Once Upon A Blog...

Tiana Makes A Nice Thumbelina

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

I came across a small set of re-envisioned Disney Princesses recently painting recently and particularly like this one. If you're at all familiar with Disney's The Princess and the Frog you'll know one of the (many) outfits designed for Tiana was based on lilies and lily pads to echo the frog theme. What it reminds me of, of course, is of another teeny fairy tale heroine* who is often illustrated dressed in petals or seated on lily pads: HCA's Thumbelina.

Tommelise Very Desolate on the Water Lily Leaf, in "Thumbkinetta" by Eleanor Vere Boyle

Yes, the illustration at the head of the post is a little provocative, but then, so is dressing in petals, when you think about it.

The digital illustration is by Jace Wallace and you can see the other three princesses (Snow White, Jasmine and Ariel) HERE, close-ups included, along with this rest of his deviantArt gallery. Mr. Wallace also has a very large professional portfolio and gallery HERE filled with many beautiful and strange girls (some NSFW). After looking through quite a number of works it's clear that this piece is rather unusual for the artist in that it's quite conservative (at least compared to his regular approach). I think it's rather beautiful (check the detail below) and is one of my favorite artist renditions of Tiana showing her froggy (and perhaps also "tiny heroine") influences to date.

Illustrations originally found HERE.

Bonus: For Disney fans, here's a link to see a fan art illustration of Tiana in a completely different outfit: Tiana (Bad) Voodoo Slayer. It certainly tugged a smile out of me - mainly because I would have liked to have seen Tiana get her "Whuppie" on in the film to some extent (as in fairy tale heroine Molly Whuppie) but I think it would have worked better if they'd kept to a 1920's-esque style.

* I say "another" because Tiana-as-frog is definitely on the diminutive side for much of the Disney movie.

Advertising: Kellogg's All Bran, Snow White

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:37:00 +0000

This is fun and memorable. I just wish the quality of the illustration had been a little better.

Here's the other print ad from the same campaign, featuring a rather uncomfortable looking Eve. I don't think it works half as well as the Snow White one. There's no story or humor in the Eve print at all really, which is what sells the Snow White one.

Campaign: All Bran - More Fruit Than Before

Date: May 2008

Brand: Kellogg's

Agency: JWT, Brussels, Belgium

Creative Director: Sabine Botta, Christopher Gelder

Copywriter: Jurgen Verbiest

Art Director: Sebastian Verliefde

Photography: Grégor Collienne

Originally found HERE from 2008.

Tam Lin & "Grimm"

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:13:00 +0000

Castle of the Enchantress by Alan Lee

I'm not normally a promoter of fan fiction but I'm making an exception for this recently written story since it does two things: 1) it makes good use of the fairy tale ballad Tam Lin (a favorite of mine) and 2) shows some of the (unused) the potential of NBC's Grimm.

Although this is essentially a fairly straight forward retelling of Tam Lin (with Juliette as Janet, Nick as Tam Lin in need of rescuing, Captain Renard as the fairy queen (king?) and the ever-helpful Monroe as sidekick), I think it does a good job of showing the sorts of places these characters could go, as well as illustrating how much fun a series arc could be, especially if it too is based on a fairy tale. Also interesting is the response of other fans to this piece. It's become very popular and is being linked to from all over the place. To me that says a lot about where this show could go.

One of the main criticisms of Grimm is that it's taking far too long for any series arc and character development to take place. Juliette (the MCs girlfriend) is frustratingly under-used and obvious repercussions of Nick's actions as a "Grimm" aren't being explored much, if at all. This fan fic tackles all that while managing the keep the characters true to the show, bring together hinted at plot lines and still leave the world wide open for exploring.

I could see certain aspects of a Tam Lin device developing over a few episodes, rather than this being told hurriedly in one, though I think "Anonymous" did a nice job. I'm not assessing this for the writing quality (think quickly written first draft with fairly good pacing that hits all the important points) but more for how apt it is for the show, characters used, genre and for the fairy tale angle. In other words, there's a ton of potential here I'm finding myself wishing I'd see explored in the actual show.

By the way, this little gif below, ties in nicely with the Tam Lin angle so thought I'd add it to help provide some visuals while you're reading. :)

If you like Tam Lin, or are wishing (like me) that Grimm's Juliette would be more of a major player in Nick's double-world, then take a few minutes and have a read. It's light, fun and Monroe bantering with a capable, smart Juliette is something I'd really like to see.

You can read the whole story (posted in 4 parts) HERE. (Scroll down past the "prompt post".)

I only wish I could properly credit the author. Clearly they've hit on something with Grimm fans.

A final observation: while Once is being talked about in forums, blogs and podcasts in a speculative sense, it's Grimm that seems to be inciting fan fiction. Clearly viewers see a lot of potential in the show's premise and world of Grimm creatures and tales that just isn't being explored. I too, hope that changes, and soon.

One note re the site: Try not to get put off by the site's name. I found this fan fic by searching for recent Tam Lin additions to the web, not by looking for Grimm news or because I was previously aware of this forum. A quick look around this site turned up a lot of NSFW adult content so I feel lucky to have stumbled across this at all. Despite this, you can be reassured that the story itself is completely clean and safe for work, as are the comments to date.

Advertising: Huggies Diapers Little Explorers, Snow White

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:37:00 +0000

The tag line for this series, created in response to the earthquake-tsunami tragedies that hit Japan last year, is: "Keep little explorers high and dry."

I must admit my first reaction to this was of slight shock. It took me consciously thinking of the tag line while looking at the illustrations to appreciate the campaign, though I'm still not 100% settled simply because of the reference to the disaster/s. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much but if keeping little kids dry helps reduce tsunami nightmares I say more power to the campaign and for getting kids a guaranteed-dry nappy/diaper!

I'm including the three print ads, even though only one of them is fairy tale themed. I think they're worth a looksee and I kind of like the idea of Snow White being considered an explorer too. The others are Zorro and Columbus. Interesting choices, though I wish there had been just one more for the girls.

Credits & Description:

Keep little explorers high and dry
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Beijing, China
Executive Creative Director: Bill Chan
Creative Directors: Jacky Lung, Kweichee Lam, Xingsheng Qi
Art Directors: Xingsheng Qi, Shengxiong Chen, Zhihua Zhong, Jacky Lung
Copywriters: Guilin Bo, Kweichee Lam
Art Buyer: Xiaohang Liu
Illustrator: Yu Chen
Advertiser’s Supervisor: Helena He
Account Manager: Maggie Zhou
Account Supervisor: Monica Hung

The Print Ads titled Snow White, Zorro and Columbus were done by Ogilvy, Beijing advertising agency for product: Huggies Diapers (brand: Huggies) in China. They were released in June 2010.

