'Snow White: The Return of the Little Things' Presented by the Puppets of Angel Heart Theatre (UK)

"A visually striking version of Snow White..."

This new steampunk-inspired version of Snow White by Angel Heart Theatre that has been touring the UK during the Winter season, is so very lovely and unique looking. We wish there was more info, photos of footage online. They appear to be close to wrapping this show with only a few performances left and by all accounts, it's worth making an effort to see (and taking any young humans along with you for a great introduction to theater as well.

You can see a few photos on their Facebook page, which shows many other beautiful puppets from different productions as well, all of which seem to have stories carved into them...

Here's the blurb promoting the show:

"Far, far away there lies a curiously mechanical kingdom in which everything ticks but nothing laughs. It is ruled by The Queen Who Never Smiles and she is determined to control everyone and everything, even time itself. Snow White knows what it is like to live in such an unhappy land, and our tale begins when she must flee for her life to escape the Queen's terrible jealousy. Seeking refuge in the mysterious Wild Wood, Snow White discovers she is not the only one who refuses to live in a world without laughter. Under the trees, little steps are being taken to bring about big changes."

Our Doc the Dwarf began life as Doc the Block: rough cut from a block of lime wood on an old Imp band-saw, then carved free-style with a couple of hand-forged chisels, before head, limbs and torso were all stitched, glued and pinned together, after which he was lovingly costumed and finely finished with a twinkle in his eyes. He's a right cheery chap with Northern soul and he'd love to meet anyone from that neck o' the woods

The show, one of three set for Dorset, is scheduled for Winfrith Village Hall on February 14, at 3.30pm.

 

Call 01305 853 783 for tickets and information.

We found mention of an earlier, alternate title: 'Snow White - The Return of the Little People' which makes us even more curious about this show... And we also discovered a wonderful pre-show opportunity (which gives us a teeny bit more info about the production as well):

The Puppetorium Pre-Show Workshop (1.15pm)Inspired by the 'Steam-Punk' look to be found in the show 'Snow White: The Return of Little Things', this accompanying workshop offers a unique chance to join James and Dave in 'The Puppetorium'. Here, marvellously quirky, makeshift (and take-away!) puppets will be created from a variety of found, re-cycled and scrap materials. Everything is provided and safe guidance given. This creatively buzzing workshop is led by two highly skilled makers, with over 60 years experience between them! Places limited. Cost £3. Suitable for ages 7+ Contact each venue for details.

  

 

While there is no video trailer available for their Snow White, you can see some of Little Angel Theatre's work on their show 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' based on the story of the same name by Gabriel García Márquez. It's amazing and beautiful and very unique. This show is one of those theatrical wonders that caught our attention some time ago but beyond collecting notes and images, we never got time to complete the post, so we're very glad we have an excuse to bring it to your attention now! Enjoy:

Steampunked Cinderella by Goro Fujita

Steampunk Cinderella by Goro Fujita

This was created for a CG artists Steampunk Myths & Legends challenge in 2008/2009 and a few entries turned out to be fairy tales. I ended up posting a few but didn't get to showing this Cinderella one. What better time than when everything Cinderella is new again?

(I cannot quite believe this has been in my draft folder for nearly six years (!) but here is a steampunk Cinderella, waiting for her time to come again to finally be seen...)

The artist, Goro Fujita,  decided his steampunk fairy tale heroine would make a better escape in a hot air pumpkin - I really hope she touched down before the last stroke of 12!

Neat how Cinderella and he hot air balloon match. by the way - if you look at the close-up of the dress (just click on the image), you can see gear patterns on her dress (almost like lacy snowflakes).

I liked the original concept of the steampunk coach too, but the pumpkin hot air balloon concept is pretty innovative and fits the genre very well.

You can read the artist's concept for the story in a steampunk world HERE too, and hear the music his brother was inspired to create for it as well (talented family!). I would have liked to have seen something really different with the shoe, (she obviously forsook the standard steampunk lace-up boots for this ball) but I think the hot air balloon might work to distract from the shoe for everyone initially.

You can see the progression of concept to design to final HERE.

Here There Be Dragons... Specifically Maleficent

While everybody still seems to have Frozen-fever, once Maleficent gets close to debuting in the theaters, I have no doubt we're going to see a lot of Sleeping Beauty emphasis, themes, products, marketing tie-ins and who knows what else. I'm actually looking forward to it, hoping they get creative and mine the tale in fresh ways and I don't care if it seems foolishly optimistic - I live in hope... ;)

We've seen the first poster and trailer - both of which have people ridiculously excited and as a taste of things to come, Walt Disney World have unveiled a steampunk Maleficent dragon that will be part of the spectacular new Festival of Fantasy Parade for Magic Kingdom this year. (Source)

(By the way: Steampunk + Disney = awesome! More please.)

