A Thank You To "Tales Of Faerie"

A little note sent via bluebird direct to TOF earlier this evening after our enchanting visit

If you missed any of the stops on the special five year anniversary of Tale Of Faerie Tour, you can find them linked below in order, starting with Kristin's interview here (very) early this morning.




[1] Interview at OUABlog  - An Invitation to TOF

[2] The Parlor

[3] The Grounds

[4] The Library

[5] A Letter (link to be added when the TOF post goes live)

"Ever After High" Gets a Movie, To Become Netflix Original Series for Kids (+ Cerise Hood Exclusive Is Quite A Doll!)

New & much improved EAH Cerise Hood EXCLUSIVE for SDCC* 2014
(Available after SDCC from mattycollector.com - very limited supply - obviously)

A new movie and a whole new series for the very popular Ever After High from Mattel.

Note: In case you didn't know Once Upon A Blog is pro-Ever After High. Why? See my post HERE (and scroll down past the Descendants part to see why I ate the words of my first impression of this princessy-looking toy line with animated series tie-in).

Press Release:

June 16, 2014: Netflix Inc. and Mattel, Inc. today announced an all-new and wicked animated original series for kids of all ages based on the spelltacular Mattel franchise, Ever After High. The new animated series will premiere in all Netflix territories in early 2015.

...The Netflix original series will be preceded by Ever After HighSpring Unsprung, a new movie, in early 2015, and 12 episodes of Ever After High the series will follow. Both will feature the royally rebellious and spellbinding stories of the Ever After High students with new twists, turns and character introductions for current and new fans to enjoy.

I don't see any word on whether our girl Shannon Hale will be involved but here's hoping she is.

On a related note: the new Cerise Hood SDCC exclusive collectible is not your average doll!
Here's the regular one (photographed very nicely, but still):

   

 

And you can see the exclusive below with detail pics HERE (although this is not really my thing - ie. dolls - the accessories and motifs on this one are worth checking out).

*SDCC is the giant annual San Diego Comic Con

Grim Before Grimm - A Brief (Audio) History of Cinderella, Rapunzel & Beauty and the Beast by Dr. Michelle Smith

Heckedy Peg (illustrated) by Don Wood

Here's a lovely little delicious dish for your ears: the history of three well known fairy tales summarized with their less-than-delicate origins intact (don't worry - the language is family friendly).

Each audio is very short, only 3 to 5 minutes long, and does a great job of entertainingly imparting the basic facts fairy tale students quickly learn about in their first year, and without overwhelming.

The text and audio is by Postdoctoral Fellow of English at the University of Melbourne Dr Michelle Smith.

First up, Cinderella (just click on the play button in the "box" to listen):

We know Cinderella as having a fairy god mother, but the earliest known version of the story features a ten foot long fish who grants her food, jewellery and fancy clothes.

 

 Next, Rapunzel:

Rapunzel has a saucy past says University of Melbourne's Dr Michelle Smith - a parsley sauce, to be precise.

 

And last, but not least, Beauty and the Beast:

The 'Beauty and the Beast' comes from a long European history of animal bridegroom stories where girls are wedded to bears, dogs, wolves, pigs, hedgehogs, snakes, frogs and sheep.

  

I hope you took the time to listen as it's well worth it. ( If you're short on time, you can easily do your Pinterest/Instagram/Tumblr browsing while Dr. Smith entertains you. ;) )

This special short series was released on Thursday by ABC Melbourne (Australia) to help promote a live broadcast (by Libby Gorr) for the Annual Children's Book Festival happening on March 23rd. More information can be found about the series and the upcoming live broadcast HERE.

I'd love to see (hear) more series like this! Brief, summarized, with a good sense of humor and especially, accessible to the general public.

Online Magazine "la Vie Sirène" Is Featuring Fairy Tales EVERY DAY During November!

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:

• On Pinterest HERE
• On Twitter HERE
• On Facebook HERE
• On Tumblr HERE
• On YouTube HERE
• On Google+ HERE
• 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.)

New Release: "Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World" SurLaLune Fairy Tales Series Vol (Happy Book Birthday Heidi!)

It's here! And it's available in both ebook and paperback.

I can't describe how excited I am about these SurLaLune Fairy Tales Series volumes Heidi has been working on and I know this one is dear to her heart.

She is having a special Beauty and the Beast week on the SurLaLune blog to celebrate and started by giving us a lot of information on what we can look forward to in the book.

Rather than link you to buy directly from here, I know sales from Heidi's links help her fund her research via her affiliate agreement with Amazon so please click through to buy from her blog in particular. I'll just link you to her. :)

Here are some of the book-related posts you will enjoy reading (if you haven't already):

Table of Contents for Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World

This is all you should need to convince you to order this book ASAP. This collection should make you squeal like it's a fairy tale Christmas.