Originally found HERE.

Women and Dragons by Bluefooted

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:38:00 +0000

by Bluefooted

Just some beautiful paintings with a fairy tale feel I wanted to share. From "Silly Little Art Blog" where you can see many more beautiful and fantastic pieces.

by Bluefooted

There aren't tons of updates and they're a little random but it seems from the most recent date that the artist is still working.

By Bluefooted

The piece at the head of the post appears in many professional artist's "favorite inspirations" pieces so I do hope "Bluefooted" is encouraged to continue in their art. I would love to see this self-proclaimed amateur do what they obviously love for a living.

Article: "It's Snow White's Moment. What's She Going To Do With It?"

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:23:00 +0000

Kristen Stewart as Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman) by Alice X. Zhang

Yay! An article on "there are fairy tales everywhere right now!" that did some research beyond "OMG-did-you-know-that-this-fairy-tale-stuff-is-really-wicked-nasty-gruesome-stuff!"

The writers at io9 always give me a fun read. They have clear (and sassy) opinions they're not afraid of sharing AND like using their brains too so the articles are usually written with at least a little research to back up their points of view.

Check out the research credits by Kelly Faircloth for this article:

Sources used: The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar; The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim; The Great Fairy Tale Tradition, edited by Jack Zipes.

When a mainstream writer posts on fairy tales and does their research beyond the online entertainment sites, you know you want to read it. Specifically, this writer is the first I've seen to consider just why it is that suddenly Snow White is the princess du jour.

It starts:

After decades out of the limelight, suddenly Snow White is everywhere. What woke this particular tale out of its coma?

Charlize Theron as The Queen (Snow White and the Huntsman) by Alice X. Zhang

After a brief catch-up on how it's been Cinderella, not Snow White, that has been the go-to fairy tale princess of the masses for decades, the writer gets to the meaty stuff:

So why Snow White? (edit InkGypsy: as in "Why Snow White now?")

Like all traditional fairy tales, Snow White has a few fixed elements. Let's use folklorist Steven Swann Jones' definition (via fairy tale guru Maria Tater): "origin (birth of the heroine), jealousy, explusion, adoption, renewed jealousy, death, exhibition, resuscitation, and resolution."

Stories from all over the world contain these immediately recognizable elements, but that list also leaves open a whole lot of wiggle room in the details of the telling. So besides the Grimm version, you'll also see variants like Giambattista Basile's "The Young Slave," where the heroine is born to a young woman who swallows a leaf. Her years-long sleep is actually due to a fairy's curse and a poisoned comb, and it's actually another woman's jealous that wakes her, when her enraged aunt goes to pull out her hair.

It gets even more interesting, so go read the whole article HERE.

The Waltz from Enchanted Fan Art by Alice X. Zhang

On the note of trends in entertainment, if this is something you follow (which if you write you should, at least in a basic sense), this article HERE is also worth a look, and not just because in it's "Lessons" list it has "1) Dark fairy tales rule." There's one line quoted in the comments that writers and creators everywhere should remember when trying to promote ideas, follow public trends or predict Hollywood leanings - and this will most definitely apply to fairy tales being revised/retold too:

I'm reminded of the screenwriter who once remarked that the lesson Hollywood drew from the success of the movie TITANIC was "we need to make more movies about boats". (From commenter Chip Overlock.)

So far, it seems that Snow White isn't into the "more boats" business just yet, (thank goodness) but the time is bound to come. It may even be the case that tapping other fairy tales in the hopes they'll shine like Snow White currently does, is doing just that. Despite how difficult it is to see this happen to tales we love, I don't think this is anything to be too worried about in the long term. One of the wonderful things about fairy tales is that they ARE so old. Their substance is, well, substantial, and remains so. No matter what anyone does with them, they'll always come back, sometimes in ways you least expect (such as hit TV shows that send Disney galloping back to their feature fairy tale franchise, despite them swearing off fairy tales (again) forever.) If there's a lesson Hollywood could learn from the Snow White resurgence it might be: never underestimate a sleeping princess. ;)

Disney's Pocahontas Fan Art by Alice X. Zhang*

* The artist featured in this post in the amazingly talented Alice X. Zhang who is professional artist and illustrator. I included the Pocahontas piece simply because I thought her work was worth featuring by itself. I particularly love her more recent painterly portraits of celebrities and popular characters. The links under the images go to her website except for the last one which links to her blog. THERE, in her Tumblr blog, you can see her works in progress, sketches and inspirations. Not surprisingly there are a lot of fantasy-based works and images there so fairy tale people should find plenty of lovely things. :)

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:15:00 +0000

With all the emphasis on fairy tale film retellings like Mirror, Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Killer, Maleficent etc there's one fairy tale inspired movie that may have slipped past your radar.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green definitely has echoes of Tom Thumb, the main difference being that Timothy/Tom grows to normal boy proportions so the focus of the story becomes different (ie not all about a miniature person in a world of giants), though his appearance is just as magical.

The official synopsis is as follows:

Cindy Green and Jim Green, a childless couple, become frustrated with their inability to conceive, so one night they dream up their ideal offspring and write the child's characteristics and life events on pieces of paper, including "scoring the winning goal." The couple places the notes in a box and buries them in their backyard. After a stormy night in Stanleyville, a 10-year-old arrives at their doorstep, claiming the Greens as his own. Soon they realize that the child, named Timothy, is far more special than they originally thought.

Sounds a little yawn-worthy but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't more to this movie than first meets the eye (just like Timothy Green). The movie was originally the idea of Ahmet Zappa (who is the multi-talented son of Frank Zappa and has a long association with Disney in various capacities) and the script was written by Peter Hedges (About A Boy, Dan In Real Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?).

Here's the trailer:

This is a Disney movie and was in production well before the edgy side of fairy tales became vogue again but it's clear that this film's theme focuses on things that aren't as they appear to be (and is PG) , so we may be surprised beyond the normal family fare one might expect. Overall the images released for the film so far are almost all of idyllic family photo ops but clearly that wouldn't sustain an entire movie so I'm wondering what we're not seeing. The additional colorful images I've found below (also shown in the trailer) certainly hint at more other-worldliness to come.

