"Little Match Girl" in 3D from Vietnam

 

A new animation company in Vietnam, True-D, has just released a trailer for their first short film, "The Little Match Girl" and it's getting good reviews.

Why, you may ask, is a Vietnamese studio doing a western fairy tale when their own culture is so rich with stories? My guess is to appeal to the western world (ie. market).

Take a look (I've posted the trailer with subtitles and voiceover):



From the article:

True-D Animation’s representative said that “The Little Match Girl” is the first project in which the group’s members practiced their skills. The group now works on the second 3D animation project, based on a Vietnamese story. The company aims to make long 3D cartoons in the future.

True-D Animation is seeking the distributor of its first product this Christmas. If the cartoon cannot go to cinemas, the producer will post it on Youtube as the New Year gift.

 The studio currently has only a 10 or so person crew, so this achievement is additionally impressive. I wish them the best for finding representation.

Donkey Skin by Jason Levesque

Donkey Skin by Jason Levesque

This has been in my posting queue for quite a while and was originally drawn for a Fables and Follies art show in 2010 (warning - some macabre images at the link). While the rest of the show isn't really to my taste, I thought this was so beautiful. The artist, Jason Levesque, has a wide range of styles and doesn't seem to work much in this medium, which is a shame since there's a real "Golden Age of Illustration' feel to this work. Maybe our interest will encourage him to try some more fairy tale themes in this vein in the future. ;)

Wooden Bones by Scott William Carter

Cover Illustration by Edward Kinsella

There's a new Pinocchio book on the way and it's definitely on the dark side. The book is aimed at 9-12 year olds but, as author Scott William Carter says, he hopes adults will enjoy it as much as they did Coraline, which is of a similar ilk.

“The untold story of Pinocchio, with a dark twist. Pino, as he’s come to be known after he became a real boy, has discovered that he has the power to bring puppets to life himself...” 

Photo by Heidi Carter

 Although it's not out till August 2012, it's already available on amazon.com for pre-order. This author has been very prolific in the fantasy short story market. (You may have read his short story"Heart of Stone" from Hags, Sirens and Other Bad Girls of Fantasy.) Wooden Bones is his second novel sold to date and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done with Pinocchio.

Grimm Confessions by Fans of the Series

It's no surprise there are fan websites and blogs popping up for NBC's Grimm, just like they have for ABC's Once Upon A Time.

This blog, which can be contributed to by anyone, is titled Grimm Confessions and not only highlights the thoughts - pros and cons - about the series by various fans but their wishes for where it might go too. The day after an episode airing is a good time to check the blog for new entries though they appear more often than that.

Here are some examples:

There are many gif captures and multiple gif "arrangements" (sees to be the new trend!) so you can check those out too. One of the most creative "gif groupings" adds lines from the song "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics (used throughout the pilot episode) and pairs the lyrics with key scenes to underline their gravity. You can see that on this page HERE (I've linked to the posters own page so it's easier to find). I wonder who thought up the connection of that song with Red Riding Hood? It works chillingly well.

Comic Book Stores Gear Up for the Holiday Season With Fairy Tales

With two popular TV series based on fairy tales and lots of buzz about fairy tale movies in the making, comic book stores are looking to grab a piece of the pie during this season-of-selling.

In this article - written for Black Friday sales - a number of comic book stores tell what - beside many, many copies of Fables - these stores are stocking up with and recommending for fairy tale fans.

See this article HERE and scroll down for the lists of recommendations. There may be a few ones here you haven't heard of.

Also - Fables Covers by James Jean is still on sale at Amazon.com.

Advertising: InterfaceFLOR's Once Upon A Tile

Cinderella

"Our latest collections are right on trend so it seemed only natural to promote and showcase them in a way that is equally of the moment.  Modern takes on fables and fairy tales are a major theme this year in movies, social events and design, so we decided to explore this mysterious world and delve into the darker side of some of the best-known children’s fairy tales. The result is a visually stunning, dramatic and edgy backdrop which shows off our new collections to spectacular effect.

Michele Iacovitti, Vice President of Marketing & Branding, InterfaceFLOR EMEAI"

Without doubt, the most intriguing thing about the floors would have to be this ad campaign using well known fairy tales (and their characters) to highlight the floor. 

 

Goldilocks

 

Beauty & the Beast

 The interesting thing is only one of these fairy tales is usually associated with floors (ie. Cinderella) but I thought they did a very nice job of integrating the idea of Goldilocks ending up on the floor and using Hansel & Gretel's forest path.

