The "Re-enchantment" (Hidden Meanings of Fairy Tales) Project DVD Now Available!

(I'm so excited about this!)

A DVD is now available and they will ship to anywhere in the world!*

Rather than try to explain the Re-enchantment project I'll let it speak for itself:

Re-enchantment is an immersive journey into the hidden meanings of fairy tales. Presented as an interactive multi-platform documentary project exploring why fairy stories continue to enchant, entertain, fascinate and horrify contemporary adult audiences.

The Re-enchantment DVD features a series of 10 x 3-minute animated documentaries (interstitials), which explore the themes at work in fairy tales. Each episode offers a rich visual design and presents a new way of thinking about these familiar and much loved stories.

The presentations include beautiful and thought provoking fairy tale illustrations (both classic and new), animations, clips from many different films and interview snippets throughout with some of the most respected fairy tale scholars today (eg Jack Zipes and Marina Warner).

Here is the trailer to give you an overall taste:

 Each episode centers on a common fairy tale theme - Ever After, If The Shoe Fits, Wicked Stepmother, Princess Culture, Into The Woods, Dark Emotions, Beastly Husbands, The Forbidden Room, Fairy Tale Sex and Re-imaginings. (from the Press Release).

 You can order it HERE. Outside Australia, the DVD costs $34.95 and shipping is free. Australian orders are $29.95AU with shipping also free.

And highly recommended (especially while you're waiting for the DVD to arrive) is spending a while exploring "Re-enchantment" online HERE. The site is interactive which is awesome. You can explore whatever aspects or images appeal to you and discover all sorts of goodies. You can also join in the fairy tale community there, take part in discussions of what you've explored on the website, add your thoughts and/or questions, even contribute to an online gallery with your own creations and artistic interpretations (photos, illustrations, collages and more).

There are also art postcards from the project available for purchase.

"Re-enchantment" is also on Facebook where they post snippets and updates.

What are you waiting for? Go!

* I don't know if they are producing 'differently-region-ed' DVDs or if  you would need an all region player to view it on but I'm guessing if the DVD is only compatible with the Australian region,  you should still be able to view it on any computer that has a DVD drive.

17 Grimm Tales by Andreas Krapf

 Andreas Kapf is a German illustrator with a quirky sense of humor who  - lucky for us - shared his fairy tale diploma project online. The illustrations were designed specifically to show the harsher side of the more popular Grimm tales and the results have a good chance of tugging a smile out of you.

 

I'm including just a few of the illustrations but be sure to go check out the rest of them HERE and see the included layouts.

 

 

The tales include:

• Little Red Riding Hood
• One-Eye, Two-Eyes & Three-Eyes
• The Boy Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was
• The Brave Little Tailor
• The Twelve Brothers
• Rumpelstiltskin
• The Frog King or Iron Henry
• The Wishing Table, the Gold Ass & the Cudgel in the Sack
• Hansel & Gretel
• Hans In Luck
• Mother Hulda
• Sleeping Beauty
• Rapunzel
• Snow White
• Puss in Boots
• Cinderella
• Brother and Sister

 

 

I don't know if this book is available anywhere (in the US or in Germany) but he can be contacted through his business website HERE where he designs t-shirts, posters and art-toys.

NBCs "Grimm" Take on Fairy Tales

I hope to write something on NBCs Grimm vs ABCs Once Upon A Time very soon but for now, here are some promo clips I found of how the Grimm detective meets fairy tale subjects in present-day Portland, OR (with a twist, of course).

Considering the spring board for the show is that the lead detective (of the "Grimm bloodline") is able to profile criminals (and other people) with his abilities (fairy tale profiler!) I was glad, but not surprised, to find these sorts of clips.



What I am pleasantly surprised by, though, is that this world is proving to be far more complex than a monster/fairy tale crime-of-the-week show and that good and bad are not so black and white. Just like fairy tales.



