Zelinsky's Rapunzel & Other Award Winning Fairy Tale Picture Books on DVD

In May this year, Scholastic released a lovely collection of beautifully illustrated fairy tales on DVD with a stellar cast of narrators to complement.

All of the books contained in the volume are illustrated by award winners.

Here are the descriptions from Amazon.com:

RAPUNZEL (Retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, narrated by TK) A unique retelling of the story of Rapunzel, the girl with the long, golden hair.THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER (Retold and illustrated by Jim LaMarche, narrated by Patrick Stewart) A pair of elves secretly create an amazing pair of shoes for a poor but kindly shoemaker.THE TALKING EGGS (Written by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, narrated by Danny Glover) When a young girl befriends a mysterious elderly woman, magical things happen.THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF (Retold by P. C. Asbjornsen and J. E. Moe, illustrated by Marcia Brown, narrated by TK) Follow the adventures of three billy goats named Gruff as they bravely hunt for fresh green grass to eat.LON PO PO: A RED RIDING HOOD STORY FROM CHINA (Written and illustrated by Ed Young, narrated by B. D. Wong) This Asian version of the classic fairytale brings lessons about strangers, trust and courage.PRINCESS FURBALL (Retold by Charlott Huck, illustrated by Anita Lobel, narrated by TK) A king falls in love with a princess after she hides her identity under a coat made of a thousand furs.This looks like a lovely collection. If anyone has seen the DVD please do let us know how the presentation comes across.

You can click HERE to see more details.

New Anthropological Study Confirms Fairy Tales Are Ancient In Origin

My thanks to Diamonds and Toads for finding this article and posting about it! You can find Kate's post HERE. I couldn't help but join in to spread the news... :)

The UK Telegraph just published an article on a study by anthropologists that's 'revealed' the 'origin' of fairy tales is far older than was previously thought. There are many who already believed fairy tales have an ancient origin but this is apparently the first time this has been systematically studied with a scientific system. Quote: "the researchers adopted techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor...".

Essentially this now proves fairy tales existed in some form in ancient times (in as much as proving such a thing is possible) - well before Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm's grandparents were around.

Here are some other quotes from the article, showing how they used the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the many variants to do their research:

A study by anthropologists has explored the origins of folk tales and traced the relationship between varients of the stories recounted by cultures around the world.

...Dr Jamie Tehrani, a cultural anthropologist at Durham University, studied 35 versions of Little Red Riding Hood from around the world.

Whilst the European version tells the story of a little girl who is tricked by a wolf masquerading as her grandmother, in the Chinese version a tiger replaces the wolf. In Iran, where it would be considered odd for a young girl to roam alone, the story features a little boy.

Contrary to the view that the tale originated in France shortly before Charles Perrault produced the first written version in the 17th century, Dr Tehrani found that the varients shared a common ancestor dating back more than 2,600 years.

...He said: “Over time these folk tales have been subtly changed and have evolved just like an biological organism. Because many of them were not written down until much later, they have been misremembered or reinvented through hundreds of generations. By looking at how these folk tales have spread and changed it tells us something about human psychology and what sort of things we find memorable.

You can read the rest of the fascinating article HERE.

Red Riding Hood by Sanjai Bhana

Dr Jamshid (Jamie) Tehrani of Durham University presented his findings at the British Science Festival on Tuesday in his talk "Fairy Tales and Chinese Whispers: Towards a Darwinian analysis of descent with modification in oral traditions", during the Darwin's Theory and Cultural Sciences event. (If anyone has access to the talk, - video, notes or report - I'd be very interested in looking at it!)

If this subject interests you, you may want to check out the article on "The Quest for the Earliest Fairy Tales: Searching for the Earliest Versions of European Fairy Tales with Commentary on English Translations" (by Heidi Anne Heiner) and the Fairy Tale Timeline at SurLaLune.

I also recommend the book shown below, "Fairy Tale in the Ancient World" by Graham Anderson. Here's the description from Amazon.com:

Graham Anderson examines texts from the classical period which resemble "our" Cinderellas, Snow Whites, Red Riding Hoods, Bluebeards and others, and argues that many familiar fairy tales were already well-known in antiquity in some form. Examples include a Jewish-Egyptian Cinderella, complete with ashes, whose prince is the biblical Joseph; a Snow White whose enemy is the goddess Artemis; and Pied Piper at Troy, with King Priam in the role of the little boy who got away. He breaks new ground by putting forward many previously unsuspected candidates as classical variants of the modern fairytale, and argues that the degree of cruelty and violence exhibited in many ancient examples mean such stories must have often been meant for adults.

