Breaking News: Magnificent "Maleficent" Trailer

It's here! This could be... really quite wonderful. You can see the Disney influence but that's not a bad thing at all. I can see the right age group watching this and falling in love with fairy tales forever.

Take a look:

Ooh those thorns! I have no doubt there will be critics - it's pretty high fantasy - but, again, isn't that why we loved Legend when we first saw it? All the iconic scenes are going to be there and I'm sure we'll get a glimpse of Maleficent-as-dragon in the near future as well.

I'll watch it again a few more times but my first reaction is on the side of "yay". What do you think?

Shaun Tan's Trouble Illustrating Fairy Tales (& the Resulting, Wonderful Sculptures)

German edition with The Frog King sculpture on the cover

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this special German edition of Philip Pullman's recent retelling of Grimm's tales that people are so excited about. Although different countries have received different covers, the German edition is the only one that's "illustrated" (ie has images beyond the front cover).

Heidi, over at the SurLaLune Blog, has a great write up on this, along with a best collection of images for the edition anywhere. Rather than repeat everything she has put together I found the artist's difficulty in approaching the fairy tales interesting, as I've never heard of an illustrator saying they didn't feel there was anything they could create to add to the tale, so am concentrating on that.

I did - after lots of hunting - manage to find some additional images, as well as another fairy tale sculpture from an exhibition the artist's work was included in this past year. I'm not including what they're from though, mainly because s few of them could be from a couple and I don't want to misrepresent the work, but you're welcome to guess. I do love seeing images of rarely illustrated tales though!

Australian artist, Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing, The Arrival) was approached about doing illustrations but it appears he found it a rather confounding assignment - at least to start. He persisted, however, and rather than producing a set of illustrations, Mr. Tan turned to sculpture for the first time in many years. The results are both whimsical and primal and immediately connect with children (as I found to my surprise).

Here's a little from Shaun Tan about how he ended up working in three dimensions:

I was particularly interested in the scholarly notes at the end of each tale, offering background, critique and even a few suggested improvements from a writer's point of view; I was also interested in Philip's introduction which praises the concise, 'cardboard character' narrative of Grimm's fairty tales and points out they do not necessarily benefit much from illustration. A good problem for a visual artist! And one I'm inclined to agree with: I'd long ago researched fairy tales as a possible illustration project, but soon gave it up as the tales had such an abstracted quality about them, I couldn't think of a suitable 'way in' as an artist who favours representational imagery. While I love such illustrations as those byArthur Rackham, I've always felt they conflict with my own less literal experience a reader. And in many cases, the tales are just too strange or irrational for conventional 'scenes'. 

So I was a little reluctant at first, but soon began to think of ways I could avoid painiting or drawing altogether. As a child, I was actually more obsessed with sculpture than painting and drawing, working with clay, papier mache and soapstone, and was reminded of this when browsing through my collection of books on folk art and particularly Inuit scultpure and Pre-Columbian figurines from Mexico. Many of these small, hand-sized sculptures are strongly narrative and dreamlike, and offered a 'way in' to thinking about Grimm's stories as part of an old creative tradition. The works I ended up creating hopefully convey the spirit of each tale without actually illustrating them, like anonymous artifacts in a museum open to all kinds of interpretation.

You can buy the German edition (only available in German text sorry) HERE and other country-specific Amazon sites. There is an ebook available for download via HERE (you'll need to figure out a way to pay in Euros though).

Red Riding Hood by Shaun Tan (from an exhibition in 2013 - not sure if a version of this is included)

Firebone Theater's "Long Long Ago In A Land of Giants, Jewels & Jolly Fools" (Not Your Usual Holiday Tales)

First of all, isn't the poster stunning?! Though I don't see any sign of LRRH being included in the presented tales - unless we're following her through a Manhattan version of the woods from tale to tale - it still does a perfect job of showing fairy tales in a modern context. Bravo to whomever created the concept and shot it!

Second: the title - just wonderful, and perfect for fairy tales without the usual "once upon a time " or "enchanting 'something'"... It sets the feel of storytelling beautifully and it makes me want to sit down by a fireside and listen to the rest.

