All Fool's Day (aka The Day We Remember Not To Believe Everything We Read On the Internet)

Update: My apologies for this late addition! Apparently I closed the post after saving but without publishing, so it didn't post when it should have.

Ah yes - I should just schedule this day as a day off from the news. In fact, I'm not even going to bother checking headlines until tomorrow because, well, you know... :)

April 1st is a day we can't even believe Google (and should be very wary about the 24 hours before as well) but it's a good reminder at how any one of us can be fooled - and by anyone.

Ivan the Fool is a staple character in Russian fairy tales, very much like the English Jack and the German Hans. The difference is that Ivan is not just an everyman but simple (sometimes simple-minded too), likable and especially lucky.

While I tend to like most Russian tales for one reason or another, I'm just as drawn to Ivan as I am to the English Jack but for slightly different reasons.

Wikipedia puts it well:

Unlike typical heroes, it is Ivan's simplicity and lack of guile that turn out to help him in his adventures. For example he listens to his heart, rather than his mind, he easily forgets offence and endeavours to help others even at his own expense. His naivety, kindness and daring help him fight villains, make friends, win princesses' hearts and ultimately he is rewarded with half a kingdom or some similar accomplishment. 

The moral of these stories is that Ivan The Fool is rarely the fool, he is merely perceived as such by others owing to his simple nature and joviality.

I recently found these lovely illustrations by another incredible Russian illustrator, Igor Oleynikov, who was recently nominated for the 2014 Han Christian Andersen Award, and have been keeping them for an appropriate post. It occurred to me that today is perfect for them. Unfortunately I can't read Russian and the images don't make translating very easy. All I really know, apart from Mr. Oleynikov being the illustrator, is that the title of the book is Ivan the Fool and that it's an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's literary fairy tale*, Ivan the Fool, retold by the loved and respected Russian children's poet, Andrei Usachev (published 2008). The fairy tale is also titled The Old Devil and the Three Small Devils or A Lost Opportunity.

Just from the illustrations it looks a lot like a few fairy tales I'm vaguely familiar with, combined into one, though the green bearded goblin-looking creature is actually supposed to be the/a devil in this story (who is defeated, of course).

A little fairy tale bonus for the day:

HERE's an online English translation of Tolstoy's fairy tale, thanks to the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Ivan the Fool

Arkady Pugachevsky

* It's Tolstoy so yes, expect a political agenda in this tale.

Breaking News/ Rumor Mill: A Tim Burton Poppins?!

Note: Before the purists roll their eyes at my posting on Mary Poppins, please note: Poppins is a magical caretaker/late revealed otherworldly godparent/magical meddler - a type of character which is common in fairy tales, so it's not too much of a stretch to be discussing her type and iterations of her in a fairy tale news blog.  But yes, I agree: Mary Poppins doesn't fit the base definition of fairy tale.

All it took was a single tweet, a fan made poster and vague memories of Disney talking to Burton about something like this and the social media networks set to buzzing like crazed insects this past weekend.

The poster (yes, it's fan made - not from Disney) is at the head of the post. And here's the tweet that sparked the crazy:

And the article* that followed it:

Today, (March 29) Tim Burton announced on his Facebook page that he will be teaming up with Disney to create ‘Poppins’. It will continue the story of Mary Poppins.
The poster looks like we should be expecting a different side of the Mary Poppins universe, a much darker side.
It should be hitting theaters November 2016. We’ll keep you updated!

Whatever the case of true or not, the response has been interestingly polar. Comments are basically "cool", "aw YISS!" and "perfect fit!" then jump to the other end of the spectrum which reads "no, no, NO" and "Burton, step AWAY FROM THE POPPINS!"

Interestingly, I scanned a variety of social media, looking for key words rather than fans for or against,and the scales are definitely tipping toward the "we like this idea" end.

Problem is, I'm fairly certain (in the 80 to 90% range of certain) that this is pure rumor and speculation. At this point anyway. I DO think, however, that there's a good chance this rumor was gently encouraged to spread to see what the response would be, prior to approaching the idea for real. (Call me cynical - it wouldn't be the first time, nor the last.) Considering we've just had Saving Mr. Banks, I'm a little surprised at how much credence this is being given, but then people are quite aware there's nothing like milking a franchise either. Perhaps it was the addition of Winona Ryder's name being added to the possible-Mary's list..? The internet definitely has it's own version of Chinese Whispers.