There hasn't been a lot of buzz about it to date, at least not since the poster was first released, and I'm curious to see how it will be marketed for a summer release now the tide of public interest has shifted toward fairy tales that show their shadows.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is due for release on August 15, 2012.

Rapunzel Themed Wedding Photography

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:13:00 +0000

This lovely and unusual wedding photo shoot was a creative project to showcase the talents of the team at Connection Photography.

The wood setting is lovely and their custom built tree house adds that extra whimsy that makes this "wedding photography" unique and fun.

There are many (many!) more photos from this shoot which you can see HERE and a lot more beautiful and lovely themed shoots to see on the Connection Photography blog HERE. Just be aware that the blog is very image heavy and can take quite a while to load. It also has auto-play music but at least the player is easily visible at the head so you can turn it off straight away. Other than these little things there is a lot to enjoy there, especially if you like vintage-style photography.

Article: We Want More From Snow White

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0000

By Denis Zilber for a German anti-alcohol campaign

Now this is the sort of article I've been expecting to surface ever since ABC's Once Upon A Time became a hit. It starts like this:

The Little Mermaid is problematic. The girl who hates what she is, the misguided infatuation, the boy who likes a girl who knows how to keep her mouth shut . . .

Beauty and the Beast is probably worse. Kidnapping. Stockholm Syndrome. Interspecies angst.

Sleeping Beauty? Arrested development. Rapunzel? Desperation. Cinderella? One-night stand.

But none of these demented fairy tales have anything on Snow White.

In a fairy-tale cage match for the title of "most deranged, most horrific, most berserk classic children's story," Snow White lays waste to the competition. (And then devours the competition's internal organs.)

It's the kind of story you'd create if you were trying to mess kids up.

While this isn't exactly my view of Snow White (nor of the other tales - at least not as simply), the writer, does have some good points, especially as they echo concerns parents are currently having in reading kids fairy non-Disney versions of fairy tales. My argument would be that's exactly why they should be read (but I digress and that's another paper altogether... ;)

Little Snow White by David T. Wenzel

She also goes on to talk about the Snow White movies in production, Once Upon A Time and puts forth theories as to why Snow White has gotten (and is getting) so many adaptations. I like what she finishes with (which explains also why the rest of the article is still very much worth a read):

I think we want more for Snow White — and more from her — than her story ever gives us. So we just keep coming up with new ways to tell it.

For some people this may be true and it may very well inspire new takes. Personally I think there is far more to Little Snow White (Grimm's version) than meets the eye, which is why I keep going back to it, but ultimately it doesn't matter. The best thing is that people are thinking - really thinking - about fairy tales and why these stories keep coming back to us again and again.

You can read the whole article HERE.

"Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters" Release Postponed Till 2013

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:49:00 +0000

Were you wondering whatever happened to the promised Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters trailer, supposed to appear the week after the first (and only) official image hit the web? Don't worry. You didn't miss anything (except for perhaps the colon that's officially no longer in the title). Not only has the trailer NOT been publicly* released but the movie release has now been postponed for almost a whole year...

Cue "music of doom".

Yes, you're not the only one thinking this doesn't bode well for the quality of the movie but the studio people are insisting the date change is for valid reasons, not because there's anything wrong with the movie. They even cited three "valid reasons":

The move comes on the heels of the successful opening of Paramount's micro-budgeted horror pic The Devil Inside and Christmas tentpole Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol, which has already earned $458.1 million worldwide. The two films almost guarantee that the studio will have a good fiscal quarter (and Devil Inside--scoring the best opening ever for early January--proves the corridor can be lucrative).

There are two other reasons for the move, according to an insider. The 3D materials for Hansel and Gretel are only now coming in, and Paramount wants time to market the 3D aspect, particularly overseas.

Third, Renner -- who stars opposite Tom Cruise in Ghost Protocol -- has two other 2012 films, The Avengers, which comes out in early May, and The Bourne Legacy, which hits theaters in early August. The insider said pushing back Hansel and Gretel also allows the movie to benefit from the exposure Renner earns from those two films.

Are your fears allayed? Mine neither. The only good thing about this is that ten months is long enough to fix a movie already well into production (that is, if you work hard, have a decent budget and know what you're doing).

It's really not fair to make any sort of judgement on the film without seeing a single second of footage but the fact we haven't even been allowed that yet, especially so close to the original release date, says a lot all by itself. I'm just glad someone had the guts to do something about it before putting anything out there. Fairy tale zeitgeist or not, it's still going to be tough to win over mainstream audiences with such "an inherently pulpy design" (as one source describes the premise and approach) unless they've really nailed it. I wish the team every success as they put on the finishing touches, however many hammers they have to use.

Sources: HERE, HERE & HERE

*Publicly released no, but some people have seen it, with reportedly guarded to outright negative responses. (See 2nd source for a more detailed summary).

"Hans My Hedgehog" Story Poster by Yael Albert

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:32:00 +0000

I found this recently and loved, not only seeing some new artwork for a fairy tale I love but that the poster takes you through the whole story as well. I wish there were more tales illustrated this way. They'd make wonderful teaching and reference tools as well as fantastic additions to a playroom.

The artist, Yael Albert is an Israeli-born illustrator who, although she seems fairly new on the scene (within the last few years) has hit the ground running going from high profile awards to publishing contracts in New York, including The New York Times (click to see his illustration).

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any details on why this poster was made or what inspired her. I also sincerely wish there was a high resolution image of this poster available so I could see all the details in context but we'll have to settle for a few enlarged images instead.

I wanted to mention her lovely little postcard sketches from her blog too (like this one HERE). Apparently she found some old postcards and doodled in some imaginary aspects for each one - what a great idea! I love them. They're completely fairy tale-like in their atmosphere and remind me of when I was a child and thinking of tales in different situations.

Her website is HERE, her blog HERE and this beautiful Hans My Hedgehog poster was originally found HERE.

Tim Burton's "Pinocchio", Guillermo del Toro's Stop-Motion "Pinocchio" & a "Pinocchio Prequel" All In The Works

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:26:00 +0000

How did I miss this Burton announcement this week? The fairy tale movie list just keeps growing and growing... and that's the truth. ;)

Burton, who put his bizarrely charming stamp on "Alice in Wonderland" in 2010, is in talks to direct a Warner Bros.-produced big screen, live action adaptation of "Pinocchio." Circling the role of Geppetto, the puppet-maker and creator of the marionette boy, is none other than Robert Downey Jr. This version of the fairytale originally written by Carlo Collodi would see Geppetto seeking out his lost puppet son; past iterations, including the classic Disney cartoon, have focused more on the twists, turns and lessons learned during Pinocchio's quest to become a real boy and reunite with the puppet-maker.