Third, do I detect a mini-revival of interest in lesser known tales? Firebone Theater is presenting musical adaptations of three lesser known fairy tales from three well-known fairy tale writers: Wilde, Grimm and Perrault (OK, technically that's four, but you get the idea).

Here are some excerpts from the press release. I put the main information in bold so you can read it among the credits and alum information, which essentially tells you this production has some serious talent behind it:

Firebone Theatre presents three new plays drawn from the forgotten fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, The Grimm Brothers, and Charles Perrault. This event promises music, laughter, and homespun goodies including milk, cookies, wine, and beer. 

Long, Long Ago features a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant by Chris Cragin-Day (The Public EWG Alumna, O'Neill Theater Center Alumna) and Michael Castillejos directed by Jaki Bradley (What Every Girl Should Know--FringeNYC Time Out New York Critic's Pick, Lincoln Center Director's Lab, SDC Fellow); an adaptation of Charles Perrault's The Fairies by Pia Wilson (LMCC's Workspace program, The Public EWG Alumna) directed by Jor Dana Williams (THE PARTICULARS by Matthew MacKenzie FringeNYC 2012), and an adaptation of The Grimm Brothers' Hans Dumm by Christin Siems (Morbin Poetry- Incubator Arts Project NYC) directed by Amelia Peterson (Incubator Arts Project, Kennedy Center Page to Stage).

About Long, Long Ago  

This short musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant... tells the story of three children who sneak into the Giant's garden every day after school while the mysterious Giant is away. When the Giant returns to find the children playing in his garden, he explodes in anger and chases them out. He then builds a wall around his castle so that no children will ever get in again. Winter punishes him for his selfishness, refusing to relent even when the rest of the village blooms into spring. Then one day, a special child melts the giant's heart and the garden together, changing both he and the village children forever. 

Hans Dumm... is one of the first collected Grimm Brothers fairy tales. A haughty princess, a rancorous king, and a village idiot tell the story of a good wish gone wrong, when a sudden and unexpected pregnancy turns the kingdom upside down. Sentenced without a trial, the princess and her dimwitted companion travel a long, difficult road of seemingly irreconcilable differences to finally live happily ever after…that is, until her father, the king, accidentally barges in on their wedded bliss. In this adaptation of the tale, Hans Dumm isn’t the only fool and each character must be humbled before they can give and accept forgiveness. 

The Fairies... tells the story of a beautiful, gentle young woman named Izzy. She is practically a servant in her own home. Her mother and sister make her do all the chores around the house and fetch water from a nearby stream. When Izzy makes a trip to the stream, she encounters what she thinks is an old woman. In reality, the old woman is a fairy who bestows a gift of jewels onto Izzy for her kindness. When Izzy's mother learns of the Fairy's gift to Izzy, she instructs her other daughter, Grumpina to go to the stream and treat the old woman kindly to receive the same gift as her sister. Grumpina unhappily goes to the stream where she meets the fairy in disguise. This encounter doesn't go as well for Grumpina as it does for Izzy. The girls' mother blames Izzy for Grumpina's misfortune. Izzy runs away into a nearby forrest. It is there she meets her true love – a prince who can see her worth at first sight, and they lived happily ever after.

I'm really intrigued by The Fairies in particular. More popular variants include Diamonds & Toads and are one of my favorites in retellings these days. Perhaps because I'm always thinking about all those reptiles and how weird it would be for them to suddenly be exiting someone's mouth, over tongue, between teeth... Or perhaps it's because I have a budding herpetologist in the house who always wants to make sure the reptiles in any story get a happy ending.

Hans Dumm - or Hans Dumb - is a tale I haven't heard for quite a while. I remember hearing variants of this regularly when I was young (perhaps because it shares motifs with the Bible story in which Joseph hides a goblet in his brothers pack n order to detain him), where a King visits his daughter unknowingly and she hides something valuable in his garments or belongings just so she can go through the pretense of accusing him and bringing him back, until a satisfactory answer to her question is given, and her father understands how wrong he was in his assumptions (about her) long ago. It's a tale that only appeared in the first edition of Household Tales, though I have no idea why.

