Disney's Snow White Out On Blu-ray Today + Exhibition Coming To New Orleans

A while ago I posted the announcement that Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was being released on Blu-ray and discussed some of the new features, including the new artwork created specifically for this release. (You can find that post HERE.)

Today's the day you can finally go buy it (please note the above image is actually the DVD cover which will be released seven weeks from today). Rather than link you to Amazon again I'm going to send you to the SurLaLune blog HERE, where yesterday Heidi gave details of a discount coupon available for a very limited period of time. She also linked to the various packages available for you (thanks Heidi!).In honor of this landmark film being released in the best quality available to us today, rather than talk about the Blu-ray product again I want to point you toward a couple of other related things.

The first is a very interesting article HERE in which Lella Smith, the Creative Director of Disney's Animation Research Library was interviewed about the restoration of the film and the sort of information the ARL staff are 'privy to' and 'keepers of'. I haven't seen more than small quotes from ARL librarians before so this extended article (it is longer than an average article) is a treat and uncovers more of Disney's consideration of the Grimm's tale than you usually hear of.
For example, here's an excerpt from the interview which describes Walt Disney (the man)'s awareness of the 'original' versions of the tale and his reasons for changing the things he did (please note - the article seems to essentially be an unedited transcript of a conversation, complete with all the odd speech fillers):

Can you talk about a few of the differences from the Brothers Grimm? We talked a bit about it from the Brothers Grimm telling to the Disney telling.

Lella Smith: Sure, one of my favorite subjects. Well, you know, Snow White was a story that had been around for decades and decades in an oral tradition. And in many different countries there were subtle changes and not so subtle changes. In one of the stories I remember I think it was in an Italian version the huntsman was supposed to cut off Snow White's toe and use it as a stopper in a bottle of her blood. You know, there were lots of changes in the story. And Snow White who was seven years old and the daughter of the queen, that was pretty frightening to think about. So when Walt began to decide about his Snow White although she is young, I've seen his story note that says look, she has to be old enough to be able to consider marriage. So, you know, and they thought out those differences. The huntsman depending on which fairy tale you read sometimes he had to bring back the liver, sometimes the heart. So that changed with different tellings. And in some tellings the queen was to dance in the hot - shoes that had been put in the hot coals until she dropped dead. So, you know, Walt Disney said wait a minute, let's get rid of the queen earlier so that we can celebrate the happiness of the story. So in fact he had the witch fall off the cliff so that the prince and Snow White could then celebrate their happiness together in the forest. So there were lots of subtle changes but they were all done with a purpose. Another change was that in the original version you remember that the queen came three times to try to kill Snow White and each time - the first two times the dwarfs arrived home in plenty of time to save her but the third time they didn't. And so, you know, Walt said well one poison apple is enough, let's get it over with so that change was made. But there were - they were changes that were not made without a lot of thought because to him, he was taking well known stories and transferring them to a different kind of medium, the screen. And so he had to in some ways expand the story to full length film. In some ways he had to simplify the story so that it wouldn't be overcomplicated on screen. And when you think about it, these were changes that were no different from changes made in one telling to the next telling. Often when tellers told these fairy tales they would make little changes depending on how, you know, they felt the story should go. So it was continuation of the idea that fairy tales are oral tradition and until, you know, they were written down by the Grimms Brothers, you know, they were just pretty much all over the place.

Lella Smith also discusses, in some detail, how the various dwarf characters were developed from name through to how they each moved and behaved differently in the same situation.The other thing I'd like to draw your attention to is, in the article Ms. Smith announced an exhibition that will show in New Orleans on Disney and fairy tales in November. She also mentioned some upcoming books the ARL are involved with (the bold is mine):

Lella Smith: ...we're opening an exhibition on November 15 in New Orleans called Dreams Come True, Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio. And that is an exhibition that celebrates fairy tales, talks about how Walt Disney Studio changed them, some of the reasons they did, the elements of animation are represented in the exhibition and there will be about 800 works. So I wrote the catalog and the text labels and then we'll go there for the opening. And then we're working on books. We're just coming out with a book now the second in the animation archive series on animation. And we've just finished designing the design book which this is the third in the series of books. It's called the archive series that goes back and picks out the finest of the finest of the stories from our library, the finest animation, the finest design pieces, and puts them into a big book available on Amazon.com.

