"Feather, Paws, Fins, and Claws" Illustrated by Lina Kusaite

Mentioned in our Mother Goose Refigured announcement yesterday, was the book, by the same author, titled Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts. We realized we hadn't had the opportunity to post on this book and wanted to share the available artwork (of which the book has much more) by mythic artist Lina Kusaite.

Lina has a wonderful collection of these on her Behance account, showing the process of her illustrations. (And her official website has a number of other amazing looking projects which you can see HERE.) What we really like about seeing these is that her process is a for of story building and informs us about the tale even more. Here's what she has top say about being commissioned for the project:

The Maiden and the Fish

In 2013 I was invited by Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones to join their project, the collection of the world fairy-tales. The collection contains of 10 different fairy tales form England, Portugal, India, North America, France, Norway, Hungary and Italy. Some of the tales are dated to 16 century. 

Once we started to chat about drawing styles, we all agreed, that it would be very interesting to create illustrations that are inspired by the country the tales are originated form and the time of its writing. Such idea required research time on cultural styles and different visual materials. This process allowed me to familiarize with some cultural aspects, that later on was used to create illustrations. All illustration where inspired, created and improvised by its countries cultural and visual styles and through my own creative processes. It was very interesting and challenging task to change the styles after every illustration.Some fairy tales were more challenging then others, like “The Rat's Wedding” - Indian tale. In the beginning I wanted to follow traditional Indian drawings, but it was so far from my own style, that I had to scale down and was following more on some details and colour combinations.

Here's the write up:

“Ballad of the Bird-Bride”

A wide variety of creatures walk, fly, leap, slither, and swim through fairy-tale history. Some marvelous animal characters are deeply inscribed in current popular culture—the beast redeemed by beauty, the wolf in pursuit of little girls and little pigs, the frog prince released from enchantment by a young princess. But like the adventures of many fairy-tale heroes, a curious reader’s exploration in the genre can yield surprises, challenges, and unexpected rewards.Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts presents lesser-known tales featuring animals both wild and gentle who appear in imaginative landscapes and enjoy a host of surprising talents. With striking original illustrations by artist Lina Kusaite and helpful introductions by fairy-tale scholars Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones, the offbeat, haunting stories in this collection are rich and surprisingly relevant, demanding creative reading by audiences aged young adult and up.

"The Rat's Wedding"

“Prince Chéri”

Schacker and Jones choose stories that represent several centuries and cultural perspectives on how animals think and move. In these ten stories, rats are just as seductive as Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf; snakes find human mates; and dancing sheep and well-mannered bears blur the line between human and beast. Stories range in form from literary ballads to tales long enough to be considered short stories, and all are presented as closely as possible to their original print versions, reflecting the use of historical spelling and punctuation. Beasts move between typical animal behavior (a bird seeking to spread its wings and fly or a clever cat artfully catching its prey) and acts that seem much more human than beastly (three fastidious bears keeping a tidy home together or a snake inviting itself to the dinner table). 

Kusaite’s full-color artwork rounds out this collection, drawing imaginatively on a wide range of visual traditions—from Inuit design to the work of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Together with the short introductions to the tales themselves, the illustrations invite readers to rediscover the fascinating world of animal fairy tales. All readers interested in storytelling, fairy-tale history, and translation will treasure this beautiful collection.

“East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon”

"The Story of the Three Bears"

"Nanina's Sheep"

Snake Skin

 

Babiole

Five Second Fables: The Twitterverse on God Creating Animals

Barlow's Aesop

Twitter has been telling tales - fables, to be more precise - and apart from the funny factor, it turns out they tell us a lot about us, our stories and how we see the world.

