This is a completely different take on Aesop's fable. Usually you see it with portrayed with (essentially) a laugh track - this... notsomuch.
This is a sobering modern retelling, released in March this year (2015).
And it's very effective.
Here's the double-up poster - hare one way with a warning and a tortoise the other with an affirmation
A not very healthy-looking hare
A happy looking tortoise
In case you hadn't guessed, the campaign is, indeed, marketed at teens, with the idea of #ThinkSlow.
I hate that we seem to need these sorts of PSAs at all, but I'd rather put up with PSAs, knowing they might even save one life, than have the alternative.
Pippa MacSherry, head of marketing operational at TfL, said the work is a natural extension of the long-running ‘Don’t let your friendship die on the road’ campaign.
“By encouraging a more considered approach to crossing the road, we hope to reduce the number of pedestrian road related collisions. The campaign updates and re-imagines the classic tale of the hare and the tortoise – to show how ‘slow’ wins out,” she said.
Ed Palmer, managing partner at M&C Saatchi, commented: “It’s perilously easy to patronise and finger wag with this audience. Putting a modern twist on a well-known fable allows us to land our message without resorting to the more well-trodden type of cautionary tale to which this audience has become inured. The creative approach was to make safe roadside behaviour more appealing and aspirational for this audience.”
The campaign will run across video-on-demand, cinema and social from early March and builds on neuro-scientific research which suggests the target age range is less likely to exercise restraint.
Stories about speed: what comes to mind? Pretty much just one, in my experience: The Tortoise and the Hare.
Although it's been out for a good couple of months now I only caught it on TV about a week ago and thought I should investigate further for you. This is the Mercedes Benz take on Aesop's well known fable, and they do a stellar job, I have to say.
Here's the ad (see if you can see the cameos by other common Aesop animals throughout):
Poor raven! (Nice story touch, though, I have to say.)
This was an ad that premiered at the Super Bowl in February this year (2015) and the company loved their characters so much they set up Twitter accounts to show the rivalry - and character differences, and jokes and 'specialized products' - between the contestants.
Here are a few of their photos and you can find the witty repartee HERE for the Tortoise's half, and HERE for the Hare's.
I'm going to include the making-of video as well because, for those filmmakers and storytellers out there, I want you to see what a difference the on-location of an actual forest, with weather, makes, as well as this beautiful scene-building sequence made of a bunch of different elements, broken down so you can see them all added in a little magical sequence of it's own. (Animation buffs, you'll like this whole video too.)
The storybook scene building sequence begins around the 40 second mark and they show you the on-location forest and weather stuff a bit later.
Enjoy!
(You can read and see a whole lot more from the behind-the-scenes process HERE.) And as a bonus, here are some fun screen shots:
Here's the Italian trailer. It's more loigcal in terms of story progression than the other trailers so you get more of an idea of what's happening, especially if you took a good look at my previous Tale of Tales post on the weekend.
Only problem is, it's in, well, Italian (obviously) so I have to listen super-closely to understand what's being said and I still haven't found all the words I don't know in an Italian-english dictionary. Never fear though: the film was made in English so the Italian is dubbed over the actors speaking English. You don't need many words to understand what's going on anyway.
It's just beautiful, with lots of footage not included in the other English ones. Enjoy!
Don't worry - I am keeping my eyes peeled for US andUK distribution and will share as soon as I know!
Since Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales film is really beefing up the promotional material for Cannes, I thought you might like to see something a little older regarding The Pentamerone. Although Basile's book contains fifty tales the film is only (reportedly) using five (and I don't have my own copy - YET! - to check which exactly sorry! My library isn't being cooperative for copied either, sadly.)
These illustrations are by Austrian illustrator and painter Franz von Bayros from 1909. I don't recommend you look him up if you have delicate sensibilities. He is best known for his very lewd and explicit illustrations and paintings and that's putting it mildly (totally NSFW or kids). Perhaps because of this, he is, however, a master at the human form.
Anyway - these are quite lovely though and considering the source material, I'm sort of amazed they are as family friendly as they are... I haven't included all ten. You can see the rest on the Tumblr site HERE if you'd like.
Maiden, Mother, Crone by Cate Simmons aka SteeringForNorth (Baba Yaga, Rapunzel? & Little Red Riding Hood)
I thought I'd post a maiden, mother, crone pic today since it's Mother's Day. (Happy Mother's Day mamas!) Female familial (and other) relationships can be so complicated it seems - a theme that's explored a lot in fairy tales via extremes (you can see a board I put together HERE of Motherhood in fairy tales - Frau Holle has her own board, as does Baba Yaga, of course). Despite how independent we can be, there comes a time when you realize, hey - it'd be GREAT to have a girl to talk to right now! But how do you get back into that groove when you've been swimming your own way for so long?
