One Upon A Time Opener Adds Refugees from The Land of Untold Stories

"Nothing is more dangerous than an untold story..." 

So begins the 6th season of Once Upon A Time. And we truly hope this is a promise and not just a catch phrase (though it appears it's going to take a few episodes to get to the 'untolds' in question #wevoteCinderellastepfamily).

In this season Storybrooke will be "invaded" by "The Land of Untold Stories", where characters from the series have discovered that "there are more stories and tales out there than we ever dreamed..". (Note: while this was the teaser, the first episode treated inhabitants from this land more like refugees, given blankets after surviving the crashed dirigible.) Our optimistic hearts leapt at the thought that perhaps the producers and writers were finally open to delving into the myriad fairy tales (and myths and legends) from around the world. Where the lands of Storybrooke and other realms of Once Upon A Time had seemed limited and going in circles, it seemed there was finally the possibility of developing and exploring the hundreds and thousands of unexplored tales. Our optimism was abruptly bridled on reading the cast from the series had expressed thoughts that it "seems like we're running out of tales" at ComiCon, even though they hastened to add, "but of course that would never happen". 

It's a strange dichotomy: the series becoming open to "the land of untold stories" and delving into 1001 nights of Scheherazade's stories, while the show seems to be struggling with finding tales to tell. They're also making sure to mention that they're going "back to basics" with this season so the hope is that rather than just watching another version of having the reset button hit, that any first season story lines that are revisited will be explored in greater (and we hope, fairy tale related) depth. We do know Cinderella is set to return (although living in Storybrooke this whole time, we really haven't seen, if nay of her), but this time we'll see more of her stepmother and stepsisters as well. Since Cinderella has already been given her "happily ever after" (she was Emma's first success story, which, in part, led her to stay on in the town) we're curious to see if this will be dismantled and redefined or if indeed the show is taking a serious look at what "happily ever after" really means.

Meanwhile, the season opener on Sunday reported boosted ratings, due to the expectation of Aladdin, Jasmine and flying carpets, further exploration of the Disney version of the Beauty and the Beast story, along with a resurgence of the Wicked Queen persona. It probably helps that the budget seems to have had a boost as well. (Cue full sized dirigible set/prop piece #piratescaribbeanleftovers? and decent 3D animation for its appearance.) Though the special effects continue to be less than stellar from time to time, (#oraclebirdredeye) the production values are better and the sets, props vehicles and costumes seem to have noticeably improved (or the photography of those has improved - either way - things look better overall than they did).

The Belle-Rumpel story line (we left Belle pregnant and in an enchanted sleep at the end of last season) has its usual complications, though, without spoiling too much, it was refreshing to see "dream Belle" resist falling into her old ways with Rumpel. Children give you strength to do the most difficult things, which it seems will be a theme that will be explored in this season. And hers isn't the only baby around. Zelena (the Wicked Witch and sister of Regina/Evil Queen) has a baby too. But we're wishing on stars that isn't the only role these children will fill. With so much fairy and fairy tale lore surrounding births and babies, we sincerely hope the writers will be exploring some of these aspects as well, rather than just having infants complicate a situation (not to mention there is potential for both children to be "magical" given their parentage). Pregnancy, birth, infants and new motherhood in fairy tales is a fairy new area being explored in depth in fairy tale scholarship and, along with related fairy lore, there's so much potential for furthering fairy tales here.

Regarding the plot for the opener, not a lot happened, (other than the set up for which certain moments were included) so there's not much, if anything to truly spoil. Things should begin to develop in the next episode though, so we have eyes-on to see if any of these potential threads are followed.

The preceding hour recap of the series and introduction to season 6 with Kitsis and Horowitz 'answering questions', was much more intriguing. Things often take a long time to happen on the show just due to the enormous amounts of conversations and discussions so extracting the moments of magic and the touchstones for different characters and putting them together for discussion and review is interesting. While we understand the "drama" aspect appeals to many of the viewers, we find it often gets in the way of the storytelling, especially when retelling various fairy tales which tend toward flatness and are spare on unnecessary details. Highlights remind us that there have been many different explorations of tales of the show that are worth attention, and often work to bring different themes and threads into clearer focus as well. 