A reason someone could put any stock in the possibility at all, is because of some not-too-ancient-history sort of information being dug up and quoted like this (from two Italian papers in the last couple of days, for some odd reason - also, translation is auto, not mine):

A Jolly Nightmare by Brianna Garcia

Johnny Depp  and  Helena Bonham Carter  will star Poppins , the new film by Tim Burton made ​​in Disney announced for 2016.  

It 'a few years ago that Disney thinks of a remake of Mary Poppins. In 2011, it was reported on the decision to entrust the direction of the brilliant and unpredictable Tim Burton, and then, though, he's talked more. But what it means to have been abandoned. In fact, things have gone pretty far. And now here come interesting news. The film's release has been announced for the end of 2016, the protagonists are two actors quite dear to Burton Johnny Depp in the role of Chimney Sweeps and Helena Bonham Carter (who is also his wife) in the title role. 

Based on the series of novels written by Pamela Lyndon Travers, the first version of Mary Poppins in 1964 and was directed by Robert Stevenson, the main character was given to Julie Andrews (who won an Oscar), while it had the Chimney Sweep appearance of Dick Van Dyke.Before Burton, Disney and Rob Marshall had thought he had mentioned the name of Nicole Kidman for the main part. Then, however, have changed the cards on the table. 

The screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton ( Alice in Wonderland ), which kept the London setting of '900 and has focused mainly on the mysterious origins of Mary Poppins adding those dark elements so dear to Burton. 

" We're really excited  - he said some time ago the president of Disney's Rich Ross -  of this new collaboration with Tim Burton. The competence and vision put into play with Alice in Wonderland made ​​us understand that it is the right person to bring this great story to the movies with the help of latest technology. It will be a spectacular film. And Helena Bonham Carter is just perfect in the multi-faceted role of Mary Poppins . " 

The film will be shot in  native 3D  with a budget of $ 150 million, and will result in a large deployment of special effects not only to rebuild the London of 1910, but also to recreate the magical world where Mary Poppins leads the young protagonists, and that in the original film had been created in 2D animation, with one of the first successful mix of animation and live action.Mary Poppins  will then become the next Tim Burton film after  Dark Shadows , which starts shooting this month. All other projects in which the director was working on, including The Addams Family  and the retelling of  Sleeping Beauty  by Disney produced their own (named  Maleficent ), will then be postponed. 

(Source HERE)

Mary Poppins by Matt Howorth

There seems to be a bit of mixed information here, some old, some adjusted for new information (did they mean Dark Shadows 2?  - which I haven't heard about - Or did they mean the original Burton Dark Shadows and that's the context for some of this?) and some sort of magical speculation for the rest. Where that Disney quote came from (and who said it) remains a mystery. We'll just have to see if Disney have anything at all to say about the hype this past weekend caused.

Depending on how long you've been a reader of this blog you are, or how consistently you catch up on the posts you may (or may not) know that Mary Poppins is one of those movies (and characters) that always creeped me out as a kid. As an adult it didn't get any better. P.L. Travers' books don't give me the same heebejeebies but the Disney film? Nightmarish. When the Scary Mary recut trailer appeared I felt vindicated that someone had finally seen my point of view.

Here's a post I wrote in an old blog (Remember Live Journal? Yeah, that old!), from 2008:

A character that's always bugged me is Mary Poppins. From the first time I saw that Disney film I was disturbed by this apparently perfect, almost emotionless, amazingly powerful woman with an agenda that's never revealed. She seemed alien to me and not at all comforting. if she'd been my nanny I would have had nightmares. As it is I just find her disturbing. Even with all that singing and dancing I was always aware of the ice in her eyes and the strangely perfect precision of all her movements and actions. I felt like Bert was under a spell, and not a good one. Oddly enough her arrival in the sky with the umbrella was like a black cloud appearing and it didn't go away until she blew away too. Despite this, umbrellas - and their potential to fly you away to distant places - are a wonderful image for me, as are dancing on chimneys and sidewalk paintings you can jump into, but my enjoyment of these is greatly disturbed by the shadowy, threatening presence of Miss Poppins. It's the cold perfection that I find completely inhuman and ultimately dangerous. I'll have to read the books to see if I can get a different sense of her but I always felt that she was really a personification of the Snow Queen and that the film was only ever Act I of the story. Act II, in which her sinister plan is revealed, was never completed and I was quite happy that we never saw her again.