The show is family-friendly musical triptych (of sorts) and though it's unlikely we'll hear what the show is like (unless one of our readers goes along and reports back), I think it's an interesting idea and a curious trio of tales to tell together, especially for the holiday season, though The Selfish Giant (whose garden remains in Winter until the Giant changes his ways) fits nicely. It certainly should make an impression on kids: Exploding flowers! Frog vomit! Princess tricks her Dad!

I kinda want to go see it now. :D

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

Interview with The Selfish Giant script writer Chris Cragin-Day

Excerpt:

Spoiler alert: Wilde makes the children fall in love with the giant and then Wilde kills him. At our first read through, this made some people in the room uncomfortable. “Do we really want children thinking about death at Christmas time?” they gently questioned. Here’s what the fairy tale gets–children know. They know about death, instinctively, by about age three. They want to talk about it frankly. They want to know if they should be afraid. Wilde says they shouldn’t. He sends a boy to welcome the giant into death with wide open arms. And, as in all fairy tales, love conquers death. It doesn’t eliminate death–it is victorious over it. 

The childhood universe is inherently mythological. When I tap into that, I can write for children with as much writer’s integrity as I write for a sophisticated audience as that of The Public. The challenge of writing for children is that you can’t cover up half truths with intellectual banter or pop culture references.  Children’s eyes and ears cut through that much more sharply than our own. Children demand truth and honesty, and if you don’t deliver, they’ll call you on it. Wilde knew that. (Yet another reason to love him.)

You can read the whole of Chris' article on writing the script - and her journey on learning to love writing for children - HERE. (It's lovely - I recommend it.)

Book Release: "Aunt Marie's Book of (Grimm) Lore"

It's on the dark side, no doubt about it, but Aunt Marie's Book of Lore is something dark fairy tale fans have been wanting to get their hands on ever since the series premiered. It was just released today (November 12th), and Amazon is having a decent "new listing" sale on them right now at almost 40% off the list price.

It's likely it will be a short print run and quickly become a collector's item (for people who like those sorts of things), but the main thing for fairy tale folk here is the mix of "olde worlde" illustrated legends and folklore regarding different creatures - and not just that but the tales they were involved in too. Some of this is extrapolated from actual fairy tale and folklore, other creatures have been inserted into tales to give them a "creature twist". Either way, it's pretty fascinating stuff and overlaps with myth and legend a lot too.

You probably won't want to keep it on a shelf accessible to young kids but it will be a great addition to your dark tales volumes and legends of all things that go bump in the night.

Here's the blurb:

THE REAL BOOK OF MONSTERS, WEAPONS, AND POTIONS AS SEEN IN THE SHOW!

As his Aunt Marie was dying, Portland homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt discovered he was descended from a long line of Grimms. As well as inheriting the “gift” of Grimm abilities from his aunt of being able to see the creatures’ true forms, she also handed him a collection of useful notes and artifacts, which his family had accumulated down the centuries. Among them was the Book of Lore. A collection of observations about Wesen species, this book records specific Grimm encounters with them, from Volcanalis on the slopes of Vesuvius, Italy, in 79 A.D. to Hexenbiester and Klaustreich in Portland, USA, in 2012. With details of how to identify, fight and – for the more dangerous and powerful – kill them, the information contained here may well mean the difference between life and death for Grimms and Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen alike. 

This in-universe book explores the monsters, weapons, and potions in "Grimm" with detailed pictures and descriptions. The book is Aunt Marie's recording of the supernatural creatures she and her fellow Grimms have to defeat. 

Inspired by the darker side of the classic Grimm Brothers' fairy tales...

The illustrations look authentic to those shown in the show and vary in style from medieval manuscript pages to roughs notes and drawings. My only wish is that they'd not have photos from the show on the front cover. And that it was a hardcover with battle-scarred and aged pages...We want the "real" book!

But in lieu of that, this should make a nice substitute.

*Source & image previews via Dread Central, additional via SpoilerTV

Breaking News: First Official Maleficent Poster (& Expecting a Trailer Tomorrow)

New from Disney this morning: the first Maleficent poster. I love the dragon scales on the front of her cap. (By the way, anybody getting Legend flashbacks?) Apparently we should also be seeing the first trailer tomorrow too. (I really hope it's good...)

And here's a little extra news on the Maleficent front (which the poster may help you envision).