In the recap, there was a discussion of Easter eggs from the final episode of last season, confirming possible characters and classics that would appear this season. Agrabah folk, which have been the main teasers before the season premiere, Victorian London, which we already saw with Hyde, along with Paul Bunyan and other clues. There were also many mentions of fairy tale motifs and moments that were presented differently, which are interesting to reflect on. The exploration - and promise of exploration - of Snow White's character is something the teasers have pushed during the hiatus but the story that started it all (Snow White and Charming) has been "background soap" for the last few seasons, confirming for us that many writers are a little lost in trying to find "the magic in marriage" and make it "exciting TV". That they're promising to bring it front and center again is interesting (and we could suggest some great  tales for them to use to do that) but without the threat of terrible things (and Stockholm syndrome) as shown in the Belle/Rumpel dynamic, making it the equivalent of a train wreck you can't look away from, Snow and Charming are likely to have to deal with something extreme to bring back the fan-obsession. We have to wonder if part of the problem isn't to do with the lack of Charming's own mythic story. Although he's been given interesting background, matching the level and strength of a Snow White myth is a tough call, and for Snow to be wedded (literally) to a weaker arc, has the result of making her appear weak too. If that turns around to indeed become central again (and hit those' epic fairy tale' heights), it might make all the difference. We choose to cheer them on toward this goal.

A last aside: among the various questions asked of the creators, one random one was: "If Henry is the Author, who is the Illustrator?" We weren't happy with the lack of acknowledgement of the people who create the visuals - including those of the Once Upon A Time book, and the reply that the magic pen gave the Author powers of illustration as well was a blatant cop-out. It was also a missed opportunity for expanding the OUAT mythos. Given this is a visual information age, and that fairy tale illustrations have been key in keeping fairy tales alive in our time, not to mention that illustrations are a unique way of relating fairy tales and stories and a completely different skill set from writing, we felt let down by the lack of understanding here.

On a pro note: we were told very specifically that Dopey, who was turned into a tree some time back and has generally been forgotten about, will make a return appearance and fill in the gaps in relation to that story as well. We haven't had tree-related stories for a while (though the Merlin story line made use of one) and they were a key foundation, with Regina's apple tree in the first few episodes helping set the tone, twists and mythology for the series, and there's so much tree lore in fairy tales, it's a rich mine to pull from. We hope this will be a wonderful addition.

From Jennifer Morrison, who plays Emma, Snow White & Prince Charming's child and the Savior of Storybrooke:

"It's also showing that it's a return to returning to happy endings. The original concept of the storytelling of Once Upon a Time was that we were going to restore the happy endings," Jennifer explained. "So as we look at our characters in more depth and sort of introspectively deal with some of their baggage and all of the things that have happened over the last six years, they're also returning to the identity that they have. As the heroes, they're going to help save these happy endings." (source)

Bonus OUAT Season 6 Opener Drinking game:

(created by our Once Upon A Blog newsroom team)

Do a shot:

- every time you hear the word "story" in episode 1 

- every time you hear refrains from Beauty and the Beast 

- every time you hear the word "Savior" 

- every time Emma does her "anguished" face

Enjoy your OUAT hangover! 

Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day (or at least a OUAT bonus):

In case you haven't been keeping up with the OUAT buzz over the Summer, there are reports that for two episodes and once story arc, Princess Leia (yes, Star Wars Leia), will be, not only making an appearance but add some twists to the twisted family tree of the Once characters. I'll just include extracts as taken from an interview with the creators earlier this year after the jump:

✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ♛ (click the "Read more" link below this line) ♛  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑  ✑

We're Curious About "The Curiosity"!

And you should be too, especially after seeing this trailer that was released just one week ago #selkies! It's an independent film done by a very experienced movie maker and crew.
Take a look:

The elevator description? A tale of shapeshifting mermaids and teslapunk magicians. From writer/director Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim) & starring Caroline Ford (Once Upon a Time).

Yes - that's right. Not just shape shifting mermaids (aka selkies, because apparently a lot of people still do't know what a selkie is) but TESLAPUNK!