It sounds like a fascinating exhibition. I only wish I could get to New Orleans to see it.

Giants Cast Their Steampunk Fairy Tale Magic in Berlin

Ready for a larger-than-life steampunk fairy tale?

Today the giants (and their handlers) that have walked the streets (and rivers) of Berlin for 4 days are taking a well deserved rest after a happy reunion that mirrors the story of the city itself.

It's been almost 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell and this year, as part of the 19th annual unification celebration, the giant marionettes of French contemporary street arts/theater company Royal de Luxe staged a special performance, the story of which took place over 4 days.

The presentation was called "The Giants Arrive - A Fairy Tale for Berlin" and will no doubt remain in the memory of everyone fortunate enough to see them (estimated to be around 1 million lucky people) for the rest of their lives. The larger giant marionette, stands around 31 feet tall and weighs in at 2.5 tons - seeing it in person is not something you're likely to forget!First seen in 1993, the company has continued adding 'chapters' to their giant story over the years, including such wonders as a giant Sultan's Elephant (very steampunk in style and pictured below) that sprayed water over the watching crowds. The technical feats required for building, moving, manipulating and most of all, telling an emotional story with these puppets is awe inspiring. These are the largest fully-functional, traveling puppets in the world.Here's a wonderful video from an older show which captures a little of how incredible these street performances are:


From Spiegel Online International reporting the day before Royal de Luxe began their show in Berlin:

The company is bringing two puppets to Berlin. One is 9.5 meters (31 feet) tall and weighs 2.5 tons. It is a deep-sea diver and will be wearing an atmospheric diving suit made out of truck tarpaulins as it makes its way through the city and its waterways, aided by 31 helpers decked out in red livery. The helpers are called the "Lilliputians," after the little people in Swift's book. The smaller puppet -- at 5.5 meters (18 feet) and 800 kilograms (1,750 pounds) -- won't just be walking around; it will also be driving a scooter and a boat with the help of 22 Lilliputians.

Regarding the fairy tale of the title, here's what the creative head of Royal de Luxe, Jean-Luc Courcoult, said about the actual story (again from Spiegel Online International):

"It's a family story; it won't be political," Courcoult said... He went on to explain, his company will be telling a fairy tale about a long separation with the following plot: Terrible events have torn a city in two and caused one part of the city to be walled in. The big puppet is stuck in the west of the city, and the smaller one in the east. The big puppet drags a dormant geyser along the riverbed and places it under a wall. Then it wakes up the geyser to let it break down the city's barrier and allow the puppets to reunite.

You can read the rest of the article, which also details some of the amazing technical specifications as well as a lovely photo gallery of the event, HERE.

I found more details on the backstory of the tale HERE (reported by R.J. Evans for Socyberty - a website that publishes articles exploring social issues and how society changes/has changed - in June this year). I've put together the essential points in a collection of quotes below but there's a lot more information and detail in the article - I recommend clicking over to read it. The story is basically about a giant deep-sea diver who has been searching the world-over for his missing giantesse niece:

In 1912 the Titanic went down to the bottom of the ocean. Unknown to us, however, was that in its hold a giantess was held captive, the mother of the Little Giantess.

The enormous diver is the scouring the earth for the Little Giantesse. She was captured in Iceland which was at the time the home of the giants, each having his or her own particular task. The Little Giantess was to wake up the geysers of Iceland when a message needed to be sent. You may wonder what on earth geysers and messages have in common but little known to the outside world the geysers were used to transmit signals between the giants, much like the smoke signals of American natives.

