Felicia Day is no stranger to werewolves, thanks to her "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" history (she played potential-slayer, Vi, in the final season) and in Sy Fy's fairy tale remake "Red", she gets to play a werewolf hunting descendant of our famous Little Red Riding Hood.
Day, a Twitter powerhouse more recently known for her web video series "The Guild," (has signed on for) the Syfy project, dubbed simply, "Red." The movie is set to bow in 2011 and is part of the network's new series of fairy tale reboots, announced last month.
From the Syfy release:
In the action-packed Red, Red (Day) brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business – hunting werewolves. He’s skeptical until bitten by a werewolf. When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him. Red also stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis) and Stephen McHattie (Watchmen). Red is produced by Angela Mancuso and Vesuvius Productions in association with Chesler Perlmutter Productions.
Felicia Day from her very funny music video from her web series The Guild, titled "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?"
If you missed "Beauty & the Beast: A Dark Tale" last weekend, it's typical Sy Fy - things tend toward the bloody and gory. The difference is that the (very) happy ending. Certainly not in everyone's taste and "Red" should provide even more opportunity for random arterial spray BUT it does show you what people are aiming for in their entertainment right now: gritty monster fighting (a great metaphor for the difficulties many are facing right now) and Hope (ie. a happy ending). No matter what the interpretation is like, it's a wonderful thing to see people, including adults (these movies are NOT for kids), turning to fairy tales.
I just read this news in a blog and haven't been able to substantiate it with other reliable sources but here's the list of tales to be adapted (including the ones I announced a couple of days ago):
Beauty and the Beast
Red Riding Hood
Hansel & Gretel
The Voyage of Sinbad
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
Enchanted Forest (this is likely to be either a Babes In the Wood adaptation or use multiple tales as sources)
Shot with Emily Blunt from the remake of "The Wolfman" due for release in 2010
o "Beauty & the Beast" — In this gritty celebration of Valentine’s Day, a young Beauty with a gift for healing helps a deformed Prince regain his throne and defeat the ruthless nobleman who wants to be king — and then together they try to destroy a power-hungry witch. o "Red" — A young woman who is a descendant of the real Little Red Riding Hood brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business – hunting werewolves. He’s skeptical until bitten by a werewolf. When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him.
o "Hansel" — Twenty years after his encounter with the witch, a grown-up Hansel returns to the haunted forest, seeking revenge. But there’s a surprise waiting – his sister Gretel (who he thought had been killed) is the witch’s protégée. (Edit by FTNH: Doesn't this sound similar to the Hansel & Gretel-as-witch-hunters movie currently in production? I like the twist with Gretel though.)
Origami unicorns from an ad for the re-branded Syfy Channel
o "8TH Voyage of Sinbad" — Sinbad searches for the golden head of the long lost Colossus of Rhodes and, instead, discovers an island where the mythical Minotaur still rules, protecting a vast treasure. Sinbad and his crew have to battle the creature and its minions to get the treasure and save their own lives. o "Aladdin" (working title) — After accidentally releasing an evil genie from an ancient lamp, Aladdin must find a way to imprison the genie again before it wreaks havoc on the world. o "Black Forest" — A group of naïve tourists take a sightseeing tour into a supposed enchanted forest, where they encounter evil creatures from the world of fantasy. Trapped in the Black Forest, their only hope of survival is fighting their way out.
Sounds like we have some interesting viewing coming our way! All this follows (and is propelled by) the success of "Tin Man" and the recently aired "Alice". The good news about this is that Syfy strongly believe (backed up by ratings and other statistics) that the general cable-viewing public enjoy fairy tale adaptations. Let's hope this series of movies proves the point and that we'll see even more fairy tales given the movie-of-the-week treatment in the future.
Before I get to the news I wanted to encourage you to take a look at the full size version of this illustration, which I thought fit the theme of 'sci-fi-ed' fairy tales (click on image for full size). It references many tales and the more you look, the more you see. This is, of course, one example of how fairy tales can represent different things different people - something which I always find very interesting. Which ones can you identify?
You know by now that there are many fairy tale adaptations in the works in the movie industry this year, some of which we will actually see in 2010 but it seems Cable TV is getting on board too.
Syfy is currently working on a new made-for-TV movie franchise with a Saturday night time slot and it's starting this month.
First up is Beauty & the Beast, airing on February 27th.
Syfy is reinventing fairy tales and pop culture characters as part of its Saturday night TV movie franchise.
The network is airing five titles that give a contemporary twist on a classic story, from Hansel & Gretel (years after escaping the witch in the haunted forest, Hansel returns seeking revenge) to Little Red Riding Hood (a descendant of Little Red discovers her family secretly hunts werewolves).
