New Maleficent Sneak Peek Trailer (With Lots of Maleficent & a Comparison with the Original Animated Classic)

It's a gutsy move - intercutting the new Maleficent movie scenes with the corresponding original Disney animated ones, but it works. And it should draw in nostalgic parents and Disney die-hards as well as new fans. (Heck, even the live action fairies don't annoy me half as much as the animated ones do!)

Take a look:

Angelina Jolie seems pretty much perfect in the title role, from all we've seen so far. Elle Fanning seems fine but it's really not about her, and honestly, we all want to see more Maleficent anyway, right?

I find it intriguing that we have this giant "remember she's a fairy!" visual indication in the very pointed ears, which are then very specifically covered up by the Mistress of All Evil cap, which also covers her (grown/growing?) horns, subconsciously transitioning us to think of her as less fairy, more demon.

It's a little difficult to tell how the script is going to sit, as all the lines we have heard are out of context (and many out of order), but I remain impressed with the movie overall at this point.

Plus: screencap and gifs opportunities galore!
Here are some I just pulled:

Whomever is directing the marketing for this really understands our society's current hunger for gif-able scenes (new word) and meme-potentialed images (more new words). And it's working. Looks like someone noted the enthusiasm of the OUAT fan images - and how well they help market a show (even when it's often below par) - and how the fans enthusiasm and stories help the movie/product take on a life of it's own - beyond the screen. (Free and fast marketing - make it viral and you have a hit!) Smart, smart, smart.

Fairy tale people should be looking at this and taking note!

In the meantime, expect a zillion Maleficent gifs on Tumblr tomorrow. Oh - and don't forget this iconic scene:

Although I have some reservations, overall I think I'm just going to enjoy this film (possibly a lot!), not to mention my excitement over seeing the "expansion" (in pop culture) of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.

Bring on May 30th! (In the US & UK - some other lucky countries will get to see our favorite fairy tale villain a few days earlier...)

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 4): Rose Theater (with Su Blackwell's Lovely Sets)

Next up: the production you've probably heard about (especially if you've been a regular reader of the blog for a few years and saw this post HERE): Rose Theater's The Snow Queen production, using designs by the amazing fairy tale paper artist Su Blackwell.

I heard a lot of great things about the design, less so about the production itself unfortunately. I wish I could find some better sources to cite some different views from but here's the best I found:

A brief excerpt from an atypically brief review in The Guardian (who's reviews and articles I generally respect a lot):

There is a great deal to charm here, especially in Su Blackwell's cutout paper designs, which conjure fairytale forests and winking houses. The comedy is good, too, particularly in a scene in which Gerda encounters a Hooray Henry wedding party. But the show is often at its best when it sticks closely to Andersen's original rather than veering off into a story of the changing seasons at war with each other; and although Natascha Metherell's production has its moments of frosty magic, it doesn't quite generate the emotional power that it should.

An excerpt from British Theater Guide:

Here, the story of a young girl, Gerda, and her quest to save her friend Cei from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen, who plans to cloak the world in a perpetual winter, plays out on an attractive set by Su Blackwell, an artist making a first, distinguished foray into theatre design with this production. Each stage of Gerda’s journey through the seasons has a very particular look and tone, the mood enhanced by excellent music composed by Alex Silverman, with fiddle, accordion and guitar giving the production a beguiling folk spirit.
A standout sequence transports Gerda through the ice to arrive at the cottage of the sorceress Mrs D, the first of the transformative encounters on her quest. The most surprising episode moves us into a world of gap-year toffs and teen-speak: it breaks the mood, but features a very funny performance from Sian Robins-Grace as a decidedly modern teen princess.
...Overall, The Snow Queen skirts deep enchantment in this incarnation. But it’s a classy and enjoyable production that offers many delights.