While well researched and excellent for students of fairy tales and folklore it's a quick and enjoyable read for non-academics too. I recommended it. You can buy it HERE.

NOTE: I couldn't find the artist to credit for the European tole (?) painting in the center of the post. If anyone knows please let me know so I can correct this.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea- Miyazaki's Little Turtle-Mermaid

I've had this Ponyo post in the works for ages, hoping to verify which tales ACTUALLY inspired Miyazaki-san's story but can find nothing quoting him as confirming one main source of inspiration the other. Instead this post will refer to you what is being said by sites who are well versed in Miyazaki-san's work (as well as the man himself). After that, you get my opinion. :D

You can also read SurLaLune's post on the movie (which includes more of what it's about) HERE. Please note there are some interesting comments on that post worth reading by Miyazaki-san 'fans' too.

So, regarding the majority of reports/articles/etc floating around the (Western) internet and media, Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ, Gake no ue no Ponyo) is being called Hayao Miyazaki's* version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Others are saying Miyazaki didn't reference The Little Mermaid at all but instead (probably) used the popular traditional Japanese folktale Urashima Taro (a Japanese Rip Van Winkle variant that takes place under the sea with the turtle being the daughter of the Sea King who rewards a fisher boy for saving her. I think it falls into the category of 'fairy tale' but I'm not certain).

Instead of siding with one or the other it seems the most reputable sites (who generally have the 'inside track' on Miyazaki's work and Studio Ghibli's films) are saying Ponyo was loosely inspired by The Little Mermaid AND Urashima Taro. Wikipedia states Miyazaki-san as saying The Little Mermaid was his inspiration without a source that I can verify, but this interview HERE with Studio Ghibli's former President and Executive Producer Suzuki Toshio, sheds some interesting light on a popular Japanese collection of nursery tales, Iya Iya En, that also influenced the film's beginnings. (Miyazaki did, in fact, animate one of the Iya Iya En stories in a 16 minute film called Kujiratori (くじらとり, lit. "Whale Hunt") in 2001. It's only shown only in the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan.)

Miyazaki-san at ComiCon 2009

With this is mind it's easy to find parallels from both the mermaid and turtle stories in Ponyo but then again, if you thought Miyazaki was referencing another Japanese mermaid story, The Serpent and the Sea Queen**, you'd find a lot of parallels there too - especially with regard to the visuals (eg the masses of teeming fish/sea creatures, the undulating 'animated' sea [the waves have eyes], the giant goddess/mother, the island and more). Mind you, I haven't found any mention of this tale in connection with Miyazaki but, being one of the more popular tales and the fact that he's a well read man of both Eastern and Western stories, he's likely to be aware of it, even if only subconsciously.

Whatever the case truly is, in the tradition of fairy tales, it would appear Miyazaki-san has created a new tale using classic elements. It's also very likely this tale will have it's own unique influence in both Western and Eastern cultures (helped along by the marketing and distribution power of Disney), just as My Neighbor Totoro has to date.

But let's get to the film itself, with a couple of things you may not have read or heard in other reviews or articles.

THE TECH STUFF

Miyazaki did some experiments with currently trending CG animation before deciding to stick with the traditional hand drawn method, saying he felt he could get more expressiveness and subtlety. (You can see some images in this post of him working directly on the art for the film along with the storyboards - the latter being something which, I understand, is done almost exclusively by himself.)

Miyazaki-san working on some development art for Ponyo

While he obviously made an excellent choice in choosing hand drawn animation as the medium for the film, I have to say, he really put his animators through their paces. I found it difficult to see any animations cycles (re-used drawings) anywhere, even in the 'obvious' places. No shortcuts for these guys!

From Wikipedia, quoting other articles:

Miyazaki was intimately involved with the hand-drawn animation in Ponyo. He preferred to draw the sea and waves himself, and enjoyed experimenting with how to express this important part of the film.^[LINK] This level of detailed drawing resulted in 170,000 separate images—a record for a Miyazaki film.

More development art from Ponyo and Miyazaki-san

A note regarding the above quote - I saw somewhere that approximately 80% of this film takes place underwater. Considering he already does the storyboards essentially solo - that makes for a very busy man!

You can find a lot more technical details HERE.