Barlow's Aesop

Crowd sourced information gathering and storytelling is a fairly new phenomenon, made possible by the age of social media. Twitter in particular, encourages people to distill meaning down to 140 (or less) characters, which is excellent practice for writers and storytellers, and for spreading the word very, very quickly. It's even become a wide-spread tool for distilling themes (ie. "elevator pitches" which are useful in a wide variety of fields) but there are other applications storytellers and folklorists can use them for as well. Memes, with their unique form of social commentary (yes, cat memes, DO say something about society), spread ideas, create context and bridge facts with fiction, often blurring the lines between the two to create a new "thinking space" for issues.

A few years ago fairy tale scholar Donald Haase* proposed a "communal catalogue" of #TwitterTypes, which were to be new summaries of traditional tales in 140 characters or less, to be used as a modern projection of the tale types classifications. Why Twitter? In Haase's words (from his personal Facebook page):

Because the discipline of 140 characters composed on a computer or smartphone forces creative choices about a tale’s “essence,” and those choices reveal, to the Tweeter, the alternatives — the “Tweets-not-taken.”

(Note: we did actually collect as many of these #twittertypes as we could find at the time and are considering adding a page for them to be stored here, perhaps added to if folk are inspired.)

While the project started well, and proved fascinating, it didn't last long and was not very extensive, which was unfortunate, as the potential for study using this tool and tack is wonderful and very reflective of how people today think. It also reflects the methods and thinking process for how we often tell stories in this social media and visual era. The experiment, though not proving successful as a modern alternative to the Aa-Th classification system as planned, did, however, make the point of showing that tales can be told, distilled, summarized, from various cultural and personal viewpoints via this social media medium.

God creating the animals ‘The Taymouth Hours’, England 14th century.

The "creation fables" shown below, though created purely for humorous intent, tell their own silly stories, not unlike many ancestral creation tales in which gods and goddesses were seen to be just as fallible and emotional as man, deciding and acting according to their personal agendas.

Described mostly via a brief dialogue exchange with God and an angel "sidekick" (or creation-technician), there isn't a lot of narrative detail, but each imply a situation and a result, and collectively - as they were written by multiple Twitter-users in a collective "brainstorm" - they provide a snapshot of modern humor and fable. They also wonderfully illustrate storytelling via memes (or memetics).

We're sure there are folklorists out there who could easily expand this into a fascinating lecture on storytelling and sociology but for today: the lecture is over. ;)

We've decided to call these, "Five Second Fables".

The Lion reads to the Animals (Aesop's Fables), 1869, Ernest Griset

Warning: While the content included in this post is generally considered humorous, we are aware that some people may feel offended as it uses casual references to God, and describes God (and angels) using colloquial humor and some bad language. As a result, we are putting these "tweet-fables", under the jump. Please consider yourself warned and read at your own risk. We do hope though, that it will add some smiles to your Sunday.

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

Book in the Works: "Mother Goose Refigured"

Consider this an official 'heads-up" from us, for your fairy tale studies and folklore libraries:

Coming in November from Wayne State University Press is a fascinating new book on a topic that has had quite a bit of attention in the past coupe of years. It's titled Mother Goose Refigured, written by Christine A. Jones, and, unlike most people's impressions that Mother Goose is a nursery rhyme figure only, the character and archetype often made appearances alongside fairy tales as well, especially in the French fairy tale salon era, of which Charles Perrault was a member. His collection of fairy tales was actually titled Stories or Tales from Times Past; or, Tales of Mother Goose (1697). This book looks at the translations and adaptations of this volume and how that affected the tales themselves.

About the author, who is no newbie to critical writing on fairy tales (we still have our eye on Feathers, Paws, Fins and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts!):

Christine A. Jones is a specialist of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France at the University of Utah with interests in the luxury trades and the fairy tale. She has authored Shapely Bodies: The Image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France as well as numerous articles on trade history. With folklore scholar Jennifer Schacker, she has coedited Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives and Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts, illustrated by Lina Kusaite (Wayne State University Press, 2015).

And we must mention: we adore the cover with Red in the wolf-en forest!