But where does the deep-sea diver properly come in to the story? He is the brother of the giantess who drowned on the Titanic. Originally he had been busy doing his own job – sawing up icebergs – to realize that his sister and her daughter were missing.

In his past he has travelled the seabed for years and eventually he found the wreck of the Titanic. He buried his sister near the sunken ship. While there he discovered a mysterious box full of mail from the Titanic. He now had two new goals in life – the task of finding his niece and to deliver the mail. Since then he has wandered the earth in search of the Little Giantess.

And, as you may infer from the photos, all obstacles are conquered and the happy reunion occurred, fittingly, in Berlin near where the Wall once stood.Royal de Luxe apparently has no website and does no ordinary PR (the city of London put together a beautiful web presentation - including an extensive gallery - for the famed 2006 appearance which included the Sultan's Elephant. You can see that HERE ) but this website HERE has a long, fantastically detailed, yet easy-to-navigate article on the company.

The fact that Royal de Luxe make these extraordinary characters out of discarded items and what is essentially junk, is part of the magic - transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Fairy tales do the same thing by putting just a little magic into a tale, creating Märchen or 'Wonder Tales'. It is very fitting that these puppets have become part of the world and story of fairy tales. I sincerely hope I one day have the opportunity to experience one of the 'chapters' of these giant stories in person.

Goldilocks Bares Her Wild Side

I came across this painting called "Goldilocks Rages Against the Fall" and thought it was an interesting and different way to use the Goldilocks themes and images.

The artist, Van Arno, has an new exhibition called "A Change of Skin" that opened on Saturday at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA (Los Angeles). This exhibition draws from legends and mythology to explore ideas of transformation and evolution.

From BoingBoing:

...The process of transformation and evolution is no easy task, and Arno skillfully narrates a dynamic collection of Darwinian daydreams in his latest series of oil paintings. Werewolves, centaurs and women shed their original skin, emerging as new breeds of enchanted beings and barbaric beasts.

You can read more about the exhibition and see more of the pieces HERE, and at the gallery HERE. (Goldilocks is the only piece I found drawn from fairy tales but those interested in mythology may find other pieces interesting.)

Please note: many of the pictures are NOT SAFE FOR WORK due to 'suggestive' nudity (ie. not classical nudity) and some representations of violence.

You can can see Van Arno's website HERE. His work will be on display until October 24th, 2009.

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love

You may be aware that Fables comic creator Bill Willingham has a novel (the prose kind - which is new for him) on the way titled "Peter and Max" (the story of the villainous Peter the Pied Piper and his twisted brother Max) but did you know there's also a min-series of Cinderella in the works due for release after the novel?

The six-issue spin-off series will be called "Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love" and is due for release in Fall 2010 (I'm guessing the title is an homage to the old James Bond film "From Russia With Love".)

If you don't know about the Cinderella character a la Bill Willingham style here's a description from Newsarama.com:

While the Fables version of Cinderella seems innocent enough, running her tiny shoe store on the streets of Fabletown in New York, she has a secret that doesn't seem to jibe with her immaculate wardrobe and perfectly applied lipstick. Despite her "day job" as a divorced princess who sells shoes, she is secretly a super spy whose well-honed sleuthing skills make James Bond look like a pansy.

(You can read about the Cinderella character from the Fables world HERE in Wikipedia.)

While the "Peter & Max" novel details more of the Fabelstown universe and expands on it in a way Bill says he's been unable to do in the graphic novels, the Cinderella series is more of a stand-alone set of stories. Here's a quote from an interview with IGN Comics to help explain in Bill's words:

IGN Comics: I also wanted to get into the Cinderella mini-series that starts in November. Cinderella has always been the secret assassin of Fabletown. How is she going to function now that Fabletown doesn't even exist? Is there a significant change to her mission now?