Toronto media got a first look at Maleficent footage yesterday morning. Here's a report from TheStar:

Filming Maleficent with lots of blue screen

Angelina Jolie sure knows how to break up a royal christening.
Toronto entertainment media got a sneak peek of Jolie in the title role of the fairy-tale villainess in Maleficent at Disney’s annual holiday press preview at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Monday morning.
In the Maleficent scene screened for press, the vermillion-lipped Jolie strides into a palace chamber sporting black leather-wrapped horns and headpiece, her cheekbones seeming sharp enough to cut glass. A raven is perched on her shoulder,
“Well, well,” she says with a wide grin, interrupting a trio of CGI-created fairies who are bestowing gifts and good wishes on the baby.
Informed by the royal family she’s not invited, Maleficent doesn’t take the snub well, putting the well-known curse on the baby who will grow up to be Sleeping Beauty.

And from an interview with Rick Baker, the make-up artist who worked with Angelina Jolie on creating a look for Maleficent (apparently it was very collaborative):

Maleficent one of the most famous villains in animation, Mistress of all Evil. How was it to bring her to life from the animated icon we all have grown up with?It’s funny I’ve had that task on a number of films, like The Grinch, there are things that you can do in a drawing that you can’t necessarily do in the real world in a movie and this is a really kind of different take on Maleficent too. They didn’t particularly want that. I actually would have loved to have duplicated the Maleficent that we all know and love. But also when you have Angelina Jolie you don’t really wanna cover up that much or do that much. Frankly, I said I don’t think we should do too much of anything to her except for the horns. Angie had some very specific ideas that she wanted and my job was to try and interpret her ideas and put my aesthetic into it and make it work. The makeup that we did I think is cool. Is it what I would have done if I was totally left alone? I don’t think so but every movie is like that. I think the movie is gonna be great!

I'm very much looking forward to the trailer tomorrow. Maleficent is set to hit theaters on May 30, 2014.

"The Bear & The Hare" - A Christmas Fairy Tale

I don't know what it is about this year but so many Christmas marketing campaigns are more fairy tale-like than not and are very much working to help me see the magical side of the season (which, usually, to be honest, is rather a struggle). This isn't strictly a fairy tale in the sense we usually talk about here, but it qualifies with regard to how many were told and eventually, written down.

Indulge me and let me tell you this story (you won't regret it, I promise):

There once was an animal who had never seen Christmas. As autumn winds turn to winter snow, the bear begins his annual retreat into hibernation to sleep his way through the best part of the year. The festive spirit is strong though, and his friend the hare is determined to give him a gift he has never received before – Christmas.

It's another ad, but it could be a children's short. Apart from being pretty much spot-on charming and magical in an animal fairy tale way, it's unusual in that most of the elements of the scene are real - as in they were created as miniatures - including the drawings which were done in a very different form of stop motion.

For the John Lewis Christmas advert Hornet/Blinkink directors Elliot Dear and Yves Geleyn took the two most traditional and time-honored animation processes – stop-motion and traditional hand-drawn 2D animation – and combined them to create something innovative and unique. 

Their aim was to do almost everything in camera, using real lighting, lens and film craft to build a world where the audience can see and feel the painstaking work behind it. The 2D animation’s physical interaction with the set and the human imperfections inherent in the process create a hand-crafted piece full of heart and integrity.

I'm including the making-of video here because it's almost more beautiful than the ad itself, and shows magic-under-construction of a different kind. Although it's unlikely production was as harmonious and smooth as this video makes it appear, it's clear everyone is delighted to be part of the project and believes it to be something very special. Magic. It's real. It's just generally a lot of work...

(Hm - I detect a theme for the season emerging in my posts!)

My son loves this - especially "the making of" - and wants the set to play with at home. That sounds perfect to me. In the meantime, we'll grab some cardboard boxes and make our own magic. ;)

Ad: Veet Naturals' Beanstalk

Two beanstalk ads in one week!

This one is for skin care. The campaign is supposed to focus on two element: surprise and discovery. Apparently if all goes well in using your Veet Naturals beauty routine, your garden should grow beanstalks (surprise!) and you can discover you're in a fairy tale. Or you should end up with skin as smooth as a baby beanstalk leaf. Or something.