Here's the write-up. Included are two images from the book:

Charles Perrault published Histoires ou Contes du temps passé ("Stories or Tales of the Past") in France in 1697 during what scholars call the first "vogue" of tales produced by learned French writers. The genre that we now know so well was new and an uncommon kind of literature in the epic world of Louis XIV’s court. This inaugural collection of French fairy tales features characters like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Puss in Boots that over the course of the eighteenth century became icons of social history in France and abroad. Translating the original Histoires ou Contes means grappling not only with the strangeness of seventeenth-century French but also with the ubiquity and familiarity of plots and heroines in their famous English personae. 

From its very first translation in 1729, Histoires ou Contes has depended heavily on its English translations for the genesis of character names and enduring recognition. This dependability makes new, innovative translation challenging. For example, can Perrault’s invented name "Cendrillon" be retranslated into anything other than "Cinderella"? And what would happen to our understanding of the tale if it were? Is it possible to sidestep the Anglophone tradition and view the seventeenth-century French anew? Why not leave Cinderella alone, as she is deeply ingrained in cultural lore and beloved the way she is? Such questions inspired the translations of these tales in Mother Goose Refigured, which aim to generate new critical interest in heroines and heroes that seem frozen in time. The book offers introductory essays on the history of interpretation and translation, before retranslating each of the Histoires ou Contes with the aim to prove that if Perrault’s is a classical frame of reference, these tales nonetheless exhibit strikingly modern strategies. 

Designed for scholars, their classrooms, and other adult readers of fairy tales, Mother Goose Refigured promises to inspire new academic interpretations of the Mother Goose tales, particularly among readers who do not have access to the original French and have relied for their critical inquiries on traditional renderings of the tales.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" - New Trailer

We will admit we are waiting for the fairy tale connection to become more apparent with this movie, although we're certain it is there, even if only by way of folklore.

Perhaps it's because we haven't been keeping close tabs on the development but the trailer, as awesome as it looks for a fantasy movie, doesn't have that same Harry Potter vibe. It seems more related to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, with the time period adding to that impression. The main issue, as far as we can deduce, is that the aspect of a child in the real world discovering and coming to terms with the magical one, isn't there. Neither is that personal journey of a child searching for where they belong.

That doesn't mean the trailer isn't, well "fantastic":

Our observation isn't meant to be a criticism of the film, the story or anything similar but we guarantee it won't have the same impact on elementary and middle school children that the books and the first few movies did. Having to deal with real things, complicated by the event of wondrous things (both good and bad) made Harry and his friends relatable characters who had to learn that just because something was fantastic, didn't mean you got a free pass. You still had responsibilities and were accountable for your actions and decisions. Fantastic Beasts moves away from that fairy tale-like feel, depositing itself directly into fantasy. From this trailer the most fairy tale like thing seems to be that magical bag, aka "the case of beasts". (We were discussing magical bags and sacks recently, with regard to Kelly Link's The Faery Handbag, if you'll recall.)

Since it's been quite some time since posting on this movie, we thought we'd include a nicely laid out article from Entertainment Weekly. We adore the illustrated border and illuminated lettering. (Click on each page to view full size - they're quite large.)

Fantastic Beasts will be released on November 18, 2016, something we hope will invite lots of magical merchandise to be made available for the Yule/Christmas season and little Harry Potter fans we're fond of.

"Frozen" Writer Robert Lopez Reimagines 1001 Nights for Kids Off-Broadway

1001 nights: A Love Story About Loving Stories is a new family musical adaptation of Arabian Nights and it looks like a LOT of fun. The Atlantic for Kids Season 2016-2017 opened on September 17 Off Broadway to rave reviews and features music and lyrics by Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner Robert Lopez (who co-wrote the music for Disney's Frozen). Lopez also co-wrote the book with Adam Koplan and Koplan directs.

Here's the description:

In this celebration of brainy imagination over brawn, a princess uses her wits to save a kingdom from an evil decree as she spins tale after tale for a narrow-minded king. Featuring genies, jesters, 40 thieves and other captivating characters, the princess’s cliffhanger stories keep the king - and audiences - on the edge of their seats. This playful adaptation of the Arabian Nights fairy tales is recommended for ages six and up. 