Beauty and the Beast and Me

This post is not to be missed! Here Heidi generously explains her love of Beauty and the Beast, how this love began, how it was nurtured and why she's still fascinated with the tale today.

Beauty and the Beast and Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve

This post includes details on this new and wonderful resource:

Including both translations felt important, so I gave up 121 pages in Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World to them, 15% of the book. So now they are in one place for comparison and contrast. I even added footnotes to help cross reference the transformation scene in both which is significantly different as I described in my intro.

Beauty and the Beast and Madame Beaumont

This post explains the governess mentalities of Madame Beaumont and how, in a parallel to adaptations of tales done for Victorian nurseries, she adapted the story for children's ears.

Then she's also summarized for us her recommended reading if you're studying Beauty and the Beast:

Beauty and the Beast: Recommended Reading Part I

Beauty and the Beast: Recommended Reading Part II

Beauty and the Beast: Recommended Reading Part III

Heidi never fails to be a font of truly amazing resources for serious students, writers and scholars of fairy tales. If you haven't availed yourself of any of the books in her series yet, do yourself a favor and start collecting them. 

Here are the covers from the collection to date (and now we can add a Beauty and the Beast volume too).

You won't be disappointed. They are worth every cent! 

As a complete aside, don't you think these covers would make an amazing library frieze?

And I cannot wait for The Grateful Dead collection. Check the cover and blurb from the SurLaLune website below. Heidi originally planned to release this one for Samhain/Halloween this year (I know - I'm being TOTALLY greedy right now but this is on my WANT! list..), but that was before her Beauty and the Beast collection was completed. Either way we should see it in the near(ish) future, depending on how crazy-busy Heidi is these days.

In the meantime:

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY HEIDI!

Hint: if you're thinking about expanding your library with this series, you can help encourage and fund Heidi's research by buying via her blog links. Let's help keep this woman writing!

A New Journey Into Fairy Tale Films From Fandor

Traditions of folklore and fairy tale inspired the earliest of filmmakers and it didn’t take them long to discover how to visualize the miraculous via trick photography and special effects.

Yet who could have predicted just how “special” those effects would eventually become in the present day, when CGI-engorged new versions of old favorites like Snow White emerge yearly? Fairy tale-derived titles do, however, stray from the well-beaten commercial path and the best delight and terrify with their quirky imaginative breadth...

(continue reading on the Journey into Fairy Tale Films HERE)

Attention: fairy tale fans, film buffs, special effects people

and cultural history detectives! 

Welcome to a new online fairy tale film collection from Fandor: Journey Into Film (The Fairy Tales Edition), curated by longtime film critic (Variety & San Francisco Bay Guardian) Dennis Harvey!

I wasn't quite able to get the blog up and running again in time for the launch (so sorry!) but this is a not-to-be-missed, brand new and  extremely cool resource for fans of fairy tale and film. We are so fortunate to live in a time when resources like this are made available to us (where before we had to have special access to film archives and more) so please go take a look, let Fandor know we are truly excited to see this and that it was worth the effort (and that we'd love to see even more!).

Journey Into Fairy Tale Film, isn't your average, random, (or dry) collection either. The films within  are carefully chosen to be shown together. They're related via theme (and other insights the curator reveals as you go "on the journey"), go from the older films to the very recent and the presentation is designed specifically to help you "connect the dots" between them. 

 

Mr. Harvey*, was kind enough to give Once Upon A Blog an additional statement regarding curating the collection:

"Choosing films for this particular "Journey" was especially easy because fairy tales surface in many types of film that Fandor offers, particularly silent cinema and animation. 

Dennis Harvey - Film critic for Variety & SF Bay Guardian

Some of the later films in this "Journey" tap Fandor's sizable collection of camp and exploitation movies. "Cinderella 2000" is one of many erotic films from the 1970s that send up (and sexed up) childhood fables, while the completely nuts Hong Kong kung-fu fantasy "Deadly Snail vs. Kung Fu Killer" draws on their  Chinese equivalents.

The most recent films in the series illustrate the popular trend in recent years of taking legendary tales and figures (not least 20th-century ones like Batman and Superman) into "darker," more adult directions. The 2008 Korean "Hansel and Gretel" plumbs the macabre and disturbing qualities of a "children's story" the way Angela Carter or Gregory Maguire have in the literary realm. Then there's "Sita Sings the Blues," which puts a very modern and playful spin on primary piece of epic Indian mythology."

