"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" Makes List For 2009 Oscar Contenders

Fairy tales might be going to the Oscars again - at least in short form.

In the "Animated Short Films" category, Brown Bag Film's "Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" made the list of ten from which the official five Academy Award Nominees will be chosen.

You can see the list of contenders and see some excerpts HERE and HERE.

Here's a description from the website:

We all know the Grimm fairytales. Granny's are grimmer... once upon a time there was a granny who dreamed of being the best granny in the world. Unfortunately, this granny was tormented by a lifetime of rage against the world and everyone in it. Luckily, nobody noticed what an angry old woman she had become because they took no notice of her one way or another. But there's only so much an anger an old woman can repress before it BURSTS OUT FROM THE DEPTHS OF HER SOUL IN A SCREAMING FIREBALL OF BITTERNESS AND RESENTMENT!

... or a bedtime story, as Granny herself likes to call it.

Granny O'Grimm is a 26 x 11 min animated series. Each episode features Granny O'Grimm's desperate attempts to be the perfect granny to her three grandchildren, before the fairytales unleash her demons. Produced by Brown Bad Films and directed by Nicky Phelan, the series will be created in 3D and 2D computer animation.

The website, with lots of great little behind-the-scenes and 'Granny comments', is HERE (a hint: click on the red fairy tale book next to the TV to see some of Granny's versions of fairy tales and nursery rhymes).

The SurLaLune Blog posted a great entry on the short film HERE so I won't repeat all the information except to show you a trailer:

You can see a little more of the story at the website HERE.

I love this little film for so many reasons, not the least of which it shows an amusing example of how, in the oral tradition of telling fairy tales to children, our own prejudices can get in the way.The Nominees who will actually be 'walking' that red carpet to the Oscars will be announced on February 2, 2010. I wish Brown Bag Films all the best. There's some fierce competition but I have a feeling Granny will do a good job of holding her own.

In the meantime Granny has a lot to say via Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE (along with an Agony Granny column both on Facebook, in 'tweets' and at the official website). From her 'advice' I'd say she's the lovably cantankerous sort. Not to be missed.

The Wizard of Oz Steampunk Style - III of V

A steampunk Wizard of Oz done 'movie-poster-style' by Dawna and Daniel Davis, creators of Steam Crow and Monster Commute. The poster is available for purchase HERE.From the website about the poster:

Lee Van Cleef inspired the axe-slinging Tinman, while the Scarecrow has clearly spent some serious time at the carnival. The Cowardly Lion is a Victorian gentlebeast, while Toto is a large, Cerebus hound.

Dorothy is a mechanic, just as one might expect.

If you like the poster the Monster Commute webcomic (first page HERE) may interest you too:

It’s our latest project. It’s a comic that is like 1984 meets the Wizard of OZ, on a steampunk highway. It’s a bit fantasy, a bit 1930’s dieselpunk, and it’s inspired by our real life commute in Phoenix, Arizona. It follows the adventures of Chadworth (robot), Beastio (daemon) and Kip (Halloween golem), through their adventures in MONSTRU. (The monster world.)

The Monster Commute website has all sorts of cool things (generally not fairy tale related, though there are some very interesting monsters...) as well as a fun web comic that will appeal to anyone who likes graphic design as well as those who like the lighter side of life (and monsters), so go browse if you get a chance.

"Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio" Exhibit at NOMA

A while back I mentioned (HERE) there was a Disney Fairy Tale Art Exhibit making its way to New Orleans.

The exhibition is up and running (it opened on November 15, 2009) and will continue to show until March 14, 2010 at NOMA (The New Orleans Museum of Art).Here's an excerpt from the exhibit description by the museum:

Dreams Come True showcases original artwork from legendary Disney animated films, including Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and will feature a children's section celebrating Disney's connections with jazz music and the Crescent City. The artworks, on loan from the Walt Disney Studio Animation Research Library, will be accompanied by film clips to demonstrate how individual sketches and paintings lead to a finished celluloid masterpiece. Organized by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and the New Orleans Museum of Art, this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, which cannot be seen anywhere else in North America is set to coincide with the premier of Disney's upcoming animated feature, The Princess and the Frog, set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age.