Willingham: Well, you're right. Cinderella is an assassin. I suppose that's fair. I sort of think of her as the James Bond of Fabletown. If you have a dirty little thing that needs doing and you need it kept off the books and off the record, she's the one you send out to do it. Her story starts when the Fables are still in Fabletown. I don't want to give away too much of the story, but what we've done is sort of written her out of the Fables storyline for the time that this special mission takes place. She's pretty much on her own. She gets involved with Fables outside of Fabletown and starts uncovering all sorts of dastardly things that may be important to Fabletown, but not necessarily tying into current storyline.

...The one thing about Cinderella stories that seems to have shaped up here is that she's okay on her own. You don't just make her one amongst a large cast of Fables. The stories we tell about her are basically that she's this resourceful weapon you can fire at a problem and know that she'll take care of it.

And here's a quote from the Newsrama interview with Chris Roberson who is the main writer Bill Willingham chose to work on the mini-series:

CR: I probably can’t say too much, but what I can say is that Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love is about spies, sex, and shoes; that we find out what happened to Cindy’s Fairy Godmother, and that Happiness isn’t always forever after; and we once-and-for-all learn the burning question of who runs Cindy’s shoe store when she’s away gallivanting.

You can find the whole interview with IGN which talks about "Peter & Max", the Cinderella mini-series and more HERE, and the interview with Newsrama HERE.

"Fidgety Fairy Tales" - The Mental Health Musical

A new fairy tale musical is about to tour schools during October in Northland, Minnesota, specifically to raise awareness about the delicate subject of mental illness. (The poster from the September preview run at the Hilton is shown above.)

From Duluth News Tribune:

In this fairy tale, Little Hood has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and gets distracted easily on the way to Grandmother’s house. Sleeping Handsome is a young prince who suffers from depression and decides to prick his finger on a spindle so he can fall asleep for a long time.

Rapunzel isn’t locked in her tower; she is staying there because she has an anxiety disorder that makes her terrified to leave.

Reportedly, the number of children being diagnosed with some form of mental illness is increasing, even among preschoolers, and the musical aims to send the message that suffering from such an illness is indeed a very real issue for kids but can be treated and is nothing to be ashamed of. It even attempts to highlight some positive aspects of some of the conditions, eg:

The hyperactivity that goes along with Little Hood’s ADHD, for example, can make her a great multi-tasker if channeled correctly.

You can find out more about the musical HERE and HERE (from the Star Tribune) including about the students acting both in the production and as ambassadors for mental health (one actor learned how to deal with his anxiety and is seeking to share his 'success story' with other kids) and theories for the rising numbers of children being diagnosed. They have a blog with additional pictures and information HERE. The page from the Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health website (MACMH), profiling the musical, is HERE.

Public performances will be staged from October 22-24 in Cloquet, Minnesota.

"The Nightingale" Opera. With Puppets. In Water.

There's a new opera about to debut on October 17th in Toronto called "The Nightingale and Other Short Fables". The creator is Robert Lepage (a well known and honored 'theater artist' in Canada) and while an opera based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Nightingale" is no great surprise (the story was,after all, inspired by opera singer Jenny Lind), this production is a little different.

From The Canadian Press:

...Lepage plans to fill a partially raised orchestra pit at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with roughly 30 tonnes of water. His singers will wade in, waist-deep, to manipulate puppets while they perform. The orchestra will play onstage behind them. (Ed. FTNH: Michael Curry, the Puppet Master for the production explains in the video shown near the end of the post, that while the majority of the puppets will be operated by the completely visible singers themselves there will also be black costumed puppeteers manipulating other pieces throughout too.)

...Its unconventional features include acrobats, shadow play and Asian puppetry, all woven into a program of pieces by composer Igor Stravinsky.