Why is this not on everyone's radar? (And why does this not have a distributor yet?)

There's tantalizing concept and development art from the director's Tumblr and Twitter.

Click to enlarge

Fauna concept for part of the magical world of The Curiosity

A selkie is a faerie creature from Scottish lore who appears to be a seal in the water but can go about as a human on land. This is an abstract little selkie drawing I did as a first read-through gift for Caroline Ford, the first one to sign up for this madness I’m calling The Curiosity.

There's no distributor or release date yet for this film though it is, at last (after a long process) complete.

Here's a note from the director about what we can expect:

Thanks for your excitement! I can assure you that The Curiosity is pretty overtly about Spindle from the start. It’s very much told from her POV. It’s also a somewhat smaller story than Pacific Rim. It’s set in a rather fanciful world, but the stakes are much more grounded and intimate than you’d find in a summer studio release. It’s quite like a folktale in that respect, and more of a scale akin to something like The Prestige or Pan’s Labyrinth. That is to say — an atmospheric, character-driven genre piece. And I’d want the marketing to reflect that. Fortunately, it was independently financed and I still control it, so I have a lot of freedom to pursue the options that make the most sense for it. It may even turn out that we look at what we have and decide it’s half of a first episode for a series. That’s certainly a realistic possibility. But whatever happens, you’re going to see this thing in some form or another. Bottom line is that it’s a passion project, it’s about her, and I’m not going to put it anywhere that won’t do that justice.

All involved seemed very caught up in the magic and fairy tale of the film, despite being part of the process. It bodes well for when we can finally watch this!

Timeless Tales Magazine Celebrates 1 000 Facebook Fans with a Royal Makeover

Here's some great news from Timeless Tales Magazine's Editor, Tahlia Merrill. See her personal message below: 

 

   We're celebrating hitting 1,000 fans in a big way! 

All summer we've been seeing the number of our facebook fans increase, thanks to our crazy talented social media dragon tamer, Carina Bissett. We're so excited about all our new readers and wanted to celebrate in a BIG way. So all this week, we'll be opening our basket of goodies and sharing the treats with you. 

Let's start with the biggest reveal first...*drumroll*...

A royal makeover for our Pandora's Box issue:

I can't even begin to tell you how lucky we are to have found Ugly Tree Graphic Designs to help us design a 2nd Edition for this issue. 

First off, let me show you the gorgeous new cover:

Previous readers of this issue have had to endure clunky formatting and a sad lack of graphics, which is why we asked Ugly Tree to redesigned the entire issue, including a complete overhaul of all the pages. For the first time ever, our stories look like something you'd find in an actual magazine.

                  

But wait, there's MORE!

Thanks to Write Jobs each story is now fitted with a custom designed mini-cover:

You can read all our Pandora's Box retellings in their newly restored glory HERE.

What do you guys, think? We're hoping it's not only our most attractive issue yet, but also the most user-friendly. If you notice anything that is less that ideal, though, that we may have missed, please email me (Tahlia) with your feedback at timelesstalesmagazine@gmail.com

There's even more new stuff on the website that we'll be blogging about later this week. Stay tuned!

Tahlia Merrill

Editor Timeless Tales Magazine

Attachments area

Graphic Novel: A Noir 1930's "Snow White" by Matt Phelan

Set against the background of Manhattan in the 1930's Depression era, this newly released graphic novel retelling (released September 13, 2016) by award winning graphic artist Matt Phelan, is just lovely. Our only complaint is that we felt the book could have been quite a bit larger, to better view and enjoy the artwork.


The title is simply Snow White: A Graphic Novel and the images hark back to the golden age of black and white cinema, making you feel like you've seen this before, except each reveal is somehow also unexpected and fresh.

Our brief look convinced us it was a delightful find, with shades of detective noir via the chapter titles of "A Drop of Blood" and "Detective Prince Oversteps His Bounds". Interestingly - and relevantly - the Sock Market crash that triggered the Great Depression, is also the inciting incident to set this version of the fairy tale in motion. While vanity is still a driving force of the Queen, there's a large motivating force of money too, and the combination, especially in that era in which big city life suddenly has as much danger as any dark forest, make it seem a natural setting for a Snow White story.

