Grimm Brothers Brewhouse

There's definitely a trend for exposing for the darker side of fairy tales at the moment, whether that's in movies, TV series or advertising.

 

  

  

Here's the promotional blurb for these new 'craft brews' from the Grimm Brothers Brewhouse in Colorado:

"Grimm Brothers Brewhouse is new craft brewer located in Loveland, Colorado focusing on authentic German style beers. Each of their brews is named after one of the Grimm Brother's famous folk tales, so each label features a scene from each story, but with a twist. For example, Little Red Cap (or Riding Hood) has an axe hidden behind her back, making her more dangerous than the wolf."

 The Master Thief is the newest of these Grimm brews and was added just last week.

Each brew has it's own 'tale' to go with it too. There are the summaries, which also tell you about the type of beer and are included on the full label (see HERE for all 4) but the website includes the full length original tales too. For example, see the tale of The Master Thief HERE. Reading this tale again, I'm reminded of why it is often paired with Puss in Boots.

Now I'm thinking I need a beer, or four... ;)

*Source.

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!