1001 Nights was first conceived in 1998 by Emmy, Grammy, Academy, and Tony Award winner Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Frozen) and Adam Koplan, artistic director of Flying Carpet Theatre Company. This newly reimagined production features early songs by Lopez and is directed by Koplan with puppet direction by Jon Ludwig, artistic director of the Center for Puppetry Arts. All the puppets were designed by the Center’s resident puppet builder Jason von Hinezmeyer and built by the talented crew in the Center’s puppet building shop.

Robert Lopez originally wrote the music for 1001 Nights at age 23, for his first show out of college, staged by The Flying Carpet Theater Company. For this new production, Lopez wrote an additional new song to expand the show.

A very complimentary and fun review in the New York Times gives you an idea of the stories covered and the approach to, what are initially very scary ideas (ie a man in power killing his new wives every night):

Mr. Koplan has nimbly directed the 70-minute production, which frames the grim premise in a nonscary way: Sherry, a contemporary girl played by the spirited Caitlin Donohue, transforms herself into Scheherazade as she realtes the adventure to her stuffed animals. The toys also morph - into big fuzzy puppets that jmight have sneaked out of "Avenue Q". (They're just as smart-alecky, but G-rated.) The show also uses clever hand puppets - Matt Acheson is credited for puppet direction - to ecplain the king's vow to wed every day and put each bride to death within 24 hours: His first wife betrayed him. 

Portrayed by PJ Adzima, who may remind you of a younger Neil Patrick Harris, this monarch is fundamentally a big baby. (Aren't all tyrants?) He holds his red blankie as Scheherazade beguiles him with "The Fisherman and the Genie," "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" and the lesser-known romance of Prince Budur and Princess Qamar. The king and Scheherazade enact tales, along with the puppets and the Atlantic's terrific young ensemble. I's hard to say what's funnier: the many rhyming jokes or the stage business, which includes an "Open Sesame," "Shut Sesame" routine that's like "Who's On First" in ancient Arabia.

You can read the rest of the review HERE.

Here's a sneak peek of the current show, from behind the scenes with the writers of the show explaining different aspects... to the puppet performers:

We like the part about the power of stories, what they mean to us and how they change us, along with the idea of empowerment through words. It's such great material to introduce kids to, we wonder why we're not swimming in productions of Arabian Nights for kids. (There are a couple that come into circulation every few years, often puppets but also live stage shows to live-puppet hybrids, but they tend to be smaller companies and fairly local, which is a shame as the artistry in design, acting, music and puppeteering seems, across the board, to be enchanting. You can get a glimpse at a lovely one HERE.)

Here's the original trailer which shows more of the actual show and gives you an idea of the writing and a little of the music as well:

If this show travels, by flying carpet or not, there's a few children we'd be very happy to take to see this!

1001 Nights: A Love Story About Loving Stories, plays through October 16, 2016 at the Linda Gross Theater in Chelsea, NY.

Note: Some of these images were from earlier productions of Lopez's 1001 Nights but we thought they represented the show well at a glance, so included them.

Breaking News: A First (Real) Look at Disney's New Belle and the Beast

Looks like we're boarding the ramp-up to the release! The first real picture of  the live action Beast is out, via Stitch Kingdom, as is a look at Belle in her provincial dress (see below) and her ball gown.

Note: at the time of this posting - about 12 hours after the release (leak?) Stitch Kingdom does not seem to be hosting hi-res versions as originally indicated. We can't find any official notice to back up that these were officially released as the post said so we apologize that no more info is currently available. Once on the internet, though, forever out there...

Reactions are, to say the least, mixed. Generally people love Belle's common garb but her ball look is less liked across the board. As for the Beast, a lot of people are having issues with the Legend-ish nature (think Tim Curry) of those horns.