NBC is moving forward very cautiously with this show. After much critical raving over episodes 2 and 3, this week the network has ordered two more scripts, so we can now expect to see 15 episodes at minimum.



Just so there's a complete set, I'm including the Red riding Hood based pilot episode promo:

I have yet to see the Bluebeard/Pan-based 4th episode that aired this week as "Lonelyhearts" (see link for the tale and myth connection) but early ratings after last night are high (eg 4 or 5 stars).

We know we have the Frog Prince, Snow White and Cinderella reworkings coming but after last week's "Beeware". based on the more obscure tale of The Queen Bee, I'm looking forward to seeing what tales they tackle next.

"Tangled Ever After" to Screen Before "Beauty & the Beast 3D"

Yes - that's right. You get a chance to compare Disney's most recent fairy tale princess with one of the classic ones...

Tangled (Ever After), will premiere a delightful new animated short film spotlighting the royal wedding of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Flynn Rider – a.k.a Eugene – (Zachary Levi) in front of each screening of Beauty and the Beast in 3D, which opens on January 13, 2012 in US.

Since the long hair is long gone I can't see much, if any, connection to the original Rapunzel for this short. Pity.

You can find more details about the short HERE.

Pixar's New "Brave" Trailer & Poster

 Pixar released their first official poster and trailer for their first-ever fairy tale, "Brave" this week, and it's getting good and excited feedback from audiences across the board.

"Brave" is a good word for this movie for many reasons: it's Pixar's first fairy tale, it's their first female lead, it's about a pro-active and strong girl who's main storyline is to do with expectations (especially her mother's) and challenging her destiny and she's not your average Disney princess. One of the things that has critics most excited is "we may also have the first Disney princess movie that doesn’t see our princess hitched by the time credits are rolling" (quote from Forbes).


While "Brave" is not based on any one fairy tale we will no doubt see the influences of many fairy tales and folktales throughout. (eg. Merida bears quite a resemblance to "Brave Margaret", a traditional Irish heroine [not Scottish, like Pixar's heroine Merida] who is kept busy fighting beasts and saving people)*. The creator, Brenda Chapman, (who was also Pixar's first female director until she was replaced over creative differences) says she developed the project out of a love of the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, the tales of the Brothers Grimm and her reflections on raising a daughter.


Brave fairy tale heroines are nothing new, of course, but that's not usually the public perception of fairy tale females. Fortunately we are seeing more and more beautifully published collections of 'strong girls' stories (see the covers below), including some designed to share with children as an alt to the 'princess-awaiting-her-prince-and-castle' collections. I see a rise in the demand for these sorts of books coming on the heels of Pixar's movie release, if it is indeed what they're touting it to be (writers start your engines, er laptops!). We definitely need more of these tools.

As an aside, doesn't this almost feel like a wonderful companion piece to "How to Train Your Dragon" movie? I truly appreciated the strong boy's tale approach which went beyond the 'get-yourself-a-weapon-and-kill-the-monster-till-it's-dead' mentality.

I'm looking forward to seeing what "Brave" will become.

 * You can read a review of "Brave Margaret" HERE.
   "Brave Martha and the Dragon", a French story about a girl - Saint Martha - also bears some similarities. You can see the book HERE.

New Movie Poster Released for Catherine Hardwicke's "Red Riding Hood"

The movie is opening March 11, 2011 and this poster is doing a great job of making me even more curious about it. Gorgeous image and great use of imagery too! Thorny trees? Not only teeth and claws but iron maidens come to mind. Yikes! And something about the tilt and movement of the shapes puts me in mind of a figure -ie. prey- caught via infrared vision...

A plot/premise summary, if you don't know the variations this particular movie is exploring, can be found HERE at the image source.

The previous movie poster is below:

Bear and Bird and Other Fairy Tale Work of Allison Reimold

This also caught my eye recently - a new work by the incredibly talented  Allison Reimold for Bear and Bird Boutique and Gallery. It appears this work was commissioned for the boutique in addition to the gallery and will be available as a t-shirt (take note!).