- Dennis Harvey (on curating Fandor's Journey Into Film - Fairy Tales collection)

 It's online, accessible to everyone (even without a Fandor "online cinema subscription") and just very cool to look at and move around in (no special skills required).

 

It's also interactive so you can choose to read a quick overview (with big beautiful pics), view clips or even view whole films.

Excerpted from the announcement in my mail:

Today (May 30, 2013), Fandor.com — the streaming source for indie film — launched a new series called Journey Into Film.  Each Journey Into Film theme is curated by a respected film critic or Fandor film buff, and offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at specific films and genres through interactive visuals and expert insight.

...This collection of folklore and fairytale favorites utilizes trick photography and special effects  to bring fantasy to reality. 

OK - no more online time here. Instead, go to Fandor's Fairy Tale Journey and check it out. I hope the collection stays available in the long term but even if it doesn't, they have lots of fairy tale (and fairy tale influenced) films to browse through - especially if you're a real film buff. 

Take advantage and enjoy!

 

* To read more about Variety film critic Dennis Harvey and his work, click on the link to read an interview in which he speaks about his time at the University of Michigan (of which is an alum) and the changing nature of film criticism. You can also click HERE.

Fables Spin-Off "Fairest" Free Preview Now Available

Fairest Issue #3 cover art by Adam Hughes for April 2012 (just released)

Now is the time to head to your local comic book store and try out the soon-to-be-released Fables spin-off, Fairest, for FREE. The Vertigo 2012 32 page sampler is completely free and one of the four Vertigo monthlies being previewed is the brainchild of Bill Willingham. Many of the stories are apparently going to be "pre-Fables" stories so if you are curious about the Fables graphic novels but are daunted by the 100+ issues available, this is a good way to start, and we're told you don't need to know anything about the Fables world to enjoy it. If you're a dedicated Fables fan you can also put your fears to rest. Mr. Willingham assures there will be plenty of surprises for you too.

In case you haven't heard of Fairest before, here's the copy:

New York Times best-selling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others. 

The first 6-issue arc follows the misadventures of Briar Rose after she is stolen away by the goblin army in FABLES #107. Fan-favorite artist Phil Jimenez (WONDER WOMAN, THE INVISIBLES) returns to Vertigo to pencil the opening storyline. Award-winning cover artist Adam Hughes (WONDER WOMAN, BATGIRL) provides covers, starting with a wraparound cover on issue #1. 

Future arcs will be written by 2011 Arthur C. Clarke winner Lauren Beukes with art by Inaki Miranda, and iZOMBIE scribe Chris Roberson with art by Shawn McManus! And remember: They may be beautiful, but there will be blood. 

story by BILL WILLINGHAM
art by PHIL JIMENEZ
cover by ADAM HUGHES
PRICE: $2.99
IN STORES: March 7, 2012

In an interview HERE from January 20, 2012, Bill Willingham talks about his plans for Fairest, including the writers and artists, their approaches to the stories and his use (and other writers' uses) of fairy tales in this new "sister-series". Here are three excerpts that caught my attention:

Fairest Issue #1 wrap-around cover art by Adam Hughes for March 2012 

Let's understand that the tone and the diversity will come from the writers themselves because we're not assigning them stories. We're not saying, "Here, do a Cinderella story and have this, this, and this happen to her." It's more, "Do you have a Cinderella story?" Of course with Chris and Shawn, not only were able to answer yes to one of those, they were able to answer yes to many of those. That's the same template with the others. Lauren Beukes had a very particular Japanese mythology-based, folklore-based Rapunzel story in mind, which answers the question, "Where does the wishing well come from?" and it answers it nicely with a very sound folkloric base. We said, "Yes, of course that has to be what that story is!" These are different characters; we want them to be considered wildly different. We don't want a bunch of cookie-cutter beautiful female leads, we want vastly different ones, so having different writers is obviously the way to do that.

...Why did you want to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty in this very first arc rather than, say, Spratt or any of the other characters?

Well, interestingly enough I didn't think about Sleeping Beauty -- if I was to be one of the regular returning people in this rotation I was going to go with Thumbelina. The idea of a tiny character in a very big world appealed to me and I think there's a lot you can do with that that hasn't been explored yet. But Thumbelina couldn't really be the first arc in this because one thing we discussed is, if we are going to do this we've left poor Briar Rose sleeping away for years if not forever. So the very first thing we have to do with "Fairest" is get her awake and back in action, and we thought it was politic to kick off the series with me doing the first arc. So that's why those two combined together. We have a very specific place where all three of those characters -- Ali Baba, Briar Rose the Sleeping Beauty and the Snow Queen -- are going to be left in at the end of this arc. But they're places where other writers can pick them up and run with them if that turns out to be the case. My job is to kind of get these characters in the right place to be part of the whole "Fairest" rotation, the whole "Fables" rotation again, and hopefully tell a good story in the process of doing that. 