Either way, it's a solid indication of what the film will look like, but when things move, they do look very different and we've been promised some altering of the story to fit the live action (real people) medium, as opposed to animation. In animation you can get away with a lot more but when things are represented live, sometimes things can hit a little close to home.

We will admit we do like the costuming though - both for the Beast and Belle as shown in these two pics.

So what do you think? Still excited?

The Disney List: Current Tally of Fairy Tale and Fantasy Films in the Works (@ Sept 29, 2016)

As promised, so you can keep up to date with the running tally of Disney fairy tale or fantasy projects coming to the live action screen, along with animation that's of interest, here's the latest list of all those in the works, with many just announced in April and May 20146.

These films are all in different stages of production, from early development through to nearing release and are in no particular order.

Not all films have release dates as yet.

As mentioned yesterday, you may want to bookmark this list, just so you have it handy.



Live Action:

• Beauty and the Beast
• Genie (Aladdin)
• Cruella
• Maleficent II (Sleeping Beauty)
• Peter Pan
• Pinocchio
• The Little Mermaid (Universal is still working on an HCA-based version too, though it is plagued by issues)
• Dumbo
• The Sword in the Stone
• Mulan
• Winnie the Pooh
• Tink (Tinkerbell - note: Fox is also working on a Tinkerbell movie, possibly more tenn/adult oriented)
• Snow White-Rose Red
• Prince Charming (Cinderella)
• A Wrinkle In Time
• Mary Poppins II
• Jungle Cruise
• The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
• The Jungle Book II
• Night on Bald Mountain (Fantasia)

There are also 3 "Untitled Disney Fairy Tale" live action films (release dates scheduled as: 7/28/17, 4/6/18, 12/20/19)
and 2 "Untitled Disney Live Action" films in the works (release dates scheduled as: 8/3/18, 12/25/18).

Animation:

• Moana
• Frozen II
• Coco (Dia  de los Muertos)
• Giants (Jack and the Beanstalk)

Note: All these films are confirmed as being in various stages of production at the time of this post, September 30, 2016.

Multi-Award Winning "H&G" Available to View for Limited Time

We covered this film as it was being made, back in 2013 HERE, knowing with indie film director Danishka Esterhazy at the helm, that it would be a worthy addition to the Hansel and Gretel re-tellings out there when it was complete. Critics and film festivals have confirmed it is, plying the film with multiple awards.

For the coming two weeks - a limited time - you can rent the film online to see it (94 minutes, English and PG), via this website, celebrating excellence in Canadian film making HERE.

From Esterhazy's Instagram account:

My film H&G is featured this week in the Canada Screens VIFF celebration. You can rent H&G for only $1.99 during the sale. There are some great films in this promotion! Visit canadascreens.ca

(Note for US folk: It's also available on Amazon Prime.)

Might be a good fairy tale film for the coming weekend, don't you think?

Here's the quick synopsis and the trailer below is a must-see:

A girl and boy. Brother and sister. Living in poverty and neglect. Lost in the woods. They see a house, rush toward it… it is magical. Full of good food, soft sheets, love and care. But in this house, danger lurks. And all they have is each other. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel takes a modern neorealist twist in H&G.

Fashion & Fairy Tales: Dancing Princesses

We should mention up front: this is less about shoes* than the dresses and the photography.

This fashion shoot is from a few years ago (2012) but we re-discovered it in one of our (many) "potential posts" lists, and with the buzz about The Twelve Dancing Princesses seeming to grow stronger over social media (though we haven't found the reason why... yet), we thought it would be good to show this updated version of many people's favorite fairy tale party girls. (Or are they under the influence of different "enchantments"?)

There's so much to explore in this tale: the three enchanted woods (Silver! Gold! Diamonds!), the nightly draw of all these sisters to underground dancing, the ever-growing pile of ruined shoes (does the King have tailors on retainer? And for how many years?), the unnamed princes (were they human? Were they under enchantment too?), the sort - or sorts - of enchantments at play... It's easy to see how it translates so well to modern party culture, and is thus, perfect fodder for fashion editorials.