So there's my Mary admission.

Although, I will also admit, I would LOVE to see a steampunk version of Mary Poppins and Tim Burton would be high on my consideration of directors for that sort of a take. (Steam-powered umbrella transports and talking umbrellas for the win!)

Regarding this Burton-to-make-Poppins rumor, however, I have to admit it has me wanting to take out my red pen and put question marks and suspicious circles around a whole lot of the 'legit' info. Unless Disney are sending out social media lures to test the waters, I can't see there being anything more substantial to it than that. For now. ;)**

What's your response? Fistpump, headdesk or eyeroll?

*First of all: I couldn't find ANY Facebook announcement from any Burton source saying this. Secondly: this is not a pro poster but a fan made one. Thirdly: there is no hint on IMDB or any other "in production" website that mentions this project in development in any form so a release date - even a tentative one, can't be quoted. It doesn't mean it won't happen but it means the article above is full of crap unsubstantiated comments.
** If something DOES happen, I'm going to guess the umbrella will have more than one line...

Ask Baba Yaga: I Feel Like I'm Underwater When I Try to Socialize

Baba Yaga's Hut with a War of the Worlds Martian tripod feel by Myke Amend

Baba Yaga looks to have been in a wistful mood when answering this week's question. Maybe the emergence of Spring put her in a generous frame of mind. Which is awesome, since social swimming isn't something all of us navigate so easily...

This week's question and answer (via poet and oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia* of The Hairpin):

(Originally posted at The Hairpin HERE)

Yes!!! This is brilliant. And I agree with everyone else in the original comments. I would DEFINITELY buy a book full of Baba Yaga's gut wrenching, twisting and healing advice. 

Did you notice, though, that despite the encouraging advice, she doesn't just say "drown" but instead "drown deeper" as in, die faster? Impending death, bones and gristle are never far away, even when the Baba is being benevolent...

What do you think of Baba Yaga's advice?

Want to ask Baba Yaga a question of your own?

You can!

There's now an email address where you can send your questions

directly to Baba Yaga herself.

AskBabaYaga AT gmail DOT com

To encourage Baba Yaga to continue imparting her no-bones-about-it wisdom (ok, there may be some gristle in there... bones too), I suggest we not to leave her box empty... 

Thank you Baba Yaga (& Taisia).

* Taisia Kitaiskaia is a poet, writer, and Michener Center for Writers fellow. Born in Russia and raised in America, she's had her poems and translations published in Narrative Magazine, Poetry International, and others.

Cody's Fairy Tale Cocktails

Cody Winfrey - creator of the (Disney inspired) Fairy Tale Cocktails - pictured with his 'Glass Slipper'

The importance of food and drink in fairy tales is a topic that comes up fairly often and for good reason. There's something about internalizing a symbol of one's decision, commitment, choice (even if an unaware one) that makes it more real - makes it a part of you.

Cody Winfrey is a "mixologist" who specializes in creating unique drink "recipes" with cocktails. Although he's created cocktails on a variety of themes, it's the Disney-inspired ones that have gone viral and people can't get enough of. He's created over forty to date and is still creating.

"Cinderella is whipped cream vodka, blueberry vodka and cream. Maleficent is black vodka, grape schnapps and apple pucker. Tinkerbell is honey vodka, triple sec and sparkling cider, topped with a dusting of edible glitter. 

"I always try to match the character to the look of the drink and the taste as much as possible," says Cody Winfrey, whose cocktails inspired by Disney movie characters have found an insatiable audience of fans online.

Although what this mixologist is doing is mainly for fun (and profit), creating drinks on the theme of fairy tale characters inspired by Disney has had an interesting side effect. Although it started as a whim and a fun thing to do one boring evening, the more requests he got about characters, the more he started studying these characters - not just their looks but their story lines, character traits, motifs and tendencies in an effort to figure out how to create a unique drink. In the end, he's realized that he's actually attempting to capture the essence of these characters and creatures in an 'ingestible formula", ie. a drink.

It makes for fascinating reading of the ingredients list for each one and in seeing how each are put together. It's almost like recipes for types of fairy tale people, or... a potion! Makes me think of The Evil Queen making her hag transformation spell...

I've included some 'archetypal' characters (that Disney used and gave their own name too) here as well, because, if you substitute them for other fairy tale villains - like the Cat & the Fox or the evil uncle in Aladdin etc the 'recipe' actually works really well. I included some others too: the character who is exceptionally in tune with nature, the Deathless/Underworld character, the somewhat mad advisor.. you get the idea.

