Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tale funnies

• Drawing Naveen - by the animators of The Princess and the Frog - showing how 'small' adjustments to a characters appearance can really change things.

• Disney New Judgemental Fairy Tale: The Jewish American Princess. I'll say this really clearly, in case people get the wrong idea - THIS IS A PARODY - A JOKE - NOT REAL. This may bother some people, just because parody tends to do that, but I found it very funny and think it's worth sharing (especially having worked in the animation industry, which is also makes fun of). It also pokes some gentle fun at the Disney Princess film formula. It's like a very well done Saturday Night Live sketch, without the language or smutty humor. Again, this is a parody. A very well done one. Please view accordingly if the idea appeals and skip if it doesn't.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fun fairy tale finds

• Crankbunny's Paper Puppets, Pop Up Cards and Other Paper Novelties (Etsy find: Including flying Monkey Lady, A very weird Humpty Dumpty, Key To One's Heart, Girl Pops Out of a Fish, Lady Fish Paper Puppet [mermaid] and much more)

• ADOPTABOT - The World's first robot orphanage! (Very cute characters created from found objects and looking for new homes... Just like a modern fairy tale, complete with Gepetto-type character, a,k,a, Brian Marshall, who makes unique creations, each with their own distinct personality. Also see more characters at Mr. Marshall's Flickr account HERE.)

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Sports

• Sedan Chair Race for Charity with Fairy Tale Characters - I missed this announcement back in August (the event was in November) but as you can see from the poster, it looks like a lot of exhausting fun. Apparently this organization has raised over 52 million $HK via sedan chair races for charity to date!

• The Emperor (of Clubs) Isn't Wearing Any Clothes! Kate Wolford, university lecturer and mastermind behind both the Diamonds & Toads blog and the new blogazine Enchanted Conversation, made reference to a notorious (and very sad) recent news headline involving a certain sports celebrity with some interesting observations. Make sure to read both the post and the many comments.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Home & garden style

• Toon Town-ish style furniture by Dust Furniture - via Super Punch

• Alice in Wonderland style furniture by Coolkids - also via Super Punch

• Animated Furniture by Jake Cress - also via Super Punch

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fashion

• Wild at Heart (Fall fashion slideshow feature by ZoomZoom) In this fall fashion feature, Erik Almas takes 1930s paintings, taxidermy animals, and the modern woman to create diorama-like images of fashion in the wild. The result is an amalgam of the fairy tale and the mythological muse. The images conjure narratives of the heroine who can talk to animals, live amongst the brown bears, and rule nature itself.

• Ko Ara's Fairy Tale Shoot in Korean Singles Magazine 2008 (Thumbelina, Red Riding Hood, Princess and the Pea, Bremen Town Musicians, Peter Pan, Hansel & Gretel)

• Cinderella's Closet, which provides dresses to under privileged teens for their proms, is calling for gently used prom dresses.

• Fairy tale themed jewelry by LunarraStar (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Wizard of Oz and more) Etsy find.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Newly discovered online retellings

• "Elegance" by CMShaw - a modern retelling of Beauty & the Beast. This story has also been tagged 'steampunk'.

• "Cages" (my steampunk retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel) got a review & recommendation. :)

• Enchanted Conversation's Sleeping Beauties. The princess gets a whole lot of different perspectives and tales in Enchanted Conversation. The new online blogazine, had Sleeping Beauty as their theme for the first issue and has published some awesome new retellings. Eg, The 13th Fairy Confesses (yep - it was HER fault Sleeping Beauty slept for 100 years, not the bad fairy at all), The First Queen's Maid (Hint: remember how Sleeping beauty's mother-in-law was part Ogre?), The Dilemma of the Spindle looks at the decision this household object had to make and many, many more.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Books (and reviews)

• "Four Generous Fairies" by Diana Liiv, Illustrated by Reti Saks (2005) - Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" told as a fairy tale with illustrations, which also educates about music and instruments - an Estonian book-with-CD, also available in English translation.