Neither director nor actor has signed on the dotted line, and scheduling still has to be worked out, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, they are both keen to sign on. Source: HERE

Once somebody puts ink on a contract somewhere and makes this more than a conversation we should get quite a few more details on this Gepetto-centric adaptation since Burton doesn't take long to jump into his projects when he has all his strings in hand. (The media are going to have a field day with the puns on this one! And someone is going to have to say something about Robert Downey Jr going from Iron Man to wooden boy...)

Speaking of Pinocchio adaptations, whatever happened to the Guillermo del Toro, Henson & Gris Grimley 3D stop-motion animation project? I snapped up the Gris Grimley illustrated book that was the inspiration for this adaptation, back when it appeared years ago. Even though it's "Gris Grimley dark", it also has an interesting humor to the illustrations and suits Collodi's original story (technically "stories") very well. Add in the other creative heavy weights (del Toro and Henson Co) and the potential for a film like this is amazing.

Guillermo del Toro's Stop Motion Pinocchio

Here's the info from earlier last year:

Guillermo del Toro, The Jim Henson Company and Pathe are moving forward with a stop-motion animated 3D Pinocchio. It is a feature adaptation of the Carlo Collodi fairy tale and will reportedly be edgier than the 1940 animated Disney classic. Gris Grimly is set to co-direct with Mark Gustafson, and production will begin later this year. The basis of this project was Grimly's 2002 illustrated book of of Collodi’s tale. Del Toro and Matthew Robbins crafted the story based on a script from Robbins, who has collaborated with del Toro on scripts for Mimic, the Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark remake, and the upcoming At the Mountains of Madness. The director is producing the feature along with Jim Henson Company’s Lisa Henson and Jason Lust, and Allison Abbate. Gary Ungar is exec producer along with Pathe’s Francois Ivernel and Cameron McCracken. This version will be for audiences 10 years and up, and will be scarier than the Disney film. Australian musician and film composer Nick Cave will serve as the music consultant for the project. The puppets and 3D elements will be developed with the UK's MacKinnon and Saunders, that did The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, and the upcoming Frankenweenie.

Guillermo de Toro's Pinocchio - key frame

And, in case you haven't read them before, here are some excerpts from an interview with Guillermo del Toro regarding Pinocchio, Collodi's characters and fairy tale recorders and adaptors (including Disney) from HERE:

“There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work, something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood. We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that Collodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

“the Blue Fairy is really a dead girl’s spirit. Pinocchio has strange moments of lucid dreaming bordering on hallucinations, with black rabbits. The sperm whale that swallows Pinocchio was actually a giant dogfish, which allows for more classical scale and design. The many mishaps Pinocchio goes through include several near-death close calls, a lot more harrowing moments. The key with this is not making any of it feel gratuitous, because the story is integrated with moments of comedy and beauty. He’s one of the great characters, whose purity and innocence allows him to survive in this bleak landscape of robbers and thugs, emerging from the darkness with his soul intact.”

So the current status on this project is unknown apart from being "in production". Apparently it went into production toward the end of 2011 as planned and things have been very quiet from the team (I'm guessing they're very busy!) since.

Guillermo de Toro's Pinocchio - key frame

There's one more Pinocchio project in the works too: a prequel called The Three Misfortunes of Gepetto with Shawn Levyy (Real Steel) attached to direct as of October 2011 (see HERE for a couple more details). It's being touted as “a fresh way into the Pinocchio story.”

Deadline report the studio bought Michael Vukadinovich's screenplay for The Three Misfortunes of Geppetto, and aim to produce a film in the vein of "Big Fish or The Princess Bride." In the story, Geppetto "endures a life of misfortune, war and adventure all to be with Julia Moon, his true love." (Source: HERE)

Not much else on this project right now either but I'm sure it will get more than a few mentions and perhaps nudge out any further news (if there is any) with the Burton & Robert Downey Jr. announcement this week.

Russian Animation Classic "The Snow Queen" on Special Exhibit

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:07:00 +0000

In case you didn't know, there was an animated film made in Russia 55 years ago of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. It won awards from all over the world and still has animators and layout artists discussing it today.

From Haute Living:

Currently on exhibit until Feb. 5 at the Na Solyanke Gallery in Moscow is the “Cold and Beauty: The Snow Queen is 55.” The exhibit features the work of modern world-renowned artists and animators, the airing of “The Snow Queen” and the original sketches by Alexander Vinokurov to the 1957 Russian award-winning animated film.

The exhibit honors the 1957 Soviet animated film “The Snow Queen” directed by Lev Atamanov -the film is based off of the story with the same name by Hans Christian Andersen- after its release, the film won numerous awards around the world. It was incredibly popular in the Soviet Union and kids to this day still watch the “Snow Queen.”

To mark the success and impact of Atamanov’s animated rendition of the “Snow Queen,” Na Soyanke Gallery featured works from many artists who created pieces themed after the dreamlike tale. Some of the pieces include David Birkin’s frozen video portraits of famous Russian athletes and celebrities. Other artists involved in the exhibit were Andrei Bartenev, Khaik Simonyan and Katya Bochavar.

Although there was no way the curator of the exhibit could have known Disney would revive it's Snow Queen project yet again just recently, the timing for such an exhibit is excellent. If this was showing after Disney's Snow Queen (titled Frozen) started releasing teasers and marketing, I don't think as many people would be as interested. At the very beginning of Frozen is a completely different matter, so I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Interested in seeing more stills? Go HERE and enjoy. (Note: there are actually 2 more posts "Snow Queen 2" and "Snow Queen 3" of stills and layouts from the same film at this blog.)

Speaking of Frozen in case there was any question whether or not Disney's revived fairy tale project was to be hand drawn or CG it's definitely CG. And 3D. Sigh. (Note: I did have confirmation of this in my announcement post HERE but a lot of people must have skimmed that little tidbit in the excitement of seeing Snow Queen thawing at Disney once again - not that I blame them!) The current release date for Frozen is a 2013 Winter release on November 23.

First Behind-the-Scenes Photos of "Mirror Mirror"

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:08:00 +0000

Lily Collins stands alone in the woods set of Mirror Mirror.

Here is a "first look" at Mirror Mirror, the Snow White film with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins.