Lepage says he has been interested in the idea of combining opera and puppetry since he saw a production of "Oedipus Rex" by JulieTaymor (Creator of Disney's award winning Broadway production of "The Lion King") who's well known for her use of puppets, and the puppeteer Michael Curry who helped him execute his vision for a puppetry-opera meld, and believes he's found the right subject in Hans Christian Andersen's "Nightingale". He's using a libretto written by Stepan Mitussov in 1914 and, because the tale is a short one, is including other small 'animal subject' pieces by composer Stravinsky to round out the program.

Lepage said he especially enjoys working with puppets, which he says is drawing a totally different sort of performance out of his singers.

"It's a pity we can't do all operas like this," he said.

You can see a video of Lepage talking about his inspiration and the making of "The Nightingale and Other Short Fables" below. It's very interesting as he discusses HCA's story construction and storytelling, specifically with regard to puppetry, around the world:


You can see a demonstration of Michael Curry's puppetry for the opera below (this video is a little longer - almost 10 minutes):


The opera sounds very ambitious for both the performers and from a technical standpoint, not to mention quite intriguing. I'm curious to see if it's a success and is staged elsewhere. You can read the rest of the article on the opera and Lepage's philosophy and thoughts on creating the multimedia production HERE.

"The Nightingale & Other Short Fables" will play at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts from October 17 to November 5, 2009.

The lovely paintings in this post are by multi-faceted Canadian artist and illustrator Deborah Morriss (who also, incidentally, is involved in opera, though not at all related to this production. You can find more of her work, which includes other fairy tale illustrations HERE.)

Kingdom of the Dwarfs in Southern China

This truly is where the world of fairy tales crosses into ours (or is it ours crosses into theirs?). Remember Snow White and the little men she stayed with? When you read about a community of people separating themselves to live and work on their own terms it doesn't seem so fanciful that Snow White would stumble across a dwelling with seven hard working and separated people/men and beg lodging.

Before you get on my case about reporting such a thing and using the word 'dwarf' to refer to real people, let me assure you I'm using their terms and that this village in China is a pro-active movement on their part to take control of their lives and stand against discrimination. The Chinese dwarves set out to make their own village and are now attracting tourists - on purpose. That hasn't stopped it from being a great source of controversy for many.

Jobs are hard to find in China right now and jobs for the disabled are even harder. This community of people have turned their disabilities into an asset and are (reportedly) very happy in their village (please note it's coming out of China).

There are a many different opinions on the community, a few being voiced HERE (mostly by Westerners it seems).

From Digital Journal:

The mountain commune in Kunming, China has only one prerequisite; you must be under 4 feet 3 inches tall. Now the village of 120 dwarves has turned itself into a tourist attraction by living in mushroom-like houses that are like castles and dressing up and living like fairy tale characters (Ed. FTNH: Including Snow White's seven dwarves, according to tourist reports).

An illustration from page 17 of Mjallhvít (Snow White) from an 1852 icelandic translation of the Grimm-version fairytale. (Source Project Gutenberg)

The residents have set up their own police force and a fire department.

...They have formed an "Art Troupe" that creates performances for tourists such as acrobatics, magic tricks, songs and dances. The residents charge an entrance fee to get into the village.

Spokesman from the village, Fu Tien, says this (reported by the UK Telegraph):

"As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people," he said. "But here there aren't any big people and everything we do is for us."

The village is in Southern China near Kunming; a lovely city from all accounts and set in a region of great beauty with such attractions as The Stone Forest and being home to 25% of the world's endangered species. The only thing is, I can't find many pictures to show you at all. There are many of the surrounding area but of the village itself, only the UK Telegraph seems to have pictures to put on the web. I also just noticed Neatorama reported on this today. Perhaps this will send the curious (a.k.a. tourists) - and income - their way.

One more note for you before you relegate all this type to an Eastern way of thinking: You know Coney Island? One of the biggest attractions in the early 1900's used to be Lilliputia (named for the tiny residents of a strange land the Gulliver came across on his Travels of course). It was supposedly a Utopian society of little people that prospered until the whole amusement park burned down in 1911.