And from the dedicated page:

The New Orleans Museum of Art will present Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio, a major exhibition featuring more than 600 original artworks that shaped legendary animated features including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. (Ed FTNH: as well as artwork from the December 2009 movie release The Princess and the Frog.)

... Visitors to the exhibition will encounter themed rooms showcasing artwork related to specific animated features. Arranged chronologically by year of release, the rooms will feature, in order: Silly Symphonies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog. Film clips will accompany the artwork to demonstrate how individual sketches and paintings lead to a finished celluloid masterpiece. An adjacent Education Area will highlight Disney's long association with music and also will serve as a mini library for animation research and storytelling programs.

You can read the rest of the description HERE.and there's a brief but interesting article about Lella Smith hosting a preview tour of the exhibit HERE. (Lella Smith is Creative Director of Disney's Animation Research Library. I posted excerpts from an interview with her HERE as well as links if you're interested in finding out more about her.).

There's no mention of Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Black Cauldron, Aladdin, Mulan or any of the shorter fairy tale related works in either of the Fantasia films or the separate shorts like Little Match Girl, so I'm guessing they're sticking with full-length feature films based on Grimm's and Perrault's work only.

There is a very interesting looking catalog of the exhibition available for purchase online HERE, by Lella Smith.Here's the blurb:

Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio
by Lella Smith

This beautifully illustrated catalogue presents familiar fairy tales and the adaptations made by the Walt Disney Studio for the movies. The films span 80 years- from the early Silly Symphony shorts to the 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog.

The comparative tales would be very interesting and this is likely to be a collector's item in the future. Even if you can't make it to the exhibition before mid-March next year, this may be a nice thing to think about buying.

NOTE: All the Sleeping Beauty art shown is by legendary Disney artist Eyvind Earle. You can read more about him and his work HERE.

The Wizard of Oz Steampunk Style - II of V

A lovely and somewhat sinister Oz piece from talented and many times published illustrator of children's books, Jennifer L. Meyer.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the only one she's done for this story, which is a shame. It really feels like there should be more in this series. (In reading her profile it seems she loves graphic novels - I think that's evident in this piece.)

You can see more of her work HERE.

The Tsarina's Slippers: A Comic Fairy Tale Opera for Christmas

A Russian fairy tale suitable for the Christmas season!

It seems rather difficult to find 'Christmas fairy tales' but this one, based on the tale "Christmas Eve" by Nikolay Gogol is an operatic adaptation by Tchaikovsky. Gogol was/is a celebrated Russian writer who wrote magic realism, and is also credited with the story behind the piece "Night on Bare/Bald Mountain" which was animated by Disney for Fantasia. Gogol's stories are widely known and loved by many generations of Russians and his tales are also said to have had a profound influence on the celebrated literary writers Nabakov and Dostoevsky.

It's the first time this particular opera is being performed in London
Here's the write-up from the Royal Opera House in London, where it's to be performed from November 20th to December 8th, 2009:

Many of Tchaikovsky’s stage works are unjustly neglected outside Russia. Now one of the most charming of all, Cherevichki (The Tsarina’s Slippers*), comes to London for the first time, under the baton of Alexander Polianichko and with an almost entirely Russian cast. Based on a Christmas tale by Gogol that mixes realistic village comedy with fairytale fantasy, the plot describes how Vakula the blacksmith flies on the Devil’s back to St Petersburg to request a pair of little leather slippers worn by the Tsarina herself in order to win the hand of his beloved Oxana.

Apparently the more accurate meaning of the Russian word translated as 'slippers' is actually closer to 'dressy boots'. A criticism of the English presentation is that it's far too genteel. That and the fact that it's a comic opera that will be sung entirely in Russian with English subtitles - how to kill the timing! The French billed the opera as Les Caprices d'Oksana, which apparently sets a more appropriate and comedic tone, as the whims of the lady in question do indeed set things into comic motion.

Here's a wonderful promotional animated trailer for the new production:

You can read all about the story 'Christmas Eve' HERE on Wikipedia or HERE at the Royal Opera House's website and you can find more information about the performances HERE, also at the Royal Opera House's website.

LATE ADDITION: I just saw an article on the production which talks about how magical and delightful this comic opera is. You can read it HERE.