(Please note: There is no mention of The Pied Piper being adapted by Syfy at this time)
"It's exciting to take a treasured brand and put our own sideways spin on it," said Thomas Vitale, executive vp programming and original movies at Syfy. "By turning familiar timeless stories inside out, we're creating an entertaining new genre for our popular Saturday night movie franchise."
A 'fairy tale movie of the week'? Nice. As a bonus, it looks like there's a good chance these will make it to DVD eventually as well. Very nice.
I knew 2010 was going to be a good year for fairy tales!
Note: The illustration at the head is by German concept artist Vincent Grey. You can see his gallery HERE. The other illustration is by Avi Das. You can see his portfolio HERE. If you're interested in how he came to illustrate The Piper in this manner, you can see his inspiration & thought process HERE.
One of the obvious stories for the season is "The Snow Queen", despite Christmas not being a featured part of the story. Andersen's long-form fairy tale has grown in increasing popularity (again) the past few years with more and more plays and ballets being staged specifically during the Christmas season, providing an alternate to the traditional Nutcracker production (companies staging Snow Queen are likely to be doing Nutcracker too, to keep their regulars happy though).
English National Ballet's 2009 Production of "The Snow Queen"
It's easy to see why it's quickly become a family holiday theater favorite. The story has remained popular throughout the years and there are many wonderful elements to work with for any form of presentation.
I have to say, that though many people include The Snow Queen when you ask about Christmas fairy tales it's not the whole 'Snow Queen steals Kai away and Gerda rescues him from the Queen and the Ice Palace' that makes me include it too. It's the sequence with the robber girl and the reindeer. Though those characters only appear for one of the chapters in Gerda's long journey to find and free Kai, to me it's the most 'Christmas' part with the robber girl maturing and learning to be a true friend and, in the end, helping Gerda escape, along with the generous gift (and letting go) of her pet/captive reindeer. The reindeer itself helps the Christmas sense too, of course.I won't go into the story too much as SurLaLune just had a Snow Queen week (see HERE) and showcased some gorgeous retellings , while The Fairy Tale Cupboard posted a fabulous article on The Queens of Ice and Snow (see HERE). There are a couple of other Snow Queen things I'd like to bring to your attention as additional resources.
Firstly, HERE is an article by a teacher of children's literature on the difficulties of teaching on the story and her fascination with the Andersen tale since childhood, which some of you will find interesting.
I also haven't yet seen anyone post on the made-for-TV movie Snow Queen (produced by Hallmark), so I wanted to mention it too. It's a very nice retelling of the story (gorgeous artistic direction!) with Gerda having to travel through the seasons to find Kai. In this version Kai is a boy/young man Gerda meets as a girl on the brink of womanhood. The robber girl isn't represented the same way as the original story or in books I've seen (and prefer) but the context for this movie makes sense. (I don't much care for the Summer sequences but that's very likely just my personal taste. I enjoy it again once Autumn appears, as inconsistent as the acting is in that section and the resolution of the movie is well done enough that I can forgive it trying to wrap up all the loose ends.) The power of love - especially true love, though mother's love is highlighted too - is the driving force of this retelling and is nicely handled.
By the way, if you've liked the Snow Queen illustrations in this post they're by award winning Ukranian artist Vadyslav Yerko and are available in a truly gorgeous looking book. You can see a preview HERE and find out more information about the book, the author (HCA of course) and the illustrator HERE.
There are just a few more stories I want to highlight before New Years, the idea being to give you plenty to enjoy if you're lucky enough to be getting any leisure time between Christmas and 2010, so keep watching. After that I will be taking a brief blog break to spend some time with both my family and my new books before I return with tons of news and fairy tale finds as usual. :)
I missed "Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister" when it was shown on TV (based on the book of the same name, by Gregory Maguire, which is a retelling of Cinderella) by only a couple of hours and have had it in my TiVo 'watch-list' ever since. It's never aired again, as far as I know and I've only seen dubious looking DVDs available (see the 'cover' above). I can't believe they haven't officially released this mini-series as I often hear requests for it. (Probably mired down in a copyright issue.) What I didn't realize is that some kind person put it on YouTube a while back for us all to see. (Yay! And thank you to them!)
It's in 9 parts and I'm trying something different. I made a playlist and am attempting to embed it below (so it will automatically play through the parts in order without you having to find and click the next one). I hope it works! (You should see arrows at the sides of the YouTube frame to navigate back and forth between the parts.) Oh - and you may want to click that 'full screen' button too. :)
Enjoy!
Here's the cover of the book the movie is based on. You can find more information on it by clicking the image.
