Grandma, What a Big History You Have!

Oh I sincerely wish they'd had done a "mockumentary reveal" of Red's "genealogy" care of TLC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" That's how I would have chosen to announce Little Red Riding Hood's travels along the Silk Road and her connection to the Middle East.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is the big fairy tale news of the season for folklorists and scholars (in particular): one anthropologist, Dr. Jamie Tehrani, has traced Red Riding Hood's lineage via unique means (especially with regard to fairy tales) and believes he's found her origin. He published his findings three days ago, on November 13, 2013 in PLOS ONE.

✒ ✒  ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line to discover LRRH's ancient ancestor) ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ 

Festival de Gavarnie's Monstrously Enchanting Production of "La Belle et La Bête" in the Pyrénées Mountains

This is from the middle of this year, but this Beauty and the Beast production in the mountains of France looks like it would have been amazing to see in person! I had to share it straight away, even though it's no longer running. Everything about this production appears exquisitely done; from the flyer to the costumes and masks, to the setting and the lighting... I only wish I could see it so I could enjoy the writing and performance (beyond the little in the video below) as well.

✒ ✒  ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line for LOTS more photos & production info) ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ 

You're NOT A Princess! (Mercy College Fights Princess Culture to Get Girls To Further Education)

It's gone viral and it's easy to see why. With Princess Culture pervading American society, in particular, these days, would you dare to tell a girl "You are NOT a princess?"

The campaign works well, by grabbing your attention this way, as in, "How dare they tell me/my girl that you are not/should not aspire to be a princess?!" Then it tells girls "you are more", "rescue yourself", among other strong girl messages. the "prepare for life tagline included on all the posters makes it clear the emphasis is on empowering rather than destroying dreams (because, if you're smart, you can have those too.)

It's being called a feminist campaign, although a more accurate term might be pro-girls-education campaign. Mind you, Mercy College is an all-girls college prep-school so it makes sense for them to focus on a female-centric message rather than just a pro-education, but it should also be noted that it's a Catholic school, so this is a pretty progressive stance.

Although we wish this was the norma and didn't need to say it at all, we still think Mercy College should get kudos for this gutsy move.

Here's a nice summary/commentary from Adweek:

A tiny, all-female Catholic college-prep academy in Kentucky has created a curious ad campaign, via agency Doe-Anderson, that flies in the face of all my assumptions regarding Catholic education. The deeply feminist campaign tells young women, "You're not a princess" and "Life's not a fairytale," and advises them: "Don't wait for a prince." The tagline is: "Prepare for real life." 

Let me explain why this is so cool. Is this a new message? No, it's many decades old. Is it a common message? Sadly, also no. This type of talk is not only still new to a lot of people, it's particularly timely as the Disney-princess empire continues to expand by dainty leaps and fierce bounds. What's most remarkable is that a Catholic preparatory school is taking a view of women's education that doesn't end in a prince. Lord have mercy, but Mercy Academy has a progressive view on women's role in the world.

What was your first reaction? And what was your second?

Perhaps I should point out the fine print below which reads:

You're not a princess.

BUT YOU CAN STILL RULE THE WORLD.

Where's the "love" button?

Wooden Boy Teaches Us About Sex Ed (Yes, They Went There. It's Actually A Good Thing.)

Note: I have so many stories to get through today and it's already late, so please excuse me not going as much in depth into the stories as usual!

An new PSA about sexual health and awareness of non-symptomatic STDs, stars our favorite not-so-little-anymore wooden boy, Pinocchio. I particularly like the twist that he doesn't know he's lying.

From mediabistro:

...the spot is a reminder to girls everywhere that the dude you meet out at the club might have AIDS or Herpes or something but might not know it. Wrap that rascal, as the kids say. Rubber up! 

All the bawdy puns work to the campaign's advantage here because once you see this  - and your mind fills with all the worst "woody" jokes you've ever heard - it's going to be difficult to forget. That's a good thing. And that's the whole point.

The PSA is actually French, with the English version shown below, but don't worry. There's nothing here a kid hasn't seen before and it's technically safe for work but sexual situations are implied (obviously).

Take a look (and show your teen):

After so much time dancing around adults-only Pinocchio jokes whenever his character enters a storyline, it's great to see them being put to good use.

If you'd like to find out more about the approach to the PSA, as well as the wooden boy effects, you can see a good half-English/half French "making of" video HERE.

Be safe!

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. ;)