"Dark Fairy Tales" Poetry & Light Illumination Show/ "Diamond Tears" Exhibition (both UK)

Coming to Brentford (UK) for one performance on November 28th, 2009 is "Dark Fairy Tales" by the Theatre of Continuous Performance. I haven't been able to find much additional information about this show so I'll just copy the press release here for you:

Writer and director, Anjan Saha teams up with projectionist, Al Livingstone to present a magical enchanted world of Dark Fairytales at Waterman's Art Centre in London Road, Brentford.

Pioneering their self -styled, Theatre of Continuous Performance, where spoken word merges with light illuminations to create mesmerizing images, fairytales of Indian, African and European origin will be presented with a dark twist.

Featuring some of the best literary talents including poets and acclaimed performers Dzifa Benson, El Crisis, Philip Lawder, storyteller, Bhavit Mehta and Blues music guitarist and singer, Robert Hokum, Dark Fairy Tales, gives us a whole new interpretation of the dangers that might befall the unwary this Xmas!

"...Fairytales speak through beasts to explore common experiences - fear of sexual intimacy, terror and violence, injustice, and struggles for survival. The fairytales themselves, growing out of the spoken word, become part of legislating fabric, and by issuing warnings about what happens to kings and princesses, sharks and other beasts who don't keep their promises, reminds us to keep ours." (Marina Warner, writing for The Guardian)

You can book through HERE.

The images in this post are by Verena Paloma Jabs.

From her website:

"Verena creates child-like and seemingly innocent silhouettes of animals and figures, morphed with a digitally created background of imaginary landscapes, naïve wonderlands, and dark dreamscapes. Verena says, "I am fascinated by the innocent imagery of the pictorial illustrations which often accompany fairy-tales, while the narrative itself is often dark and uncanny. Being of English and Russian ancestry, and growing up in Germany before attending school and university in England, I have a keen interest in how different cultures mirror each other's stories and heritage. Living in an era in which advertising and visual media are overpowering our imagination for commercial purposes, fairy-tales as told to children still harbour a sense of humankind's most ancient fantasies, fears, and desires."

Verena has a new exhibition called "Diamond Tears", featuring the artwork shown in this post and more. It opened on November 13, 2009 at the Tatty Devine Brick Lane Gallery space in London. You can find more information about Verena and see more of her lovely work, which covers a wide range of media HERE.

Creator Nick Percival Talks About His Dark Steampunk Comic "Legends: The Enchanted"

I posted on this coming-in-2010 comic HERE last week and, seeing as there was quite a bit of interest between comments and Twitter, I thought I'd point you to an excellent interview with the creator Nick Percival.

In the interview with Comic Book Resources, he reveals more about the fairy tale characters he's using and how they've been given a new twist. Here's an excerpt from the long, informative and interesting article:

"The Enchanted are looked upon with fear and distrust by normal everyday folk and despised by their dark counterparts, known as The Wicked," says Percival. "Most of the Enchanted operate as vigilantes, outlaws, bounty hunters and so on - trying to find their place and purpose in a land that is growing increasingly hostile towards them. Armed with a hard attitude, unique abilities and customized weaponry, the Enchanted's world is shattered when they discover that some unknown enemy has found a way to break through their mystic immortality and begins slaughtering them one by one beginning with the killing of the half bionic/half wooden warrior, Pinocchio."

Nick Percival: We've got Red Hood, who lives with her daughter in a very dangerous place known as the Bionic Woodlands - this area is overgrown with spiked bio-mechanical trees and living, organic plant life, populated by mutated wolf creatures. Basically, she just wants to be left alone and raise her child, but the murder of Pinocchio and the kidnapping of her daughter force her to reluctantly seek out help from other Enchanted.

Jack the Giantkiller pretty much just looks out for himself. He's sly, likes to drink and burns around on a beast of motorcycle that uses Giant's blood as fuel. Jack acts as a kind of "creature killer for hire." For the right price, he'll sort out any towns terrorized by Ogre problems, which he usually solves by popping one of his "magic beans" that grant him cool powers for a limited amount of time as he starts cracking heads together.

Filling out the rest of the cast are psychic siblings, Hansel and Gretel (Paranormal Exterminators), Goldilox and Bear, her nine-foot half man/half bear boyfriend. They have a "rob the rich to give to the poor" type quest, which involves them coming up against the crime boss, Humpty Dumpty and the Billy Goats Gruff Biker Gang - it doesn't end quietly.