As announced in my previous post on Disney's Snow Queen, you may want to note that ABC (owned by Disney) is looking to produce a TV series adaptation of Fables, which features Kai and the Snow Queen as characters (Snow Queen shown below), is currently in the Pilot production stage (i.e. greenlit and beyond). No news on whether Kai and the Snow Queen will be featured yet, of course. It's probably not at all related but considering it's very early in Snow Queen's development (assuming they start from scratch - which, since having the opportunity to see some development a few years ago, I sincerely hope they do) I'm sure artists (at Disney Feature Animation) will be taking note at how the characters are handled if they appear, despite that they're Bill Willingham's versions.OK, now I've repeated that, here's a little more of the Fables TV Series news:
The news was leaked yesterday by The Hollywood Reporter, much to all involved's surprise apparently. (The announcement is HERE.)
From Newsarama:
Vertigo’s Fables may soon be translated to television as ABC has committed to a pilot for an hour-long drama series based on the comic book.
The pilot for the Fables television series will be produced by Warner Bros. TV and written by Six Degrees' Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner, who describe themselves as "lifelong comic book fans" that fell in love with the Fables comic when it debuted in 2002.
Newsarama also talked to Bill Willingham about his thoughts on Fables going to TV.
NRAMA: Do you like the idea of Fables being a TV series? Do you see it as something that would work for episodic television?
BW: Well, I think it's probably better suited to an episodic presentation on TV than it is to, like, a major motion picture. That said, I would have loved to see the scope of a feature film.
You can read the whole article and interview HERE.2010 looks like it's going to be FULL of fairy tales on all fronts. :D
The rumors about Disney working on Snow Queen have been around for a long time now and it's true it has been in development and then taken off the boards in the past (so to speak). Now, however, it's been confirmed as being back in the development stage of production (with a release likely in 2013).Pixar's John Lassiter made it very clear he wanted to do more fairy tales when he took over the revamping of Disney Feature Animation and he was just as passionate about returning to hand drawn animation. Snow Queen has not been confirmed as the next full-length hand drawn animated feature going into production after the Winnie-the-Pooh feature (which doesn't appear to be full-length from the way it's spoken about, but I could be wrong on that count). It appears they're fully on track with the announcement that they plan to "release a hand-drawn animated film every 2 year keeping in with the tradition and work that built Disney to where it is today".You can see a very brief announcement HERE by Producer Peter Del Vecho and a little speculation about it. (Whether the project is titled "The Snow Queen" or just "Snow Queen" isn't clear.)
I found an article HERE from June which effectively assembled all the rumors and past tidbits on Snow Queen and is quite informative with interview quotes. It was one of the first places to give some substance to the idea Snow Queen was back in the feature plan this year, though it hasn't been updated with this news from the last couple of days (the comments section confirms it as of November though).The concept art you're seeing here is by development artist and animator Harald Siepermann who released a ton of old sketches from his portfolio a while back. These Snow Queen pieces were among them (you can see all of the sketches from the different projects HERE). He was interviewed back in 2008 and had this to say about the designs he was working on:
HS: I worked together with Dick Zondag on The Snow Queen. I’ve known him since Balto, actually, which we did for Steven Spielberg animation. When the time came for The Snow Queen, they gave me call and then I did some first design based on a young Meryl Streep kind of character. Unluckily, the project was canceled because Disney didn’t want to go into fairytales anymore at that time. They said that they wanted something wise, witty and more modern, because at that time, you know, everybody said that the Disney formula was dead and nobody wanted to see princesses and stuff like that. So, that project was canceled, sadly. But I spent a couple of weeks on some Queens, trying different levels of caricature on her, some more cartoony, others less.
No news on the artists attached to this project yet, though Alan Menken ("Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid") is said to already be at work on the score.
You may want to note that ABC (owned by Disney) is looking to produce a TV series adaptation of Fables, which features Kai and the Snow Queen as characters, is currently in the Pilot production stage (i.e. greenlit and beyond). No news on whether Kai and the Snow Queen will be featured yet, of course. It's probably not at all related but considering it's very early in Snow Queen's development (assuming they start from scratch - which, since having the opportunity to see some development a few years ago, I sincerely hope they do) I'm sure artists (at Disney Feature Animation) will be taking note at how the characters are handled if they appear, despite that they're Bill Willingham's versions.