Here's a few excerpts from an interview with Mr. Winfrey by inlander:

"The great thing about Disney is that everyone has an almost spiritual connection with some character," he says. "Everyone has a favorite movie, everyone has a favorite character, everyone has a favorite world. So I knew that it would resonate with people in some way." 

Realizing his drinks might also attract the attention of Disney lawyers, Winfrey gave himself a crash course on the legal aspects and makes sure to always say he owns the drink recipes, not the characters. The e-book he's finishing with Wells titles the recipes as "fairy tale" cocktails to avoid unnecessary trouble. 

To date, he's done about 40 Disney-inspired drinks, requiring an increasingly crowded personal collection of liquor bottles to have just the right ingredients on hand. Some movies have proved to be more challenging — The Lion King and Pocahontas, for example — so he'll watch clips to see what he can pull from the color palette or characters' personalities. 

"Alice in Wonderland was also tough, because it's such an abstract, out-there kind of movie that I wasn't sure how to do the film justice with drinks," he says.

As far as we're concerned, he's like a fairy tale bartender who creates characters in the form of a drink. The only question is: does the drink cause that particular character to manifest in the drinker? It makes for an interesting storyline for a modern day warlock. ;)

I definitely recommend going to Cody's Facebook page or Tumblr for more recipes. Apart from the curious character ruminations, some of them just sound delicious! I'm going to call it 'research'. Happy Weekend all!

A Smorgasbord of Maleficent "Fan Art" (& Link-y Love)

Maleficent & Diablo by Travis Lewis

There's always been a lot of fan art for the Disney character Maleficent, especially since social media took off. The character has been one of Disney's most popular to draw and speculate on and create stories about with fans. (Heck, there's even a Darth Maleficent out there.)

With the live action movie release just around the corner, more and more is appearing every day. So much, in fact, it's difficult to keep up! 

A Forest of Thorns Shall Be His Tomb by Xiao wei Li

Being a regular on Pinterest for some time now I often come across Maleficent art, and since she's a subject-du-jour for us, I thought I'd share just a few of the stand out pieces that, while still obviously being Maleficent aren't specifically animation-spin-offs, nor scenes from the various trailers being released.

Maleficent by Angela Rizza

The first pic was supposed to be a drawing in progress but I think it's perfect as is. The second is a graphic design made for a t-shirt competition at Threadless. I really love the concept and would happily don said printed 't'. Unfortunately, I don't think it made the cut... Immediately above is an original deisng created by Angela Rizza who, while inspired by the trailers for the movie, wanted to create something that combined the different aspects of Maleficent we're being shown are in the movie. (Note: You have to check out this woman's art. It's so fairy tale-esque and you'll probably recognize her Snow White, which has been floating around for a while.)

Maleficent by the-crazy-spork

Unlike a lot of amateur fan art, which uses stills for inspiration, the rest of the pieces are their own scenes and designs, though clearly still based on the movies. The one above is based on the classic animated film, while the one below is based on the Maleficent trailers that have recently been released. There are such talented people out there!

Maleficent by Josh Burns

I wish there was another, less deprecating name for this sort of art than "fan art". The term always puts me in mind of kids and amateurs copying movie stills and various shots with a less-than-professional touch. But fan art these days is done as much by professional artists as amateurs. In fact, Disney is now making a habit of commissioning professional artists to create "fan art" to sell as Disney exclusive and approved fine art, like the one below. (And it ain't cheap!) I have to say, much of it, I actually prefer to the "real thing", although, in Maleficent's case, I adore her animation design. We need a better description of this type of art, don't you think?

Dark Side of the Moon by David Ho

There's much, MUCH more to explore - from sexy (and sometimes adult-rated) to cartoon- cute, to baby Maleficents to downright nightmarish versions, and you've seen the historical Maleficent, right? (She's HERE if you haven't.) There are many boards on Pinterest dedicated solely to her and, if you like the character and are intrigued by her story possibilities, from her demon-affiliations to her fairy side, be sure to go explore. I also really love the Disneyland Paris version of Maleficent as well - which is completely different to anything you might imagine. Check her out HERE.

By the way - did you count how many Maleficent art pieces I hid links to in the paragraph above? If you're at work, you may want your lunch hour to find them all... ;) Enjoy!