It's really more of a "on the set of" set of photos as most of the photos include crew and peeks at the rigging holding the scenery. I love seeing all this, of course, but these particular shots don't give you any more of an idea of the movie than the original trailer did. One thing is for certain though: no matter what's going on with the plot (or the jokes) the visuals promise to be stunning. The design work and cinematography all show a strong and cohesive stylistic signature (as was expected of director Tarsem Singh) and I actually want to see the "making of" featurettes more than the movie itself.

Camera trainee Camille Baduraux crouches next to a fancy snow sled in which Nathan Lane is preparing to act.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Tarsem Singh (Immortals) hopped into the director's chair for the 14-week shoot when Ratner stepped aside, turning the movie into an "all stage" production. Singh crafted the movie's many environments exclusively on soundstages with the help of digital effects and elaborate costumes from Oscar winner Eiko Ishioka (Bram Stoker's Dracula). The result, producers hope, is a whimsical family film with modern sensibility.

"It's an animated movie come to life," says Goldmann. "You can only do that with the greenscreen effect."

Lily Collins stands by as a large clapper board is used to mark the beginning of a scene. (I really like this photo!)

There are 23 behind-the-scenes photos to browse through and you can find them all HERE.

Mirror Mirror now has a release date of March 16th, 2012, instead of June 29th.

Nathan Lane relaxes sans shoes.

Kate Greenaway's "Pied Piper" New eBook with Audio

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Disclaimer: I was given free access to this eBook for the purposes of a survey and review. My thanks to Animusia for contacting me with the opportunity.

If you like The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning then you will probably be familiar with Kate Greenaway's lovely illustrations for the poem as well.

New eBook Cover

What's cool is that there's a new, high quality eBook (released December 21, 2011) that not only has beautifully reproduced high quality images that you can enlarge till you can see every detail of Kate Greenaway's lovely illustrations but a very special audio recording that makes the whole poem, and viewing the artwork, fresh again.

While having a high quality copy of the illustrations is worth the price in my opinion, it's the new audio presentation that takes this ebook from good to excellent and will keep you coming back to it. The poem is read beautifully by Stella Arman, a singer and vocal trainer, and it's possibly the best I've ever heard Robert Browning's Pied Piper read and presented. The music, Gordon Jacob’s Pied Piper suite for flute and piccolo, complements it perfectly.

The combination of the reading, music and illustrations kept both my young son and I turning the pages right till the end. Frankly, I was surprised my son was initially so interested but he said it was really pretty to listen to. When the animation began with the children moving through the streets to the Piper's music he lit up and started asking questions about where they were going.

Unfortunately I don't have an e-reader of my own and was only able to borrow an iTouch to view it on but I imagine the experience would have been even better on iPad. On the iTouch the animation was a little jittery and there were initial download issues but that may just be because we didn't have the latest gadget available, even though we upgraded the software to enable the download in the first place.

We didn't use the text highlighting option but I think it would have been excellent if we'd had an iPad (ie a much larger screen) to view it with, as the audio appealed to my son so much I think it would have encouraged him to try reading along (he's just starting to recognize words and sound out new one).

I only have two issues with the eBook:

1) You have to go through iTunes to get it and I'm not a fan of iTunes for multiple reasons.
2) When you enlarge images, although the detail and quality is, indeed, excellent, the nature of the enlargement, in which you lose your view of the rest of the illustration, takes away from the experience. The one time my son lost interest is when we started enlarging things and he couldn't see the whole picture anymore.

Children are big fans of details in illustrations - something Kate Greenaway specifically included in her Pied Piper illustrations on Ruskin's advice. When you're looking at details in a book the rest of the "magic" of the picture is still maintained and unfortunately this is lost in most eBooks I've seen, including this one. I know that's the nature of enlarging things in general but I have to wonder if maybe a magnifying bubble or similar enlarging tool that keeps the rest of the illustration visible in the background, might not be a better option, especially when sharing with children.

Overall I was surprised I enjoyed this eBook as it takes something special for me to recommend one. I'm not won over (at least not yet) by most of the eBook technology available but this new eBook helped me take the reading experience one step beyond a book for my son with the addition of the beautiful audio and I can see us reading it again. For that it has my thumbs up.

If you'd like to add this to your library the current price is $7.99 (I suggest you take into account the excellent recording when you compare prices with other eBooks) and the link is HERE.

The Joy of Books

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:36:00 +0000

From Maria Tatar's blog and many other places today...

As soon as I saw this, I simply had to share. (Email subscribers: I don't think the mail service includes embedded videos. You'll want to check out this one out on the blog.)

For all my book-loving friends everywhere and for fans of hand-made animation. Magical stuff!

You can find out more about the creator, Sean Ohlenkamp, in an interview HERE about this project that's gone viral in just one day.

If you want to see other creations of his (not all animation) you can check out his portfolio HERE.

What About Little Snow White?

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:44:00 +0000

Little Snow White by Yvonne Gilbert

Finding and sourcing Snow White illustrations is a big job - big because it must be one of the most illustrated fairy tales ever (for centuries now!) and no matter how often I look I'm always finding both newly made illustrations and much older works I've been missing all along. What I find interesting is that despite this, it's quite difficult to find more than a handful of Snow White illustrations where Snow is clearly a child, that is, not a teen or even a young teen, but a child of seven, as she was in the Grimm telling.

If you read it a little more closely you realize Snow White is called "Little Snow White" for much of the tale, right up until the end where her coffin is being carried, the apple dislodges and she wakes up. It's at this point the preifx of "Little" is dropped and, although it's not clear how much time has passed (though it's substantial) or how much she's matured she's just "Snow White" when she consents to marriage.

Walt Disney was aware Grimm's Snow White was seven years old but reportedly felt audiences would find that too hard to take so he made a conscious decision to shift the focus instead chose a young woman of fourteen for his first feature heroine (note that she very subtly ages during her time in the coffin to look a bit closer to eighteen when the prince finds her again and swoops her off to get married).

Of all the illustrations I've seen (which numbers in the many hundreds) Trina Schart Hyman's Snow White remains possibly my favorite of all versions everywhere but even her youngest Snow is closer to pre-teen than child. Yvonne Gilbert's lovely drawing at the head of the post clearly shows Snow as a child but unfortunately it's a stand alone piece.

Snow White by Charles Santore

The only picture book example I could find of Snow White as an obviously-young girl for most of the story, as per the Grimm text, is by Charles Santore, published in 1996. Although it's a beautiful, beautiful book (you can see all the illustrations from the book HERE to remind you), it's the only example I've found of a real child in the role instead of a pre-teen or teen and I think it's well overdue that we see another Snow White picture book with a child heroine.