And finally excerpts of additional information about the production, along with review opinion from Exeunt Magazine:

The set alone is a source of wonder. Paper artist, Su Blackwell, in her first design project for the stage has created a delicate, wintry world of trees, cottages and lampposts that appear to have been snipped from the pages of a paperback. Black lettering nests against white, making an apt and charming backdrop for Charles Way’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy story.Young Gerda is a nervy girl, prone to panic attacks and terrified of her bad-tempered schoolmaster father, Mr Overskou. When her classmates take turns to dance in front of one another, she can’t bring herself to join in and her best friend Cei has to calm her down. Though Cei and Gerda have been friends and playmates all their lives, Mr Overskou disapproves of the boy’s dreamy ways and forbids them to see one another; it is then that Cei falls under the Snow Queen’s spell. A shard of mirror pierces his heart and he becomes cold and cruel before being whisked off to the Queen’s winter palace and forced to piece together the shattered fragments of her magic mirror. But though the townspeople believe Cei to have drowned, Gerda refuses to accept this and sets off to find him.
If anything Natascha Metherell’s production is too gentle and sedate....What’s missing, despite all its considerable polish, is any real emotional tug or genuine sense of peril; it’s all a little too neat and tidy and lacks the wild fringes of the best children’s theatre.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one, apart from the lovely set design (which I insta-love). Did anyone know anyone who actually saw this?

More Snow Queen theatrics coming so stay tuned!

Behind the Disney Brave Shoot

This would be my favorite unofficial photo for composition & lighting

A little bonus because I know there's a whole lot of you (us) who like seeing these things: here are some lovely behind-the-scenes photos that appeared the day after Jessica Chastain's Merida was released into the internet-wilds.

To remind you, here's the official pic (looks like the color is bumped up in this one but it works - that hair is definitely Merida-red now!):

And here are the other behind-the-scenes shots (my favorite is at the head of the post, but you probably read that).

                    

 

                     

Apart from the cars in the background ruining it somewhat, this is my favorite "most natural Merida & Angus".
Jessica most embodies the Merida spirit here & check the horses' ears & eyeline: he likes her!
(So now I like her even more)

Did you notice the horse got a little photoshopping of his own re the markings and the high gloss? I know he had to match Angus but still... seems a crime that such a beautiful animal should need his image altered. But when you see things like this, and also like Jessica rehearsing on the plastic model, her boot stabilizing her position by being on a concrete block, you realize how much more amazing it is when stories - and real life - have these elements in them - without the props and extra touches. (Hollywood's fairy godmothers have to work pretty hard to get their fairy tales just "so"!)

So what does this have to do with anything in fairy tales? Very little - apart from reminding you that Brave and Scottish tales are back in the public mind and eye.

Therefore, you will now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.

Guillermo del Toro's 'Beauty & the Beast' Likely To Start Production In Summer 2014. Pretty Sure. We Hope.

Yay? It's hard to get excited until we hear - for real - that they're actually starting filming on this because it now feels like it's been around FOREVER but, from Emma Watson in an interview here's the current state of del Toro's Beauty & the Beast:

Basically, he's still very excited, it IS going forward (possibly/probably Summer 2014 production start time) and Emma Watson WILL be Beauty. No Beast yet though - they're still doing the casting rounds on that one.

And a quote I can't pin down the original date for but appropriate to remind people of now anyway, it's Emma Watson teasing about del Toro's adaptation:

“He’s obsessed with the idea of creating worlds. We’re even going to have this amazing language that we made up.”

Creating worlds, made up language... yes. Definitely still intrigued!

One last bit of news on this: Emma Watson has no other film plans ahead of Beauty and the Beast. According to her schedule, this is her next project.

You can hear Emma talk about her New Year-ish meeting with del Toro about Beauty and the Beast, in this video interview posted today, HERE.

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 3): Sherman Cymru

Next on my theatrical variations of The Snow Queen list this week, is Sherman Cymru's The Snow Queen. I only found one actual production photo and a promo video, but the set designs by Chloe Lamford are just gorgeous!

I like the poster too, by Savage & Gray Design. 