Fairest #1 variant cover by Phil Jimenez with color by Romulo Fajardo Jr.

...What is it about fairytales that originally captivated you as a storyteller?

Several things. One of the, I don't know if you'd call it faults, but one of the aspects of the way I write stories that I don't think is as strong with me as it is with other writers is I don't feel I introduce characters well. It takes me a while to get to know them. With using characters that have already been established, everybody's read and knows a little bit of, "Well of course I know Snow White, at least I know this much about her." That kind of awkward, ice-breaking introductory moment at the beginning of this kind of storytelling is bypassed. We can move right beyond that into the meat of it. Sure there are some introductory aspects in that, sure this isn't the Snow White you thought you knew and this is what's happened to her lately. But that's not quite the same, because that builds more intrigue. The reader interest is already written into the equation. You don't have to romance the reader into liking that character. That's one aspect of it.

The other aspect of it is just the idea that these are folktales in every sense of that. They're not just public domain characters that anyone can use because of vast collective ownership. If everyone owned every 100% piece of this character in some kind of multiple universe overlap kind of way, everyone who wants to can come along and do their own Snow White. That kind of just absolute freedom -- it's like the universe of a million previous authors and writers and story-spinners has left this to you in their will. Why not make use of these treasures that have been handed down to you? Interestingly enough they left it to everyone else too, but that's OK! It's having a treasure trove where you can play any kind of game you want. How could I resist that?

Fairest Issue #2 cover art by Adam Hughes for April 2012

You can read the whole interview HERE (please note that there is a large gap in the middle making it look like a short article but scroll on down for the rest).


Fairest Issue #1 is scheduled to go on sale March 7, 2012.

(I'm beginning to feel like there should be a fairy tale release calendar we can collaboratively keep plugging things into somewhere online. 2012 is a busy year for fairy tales!)

NEWSFLASH: Great Fairytales Series from The Guardian - A Must Read!

Note: I came across this series completely at random and was already into doing this blog post when I realized both SurLaLune and The Fairy Tale Cupboard have reported on it so rather than bore you with lots of repetitious information in case you're reading their blogs [which are both excellent sources of fairy tale information and news, so you should be :) ], I'll just point you to their entries and repeat how wonderful a thing this is and that you should avail yourself of the read and lovely pictures either in person or online. :)

For those who haven't yet heard, The (UK) Guardian and Observer, are including seven wonderful supplements over the next week titled "Great Fairytales". The series includes an essay by a notable fairy tale writer on a theme and then a collection of tales on that theme for each part, with special illustrations for each section by wonderful artists.Here's the blurb on the series from The Guardian online:

Starting this weekend in the Guardian and the Observer, Great fairytales brings you the finest stories of morality, justice, triumph and enchantment from around the world, collected in seven themes: Wicked parents, Rags to riches, Love, Quests and riddles, Wisdom and folly, Justice and punishment and Beastly tales.

The stories are all nominated by a panel of critics, writers and experts on children's literature: Anthony Browne, AS Byatt, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Robert Irwin, Alison Lurie, Adam Phillips, Philip Pullman, Salman Rushdie and Marina Warner.

Each collection is beautifully illustrated and includes an afterword from a range of leading writers exploring each theme.

This is such a treat! And I love the discussions on theme, meaning and fairy tales in comparison to history which you don't see often outside of academic works. For those of us unable to go buy the paper (and that includes any readers outside the UK) we can:

1) read the series online for free every day (START HERE - the link should have ALL the Guardian's fairy tale related posts for you to browse - this particular series starts October 10th, 2009 & consists of one essay and approximately three tales with illustrations - in separate posts - per day)

2) buy the booklets online HERE (shown at bottom of post).

Heidi of SurLaLune has included a brief excerpt of the first essay as well as other interesting tidbits and you can see some more of the lovely silhouette work by Laura Barrett, all of which you can find HERE.

Claire Massey of The Fairy Tale Cupboard has done a wonderful job of taking us through the first two supplements, complete with excellent links. I highly recommend reading her write-ups this week as she looks at the writers, the tales and the artists involved with each part of the series. To go straight to The Fairy Tale Cupboard click HERE.
NOTE: All silhouette illustrations (2 for Hansel & Gretel and 2 for Snow White) are by the amazing Laura Barrett who's work was commissioned for Part 1 of the series. You can find more of her work at her website HERE or by clicking on the illustrations - I highly recommend checking this link out. Her website is lovely and her work gorgeous!