Lilliputias midget fire department

Among the most incredible and original attractions was Lilliputian the midget city, 300 midget from the traveling circuses and freak shows of the whole continent was offered a permanent experimental society within the park. As the city only needed to be half size of an ordinary city it was possible to build this utopian cardboard city on a small budget. It was complete with it's own parliament, a beach with midget lifeguards, a midget theatre, stables with small ponies, and a complete midget fire department responding every hour to put out imaginary fires. To exaggerate the scale and enlarge the illusion from time to time giants were instructed to take a stroll within the city..

You can read more about Coney Island and Lilliputia HERE.

Extended Scene from Disney's The Princess and the Frog

This sequence was released just over a day ago by Disney from their upcoming, much anticipated film "The Princess and the Frog".

It's a continuous three minutes and twenty seconds and, it should be noted, most of the footage we've seen before in trailers, specials and featurettes BUT it is a treat to see the pieces put together in order, without cuts, edits and other narration interrupting.

It's the big 'girl kisses (talking) frog' sequence, which, by the way, references the fairy tale the film is adapted from - complete with book. I wonder if the marketing-and-toyable gurus at Disney have thought to make and release this book - I'd buy that. (hint, hint!)

Oh. And don't worry. The actual 'girl-lips-on-amphibian-lips' part is relatively short. :D

Enjoy!

Fairy Tales for Writers

Since I posted about writing fairy tale based fantasy this week, I thought I'd draw your attention to a fun little book of writing advice that uses fairy tales to impart writing anecdotes and insights: "Fairy Tales For Writers" by Lawrence Schimel.

It's actually a small book of thirteen, often funny, poems (don't worry - you don't need to love poetry to enjoy this one - it's very accessible for all types of readers). If you like metaphors, imagery and fairy tale archetypes you'll really enjoy it. The tales are used very cleverly to illustrate issues in writing.

One note: when I ordered this book a couple of years ago I was surprised to see how small it was when it arrived. The small size was deceptive. This is a very enjoyable (and useful) book and well worth its price.

Here's a review from amazon.com that says it all:

This small, slender, imaginative, hilarious, and all-to-true 30-page collection of poetry by Lawrence Schimel wonderfully and artfully reflects the almost archetypal hopes, ambitions, frustrations, passions, and processes of writing for publication. Here in a kind of poetic folklore format are 'the new writer who encounters a wolf along the path to publication'; the writing workshop member who must always be 'the fairest of them all'; the writer who for the sake of love gives up her own special voice; the shy, anonymous author who slips away before the end of the reading only to be remorselessly tracked down by the editor wanting to publisher her work. Everyone who has ever put pen to paper, and the tried to submit that paper to a publisher, will recognize the poetically expressed truths in Lawrence Schimel's superb little book, "Fairy Tales For Writers". As the last line on the last page of this marvelous little gem has it: "Sometimes there is a happy ending, even in publishing."

You can read a SF Site review HERE. Click HERE to see more details and order.

Classic Tales 2010 Calendar by Pedro Bascon

Illustrator Pedro Bascon is busy painting his own versions of some fairy and folktales for a 2010 calendar.

I haven't seen a collection quite like this on a fairy tale theme and find that the strong design approach brings a new perspective and emphasis to aspects of the tale/s one may not normally think of.

I love the simple but strong designs. It's not as easy to achieve as one might think. Pedro's work in using a forced 'canvas size' for the design is very pleasing to the eye and communicates the tales instantly - yet there's more to see if you look closely too. It's always interesting to see what results when you put restrictions on a creative work.








You can view some close ups of the pieces by going to his sample page HERE.

You can also find out more about Pedro HERE and contact him directly to ask how to purchase a calendar if you're interested (he's very nice and approachable!).

He is currently investigating how to make his calendar available in the US (his contact details are all on his home page HERE).