How Snow White's Evil Queen Found Her Voice

In Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" it was the actress Lucille La Verne who provided the voice of the villain - as the Evil Queen and Hag, both. Turns out she had a little trouble getting her scary on at first but then, after taking a short break, she nailed it.

(Click on the image above for some more interesting facts in the text below)

Below is a short film from Hollywood Stories that lets you know how. It's sure to make you grin. :D

The Storybook Backgrounds of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

These watercolor backgrounds from Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" remain among my favorite artwork to this day.

Not many of them remain in the ARL (Disney Studios Animation Research Library) so this artist, Hans Bacher, a well known Production Designer in the animation industry, has lovingly reconstructed some of them using screen captures from the DVD.

Go to his site to see more of his background 'rebuilds' from Disney's first full length feature animation. They are some of the most beautiful illustrations in existence. As a bonus, you can click on the pictures to see a much larger version (which I highly recommend).

Enjoy!

Ondine Ballet Goes Underwater

Well, at least for the promotional photoshoot anyway!


The ballet story of Ondine (or Undine) is about a water nymph (essentially a mermaid) who gives up her immortality when she falls in love with a human man. Endicott Studio watchers may remember Jane Yolen's Undine poem which beautifully illustrates the tragedy of her story. You may also be familiar with Arthur Rackham's gorgeous illustrations of which my favorite is shown at the bottom of this post.


In order to capture the spirit of this character from myth the dancers went underwater in full costume to be photographed. The results are stunning and memorable as you can see for yourself.

The photographer Steve Hanson is extremely gifted at photographing dancers in motion and capturing the expressiveness and vitality of the characters they're portraying. You can find his website here for a look at more of his work.

Here you can also find a short behind-the-scenes video, taken by a British news station, when Steve was shooting pictures for one of the promotional posters for the Royal Ballet's new production.


And here's the Rackham illustration as promised. He actually illustrated the whole of the story and it's worth taking a look at each one.

New Retold Fairy Tales Anthology:"Terribly Twisted Tales"

There's a new retold fairy tales anthology out and it's a good one! As with any anthology, expect some variation in the volume but more than a few of these stories would easily fit with the Windling/Datlow Fairy Tale Series (which should already be on your bookshelf).

The book is:
"Terribly Twisted Tales" edited by Jean Grabe & Martin H. Greenberg

There are 18 short stories with quite a variety of authors and approaches. I promised I wouldn't write very much commentary so I'll just say I highly recommend this volume and wish there were more! (hint, hint Grabe/Greenberg!)

Here is Tor.com's review/overview

and here are some comments by a few of the writers on their included works:

Paul Genesee wrote "Revenge of the Little Match Girl"
Kelly Swails wrote "Three Wishes" (don't be fooled by her LJ blog title "Copyright Infringement"- it's her and she's very happy about her story!)
Michael A. Stackpole wrote "The Adventure of The Red Riding Hoods", which finishes the volume.

Circumnavigating Fairyland - New Book & Podcast from CM Valente

Catherynne M. Valente, award winning author of "The Orphan's Tales", is writing - and podcasting - a new YA book with the lengthy and whimsical, wonderfully olde-worlde title of:

"The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making"

After many enquiries as to whether the fairy tale book mentioned in her (very) adult book, "Palimpsest" was real, Valente took it upon herself to bring it into existence. It turns out she really likes writing Young Adult fantasy!

(From CMV's blog:)

This is a book about a little girl named September who gets herself a ticket to Fairyland on the back of The Green Wind and a somewhat cranky Leopard. There she discovers the realm of the capricious Marquess and the dangers of the Perverse and Perilous Sea. It is going to be something else.

In her blog, she talks about her process and discoveries as she writes it. She's also recording herself reading it and posting both the text of the chapters and the audio, week by week, podcast-style as the book is completed. It's completely free though donations are welcome.

You can follow her progress through her blog, week by week through the podcast and also via Twitter. Here's her announcement:

#Fairyland is live! Read girl's adventures w/ leopards, fairies, & customs agents! Read for free, pay if you can! http://tinyurl.com/mbpvur

There are wonderful echoes of "The Orphans Tale" evident already, which should make for a rich, enjoyable experience for the reader/listener and one that stands the test of time.

The Fallen Princesses Project

Photographer Dina Goldstein takes a look at what happens AFTER happily ever after and looks at unrealistic expectations juxtaposed against real-life issues and situations.

So far in the series are:

- Snow White
- Cinderella
- Rapunzel
- Red Riding Hood
- Sleeping Beauty
- Princess Jasmine
- Belle

Two more scenarios are due to be shot for exhibition in the October 15, 2009 issue of JPEG Magazine.

You can find the story of the photographer's inspiration here as well as more photo-goodness.

SurLaLune Turns 10 & Gets a Blog

Possibly the best site and source on fairy tales on the web, SurLaLune, just had it's tenth anniversary and got a new blog to boot.

Maintained by Heidi Anne Heiner, the creator of SurLaLune, this blog promises to be another wonderful source of fairy tale related finds. From her first entry:

And so here is the newly hatched SurLaLune Fairy Tales blog, devoted entirely to fairy tales and folklore wherever they may appear. I plan for the blog to be updated daily except on weekends since everyone needs time off, even me. There will be book announcements and some reviews, fairy tale sightings, questions answered and more as the blog grows into itself.

Happy Birthday SurLaLune! We look forward to many more years of fairy tale discussion, study and finds.

Get A Fairy Tale Illustration Feel with Photoshop: Tutorial

A wonderful step-by-step tutorial by Grafpedia for coloring an illustration in Photoshop and getting a fairy tale 'feel' by using the burn tool and dodge tool.

Go from the pencil drawing on the left to the finished on the right.

Welsh Hobbits?

A completely livable 'low impact woodland home', as the owners/builders call it - better known as the Hobbit House, in Wales.

Ooh, want!

*thinks of all the novels that could be penned (laptopped?) in the writer-friendly space*

Fairy Tales get featured in Gothic Beauty Magazine

This month, May 2009, fairy tales are the main theme in the magazine Gothic Beauty.

From fashion influences to 're-imagined' doll characters to a darker look at the tale of Snow White and more, Issue 28 has a lot for fans of fairy tales to enjoy!