Although Sleeping Beauty herself, named Aurora in the Disney film, is THE most passive of any princess or gonna-be-princess Disney has ever put on the big screen (argh!), I like many other things about this film. Apart from being an incredibly beautiful film - mostly due to Eyvind Earle's design contributions, Prince Philip is a hard-to-beat Prince, his horse Samson is just about perfect, Maleficent is both dark fairy and demon (and hard to beat for scariest villain ever), her raven is wonderful (her goons are not - they're ridiculous and hurt the film), the castle falling asleep is wonderful (and the best use of the ridiculous fairies), the original hundred year sleep is referenced as Maleficent mocks her captor, the thorn barrier is truly intimidating and awe-inspiring, the final battle is perfect (apart from the fairies, I think Philip would have done fine without them) AND Disney added physical transformation which is a stroke of genius.

Already intimidating Maleficent turns it up to 11 when she resorts to dragon form (I say "resorts" because it actually shows a measure of desperation on her part to pull out every last "big gun" she has against this hero. I'm always reminded of the GK Chesterton quote:

I love that this dragon is not only massive and awe-some (in the original sense of the word) but that kids will see this gigantic structure and quite possibly remember it for the rest of their lives (hopefully with positive associations). I remember seeing things as a kid that, because they were in front of me, made a huge impact whereas more incredible/technically better objects and characters were easier to dismiss if they were in books or on the TV. Take a look at some more close-ups. Although Disney has had giant Maleficent dragons in parades and displays before (the one at the link has been "retired"), this is something rather special looking (and possibly more real? Sometimes steampunk has that effect for some odd reason). You'll see this will be a pretty hard sight to top, especially if you're in the front row.

Pretty nice work, yes?

The Festival of Fantasy Parade is set to debut at Walt Disney World sometime in Spring (apparently, March 2014).

Though dragons in fairy tales aren't actually the norm (that's more a romantic medieval conceit and based around popular legends of St. George and the Dragon etc), evil women changing into serpents or other sinuous creatures are more common, so once Disney's Maleficent showed her inner-self, dragons became more popular as fairy tale staples too. It's a little example of how society's view of fairy tales changes with pop culture by the way, something that's about to be reinforced big time in 2014.

Fairy tale bonus of the day: "Philip's trophy"

Unique commission by Dan Reeder

Although I'm anti-hunting, and therefore trophies, I did see this and think it was something that might have happened in the era Disney's version was set in (it helps that it's papier maché, of course). Pretty cool and besides, being magic, I'm not convinced she's as dead as she appears. Fairy tales forever have heads being reattached and forms restored - usually good people and creatures but sometimes bad one s too... And by bringing a whole head into his house philip might just be asking for trouble (and a sequel) because, well, there's a lot a head can do, even all by itself.. ;)

Puss in Steampunk Boots by Matthew S. Armstrong

I'm surprised there aren't a ton more steampunk variations of Puss in Boots around, after all, boots are to steampunk 'almost' what goggles are to steampunk. (ie. iconic)

The title for this piece is "Puss in Steampunk Boots" (aw!) and the artist, Matthew S. Armstrong (also known as 'Matthewart' on deviantArt), wrote a cute caption too:

The classic tale with clockwork ogres and airships. (not pictured) ^_^

I'd definitely pick up that story book! (Hint, hint.)

Matthew S. Armstrong has a very busy career, involved with a wide range of art and subjects in comics, games, picture books and particularly some recent Narnia books (see his Harper Collins Illustrator page HERE). You can see his official site with gallery of different samples HERE. (Be sure to click the 'comics' tab - adorable little stories!)

Matthew's gallery (on deviantArt) concentrates more on the whimsical with picture-book based illustrations (there is some overlap with the website). You can browse and appreciate it HERE and there's a Cheshire Cat too if you love Alice in all her variations.

"Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway Prize Peek!

As promised here's a sneak peek of the lovely prize for the "Pursuit of Happiness" giveaway happening during my 12 Days of (Gifts Ideas Before) Christmas posts:

Click for a much larger view
and please note: the images are not shown at the true ratio to each other
(I just wanted to put them neatly in a row for you).
Also, they will not have the 'London Particulars' stamp over the images.

The winner will have the choice of a complete set of these seven prints (each 5" x 7") documenting the Professor and Happiness' travels

- (Note: This particular set is exclusive and not available through London Particulars!) -

OR
you can choose to have The Professor and the Castle (shown below) in poster size (12" x 18").I'm seriously wishing I could enter this myself!