This theme was the major portion of the Winter holiday shoot titled "A Fairy Holiday". Anna Palma and Chadwick Tyler, working for fashion retailer FreePeople, did a very interesting interpretation of this, harking back to many of the tale motifs, making for some intriguing photographs (and possibly some writing prompts too).

On the FreePeople blog, Julia reminisced about the tale in such a lovely way, I'm re-posting her summary here:

When I was little, one of my absolute favorite stories was the 12 Dancing Princesses, and it is something that will always bring to mind the holiday season.  The fairytale told the story of 12 beautiful princesses who were drawn from their beds each night by the desire to dance. They would sneak out of their castle and travel through three magical forests, which was always my favorite part of the story. The first forest was shining silver, the second a glowing gold, and the third was the most magical of all, full of shimmering diamonds. The imagery was gorgeous and I dreamed of one day finding these enchanted forests. 

The princesses would reach a lake where they each met a prince who would row them to a castle in the middle of the lake, where they would dance the night away until they wore out their shoes.  Come the morning, the king would find them sleeping in their beds, but with a pile of worn out slippers that were a mystery to him.  He would recruit princes to watch over the princesses and see where they went at night, but the princesses would trick them by bringing them along and at the end of the night, offering them a special drink that would make them fall asleep and forget everything. I always found it to be such an intriguing tale and it has stuck with me ever since. I love that it was the inspiration behind one section of our November catalog!

*Has anyone seen a shoe fashion editorial based on the Worn Out Dancing Shoes? Seems like an editorial waiting to happen.

Breaking News: Blue Sky Studios & Fox Animation to Adapt Garth Nix's "Frogkisser!"

Frogkisser! is not even released yet (due out in February 2017 by Scholastic in the US and in Spring via Picadilly Press in the UK) but has already gotten a lot of interest. So much so that it's been snapped up for a live action-animation hybrid movie by Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Rio, Epic, The Peanuts Movie).

Here's Nix's excited tweet:

Garth Nix: “FROGKISSER! is one of those novels that just bubble out of the imagination and demand to be written all at once and won’t permit anything else to get in the way. I am delighted that my various publishers have all responded to the book with as much exuberance as I felt while I was writing it.”

And i's a musical!

Fox Animation recently announced an initiative to expand what it calls "family hybrid" movies and the Australian author's book is first cap off the rank. Apart from great news for Nix and fairy tale fans, this clues us into a interesting direction for future movies coming from Fox and Blue Sky - a musical family hybrid - aka live action and animation fantasy family-friendly movie! We really are going back to the trends of the 80's and 90's in a good way. (Disney will be taking notice, you can be certain.)

It is indeed a "princess kissing frogs" story but with a wonderful Garth Nix twist. Here's the blurb:

The Last Thing She Needs Is a Prince. 

The First Thing She Needs Is Some Magic.  

Poor Princess Anya. Forced to live with her evil stepmother's new husband, her evil stepstepfather. Plagued with an unfortunate ability to break curses with a magic-assisted kiss. And forced to go on the run when her stepstepfather decides to make the kingdom entirely his own. 

Aided by a loyal talking dog, a boy thief trapped in the body of a newt, and some extraordinarily mischievous wizards, Anya sets off on a Quest that, if she plays it right, will ultimately free her land-and teach her a thing or two about the use of power, the effectiveness of a well-placed pucker, and the finding of friends in places both high and low. 

With Frogkisser!, acclaimed bestselling author Garth Nix has conjured a fantastical tale for all ages, full of laughs and danger, surprises and delights, and an immense population of frogs. It's 50% fairy tale, 50% fantasy, and 100% pure enjoyment from start to finish. 

Fox seems pretty happy about it. They even seemed to have gotten a jump on the marketing. Appearing on Ralph Millero's Instagram today (Millero is 20th Century Fox Vice President in charge of The Peanuts Movie), with the caption "How many frogs have you kissed?":