More behind the scenes than anything else on this one but take a look at how lovely these are. Each image and set is like a postcard (I just wish I could find a larger images of each one so I could take a better look):

There's a video promo too, which I would not have known was related had it not been linked. Considering it most definitely IS part of this same production I'm very intrigued:

Sherman Cymru is currently winning awards for his/their unique approach to theater production and I have to say, from the little I can find image-wise for this one, my interest is definitely piqued.

The Snow Queen production elements and images shown here were from 2009 (I think). I will admit I'm a little vague on exactly how this production works. The blurb calls it an "Audio Described Performance", except there were most definitely actors, sets and the whole nine yards of production, so, apart from perhaps using a narrator, I'm a little in the dark as to what this means...

There's much more  - very different - Snow Queen on stage coming your way, so keep checking back... :)

The Sochi Olympics Are Going to be Epic! (Or Mythic. Or Both.)

You may be wondering why the heck I'm posting a trailer for the Olympics on a fairy tale blog. But then, if you're asking that - you haven't seen it. It's epic, mythic and like something out of Asgard (or maybe Niflheim is more accurate), Middle Earth or Mount Olympus... well, hey isn't that appropriate? Take a look:

Savage North cover by Wayne Reynolds

Frost Giant Jarl for Dungeon Magazine
(Artist Unknown)

I kind of love that the ad is all about conquering nature instead of about "being the best" or putting down other countries of athletes. This focus, while at first seeming grandiose (no - it is NOT a trailer from a new Lord of the Rings movie), the spot attempts to capture just how epic a thing it is that these athletes do at the Winter Olympics. And, in my opinion, kudos to the team that created this for doing so*. This is where it started - with the gods watching and mortal man defying nature, his own nature and the limitations the gods had thought they'd put on humans.

Myth and fairy tale are often linked in very cold regions. Sometimes it's hard to tell where a Norse fairy tale ends and the myth begins. The Frost Giants of legend make appearances in fairy tale, as do ice kings, queens, maidens, trolls and giants.

The chilling voiceover makes it clear: this is a story of epic proportions we're telling here; one future generations will talk about forever. Here's the transcript, narrated at full  grandmaster intensity, by British actor Charles Dance (who plays Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones**):

At the Wall (Game of Thrones Comic #7 cover)
Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister & Ghost

I am the dreadful menace.

The one whose will is done.

The haunting chill upon your neck.

I am the conundrum.

I will summon armies.

Of wind and rain and snow.

I made the black cloud overhead.

The ice, like glass below.

Not you, nor any other.

Can fathom what is nigh.

I will tell you when to jump.

And I’ll dictate how high.

The ones that came before you.

Stood strong and tall and brave.

But I stole their dreams away.

Those dreams could not be saved.

But now you stand before me.

Devoid of all dismay.

Could it be? Just maybe.

I’ll let you have your day.

And can't you see all those fairy tale creatures living in this setting, ready to challenge our modern day heroes? While our heroes wear technologically enhanced athletic gear for speed (and survival) and to gain a prize, are the heroes of our fairy tales seeking treasures in the ice and glass mountains so different? Granted, it's unlikely these people will lose their heads, their fortunes or their families (though they often skirt the edge of mortality) but it's not unheard of for these heroes to win a "princess" (or two) after the trial, or gain the key to the treasure vault of their city (sometimes literally!).

Too often I think we consider ourselves far away from all these old stories, from fairy tales and from myth but really, we're just the modern version of it.

And I love that this ad reminded me of all that.

And I'll be tuning in to the BBC (who have some of the best coverage of all the nations competing at the Olympics IMHO) to watch the athletes go "North of the Wall" and conquer Winter.

Bring on the 2014 Games!
(And snow, please. Sochi could REALLY use a heavy dose of snow over the next few weeks...)

* The trailer was directed by Tomasz Bagiński, polish director and animator. His film "The Cathedral". was nominated for an Oscar a few years ago.

** I wonder how long it took them to decide that there's no way they could have Mr. Dance say "Winter is coming.." without having this epically intense trailer dive bomb into a parody? Although it would have been funny - I'm glad they didn't (but just wait for the memes..!)