The story of Professor Aubrey Thistlequick and his cat 'Happiness', as well as all the details for the giveaway, are HERE and if you read the post carefully you'll see you have the opportunity of a second entry into the drawing if you can find some extra information... ;)

Entries close IN LESS THAN A WEEK on December 20th, so be sure to email me before then.

The wonderful London Particulars (who are making this giveaway possible through their generosity) can be found HERE.

Alice in Steampunkland

I found this really great set of photos on deviantArt by a Cosplay group who really thought about what they were doing with the costumes, the props (yes, they made them too), the concepts and the photography. This was an entry for AFA 2009 (Anime Festival Asia) at the end of November.

Here's the story:

The Beginning of a beginning

"Off with her head!", the heartless Queen commanded.

And heartless was right - for to rule with fist and scepter, to command both fear and respect, the Queen had her own heart locked up in a secret dungeon somewhere beneath her castle's winding shadowy halls.

But all secrets find their way out.

With the help of a whispered clue from a mischevious Cheshire Cat, a defiant Alice freed herself from the grasp of the royal guards, dove into the darkness of the castle dungeons and stole the Queen's heart.

The furious Queen and her soldiers chased after her. And Alice, desperate to escape, leapt into the Rabbit's time portal and found herself in a world and time completely different from hers - one where clockwork constructs roamed the streets and steam powered engines reigned supreme.

These guys did a really great job of their own retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story. It's nice to see such a professional approach. They even made a little film:

And a little behind-the-scenes look:


These guys want to expand their team - and their characters - next year. I'd be very interested in seeing what they do next.

You can find details of the cosplay artists HERE. Check out their other cosplay shoots while you're there. Some amazing stuff!

12 Days of [Gifts Before] Christmas & "The Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway

Although the 12 Days of Christmas really starts on December 25th (or in some places the 26th) I thought I'd do something a little different.

Today is the 6th and in exactly one month it's Epiphany (the traditional time when the Wise Men were thought to have brought their kingly gifts to the Baby Jesus). We tend to concentrate on giving gifts on Christmas Day so I thought I'd sort of combine the two. During the next 12 days I'll be showing you a very different range of gifts with very specific people in mind - fairy tale enthusiasts. And there's something special for you too.

Thanks to the generosity of the lovely people at London Particulars, I'm also having a giveaway!
In order to participate you need to know about Professor Aubrey Aubrey Thistlequick and his pursuit of Happiness:

Professor Aubrey Thistlequick was so excited with the fruits of his new experiment (concerning moonlight, earwigs and ale), that he quite forget to keep an eye on Happiness, his beloved cat (who for mutual convenience accompanied him on his journeys securely tied to balloons) and a sudden gust of wind took her up and off and away; floating over Primrose Hill.

In hot pursuit, the Professor sprung up a nearby ladder and was on the rooftops in a trice, but his nimbleness and quick thinking wasn’t enough to secure dear Happiness, who mewed angrily as she sailed across London town.

With his lightning-quick mind, a ball of string and a handful of seeds (which he kept about his person at all times), Professor Thistlequick took to the skies, in pursuit of Happiness, in a race through the clouds that was to last for much longer than he should have hoped…

Had Professor Aubrey Thistlequick known that morning that he would be in such close proximity to the moon, he might have dressed in more suitable clothes and he certainly would have bought along four knitted gloves and a small coat for Happiness...

What happened next? Where did they go?
That's what you need to find out!
WHAT TO DO:

1) Go visit London Particulars (the website is HERE) for more of the story and to see where the Professor and Happiness have been sighted so far.
2) Email me directly at fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com and tell me one of the locations they were seen (in the body of the email) - country and landmark's name please. Make sure you put "Happiness" in the subject of the email so it gets counted.
3) Email me with your answer (1 entry per person) before midnight on December 20th, PST USA - which is when the contest closes.

THEN WHAT HAPPENS IS:

3) Correct entries (on which I will check with the Professor to be certain they are accurate) will be given a number then entered into an independent number generator, which will choose a winner at random.
4) I will contact the winner (before December 25th) and ask them for shipping details and for their choice of a lovely poster or a print collection of the Professor in his pursuit of Happiness.
5) I'll announce the winner on the blog AND link to their blog or website too (if they wish).

EASY, ISN'T IT?

There's lots to see and many wonderful gift ideas at London Particulars (some of which I'm showing in this entry) so be sure to have a browse while you're there. I recommend checking out the particulars of the 1888 Fair poster (that may, or may not have happened).