Thinking about a seven year old going through Snow's experiences gives you a whole different way of looking at the tale, and at seven year old girls too. If I knew someone with a daughter approaching seven years old, a "Snow White as child" book is something I'd want her to have, both for herself and to read with her daughter. Growing girls are tricky creatures and mothers of girls, however well meaning, almost always have a tough run of it somewhere along the line. Various cultures around the world would suggest that age seven is a key developmental milestone, a time where all things are about to change for the child (and her parents) and mark the first of her steps toward womanhood. Looking back on my girlhood, I completely understand this not-yet-woman-but-knows-I-will-be-one-someday phase. Looking around me at seven year old girls with this in mind is daunting but also makes me protective of them too. If I had a girl I know I'd want a heads-up from Little Snow White's story. I think all girls, and their mothers, deserve that.

Snow White by Charles Santore

Source for Yvonne Gilbert's illustration HERE.

*Yvonne Gilbert has done a lot of fairy tale illustration. You may be familiar with her gorgeous and highly recommended award winning book "The Wild Swans" among other lovely works which you can see on her portfolio HERE.

Courage In Fairy Tales

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:31:00 +0000

Below is a random comment I found on searching for recent web posts mentioning Baba Yaga. I loved it so much I had to share (warning: coarse language ahead so I inserted stars where necessary):

My current Russian fairytale reading is starting to significantly piss me off, largely because of heroines and their descriptions. The reason these girls are ‘likeable’ (i.e. why their evil stepmothers/sisters hate them) is because they’re prettier and more skilful and kinder and more obedient etc. etc. etc. And… no. Because the best and most likeable things about these girls (who do some pretty awesome sh*t) is that they are brave, determined and loyal to a f***ing fault.

There’s a reason that East of the Sun is my favourite, because however stockholm syndrome-y, however much it blames her lack of obedience and however much she wins by… cleaning, I will never not love the recurring motif. “Are you afraid?” “No.” Of course she afraid, she’s being taken to the castle of a polar bear in the arctic or is about to ride the North wind, but she’s not about to tell anyone that or let it stop her. Courage is what I took away from Baba Yaga, East of the Sun, Jack Frost and The Little Scarlet Flower, not being submissive (though that was definitely an aspect).

Which is why fairytales are better when you look at what their characters do and not what we’re told about them. (Emphasis by InkGypsy)

See why I had to share?

Having been largely absent online the past year I'm out of the loop with regard to how Tumblr accounts really work so the best I can do with credit is to send you to the page I found HERE. Clicking on atticus-finches sends you to an eclectic blog in which, if you like art and art history, you should find some fun little posts

The beautiful art dolls and sculpture are by the amazing Forest Rogers whose blog and gallery have me in complete awe. Find yourself a few free minutes to go browse HERE - you can thank me later after you pick your jaw up off the ground. :)

Time Again for Once Upon A Time...

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:56:00 +0000

New episodes start again tonight on ABC... in case you'd forgotten... ;)

Image source HERE.

Maleficent

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:57:00 +0000

Ever since the first rumor linking Angelina Jolie and the movie Maleficent there have been mock-ups of Ms. Jolie's face in "costume" for the leading role. Now that there's finally a director attached (as announced less than a couple of days ago), no doubt we'll see many more takes on Ms. Jolie as evil-fairy since she remains confirmed for the title role. The fan effort at the head of the post is my favorite version from the pickings at the moment.

I'm actually really looking forward to this movie. Reading Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen by Serena Valentino a couple of years ago I was pleasantly surprised to see that Disney was OK with Snow White's Evil Queen getting re-envisioned so thoroughly and so (chillingly) believably. (It's a wonderful, well written and beautiful book - highly recommended!) I also know Ms. Valentino had been considering the angle she would take if she were asked to re-write Disney's Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent's point of view, back when Fairest of All was published, and am curious as to her ideas. I wish she was a consultant for the story development but with Linda Woolverton (who wrote the screenplay for Disney's Beauty & the Beast and co-wrote on The Lion King) at the script's helm it's unlikely. I do know that if real complexities are being written into the role (which is supposed to be the whole point of the movie) that Angelina Jolie without doubt has the acting chops to pull it off and is probably about the right age now to be believable too.

But will they turn her green?

I find it interesting that in the majority of mock-up pictures Ms. Jolie is given the Wicked treatment. If you look at Disney's Sleeping Beauty Maleficent does have a greenness about her skin but I never really thought of her as "green" like the Oz movie's Wicked Witch of the West or Elphaba in Wicked. Instead I assumed she was somewhat pasty from avoiding sunshine (and all other good things), from messing around with vile substances and potions and that perhaps she had a sense of decay about her as well (I guess zombies are often portrayed as green too but I don't think Maleficent is in the zombie category). I also always thought of Maleficent as a sorcerous fairy rather than a witch as well so why did she get green around the gills* for the Disney animated feature?

Considering Baum never described the Wicked Witch of the West as green and the illustrations for his story never suggested it either, where did this association of witch/evil woman = green come from? Wasn't green always considered a fairy color, no matter which side they were on? Was the decision to make the WWof theW green-skinned based in anything historical to do with witches at all or was it a make-the-most-of-technicolor decision like the changing Baum's silver slippers to ruby was?

Luckily the internet hive mind has some interesting and plausible ideas on this.

From this Wizard of Oz forum HERE:

Regarding your question on Oz message board about origin of green-skinned witches -- I am pretty sure that there are none prior to the 1939 WofO movie. And the reason the movie had one probably has more to do with showing off the capabilities of the technicolor process than with any precedent in folklore. I'd make a guess that there might have been some influence from the discovery (late in the 18th century, with popularity all through the 19th century in dyes for wallpaper, paint, and fabrics) of copper arsenate as a bright green color that was cheap and easy to manufacture. The dye was poisonous, based as it was on arsenic and in a lot of 19th (and early 20th) century fiction you can find references to arsenic green or even just bright green as a poisonous color. There might be a further association of green with poisons and with magic-working because the drink absinthe (notorious in late 19th/early 20th century culture as a poisonous-but-intoxicating-and-poetically-inspiring drink -- the poisonous and the inspirational elements of its reputation seem to have been a good deal exaggerated) usually had enough chlorophyll in its manufacture to come out green in color, and absinthe was nicknamed "la fee verte" (the green fairy -- should have an acute accent-mark on the first e).