Take a look (Note: the ad is in Hindi but you get the idea):

I do see the surprise/discovery concepts relating to a beanstalk. Getting that to relate to smooth skin would be a challenge. Makes for a pretty ad though. Beanstalks almost, always do. Problem is, my brain always says: "And then what? Giants?" I'm guessing they wouldn't be hairy though... ;) I like how they put "creative visualization" in the bottom corner so they can't be liable if you can't make your beanstalk grow as expected. Just to be on the safe side... *eyeroll*

One day someone with a lot of time on their hands will compile a playlist of ads with beanstalks in them and I bet you most of them will be nice or at the least be sending a positive message (you don't generally see beanstalks strangling people as they're growing or breaking up beautiful houses as they explode in their growth for instance). Don't you think it's interesting that the concept of a giant beanstalk is, in society, a highly positive motif, considering the main thing at the top is a giant who wants to eat you? I think I'll put that down to the green growing visuals being such a positive and hopeful force - because we see nature as a good thin in general - which outweighs the inevitable danger.

Kind of a cool thing really. More beanstalks please!

* Source.

Fairy Tale Magic Unveiled in Paris: Peeks At "La Belle et La Bête" First Footage (& More) Through Christmas Windows (C'est Magnifique!)

A few days ago, window shoppers in Paris were treated to the unveiling of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann's highly anticipated 2013 Christmas windows, with Lea Seydoux (who plays Beauty in La Belle et La Bête) handling the official launch-n-lighting honors.

It's so stunning and magical, no other Christmas or fairy tale film has a chance of getting noticed in Paris at the moment! I've always maintained magic takes work, and there's no doubt this project had more than it's fair share, but the resulting magic here is real: whomever sees this in person will remember this their entire lives.

There is something very special about beautiful Christmas windows. They're a form of storytelling and theater all by themselves and should be recognized for how much they enrich and effect people's lives. Very often fairy tales emerge from books and sit on the edge of reality, drawing passers by out of their day-today worries and transporting them, despite themselves, into magical worlds, making a season of their lives special and beautiful. I still remember the windows I've seen, especially when I was a child. It's a unique sort of magic and isn't as widespread as it once was, which is a real shame. Kudos to all those visual merchandisers out there who go beyond displaying goods for sale to make magic. We salute you.

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann are known for their breathtaking Christmas constructions, and this year, Beauty and the Beast takes center stage, with animated roses revealing glimpses of the first footage from Gan's Beauty and the Beast. Passers by are able to "brush the roses aside" with their fingers touching the glass so the flowers move to show them sneak peeks of the film. Magical!

✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line for lots more photos & first B&tB footage ) ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ 

"Tinder" by Sally Gardner

It's a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Tinder Box! One of my favorite fairy tales!! And it was released this last week!!! *flails arms in excitement and corrects multiple typos before continuing*

I came across note of this rather randomly, and since I'm not focused on keeping up with books (there are so many wonderful things happening in fairy tale retelling land all the time, there could be daily news just on those), but it didn't take long to figure out I am more than happy to recommend it.

Here's the write up from Ms. Gardner's website:

Tinder is a truly modern fairytale, at once cruel yet deeply enchanting. Sally Gardner chose to set her tale in the Thirty Years War after meeting two young British soldiers who had just returned from modern warfare and were finding civilian life difficult to deal with. They had nightmares and agreed they had never felt more alive than when out at the front. If there is one fairy story that encompasses the trauma of war and its aftermath, it is The Tinderbox and Sally has exquisitely captured these dark overtones in a tale of great love and great loss, accompanied by stunning illustrations by renowned illustrator David Roberts. 

Tinder follows the adventures of Otto Hundebiss, a soldier tired of war who defies death. A mysterious half-man, half-beast nurses him back to health, but continues on alone, leaving Otto only with some old shoes and a set of dice which will tell him the way forward. Stealing chickens and bread in order to survive, Otto is followed by a strange grey-cloaked man who can transform into a wolf. Hiding from the werewolf up a tree, he meets the enigmatic Safire and the two travel together until they are tragically separated. 