PSST!
Anyone who also tells me exactly what Professor Thistlequick's invention was
that he displayed at the fair, gets an additional entry in the contest!
(Hint: a portion of the poster that has the details is shown in this post,
but you'll have to visit the website for the answer...)

London Particulars can be found on Facebook HERE and you can get all the latest updates on Twitter HERE and at their blog HERE.

I look forward to your mails. Happy gift hunting!

A Steampunk Sleeping Beauty (Animation Short)

This steampunk Sleeping Beauty animation is from the CG Society's contest for Steampunk Myths & Legends which finished earlier this year (and which produced some of the gorgeous steampunk fairy tale illustrations I've shown you in the last).

There were a few Beauties and I've shown you one beautiful illustration by Antonio Caparo that I thought was particularly well done HERE. Though the piece I'm showing today doesn't have quite the same impact as the illustration for me, I love seeing the different ways our girl has been kept in suspended animation (pun intended) and I'm a sucker for the opening of a story book at the beginning, I must admit.When the contest ran, you could only view it on the site HERE (which I can't seem to get to stream reliably, but that may just be on my end) but I recently found the animation presented as a short (without the 'making of' sections you can see at the CG Society website) so can finally show you the piece here.

I'm including some screen grabs to give you a heads up on what you'll be looking at as I missed seeing Beauty asleep, the first time she appeared until I viewed the trailer the second time around. (Can you see the figure below?)A little hint: let the trailer load (i.e. hit pause until it's loaded) before you watch it and it will play much more smoothly. And there's a little more story shown after the titles near the end, so watch it all the way through:

Sleeping Beauty
by Backlight-Studio

Although it's presented as a movie that will be coming soon, I can't find any confirmation that this was done beyond the concept and in the form of a trailer.

You can see the steps in construction as part of the trailer HERE at the CG Society website.The animation was entered under Olivier Selliez. There is very little information in either the progress entries or on his blog to confirm this but it appears he was the team leader for the project, which included seven other people, all of who worked on the project during the month of January this year to enter it for the contest (you can see their details at the CG Society site for this piece HERE). Mr. Selliez's website is HERE (I've used a translated link so I hope it works) and the company he works with, Backlight Studio, is HERE (which posted the work in the blog so I presume the other team members for the project also work at Backlight Studio).

If I ever hear of any more being done on this animation I'll be sure to let you know.

The Wizard of Oz Steampunk Style - V of V

For my last foray into steampunk Wizard of Oz entries (at least for now) there's a Wizard of Oz 2007 TV mini-series done with a steampunk aesthetic you may have missed: Tin Man, from the then-Sci-Fi-now-Sy-Fy Channel. It won a primetime Emmy and nine other awards (as well as seventeen other nominations) yet it does have mixed reviews.This article HERE gives a good overview. Here's an excerpt, explaining the story:

Sci Fi’s Tin Man is a sumptuous, modern take on a classic that has us rethinking our ban on remakes. Zooey Deschanel stars as DG (recall Dorothy’s last name is Gale), a wide-eyed Kansas girl whose trip to Oz isn’t courtesy of an ill-fated attempt to run away, but rather a leap into the swirling cone of a tornado to escape the evil, leather-clad militaristic forces who’ve invaded her family’s home. These troops, we learn, are Azkadellia’s, née Wicked Witch’s, minions, who obey the evil sorceress’s every command.

Of course, the tornado carries DG to Oz, only here it’s “the O.Z.,” as in “Outer Zone,” and she isn’t greeted by the mayor of Munchkinland; she’s surrounded by diminutive warriors angrily pointing spears at her and speaking in clumsy rhymes... DG teams up with Glitch (Alan Cummings), a lobotomized former genius with a zipper that keeps his head closed; Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), a torture victim DG and Glitch discover inside an ancient metal diving suit; and Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a psychic but petrified anthropomorphic feline. No singing, no dancing.

I saw some of it when it was on and found things that definitely appealed and some things that really didn't. I would like to see it all one day. It's an interesting mix and an unusual take but worth at least reading up on if you like The Wizard of Oz and are interested in a grown-up approach (if you think Return to Oz was dark, this is much darker and not meant for children).I've read it was inspired by ZoomQuilt and ZoomQuilt 2 - a collaborative art/optical illusions that wowed the web a few years ago (note: both take a while to load but do work. Also, the second is kinda dark...). It turns out Sy-Fy do indeed have a flash animation site that's a collaborative artist work called Infinite Oz, which you can see HERE (it takes a while to load but is completely worth the wait). This one is beautifully done. Worth looking at, even if you don't like the idea of the film (see below for some screen examples).It's available on DVD HERE in a two-disc special edition with lots of behind-the-scenes extras.