesn't matter, I'm sure they play a part in the big battle sequence implied in the trailers. 

Don't they look as if they'd be right at home in a remake of 'Labyrinth' or 'The Dark Crystal?' NOT that those need to be remade, Hollywood. Back off. Seriously. Even the little malformed ones are so cute and fluffy, which is no easy trick when you don't even have fur!. Look at those sweet doe eyes and weird but precious boomerang noses! And are those noble treants wearing loincloths? How thoughtful to remember the PG-13 rating. 

And then there's these little fellas. The one in the middle is probably grumpy because he got stuck with the two nudists. But maybe the lack of clothes means they're pets and not people? I want an elephant nosed, web-handed amorphous blob pet!. If Disney doesn't turn these two into stuffed animals, their marketing department is missing a huge squishable opportunity.

Read the whole (fantastic) post HERE.

Ah marketing. Disney would totally be taking ALL-MA-MONEH if these creatures were considered toyable. The begging and the big, giant anime eyes a kid of seven can aim in your direction, along with the double whammy of "..it's about fairy tales Mama!" is a recipe for "buy all the toys even though it means we're eating noodles for the next 3 months...". It's bad enough he's already begging me for this pricey little sweatshirt:

While I don't know much about how these creatures shown here are represented in the film, apart from the battle scenes, I can tell you that my son realizing that the idea of "fairy" in fairy tales everywhere (ie not just the stories I choose to read to him but in general knowledge), doesn't just apply to pixies with wings but also to any non-human magical creatures (right through to very powerful representations like the ent-like warrior riding the forest hog), is one of those breakthrough things. Why? It has made him more open to reading ALL the tales. It's one thing for your fairy tale obsessed mother to constantly tell you fairy tales are as much for boys as they are for girls, but when he sees evidence of that in the media, it makes an impact and (get this) sends him back to me to read him more of what I've been reading to him all along.**

The media and advertising are so very powerful and loom large in influencing our kid's ideas of how they see the world. While my son's experience may be more unique because he's already had fairy tales in his life (thanks to me), it still takes the "outside world" to show him a glimpse of the same before he'll truly take it on board. It's taken something like the Maleficent trailers for him to realize that "Adventure Time is kind of like a bunch of fairy tale stuff mixed up with weird and crazy fun stuff.." and that "Star Wars would be kind of like a fairy tale if it had trolls and castles instead of aliens and space ships and light sabers and stuff..."Now he'll even catch sight of some of the images I scroll through on Pinterest, eg a guy with antlers, and spontaneously say, "Maybe that's one of those don't-mess-with-me fairies, like Maleficent is friends with".

I am so happy he is at a "wonder-ous" age for tales and can experience all this social buzz on a fairy tale in his formative years, especially in a way that opens the road to looking back on what he's already been exposed to with delight and the way forward to even more.

Addendum: For an interesting footnote to this riff on the importance of balance, I'll share something else on the "for boys" end of the scale that made me realize this even more. My son and I watched Jack the Giant Slayer together on the weekend (with my hands at the ready to over his eyes for any potential gore) and his comment about the giants was: "Why are they so stupid? You wouldn't think giants that big and that old would be so dumb." and "Where are the nice things the giants have? If they're hundreds of years old you think they would have had lots of time to build awesome stuff and make cool and weird looking houses and forests and stuff but everything is broken and nothing is alive..." Also interesting to note, he thought the Ewan McGregor character (Captain of the Guard?) was really heroic, whereas Jack didn't seem very smart. And we agreed that Jack would make a terrible king. "That's not the Jack you named me after, is it Mama? Because I know I'm smarter than that!" You are SO right kiddo.

*Gosh I hope he's right and she really IS a dragon and it's not just Diaval.
** These reasons, more than any others, have me crossing my fingers and toes that Maleficent will be good.