Amongst these, we've got cameos from Rapunzel, a soldier with unbreakable hair that she uses to attack her enemies, Miss Muffet, Rumpelstiltskin, Pied Piper, Jack Nimble and many others all depicted in the same gritty style with attitudes to match in a world filled with goth-type giants, vampire fairies, pissed off trolls, demon street gangs, and all manner of unsavory folk.


Do you have a favorite fairy tale or fable?

I have a lot of versions of the classic tales that the Brothers Grimm collected together, some great old German editions as well. I've also been heavily into Hans Christian Andersen's work, so there are way too many to choose from. But a lot of the ancient Russian folklore is fascinating, and there are some themes in that material that I'm thinking about including in later stories for "Legends: The Enchanted."

You can read the entire article HERE and see LOTS of (very gory) images throughout (which can be viewed larger by clicking).

All the details of the website, when it's available and the preview are in my previous post HERE. A warning again: please keep this away from children. This is dark stuff and definitely in the horror genre. All these new images severely cropped for posting purposes on this blog. If you can deal with the images though (the illustrations are amazing in addition to being ultra-gory), this comic and the developing story sounds like it's worth checking out.

The Wizard of Oz Steampunk Style - I of V

I found some interesting concept development sketches of the characters from The Wizard of Oz and thought I'd not only share those but other steampunk Oz illustrations from my archives that I like.

Today's is by Jeremy Vanhoozer, an Art Director currently working at Cartoon Network. He has a couple of versions of some of his characters so far and this is an ongoing project, so be sure to check into his blog HERE to see the alternatives and updates (he posts most days and this is his current focus project).

Here's what the typography concept (shown at the head of the post) developed into:
Dorothy:
Toto is looking very interesting...
Tin Man:

I love the flying monkey!As of today you can also see versions of the Scarecrow, and the Wicked Wict of the West on his blog too.

Oh yeah - and isn't his blog header cool?

Kate Beaton's Comic Fairy Tale Endings

Here's some fresh fairy tale fracturing you may enjoy, newly created by popular comic artist Kate Beaton:Kate is a comic artist (and webcomic artist) from Nova Scotia who, using her Gaelic sense of humor, draws lots of historical cartoons and turns history "on its head" (read a great article about her work HERE). You can find out more about her at her Live Journal account HERE or at her website "Hark! A Vagrant" HERE.

Little Girl & Boy Lost (Leibovitz Stages Hansel & Gretel Pt II)

Here are the rest of the photos released from the Annie Leibovitz fairy tale shoot for the 2009 December issue of Vogue. We saw the two photos featuring Lady Gaga in a previous post HERE.

The rest of the photos are shown in order below, along with the story as portrayed and described by Vogue's Creative Director Grace Coddington. Please note the story and photos aren't shown exactly as they will be in the magazine. To view the full piece, you'll need the December issue which mentions a fashion tribute to The Arts - which this shoot is likely part of considering the inspiration and involvement of The Metropolitan opera. The issue has Cate Blanchett on the cover whose shots for this issue were also taken by Leibovitz.

I'm Famished Brother and sister are home alone with not a morsel to eat.

Far From Home They venture out to hunt for wild strawberries in the woods, where Gretel's lily-white frock shines against the dark foliage of the Tree-men. Before long, though, they're hopelessly lost. (Tree-men costumes courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.)

Golden Slumber The Sandman (played here by Sasha Cooke, who has appeared in the Met's production) sprinkles magic dust onto the frightened children, who fall into a deep sleep and dream about a banquet served by a fish maître d'. (Sandman and fish maître d' costumes courtesy of the Met.)

Wicked The two discover a house in the forest, only to find it occupied by an old witch (portrayed here by Lady Gaga). Gretel looks sweet enough to eat in a poufy confection. But it's Hansel the evil one wants to fatten up and feast on.

Feed the Flames Before the witch can cook Hansel and Gretel—whoosh—they push her into the oven and shut the door.

The Witch Is Dead! The children (here, the Junior Choristers of Grace Church in New York City) baked into gingerbread by the hag come back to life.

You can read all about the shoot (and about more of Lady Gaga's outrageous dressing) HERE and see the slideshow with the complete fashion information HERE.