 

Rapunzel

 

Hansel & Gretel

And it actually works. You do find yourself looking at the floor!

Here's a videos from the campaign - also very nicely done.

Source: HERE.

Grimm Reality in Portland

We all know the evil things done in fairy tales have their counterparts in the real world and although awful it doesn't seem quite as chilling as when it's paralleled with the present day.

The NBC series Grimm is filming on location in Portland, Oregon - by all accounts a perfect locale for the subject matter of dark fairy tales with its terrain, forests and moody-weather atmosphere. As it turns out there's a much darker reason it works too.

This article, written by a local, shows both the excitement of having Grimm being filmed there but also how close to home the subject matter has already been for the town.

From the article, after a brief description of the crimes in the pilot episodes:

Kyron Horma

Why is this chilling?  This is where reality intersects with the TV show.  In the spring of 2010, a young boy named Kyron Horman went missing from our city of Portland.  The school he vanished from? Skyline Elementary. He has never been found and the mystery surrounding his disappearance still has the Portland police bureau following tips and leads.

I see Grimm has been picked up for another season on NBC. The Brothers Grimm wrote 209 dark tales back in the early 19th Century.  It seems we are in for a lot of these modern age fairy tales, too dark for children but just right for grown humans that like a little suspense. And I for one, will be looking for a little reality in each show.

 You can read the full article with its real life parallels with the series, HERE.

I Will Always Find You & Other Graphics of "Once Upon A Time"

This is a beautifully done comparison of Snow White's fairy tale coma versus the her Prince Charming's real-world coma. (Click on image to see full size.) Though the original graphics are from the show, of course, the way of seeing and presenting them is this photographer/journalist's own.

I do so love seeing what the concepts in Once Upon A Time are inspiring and hope the network has no problem with people manipulating these sorts of graphics. Seeing creations like this make me want to revisit the show even more and do a great job of creating further underground interest in the show. Kudos to the "jess"*, the artist for this one.

There are a few lovely blogs now dedicated to Once Upon A Time graphic tributes and gif collections: you can find one HERE and another HERE. I particularly like all the parallel images -the 'mirror concepts, if you will. :)

Here are some random images and gifs that caught my eye:

   

It appears the gifs are not always appearing in their correct formatting so please click HERE and HERE to see how they were originally placed.

* This artist's blog has quite a number of artfully arranged image captures for different shows. The colors are tweaked and the images cropped according to taste and it all works so beautifully. If you enjoy graphic design this blog is definitely worth a browse. The other two blogs are dedicated to Once Upon A Time and Snow White/Charming - they highlight some of the lovely graphics and photography that's so easy to miss when you're watching the actual show.

Fan Art of Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard

This lovely piece of fan art popped up yesterday, showing the dual role and real-world dilemma of Once Upon A Time's Snow White beautifully. I had to share. I'm looking forward to seeing what else people create as a result of this series.
Source: tooyoungtofight

ABC's Once Upon A Time Roundtable

If you're anything like me, you would love to finish up your weekly viewing of the most recent Once Upon A Time episode to discuss the fairy tale aspects revealed and tackled that week.

Since this blog doesn't currently facilitate that, I thought I'd point you to the next best thing: TV Fanatic's round table/series fan discussion.

I meant to put this up before this week's airing, since it covers the Rumpelstiltskin & Cinderella episode, but it's still fun to read through, especially as we now know more than we did. Don't forget to keep reading through the comments - there are at least a couple of pages. That's the only place I see anyone bringing up the point of  names being so important to Rumpelstiltskin and how that may have something to do with why Henry hasn't deduced just who Mr. Gold is yet.

Of course there are questions (and issues) they didn't ask that I'd love to see discussed but perhaps another time... :)

You'll see there's quite a variety of people watching too: Disney fans, people who only know Disney versions of fairy tales, classic fairy tale aficionados and also regular people who barely have any passing acquaintance with fairy tales but are really enjoying all the drama-with-mirror-world layering. One thing I really like about the series is how it's clearly appealing to a wide range of people.

I do hope they continue this round table. Reading various summary reviews online, in which they mostly re-hash that week's plot with a couple of conjectures added for good measure, isn't nearly as interesting as hearing what questions and topics the series is causing people to think about.

I'm not sure how many of my old readers realize I'm posting again but for the few that are following again  - thank you! and I have some questions for you:

What aspects of Once Upon A Time are you interested in? 

And the all-time big question:

Even though Emma Snow doesn't (currently) have a fairy tale counterpart we know there are things about her that are currently hidden. Who do you think she will turn out to be? What will be her big reveal?