And a couple of other ideas that repeat all over the web (with these excerpts being the best summaries that seemed to make at least a good amount of sense - source HERE):

1) The stereotype of the green-faced witch with the crooked nose stems from the so-called "burning times" or the Inquisition. Women were persecuted and beaten severely and tortured to "confess" to witchcraft before being burned, hanged or beheaded. These women were paraded through the town before execution and looked frightful due to the beatings and torture. Their faces were horrible shades of green from the bruises, their noses and teeth were usually broken, among other things. This is the last sight people saw of the accused and "convicted" witch before her death.Pretty messed up, eh?
2) The "green" witch has some roots in Celtic Mythology. Sometimes, witches were depicted with green skin or red hair. Both green and red are colors associated in Celtic tradition with fairies. There has always been a connection between fairies and witches, both being thought of as being not quite of this world. An old description in Britain for a fairy or a human being who was thought to have psychic abilities was "greensleeve" or "green jacket". The association of green with the otherworld was so strong that at one time it was considered unlucky to wear green because it might incur the wrath of the fairies who considered it their own color.

My two cents (which probably has nothing to do with influencing anything at Disney - or MGM - BUT does tap into fairy tales and myths at large and does pre-date Sleeping Beauty by a number of years) is to mention C.S. Lewis' Lady of the Green Kirtle/ Green Witch/Emerald Witch/Queen of Underland from his Narnia stories with "poison colored skin" (in The Silver Chair) also transforms to a giant snake/dragon-like creature. Considering the source, you know the use of green for this formidable and evil woman is most likely to have been based in mythic traditions. But then maybe he saw The Wizard of Oz too!

The only clear thing seems to be that once MGM released The Wizard of Oz with Dorothy's green-skinned nemesis, green witches began to appear everywhere and anyone green-skinned from then on was almost always equated with "bad". I'm guessing that had at least an unconscious effect on Maleficent's skin color for Disney's Sleeping Beauty and I have to wonder: will a live-action movie be able to pull off a green-skinned Maleficent/Angelina Jolie, will they go for more human tones or will they try something completely different?

(Amazing what one picture will get me thinking!)
__________________________________________________________________________________

*Or did she? This blogger HERE did quite a bit of research trying to determine the real color of Maleficent's skin according to Disney but it turns out if wasn't easy to do.

To confuse the issue a little further, there was a (very!) limited line of cosmetics released by Mac and Disney called Venomous Villains this year in which Maleficent had a whole cosmetic line of her own. See HERE for pictures of all the products and descriptions, along with directions on how the stores should display them, which is fun to look at when you think about it being put on an actual human (including, of course, Ms. Jolie). See HERE for an excellent description of the colors used (about half way down the page for Maleficent). Why am I even bothering telling you this? Because, and here's the quote:

Jennifer Balbier, the vice president of product development for M.A.C Cosmetics, said about the line: "Disney gave us the colors used when these characters were drawn throughout their history."

I pity the make-up designer their job if they have to include all the Disneyland and product data on Maleficent's "official colors" for their final decision.

"The Zen of Oz" Illustrations by Cathy Pavia

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:16:00 +0000

As promised, here are Cathy Pavia's illustrations for the book The Zen of Oz: Ten Spiritual Lessons from Over the Rainbow by Joey Green. I was so pleased to find these, especially as it was completely by chance (I don't usually research Wizard of Oz material). This book is not new - just new to me. I had heard of it but it was published during a trend of the Zen of "insert character/famous story/person here" so it barely blipped my radar. I obviously didn't see the illustrations back then though, so I'm sharing in case you, like me, heard the tile and let it slide on by without taking a look.

I'm showing the images in extra large size so you can better see the gorgeous details as I really don't like the current image viewer blogger uses. You can see them full size if you right-click (or control-click) and choose "view image".

There is this fascinating tidbit of information in a review on Amazon, from someone who visited Baum's great-grandson and had a discussion about The Wizard of Oz and specifically this book The Zen of Oz:

On one of my recent journeys through the Land of Oz, the Ozarks, I visited with my friend Roger S. Baum, the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum-the author of the "Wizard of Oz". I asked him what he thought about the theory of his great-grandfather being a Zen Master. He admitted he really didn't know. That he hadn't read "The Zen of Oz". That it has been his experience that such things were only done by people that saw an opportunity to make money off Great Grandfather's work. After I explained the gist of Joey Green's premise I did notice a slow smile take over Roger's face. He was intrigued. Though he would not corroborate Joey's claims he did state that Great Grandfather would probably not turn over in his grave if he knew about "The Zen of Oz". The one caveat Roger then mentioned was that first and foremost the Oz Series is a collection of fantasies for the young at heart. Meant to be taken with sincerity but not too seriously. The rest of our conversation was private.

I have not read this book and this is not my review of the content - just an appreciation of the artwork which is done in Japanese print block style so beautifully and a sharing of an extra dimension I found to Baum's work and thinking.

In case you're interested, here's the official book blurb:

Does The Wizard of Oz touch a spiritual chord in each one of us because it has a certain Zen to it? Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, is clearly a Zen Master. She sets Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road to spiritual enlightenment. When Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion let go of their conscious yearning and free their minds to function spontaneously and inharmony with the cosmos, brains, heart, and courage flow easily and effortlessly. Ultimately, Dorothy attains satori, the Zen experience of "awakening." She finds her true Self, her higher consciousness, her ultimate Oneness with the cosmos--and her home.

The Amazon link for the book is HERE.

I really liked the cultural variation on such familiar scenes. It really did add to the whole experience and made me think about the story in a fresh way for the first time in quite a while. Always a good thing!

Cathy Pavia's portfolio and website are HERE.

Illustrations by Rosie Lauren Smith

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:54:00 +0000

East of Sun West of Moon

These beautiful illustrations you see here are by Rosie Lauren Smith, yet another artist I found through deviantArt this year. I then realized I had also seen her work in New Fairy Tales Magazine as well.

Fairy Ouroboros

Into the Woods

Mabon

The Fire Boy (for New Fairy Tales Magazine)

The Red Bird (for New Fairy Tales Magazine)

The Snow Children (for New Fairy Tales Magazine)

Troll Princess (older work done in the style of John Bauer)

My favorite would have to be the East of Sun West of Moon illustration. Beautiful.

Rosie Lauren Smith has a lovely blog HERE and her deviantArt gallery is HERE.

