Song of the Sea Gets It's First Real Trailer!

The official poster, not yet properly released but on display in the offices at Cartoon Saloon

We've been looking at the conceptual trailer for this selkie movie a couple of years now (at least) but a real, honest-to-goodness teaser trailer means one very important thing: it's almost here! And boy is it GORGEOUS!

The teaser is only a minute but it's so beautiful and artful. Take a look:

Here's the description if you missed it before:

SONG OF THE SEA tells the story of Ben and his little sister Saoirse -- the last Seal-child -- who embark on a fantastic journey across a fading world of ancient legend and magic in an attempt to return to their home by the sea. The film takes inspiration from the mythological Selkies of Irish folklore, who live as seals in the sea but become humans on land. SONG OF THE SEA features the voices of Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan, Pat Shortt, Jon Kenny, Lucy O'Connell, Liam Hourican and Kevin Swierszsz. Music is by composer Bruno Coulais and Irish band Kíla, both of whom previously collaborated on The Secret of Kells.

No word yet on how GKids will be distributing this in the US - how widely or when - but it's hpappening and it'll be showing in theaters before the end of the year (in some places). Images are also starting to be released internationally as it's being picked up around the world for distribution. When I see dates, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, have some eye candy:

The Last Selchie Child by Jane Yolen

Coming soon! OK - soon-ish, in May. (I'm always excited about Jane Yolen releases. :) And it has selkies - or in this case selchies.

Magical transformations, enchanted mirrors, talking animals, familiar tales in unfamiliar guises, all these and more are found in the pages of The Last Selchie Child. 

Retellings of archetypal myths and fairy tales and the nature of storytelling itself are explored in this new collection of poems by Jane Yolen.

If you're not really a poetry fan but love fairy tales I suggest you at least give Ms. Yolen's poetry a try.

Here's an excerpt from one of the works in the book title The Storyteller:

He unpacks his bag of taleswith fingers quickas a weaver's            picking the weft threads,            threading the warp.Watch his fingers.Watch his lipsspeaking the old familiar words:

And HERE's another, older one which has stayed with me ever since I read it on the Endicott Studio website. It's titled Beauty and the Beast: An Anniversary.

Another I love is Undine which you can read HERE and you can check the Endicott Studio poetry archive for even more fairy tale poetry, including quite a few by Ms. Yolen. 


As far as I can tell, Ms. Yolen's fairy tale poetry is scattered across publications and various books, so I'm thankful Endicott Studio has been able to post some of her works so we can read them there. There's a good chance they otherwise might be lost (at least to most of us) in out of print/unavailable publications. I'd snap up a fairy tale poetry volume containing all these gems by Ms. Yolen in a second if it were available. For now we are to be treated with new fairy tale works instead. (Selkies!) That's a very good and happy thing.

And if the idea of reading about selchies/selkies appeals but you'd rather a novel, she has one of those too. It's titled Greyling and I most definitely recommend it. Though it's out of print you can still find copies without too much difficulty.

The Last Selchie Child will be available on May 15 and is available now for pre-order HERE and HERE.

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Books (and reviews)

• "Four Generous Fairies" by Diana Liiv, Illustrated by Reti Saks (2005) - Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" told as a fairy tale with illustrations, which also educates about music and instruments - an Estonian book-with-CD, also available in English translation.

• "A Fair Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates - (review) plays with the conventional Cinderella story in a modern setting - not a retelling. You'll find this on of the 'literature' shelves.

• "The Girl With Glass Feet" debut novel by Ali Shaw - soon to be released in the US (if it isn't out already) using European fairy tales. Very promising reviews from the UK, including The Guardian. I'm currently reading this and will review it for Once Upon A Blog soon too.

• "Tempest Rising" by Nicole Peeler - fairly new urban fantasy using the Selkie myths and fairy tales as well as other European tales. Very promising first novel in a trilogy.

• "Red" by Jordan Summers - Not new or faultless but I've been wanting to mention this one for a while because it's quite different. It's a 'futuristic' (not quite sci-fi) retelling of Red Riding Hood. Premise: what if Little Red Riding Hood and the bad wolf turn out to be the same person? I'm not sure if it belongs under the an urban fantasy label or a very-edgy-paranormal-romance label but it's a unique and interesting retelling. Please note - contains very graphic descriptions of violence as well as explicit sex.

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