Regarding the name "Ponyo" here's what Miyazaki said at ComicCon this year:

The name, Ponyo, comes from sort of onomatopoetic…When you touch something, and it goes boing, poing, poinyo, poinyo…That kind of soft, squishy softness.

Cute huh?

Ponyo transforms to human with the help of her goldfish sisters

THE STORY
(here's the opinionated part)

I was fortunate enough to see Ponyo for the first time in Japanese, with NO subtitles and, if you haven't seen it already I strongly suggest this is THE way to watch the movie.

Why? The animation tells you all you need to know. This has been noted by a few critics and is a testament to the mastery of the animation - that the film can stand alone without needing any dialog at all.But there's another reason to watch it in Japanese only: quite frankly, the English dialog - subtitles included - doesn't seem to line up with what's happening visually. I have the distinct impression the English audio (and subtitles) go 'beyond' translation and try to 'retell' the story for Western audiences and that this waters down the story substantially (though it does have a lovely poster for the US version!).
Please note, I have nothing to base this opinion on (of Ponyo being rewritten for an American audience) except my own viewing but when the English dialog is superimposed on the visuals there's a definite disconnect (despite the fact you don't need any help from dialog exposition to understand what's happening or how characters feel).

Ultimately I see the English version as having two problems:

1) the amazing voices of acting luminaries such as Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett, while gorgeous to listen to and beautifully acted, are SO recognizable it pulls you right out of the story.
2) the dialog just seems wrong - it's heavy handed, explaining things that are right there on screen (not typical of Miyazaki at all) or saying things that are at complete odds with what appears to be going on.

The English trailer makes it out to be a story of 'goldfish girl saves the world' but even if that's in any way part of the original intent, it's not the feel, nor the focus, of the movie at all. The story is about the magic of friendship and it's 'plenty powerful'.

Take a look at this French trailer (there's no dialog in this one) for a different taste of the movie - one that's much closer to my overall impression of the movie than most of the other trailers:


The essence of 'fairy tale' comes through beautifully in the visuals. I'll be getting the Japanese version for my son to watch as he grows.
NOTE: *Sometimes you will see Hayao Miyazaki written as Miyazaki Hayao - this reflects more the way his name is said in Japanese. The term Miyazaki-san is an honorific, essentially meaning 'Mr. Miyazaki', something which is said to show respect.
** If you click on the link to read The Serpent and the Sea Queen please note it has annoying music that plays automatically on loading so turn down your sound! It also has trails of fish that follow your mouse around (remember when they were popular?). The fish fit the website/story well but can still be annoying. Just a heads up. :)

New Fairy Tales - Online Magazine

There's a very special online magazine I'd like to bring to your attention:

New Fairy Tales is an online magazine dedicated to publishing new fairy tales that are suitable for all ages. We are passionate about fairy tales, about good writing and beautiful illustrations and about raising money for an important cause.

This magazine specializes in, not retellings of fairy tales but newly written fairy tales. Based in the UK the magazine nevertheless has contributors from all over the world. I highly recommend you take a look at the lovely presentation (and variety) of art and read the quality stories in each issue so far. You will not be disappointed!

From their first issue:

We don't believe the fairy tale canon is complete or that we should only retell old stories. We believe there are many new tales out there waiting to be written and read and loved.

...we aim to provide a home for original fairy tales and fairy tale art on the web.

From the 1st issue

Following the oral fairy tale tradition, this magazine also has an excellently produced AUDIO component to their offerings in which the original tales are read for your listening enjoyment.

While this magazine has a high standard of excellence for any writing and art to be included in the issues, submissions are open to anyone and Claire Massey encourages anyone interested to try. Submissions for the current issue close on October 20th (details are HERE).

From the 1st issue

Regarding accepted works please note the magazine is run on a voluntary basis and unfortunately can't pay contributors but they do ask readers and listeners to consider making a donation to support Derian House Children's Hospice*, "as a way of valuing the work of the writers and illustrators whose work we feature and of helping to raising money for a good cause."

This is a truly unique magazine and one I'm so excited to see available. Even better, their issues will now be available twice a year, which means more stories and art for us and more opportunities for fairy tale artists and writers to have their work published in a noteworthy collection.

NOTE from the website regarding the charity they support: We support Derian House Children's Hospice, which is based in North West England.They provide specialist care and support for children with a terminal or life threatening illness. There is suprisingly little help from central government for a children’s hospice such as Derian House. With less than 10% of their funding coming from official sources, the reality is that they are open 52 weeks a year and receive statutory funding for just nine of those.