Today's timely question and answer (via poet and oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia* of The Hairpin):
Oh my goodness - ravenous wounds! What a great description. I have to say, my dearest friends are those who stand beside me and not opposite me as we go through things. So: no more wound stingers!
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.
My goodness, this film looks more amazing every time I see more about it. This was going to be a short post: new trailers, new poster, few screen shots - done - but no. There is a TON of new stuff released about this movie and I have to share it all (ok - not all, this post would have been twice as long and I didn't include the gorier stuff so you can feel OK about scrolling if you have family or work mates around.)
These trailers ARE both safe for work and kids by the way, so no worries there (a little blood and dirt and some skin but nothing too terrible). Here they are:
There are also two new posters - I go back and forth between which one I like better, though the first one that looks like a labyrinth was completely stunning, and I'm glad I saw that first.
There is an interview with Garrone in the Italian Huffington Post HERE and I'm including a few badly translated excerpts for you:
"... the raw violence of the tales of Giambattista Basile, with its medieval matrix, it seems to narrow current. Back on top passions and desires, as in fairy tales, which are always true, as he said Italo Calvino, because they speak of the human being. And fairy tales are archetypes, and the archetypes are always modern and universal ", (says Director Matteo Garrone). In “Il racconto dei racconti”, which will be outside Italy "Tale of Tales" because it is shot in English, the horror regaining the dignity of the prototypes, the "fairy tales mothers" that is, fantasies for adults, not children, and all strings of passion made of flesh and blood, of dreams and nightmares, of wandering from ugly to sublime the popular imagination conspire to create an overflowing beauty. It is a film of excess, to Garrone, as were the 50 tales of "Lu cunto de cunti them", by the genius of Giambattista Basile, Neapolitan in the first '600 provided the source material to edulcorazioni most famous Grimm, of Perrault , of Andersen. A film of excesses to be enjoyed in awe as a child listening to a fairy scary, with those slimy monsters and carnal that no creature could match digital, joyfully stolen even those pre-crafts film special effects, even B-movies of yesteryear. The excesses are straight from the imaginary popular and eternal sneer against the powerful. There is the all-consuming need maternity Queen Salma Hayek, who feeds a bloody dragon heart to give birth to the son of the victim will be coveted and exclusive passion. There is the paradoxical whim of Toby Jones, another sovereign, who stuffs a flea to the tonnage of an ox by sacrificing his only child. Vincent Cassel is the libertine who dazed by the orgies (and "that" orgies, chapeau) goes to bed by mistake, a poor old laundress, but the signs, you know ... because the magic is still there, and the genius of Basile was able to bring forward by four centuries satire of modern cosmetic surgery. So much so that the "cunto" original was titled "The old flayed", means the illusion of regaining youth and beauty. E'bello and important about B-movies, that Garrone cites among his sources of cinema, as well as the "Casanova" by Fellini, the "Pinocchio" by Comencini and all '"Armata Brancaleone" Monicelli, the legendary Mario Bava de "The mask of the devil."
I am so very curious to see what conversations and discussions this film inspires! (Or perhaps, incites would be a better word.)
Here's a bunch more stills which bring us more intriguing story information (I've left the most bloody and explicit ones out):
I'm also including screen caps from the new WEBSITE HERE to give you more of an idea of the synopsis and different stories involved/included. (It's in Italian but if you use a translator you can understand most of it). I recommend clicking on the images so you can read the story descriptions. There's more on the website too, about the girl and the ogre. There are a TON MORE photos on the official website too - all the ones included in this post are just a sampling (seriously!).
And here are some costume designs...
A list of locations used, which was a closely guarded secret for the whole production (wow! They're going to have "Tale of Tales" tours around Italy in the future, I just know it!)...
And other random things I've found from Cannes reports and other places:
And my son ADORES this ridiculously cute giant flea (No he hasn't seen the trailers!, just the posters, and I also told him that there was a story about a man who raised a special giant flea he loved, being included in the film and wanted to see a photo):
And here's a bonus bunch of behind-the-scenes images (you can click to enlarge).
There is also the official Facebook page HERE if you want to like/ follow it as well.
What do you think? Is the film piquing your interest yet?
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