I thought the piece had an instant fairy tale feel (obviously Snow White & Rose Red spring to mind but so do a number of other bear-based fairy tales). If you look around the Bear and Bird site you'll see more renderings of bears, birds and girls and, not surprisingly, a lot of them have a fairy tale quality to them, even with the huge range of styles used.

You can find the blog HERE (where you can see a working sketch if the image posted here) and the gallery HERE.

BUT WAIT!

Seven Ravens by Allison Reimold

You must, must, must visit Allison Reimold's website & gallery to see a LOT more less common fairy tale based pieces! She's created gorgeous paintings based on Seven Ravens, The Flower Queen's Daughter, The Tiger's Bride, Brother and Sister, The Girl with Silver Hands, The Flower Princess, The Three Witches and The Dragon Hunter* (you can see much larger versions HERE on the Behance Network) and there is a LOT more mythic work on her blog HERE.

Brother and Sister by Allison Reimold

I'm seriously hoping she's illustrating a book of fairy tales that will be available for purchase but I can't find any information on such a project as yet although there appear to be prints for sale HERE. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

*Note: Apart from the film, I'm not familiar with a fairy tale called The Dragon Hunter. It doesn't appear to be based on St. George either. If anyone digs anything up feel free to share in a comment. :)

Donkeyskin and Her Variants by Jenna Russelle

 

Happy New Year everyone!

Expect tiny random postings whenever I can manage them, but hopefully more often than the second half of last year. 2011 is already looking MUCH better. :)

(And it would be even better if I could have a computer & internet access of my own again - hint, hint universe!)

Just discovered this rendering of Donkeyskin on Flickr by artist Jenna Russelle. I highly recommend visiting her Flickr site to see the three variants up close (She-Bear, Gold Teeth and Donkey Skin) and a little fun Gold Teeth experiment/sketch she did with gold leaf too. You can jump to the set HERE and click the arrows at the right to see the others.

From the description:

This is one of the illustrations I put up at the Keep 6 Happily Never After show.
Inspired by Charles Perrault's "Donkey Skin." The story varies across cultures but is essentially about a young princess who does not want to marry her father, so she escapes in an animal skin and becomes a scully maid, after which a cinderella type story ensues, involving a tiny ring (not shoe) hidden in food and served to a prince.

Always interesting to see new takes on this story! This is one of the stand out stories from my childhood (and I dearly wish I could find the little book I had then).

You can see more of Ms. Russelle's lovely work on her Flickr site HERE and at her gallery HERE, which includes some nursery rhyme images.

Disney's Vision A Little Tangled Right Now

Last week Disney announced that Tangled (quote) "will be the last fairy tale produced by Disney's animation group for the foreseeable future."

 In other news, (quote) “Tangled” Becomes Disney’s Biggest Animated Opening EVER!"

  Um, hang on a second.  

(sound of giant record scratching to a halt) 

What was that again?

Yes - you read it right (quotes are linked to sources if you'd like to read more). After announcing Disney is "closing the book on fairy tales" (to quote an LA Times headline) their own latest fairy tale effort, Tangled (a retelling of the Grimm's fairy tale Rapunzel) broke all animation box office records (including Pixar's) with their unexpectedly (obviously) giant pre-Thanksgiving opening. Um, yeah...

Women in Hollywood had their own things to say about Disney's swearing-off on fairy tales, though their concern is more about the lack of female-centric films in animation altogether. If you haven't heard, Pixar's first fairy tale film "Brave" (previously titled "The Bear & the Bow",  created and directed - until very recently anyway - by Brenda Chapman) has had a huge amount of controversy for replacing Ms. Chapman. (Look at the number of comments on that exclusive post, let alone what they have to say.) There are many reasons for the outcry, some of which I agree with, but my biggest regret is that the first female-centric-which-also-happened-to-be-a-fairy-tale film by Pixar that was to shake up the girl-needs-boy-for-happiness formula so prevalent in fairy tale movies, is very likely to lose that precious and unique focus. Now that Tangled is looking at success not only in the box office arena but as a serious contender for this years Oscar (only 3 can run this year), how will that affect a) Pixar's Brave and b) the new 'no more fairy tales' policy by Disney Feature Animation?