New Disney Story Books Using Concept Art for Illustrations

There are some new Disney storybooks out that are using illustrations done by concept artists during the development of the films. With three books so far and one more one the way, this is looking to turn into a series.

The most recent release (August 18th) is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren.Others in the series so far have used artwork by Mary Blair and include:

Alice in Wonderland - text by Cynthia RylantCinderella - text by Cynthia RylantComing on October 13th (or possibly September 22nd according to a Disney Press report) is Peter Pan, also illustrated by Mary Blair, with text by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson.

My only gripe is that the printing could have been better and done more justice to the beautiful artwork. Because the reproductions aren't handled as well as they could have been and are somewhat muddied and cropped, these volumes are really more for interested adults than children. Nevertheless, I think these are worth grabbing a copy of before they disappear.

"Heigh Ho" Enters the Collins English Dictionary

To be specific, "hey-ho" has entered the dictionary and "heigh-ho" is listed as one of the variants of the phrase.

From BBC news Magazine:

The new Collins "hey-ho" entry, which recognises both the hey-ho and heigh-ho spelling variations, defines it as "an exclamation of weariness, disappointment, surprise, or happiness".

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's home from work we go Seven dwarves in Snow White

"It's the verbal equivalent of a shrug," says Duncan Black, an editor for the dictionary. "You say 'hey-ho' or 'that's the way it goes' or 'c'est la vie.'" It's quite a British way to stoically say "mustn't grumble", he adds.

The saying first appeared in print in 1471, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which says it has nautical origins, meant to mark the rhythm of movement in heaving or hauling.

Eventually, it blended meanings with the similarly spelled "heigh-ho," which was first recorded in 1553 and is defined as an expression of "yawning, sighing, languor, weariness, disappointment."

You can find the whole article HERE.

And, in case the song doesn't immediately spring to mind, here it is (proceeded by "We Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig"):

Negative Space Red Riding Hood by Noma Barr

This Red Riding Hood illustration is from a new book titled "Negative Space" by Noma Bar. The book plays wonderfully with "visual double entendres" and is well worth having a look. It will be available on September 25th.

You can see more awesome examples of how this artist uses space - negative and positive - HERE.

You can pre-order it from Amazon.com (and see even more examples there too in the 'customers images' section).

NOTE: Artwork originally found through DRAWN - The Illustration & Cartooning Blog.

Annie Leibovitz's Beauty and the Beast

NOTE: This post is especially for Heidi Anne Heiner who's busy discussing fairy tales at Dragon*Con today. I believe Beauty and the Beast is her favorite of the many tales she knows... :)

Fashion and sought-after portrait photographer, Annie Leibovitz, has tackled more than a few fairy tale subjects in her time. Today we look at how she portrayed Beauty and the Beast (with Drew Barrymore as Beauty) for Vogue in 2005.

Although there are images available on the web without the text I thought the commentary and retelling of the story was interesting so have included the image versions as printed in the magazine.

Click on the images for a closer view.

You can see a slideshow without the text HERE.

A thank you to Arlene deWinter for alerting me to these via her Gothic Faery Tales site. Arlene has some lovely things to explore there, including her original - and dark - retellings of fairy tales. You can find her HERE.

Faeries and Fairy Tales at Dragon*Con This Weekend

Our fairy tale comrade-at-arms, Heidi Anne Heiner of SurLaLune, will talking about fairy tales at Dragon*Con in Atlanta this weekend! (For those who don't know, Dragon*Con is the world's largest fantasy and sci-fi convention.)

The panel "Faeries and Fairy Tales" will be happening at:
8:30pm on the 5th (Saturday)
and Heidi is one of the guest panelists.

Panel description:

Faeries and Fairy Tales : Something old, something new, something borrowed and something Blue Fairy? What bits of mythology, folklore, and fairy tales are in stories today? Guests: Susan Fichtelberg, Maggie Stiefvater, Gillian Summers (Berta Platas & Michelle Roper), Steve Berman and Heidi Anne Heiner

If you are attending, please make sure you go say 'hi' to Heidi and attend the panel. We want to hear everything! Heidi has promised a full report of the highlights on her return so keep checking the SurLaLune blog for that.

"Fairest of All" - A Snow White Novel from Disney & Serena Valentino

How on earth did I miss this?!

There's a new Snow White novel and this one is a treat for those of us who love both the tale and Disney's version.

"Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen" by Serena Valentino is a release from Disney Press and uses the Disney characters to tell the story - from the Queen's point of view. (If the author's name sounds familiar you're probably aware of the "Gloomcookie" comics and the "Nightmares & Fairy Tales" graphic novel series.)

If you're familiar with Disney's Snow White, you'll know that the Queen is one of the scariest Disney villains invented to date and yet this book is written from her point of view - as the protagonist.

Here's author Serena Valentino's description of what the book is about (from her BLOG):

Fairest of All is a story about grief and loss, it circles upon its self, revealing more with each revolution, much in the way we process grief each time it revisits. It is a story of a woman so overwrought by heartbreak and loss, so fearful of experiencing that sort of pain again that she closes her heart off for fear of perishing all together. It is also a tale of abuse, and the Queen's desire to break that cycle with her new family, but her own insecurities and loses send her reeling into the tempest she is most familiar and accustomed to. It is a bloody tale of a woman consumed by insecurity and the lure of a mysterious man in an enchanted mirror driving her to do things completely against her nature, and her struggle with how her grief and sorrow has transformed her into something completely alien even to herself. It is the story of the Wicked Queen, and who she was before, and who she longed to be before she was destroyed by her vanity.

And the official blurb from her WEBSITE:

Fairest of All is the story of the Wicked Queen, who she was before, and who she longed to be before she was destroyed by her vanity and the need to murder her daughter Snow White. It is a bloody tale of abuse, heartbreak, love and grief, and the lure of a mysterious man in an enchanted mirror. Beautifully written by Serena Valentino, author of Nightmares & Fairy Tales. Available in August 2009.

And here's a quote from 'Mouse House' reviewer Jim Hill:

This is half the charm of “Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen.” All of the Disney-inspired winks & nods that Ms. Valentino folds into this tale. By that I mean: The touchstones from the movie version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (i.e. The Magic Mirror. The Heartbox. The Huntsmen. Even that boat in the dungeon that the old crone uses as she’s sneaking away from the castle) are still part of the narrative. But this time around, these touchstones are each introduced in an unusual manner and then take on different meanings over the course of Serena’s story.

You can read the rest of the review HERE.

Serena has apparently been posting chapters to entice us into pre-ordering (Sorry Serena - I only just discovered the book!) so, to do my part to help promote her book (and more Snow White stories), here are a couple of excerpts to help you make the decision to add this one to your collection (yes, I'm totally biased):

From Chapter 10 - The Shattering of A Soul

“Little bird . . .” the Queen’s voice broke and trailed off.

“Momma, what’s wrong?” The Queen shook her head, and closed her eyes tightly to dam the tears. Snow looked at her mother with sad, black eyes and said, “He’s not coming back yet, is he? Not now?” The Queen shook her head. “Not ever.” - “I think maybe you’re wrong, Momma, he promised he would come home soon, and Papa never breaks his promises.”

The Queen’s grief intensified at the child’s denial. She choked it down and felt it grip at her, slicing at her insides like broken pieces of glass. She felt broken, no longer able to contain her tears. “I know, my poppet, but I’m not mistaken. He couldn’t help it, my darling, he isn’t coming home this time.” The little girl’s lip quivered and she began to shake. The Queen held out her arms to her, and Snow White crumpled into her mother’s lap and howled an unearthly sob. The child was shaking so violently that the Queen felt she might crush the little girl for holding her too tightly. As she hugged Snow she wished to take the child’s grief and lock it away inside her with her own.

From Chapter 18 - Dream Sickness

“Show me Snow White!”

Snow White was running in the dark forest, full of fear and anguish.

She was panic-stricken, alone, and heading back to the castle. Back to her mother, who would surely have the Huntsman punished for attempting to hurt her, and weaving lies that she plotted her own daughter’s death. “Foolish girl.” The forest came alive; it was visceral and dangerous. It wanted Snow White’s life. The Queen’s rage penetrated the trees, bringing their leafless limbs to life. As if they were hands, the tree branches scratched and grabbed at Snow, entrapping her, pinning her to the ground. They wrapped themselves around her neck, choking her, and clawing at her chest for her heart.

The forest would do what the Huntsman could not.

You can read more excerpts HERE.

And you can order from Amazon.com HERE.

And if you'd like to read some behind-the-scenes details and keep up with what else Serena is doing, you can read her blog HERE.

Though this novel is being marketed at 9 to 12 crowd there's obviously a lot there for older readers to sink their teeth into. I can't wait till that 'thud!' on the front porch announces this books arrival! (Maybe I'll put up this bathroom decal in the meantime...)