Here's the blurb:

The scene: New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. 

Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words “Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL.”  

In a moody, cinematic new telling of a beloved fairy tale, extraordinary graphic novelist Matt Phelan captures the essence of classic film noir on the page—and draws a striking distinction between good and evil.

Author and illustrator Matt Phelan was interviewed about why this fairy tale that's been retold so many different times. he had this to say:

“Snow White” has always been my favorite fairy tale. Like most kids of the past few generations, the Disney version was my introduction to the story. I loved it then and still do.“Snow White” has more layers than many fairy tales. It has the stepmother element, the jealousy, and the murder attempt, but it also has the help and friendship of the seven dwarfs, which sets it apart. Unlike other characters in fairy tales, Snow White is not alone. She has the seven dwarfs. The Huntsman spares her. That always interested me.

It was always going to be set in the late twenties/early thirties. The idea sparked from sketching apple peddlers for a short story I wrote about Herbert Hoover for the anthology Our WhiteHouse. One day, I drew a hag-like peddler holding an apple up to a smartly dressed young woman as everyone on the crowded street rushed by and I thought: “Snow White” in 1930s NewYork. Once I had the idea, I started playing with how to translate the rest of the tale to that particular setting. Who was the Queen? She was the Queen of the Ziegfeld Follies. Who are the dwarfs? They could be seven street orphans, like in those old Dead End Kids movies, and so on.The noir tone came naturally, especially after I focused on the inheritance as the main motivation. I’ve always been influenced by old movies. For this book, I thought about the noir films of the 1940s, but also earlier atmospheric films such as Fritz Lang’s M and John Ford’s The Informer, not to mention the Thin Man movies and the first ten minutes of King Kong . The opening sequence of Citizen Kane was also an inspiration, but then again Citizen Kane is always a creative touchstone for my graphic novels. 

My research tends to be image-based: books, movies, or online photographs. I have a wonderful book on the Ziegfeld Follies that I had originally bought for Bluffton: My Summers with Buster. There are a ton of great art deco books out there (they tend to be oversize so they may actually weigh a ton). I wanted some of that art deco in Snow White, but I was more interested in the darker visions of the Great Depression, such as the photographs of Walker Evans and Margaret Bourke-White.  I also took some trips up to New York City to photograph locations in Central Park and Macy’s,as well as to find a stand-in for the White mansion. It’s always good to physically walk in the setting, even if it has changed considerably.  

One thing that I didn’t do was seek out other versions of “Snow White,” aside from rereading the edition I’ve had since I was a kid (Sixty Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm with Arthur Rackham’s great illustrations). I wanted to approach this story fresh. Lisbeth Zwerger once said that “to illustrate a fairy tale is not an intellectual, scientific interpretation, but a transposition of internal pictures and feelings.” That was my approach.

You can read the entire interview HERE.

There's a lot of praise for this book so we thought we'd include a notable one to give you more of an idea, of how this retelling is unique.

Phelan (Bluffton) delivers a spectacular 20th-century update of “Snow White,” transplanting the story to Jazz Age and Depression-era New York City, where themes of jealousy, beauty, and power find a comfortable home… 

Moody gray and sepia panels carry the story forward, punctuated by splashes of lurid red—for an animal heart, procured at a butcher’s shop, or an apple tainted with a syringe. Snow’s affectionate relationship with “the Seven,” a group of street children, is among this adaptation’s most potent elements. The boys are hesitant to tell Snow their names, but readers will want tissues on hand when they finally do. —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

There is also a book trailer to give you a good idea. Our only issue with it is the music is very repetitive, but the book itself, the visuals, the layouts, the characters - all make for a Snow White retelling we'll be aiming to add to the Once Upon A Blog library soon. Take a look:

Lastly, a little bonus we found: a great discussion guide and the whole interview with the author from Candlewick Press which for any language arts teacher, or at teacher, might find very useful. You should be able to scroll within the embedded window, as well as enlarge the text of shrink with the magnifying glass icons below it. There is also the option to download it from the site as well (linked below).

Snow White by Matt Phelan Discussion Guide by Candlewick Press on Scribd