Something tells me there are a few knots in the company hair that need to be untangled before we can get a straight and solid answer.

For now:   

Long live the fairy tale!

Update...

I've been wanting to do an update for a while and know many people are sad the blog is no longer being updated, wondering what happened and did I really get sucked into an abyss somewhere. The answer to the last question is "sort of".

For any who followed the blog regularly you'll know 2010 has been a rough year for me and my family. We've lost jobs, house, had financial issues, health issues (which turned out to be minor, thank goodness!) and problem after problem with computers and other supposedly-necessary equipment, just to keep the pressure on.

Things are not resolved. We're not quite back on our feet and breathing easy yet but we are all together, safe and healthy. I have been offline almost completely for many months this year and no longer have a computer of my own, which makes it very hard to keep up with anything let alone have some sort of online presence and input (especially daily). I do not know when/if I will be able to 'fix' this and currently rely on borrowing a machine and access to do anything online, so I've tossed and turned over what to do.

Here's my decision:

Daily blogging is out of the question for now and the foreseeable future. I hadn't originally planned to blog every day but it happened that way naturally. The problem is now that the expectation is for a daily (at least!) post (a large part of that pressure is from myself, I know) and I simply can't do that.

BUT

I've decided I'm keeping the blog going.

I won't be able to do it daily, or even guarantee something every week at this point, but I will post small snippets when the opportunity allows. I'll try not to worry that I'm missing all the good stuff or that I'm letting everybody down. I'll try to be content with my small offerings because I'd rather be a small part of all this than not at all.

I miss the fairy tale community. I miss sharing. I miss touching base with all the tales I know and discovering new variations. Fairy tales inform my life, my creativity and help me cope in my day-to-day with the truths of the stories.

One thing I have achieved is I have managed to run an online urban fantasy chat for writers and readers on Twitter (known as #UFchat) for the last few months. Even when my computer breathed its last and I could no longer check in with the community there I realized people were hungry for discussing the tales, in all their modern guises, and, prompted by the response, found 'work-arounds', both by borrowing machines and access and by allowing people to pitch in and help. It's been tough to keep up. I've had to cancel at embarrassingly short notice more than once but it's happening. You see, urban fantasy has much in common with fairy tales - in many ways it's the modern equivalent - and working on that has brought home to me again how important the tales are. It's also reminded me that there's a reason Once Upon A Blog is important to continue, if I possibly can, both for me and for others.

So I'm going to start posting again at Once Upon A Blog - just here and there and very randomly. I'm going to take it slow and steady, one post at a time, and enjoy whatever wonders of the wood I glimpse along the way. I have faith that things will get better but I'm not waiting any longer till everything is 'better'. If there's anything this year has taught me, it's what's important - family and health are the big ones. Fairy tales are another.

Thank you to those who have sent emails of encouragement and support - I haven't been able to read many of them until recently and won't be able to reply individually at this time, but please know each one has meant so much to me and my family. I thank you for news of fairy tales and various projects and again regret I'm not able to follow through on them all, though I will when I can from now on.

Thank you for your patience, for your enthusiasm for Once Upon A Blog and for loving fairy tales. You've been a greater gift to me and mine than you can know.

Sincerely,

Gypsy

NOTE: The lovely images are by French artist Kris Soft, whose website/blog you can find HERE. While Kris Soft does sculpt paper dolls in some of the usual fairy tale subjects (Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood and more) you'll discover an instant fairy tale sympatico in her many unusual and unique characters. They are both evocative of fairy tales and full of feeling, capturing perfectly many of the sentiments I and my family have had over the past many months. Do go browse her blog! I believe you have to contact her directly if you'd like to order any sculptures or prints.