New Fairy Tales Magazine - which is always recommended, despite being on hiatus during 2011 - can still be found HERE. Ms. Sith's illustrations are featured in Issue 6 (current issue as of this writing) for the story The River of the Fire of Life by Francesca Forrest.

Chinese Goldilocks'

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:30:00 +0000

"Ingvard the Terrible"

There's an artist I recently discovered whose style I just love. He is "Ingvard the Terrible! (Illustrator-Warrior-Dude)", also known as Sean Ashby.

He's interested in creating different-and usually-funny takes on the familiar, which I love and appreciate greatly. Among them is this Chinese Goldilocks-using-pandas idea. Although it LOOKS like a book, don't get your hopes up just yet. He'd love to illustrate the story in this vein but needs a writer savvy in Chinese history who also knows how to sell it to a publisher first. This image is actually a composited version of his illustration in a live background - just for fun. I really hope someone gets him the gig!

His wonderful blog is HERE and includes this awesome link list of books for boys.

This also recently appeared on my illustration radar and as it's the same concept, done entirely differently, I thought I'd include it here.

Billy Nuñez

I gather the artist, Billy Nuñez, is a student and this was done for an assignment. While I'm definitely drawn to it, it sort of feels like the first draft of a great idea. Personally I'd like to see a little more tension in the scene so it tells more of a story (including the "what if" factor), even if it were only to add some "waft" from steaming rice or special pancakes and a slightly more dynamic pose for the girl (that is, a stronger pose suggestive of thought and possible action). I like where it's going though and I'd love to see a reworked version. Mr. Nuñez's gallery is HERE.

On the subject of Goldilocks and pandas, there is also a fairly new ebook called The Three Pandas by Valerie Mih: an "interactive animated tickle book for the iPad".

Here's the blurb:

A modern take on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" features a charming style of animation and a lovable family of pandas.

The Panda Family takes a break from its breakfast of bamboo leaf porridge to take a walk in the bamboo forest. While they're gone, a young girl named Mei Mei walks through the familiar home-intrusion routine that most children will recognize. She finds Baby Panda's porridge to her liking, deems his chair most comfortable (but not before breaking it) and ends up in his cozy bed. What could have been a lazy retread with pandas and a distinct Chinese influence is instead made fresh with the app's animations, which combine photo collages, a live-action actress portraying Mei Mei (in a red dress and black Mary Janes) and movement for the pandas when the reader "tickles" each of them, as the app advises. The app can be experienced in English and Chinese (in both the text and optional narration), and a portion of the proceeds from each app sale goes to Pandas International, which has partnered with the publisher. Except for two letters that are exchanged at the end bringing the pandas and Mei Mei back together for a happy ending, the story is not much different from what readers expect from a "Goldilocks" story.

But the design is clever, and the visuals (along with the unfailingly adorable pandas themselves) make it worth a look. (iPad storybook app. 2-7)

It looks cute and nicely done overall, though I haven't seen it in person. Appears perfect for little kids to enjoy and learn from.

Here's one more illustration by Cathy Pavia, this time with Goldilocks having "goldy" locks. It's not my favorite of her work - I like her The Zen of Oz illustrations a lot (check for a blog post showing those soon) - but I thought I'd include it since we're on the topic and it's sort of surprising there aren't many more panda variations on Goldilocks.

Cathy Pavia

"Tangled Ever After" Official Preview (& My Unofficial "Tangled" the Movie Review)

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

WARNING: Opinion ahead.*

We're in the run-up to Disney's Beauty & the Beast 3D and the Tangled sequel, Tangled Ever After. This time next week (January 13, 2012) the Beauty & the Beast remastered-and-tweaked feature will be in playing theaters with Tangled Ever After showing at the start.

I feel a little odd posting this video, I must admit. There's really nothing left to relate it to Rapunzel.. we could always stretch the idea and say the gigantic train is supposed to remind us that she was stuck with crazy-long enchanted hair until recently but... yeah.

There's a second video here - (warning: quality is not great) - and in between shots of the hosts we see glimpses of the mayhem to come.

Reminds me of Louis the Chef trying to make delicacies out of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid.

I didn't ever blog what I thought of Tangled and I'm probably not ever going to write a proper review (or recommend it to anyone who likes fairy tales or a well told story, although it's very pretty, the horse was inspired and the "Art Of" book is great) but one of the disappointments for me was that this pair...

... seem very different from this pair...

... which is a real pity since I was hoping for the far more layered characters promised on the initial Rapunzel-slash-Tangled (yes, I wrote it that way on purpose) teaser poster. Any layering they had in Tangled seems totally absent in Ever After but unfortunately I'm no longer surprised at that.

It IS nice to see Maximus again (who was the whole reason I actually made it through the feature), though it appears his crafty savviness, which stayed almost completely intact through the movie, has now drunk whatever Kool Aid is being served at the castle. Sigh.

By the way, did you ever see this? The Japanese poster for Tangled also promised great fairy tale things. Somehow, after all my disappointments, I still want to see "that" movie (as long as Maximus stays in it).

Oh - and I read a rumor there is a plan for a 3rd Tangled movie (this short one being the 2nd). All I can think of is a toddler with max-locks having multiple mishaps being babysat by a horse and a chameleon. I just have one thing to say: "Nooooooooooo!"

*I don't mean any disrespect to the people who worked hard on the film or those who loved the movie. I just... didn't like it. I thought it had much more potential, considering the story source. The art is beautiful - no question about it (although the distractingly huge size of Rapunzel's eyes obviously left no room in her head for much in the way of brain matter) - and the techniques developed, and ultimately used for the film, were incredible (really and truly amazing stuff!). I simply find all those achievements hard to appreciate in the middle of a mangled mess of storytelling. Sorry.

Theater: The Stinky Cheese Man And Other Fairly Stupid Tales

noreply@blogger.com (InkGypsy) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:18:00 +0000

This isn't a brand new production but I thought it was worth a mention since it's playing to lucky Connecticut audiences, starting January 29th.

In “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” Jack must use his wits to save himself from the terrible Giant, but a host of familiar fairytale characters keep messing up his plans---and then there's that annoying Stinky Cheese Man! Very different from the traditional fairy tale, characters slide in and out of familiar stories. Cinderella rebuffs Rumpelstiltskin, and Goldilocks meets the Three Elephants. Nothing is quite the same as the audience remembers it. Recommended for ages 4 to 10, the show is produced by the Griffin Theatre Company, based on the book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.

If you're not familiar with the Caldecott Honor book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales do yourself a favor and go get a copy right now! Highly recommended and so much fun to read no matter what age you are.