From then, Otto’s mission becomes clear and he rolls the dice in hopes that they will lead him back to her. He is soon plunged into an adventure of dark magic and mystery, meeting the scheming Mistress Jabber and the terrifying Lady of the Nail. He learns the power of the Tinderbox and becomes the master of wolves, yet even these powers may not be enough to bring him what he desires.

Firstly, the writer, Sally Gardner is an award winning author from the UK (you may recognize her name from I, Coriander), so I wasn't too surprised when I found an extract, read it and thought - "yep, good stuff, want more!"

Here's a taste from Chapter 1:

Once in a time of war, when I was a soldier in the Imperial Army, I saw Death walking. He wore upon his skull a withered crown of white bone twisted with green hawthorn. His skeleton was shrouded with a tattered cloak of gold and in his wake stood the ghosts of my comrades newly plucked, half-lived, from life. Many I knew by name.  

You can read more of the extract - with illustrations - HERE.

Secondly, the book is also illustrated by David Roberts; someone who's name may not be too familiar but there's a good chance you've seen his work in various places. What I've seen of the drawings in Tinder look wonderful and fit the prose perfectly. I'm not entirely sure that I'll get to see my beloved triplet canine characters with eyes as big as saucers, plates and platters but the giant wolves I've caught glimpses of, placate me a somewhat on this point. ;)

With the book just released there is a "blog tour" happening, with Ms. Gardner giving interviews and various insights about the book around the web. You can read one of them HERE and find a list of interviews and dates there too.

Ms. Gardner also wrote an introduction to fairy tales and how dark they can be, for scifinow, some of which sheds light on her inspiration and process for writing Tinder:

A good fairy tale takes us into the dark, dark woods of our imagination. From there we can go as deep into the forest as we dare or stay on the edge, looking at the trees. A fairy tale talks to our souls in a way few other stories have the power to do. It holds the heartbeat of our fears. 

... Perhaps what a good fairy tale shows us more than anything is its versatility. It may be retold and rewritten and still we recognize its origins. The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen has always been one of my best beloved stories. He adapted a favourite childhood tale, The Spirit in the Candle, and added a dash of Aladdin. It is a wonderfully disjointed tale that travelled in the mind of its author who was twenty-nine years old before he wrote it down. 

Fairy tales should be frightening. Their nearest companions in literature are ghost stories. I love the dark retellings of Angela Carter, the fairy tales of Herman Hess, of the Italian writer Italo Calvino. 

It is not by chance that one of the greatest modern interpreters of fairy tales is Bruno Bettelheim for he was interned in a concentration camp where life is reduced to its barest bones. Fairy tales, under the cloak of a story, reveal the essentials of our lives. They project the trauma of adulthood onto young readers and show them a way of untangling its problems. 

“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist; children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”G K Chesterton

You can read the whole of her introduction (recommended!) HERE.

Note: on the page you'll find a poll, asking you which of the following is your favorite "dark fairy tale", of which The Tinderbox is one. The introduction for fairy tales by Ms. Gardner is below it.

It's funny. I never thought of The Tinderbox as being particularly dark. Perhaps because I always had this naive idea that the dogs would protect the princess should any form of harm be offered her along the way to the soldier - or by him. Clearly my impression of good dogs extended to magical ones in fairy tales.

But I'm curious: of the list given, which one would you say is your favorite dark tale?

Ad: GEICO's Giant

Not much to say here really, except that the new GEICO ad for Fall (bad pun) makes it look like there's a set-up for a whole slew of sequels in which the giant can do lots of damage that GEICO customers simply don't get stressed about (though it's actually part of a "Brighter Side" campaign).

It does seem as if giants are one of the trope du jour right now (the others being Peter Pan, Neverland and possibly male genies). There's lots in development with regard to giants. Even super hero trends are all about giants of one form or another these days. Looks like the boys tales are taking center stage for the next round - something I don't mind too much with all the princess culture debacles of the past few years. I just wish we didn't have to do either girls OR boys tales.

Fairy tale trend cycles are interesting to take note of and follow. (Has anyone done a chart? I couldn't find one.) Since superheroes, in particular, are the popular focus right now, it's really no surprise that boys tales are gaining popularity again. I wonder if Ivan will make an appearance? It would be a great time to retell some of those tales too.