• "A Fair Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates - (review) plays with the conventional Cinderella story in a modern setting - not a retelling. You'll find this on of the 'literature' shelves.

• "The Girl With Glass Feet" debut novel by Ali Shaw - soon to be released in the US (if it isn't out already) using European fairy tales. Very promising reviews from the UK, including The Guardian. I'm currently reading this and will review it for Once Upon A Blog soon too.

• "Tempest Rising" by Nicole Peeler - fairly new urban fantasy using the Selkie myths and fairy tales as well as other European tales. Very promising first novel in a trilogy.

• "Red" by Jordan Summers - Not new or faultless but I've been wanting to mention this one for a while because it's quite different. It's a 'futuristic' (not quite sci-fi) retelling of Red Riding Hood. Premise: what if Little Red Riding Hood and the bad wolf turn out to be the same person? I'm not sure if it belongs under the an urban fantasy label or a very-edgy-paranormal-romance label but it's a unique and interesting retelling. Please note - contains very graphic descriptions of violence as well as explicit sex.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Films & movies

• The Snow Queen Russian animated movie 1957 - three entries of stills/screen captures posted (Lovely layout and animation, though personally I'm not wild about the character designs. This movie is well loved for nostalgic reasons and by animators for the techniques used. I have yet to see this myself...) 1st post, 2nd post, 3rd post.

• Hansel & Gretel - The True Story - A very dark, traditionally animated, short film currently in development & production in Macedonia. Trailer available for viewing at the link.

• Behind-the-scenes of "How To Train Your Dragon" (in theaters March 26, 2010) - not a fairy tale but will be of interest to many of you anyway - see some of the desings, a little of the story and some concepts behind the film (footage from network).

• Debbie Allen's 'dansical' "Alex in Wonderland" coming to DVD in February. "Written, directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen, with an original score by Debbie Allen, Diane Louie and three-time GRAMMY Award winner James Ingram, Debbie Allen's ALEX IN WONDERLAND is a re-imagined fairytale that has been contemporized, funkified and stylized for a new generation."

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines

• ** NEWLY ADDED AT 2:30PM ** Cabinet Des Fées Issue 9 is live! (Cabinet Des Fées in an online magazine offering new fairy tale fiction and poetry three times a year. The 'zine is known for it's excellence and scholarship and provides many wonderful fairy tale resources. You can see the wonderful range of tales and treatments just by glancing at their main page, which has enticing 'snapshots' [mini previews] of the contents.)

• Goblin Fruit's Winter 2010 Issue is live! (Goblin Fruit is a fairy tale/mythic poetry 'zine that now includes an audio component. This issue features an 'Editor exchange' with Mythic Delirium so 'diabolical guest Editor' Mike Allen is in charge of the offerings at Goblin Fruit while our talented GF Editors are reeking havoc - I mean, taking the reins - at Mythic Delirium. The topics for the Issue are darkly delicious...)

• Enchanted Conversation continues to draw readers and interesting comments on the subject of Sleeping Beauty, and don't forget a thoughtful comment of a couple of paragraphs enters you into a contest too!

• Fairy Tale Review 2009 Aquamarine Issue is available for purchase. (Fiction, non-fiction and poetry on fairy tales and their continuing influence today, helmed by the amazing Kate Bernheimer who has edited some of the best essay collections on fairy tales to date.)

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Artists & illustrators (past & present)

• Coco Miles, a props and sculpture artist, has fairy tale pieces in her portfolio, including Baba Yaga and Rumpelstiltskin.

• "Jack and Jill Return to the Hill" A too-late entry to the Sci-Fi Fairy Tales contest held by Super Punch during December 2009. This entry came with a complete story about Jack and Jill in a sci-fi context too. See link for a summary.

• Little Red vs Wolves - LOTS of wolves! by woohyun Nam. see more of his work at the link.

• Belarus beautiful fairy tale coins - Fairy tale designs include The Stone Flower, The Twelve Months, The Nutcracker, Turandot, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Thousand and One Nights, Symon the Musician. Simply gorgeous!

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