Hmm. Perhaps that announcement should have been in a separate post. OK - I'll repeat that info shortly... ;)
The SyFy Channel is airing a much anticipated version of Alice in Wonderland for two nights, starting this evening. With Tim Burton's fantastical vision on it's way in early next year, it'll be an interesting contrast to see this modernized version, which, while it has fantastic aspects is definitely not a family film.Cast includes:
CaterinaScorsone (CrashTVSeries) as Alice
KathyBates (Misery) as The Queen of Hearts
Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show) as Dodo,
Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as the King of Hearts,
Philip Winchester (Crusoe) as Jack Chase,
Matt Frewer (Watchmen) as the White Knight,
Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval) as Hatter,
Harry Dean Stanton (Big Love) as the Caterpillar,
Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica) as 9 of Clubs,
Timothy Webber (Taken) as Carpenter,
Alex Diakun (Sanctuary) as Ratcatcher,
Zak Santiago (Kingdom Hospital) as 10 of Clubs, and
Eugene Lipinski (Animorphs) as Doctors Dee and Dum.
The official site is HERE and there's an interesting article, which talks a little bit about how this version is different, HERE.As you can see from the images here this is very much a contemporary take with a sci-fi slant and this Alice is a little different from the usual heroine. There's an all-star cast and award winning creators, definitely worth a looksee.
Here's a trailer for a little more:
"Alice" is airing on SyFy at 9/8pm central standard time in the US.
For my last foray into steampunk Wizard of Oz entries (at least for now) there's a Wizard of Oz 2007 TV mini-series done with a steampunk aesthetic you may have missed: Tin Man, from the then-Sci-Fi-now-Sy-Fy Channel. It won a primetime Emmy and nine other awards (as well as seventeen other nominations) yet it does have mixed reviews.This article HERE gives a good overview. Here's an excerpt, explaining the story:
Sci Fi’s Tin Man is a sumptuous, modern take on a classic that has us rethinking our ban on remakes. Zooey Deschanel stars as DG (recall Dorothy’s last name is Gale), a wide-eyed Kansas girl whose trip to Oz isn’t courtesy of an ill-fated attempt to run away, but rather a leap into the swirling cone of a tornado to escape the evil, leather-clad militaristic forces who’ve invaded her family’s home. These troops, we learn, are Azkadellia’s, née Wicked Witch’s, minions, who obey the evil sorceress’s every command.
Of course, the tornado carries DG to Oz, only here it’s “the O.Z.,” as in “Outer Zone,” and she isn’t greeted by the mayor of Munchkinland; she’s surrounded by diminutive warriors angrily pointing spears at her and speaking in clumsy rhymes... DG teams up with Glitch (Alan Cummings), a lobotomized former genius with a zipper that keeps his head closed; Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), a torture victim DG and Glitch discover inside an ancient metal diving suit; and Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a psychic but petrified anthropomorphic feline. No singing, no dancing.
I saw some of it when it was on and found things that definitely appealed and some things that really didn't. I would like to see it all one day. It's an interesting mix and an unusual take but worth at least reading up on if you like The Wizard of Oz and are interested in a grown-up approach (if you think Return to Oz was dark, this is much darker and not meant for children).I've read it was inspired by ZoomQuilt and ZoomQuilt 2 - a collaborative art/optical illusions that wowed the web a few years ago (note: both take a while to load but do work. Also, the second is kinda dark...). It turns out Sy-Fy do indeed have a flash animation site that's a collaborative artist work called Infinite Oz, which you can see HERE (it takes a while to load but is completely worth the wait). This one is beautifully done. Worth looking at, even if you don't like the idea of the film (see below for some screen examples).It's available on DVD HERE in a two-disc special edition with lots of behind-the-scenes extras.
I've been wanting to write an entry on the show "Dollhouse" for a while now and found a great fan-made video that succinctly illustrates some of the reasons why this series can be considered a modern and dark retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
The show description posted in the info section summarizes what "Dollhouse" deals with very well and gives all the pertinent viewing information:
Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's latest show, starring Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett. It explores existential questions such as identity, the loss of self, and the ties between mind and psyche. If you enjoy a good story, a beautiful setting, superb acting, complex character development, or postmodern interpretations of myth, then you owe it to yourself to give this one a try. Visit http://www.whyiwatch.com or view the latest episodes online at http://www.hulu.com/dollhouse. Watch live on Fridays at 9/8C on FOX!
On the surface this show appears to be about fantasies, the opportunity to live many lives/have many experiences, watch beautiful people and vicariously kick a whole lot of butt along the way - all the entertainment a 'fanboy' could want - right? So what is it really about? Slavery? Human trafficking? Compromised morals? What really makes a person? All of those and more.
But that doesn't begin to describe the show. It's about identity, yes, but what that means is way beyond "Who do you want me to be?" (the show's advertising hook for the first season). It's about what people really are, who we really are (on the surface and in our essential make-up) and the half-life so many of us live as we try to cope with our pain and our past. The 'dolls' (whose minds and personalities apparently get wiped and replaced with constructs according to a client's specifications) aren't the only ones who need waking up. While it's entertaining to some extent to see the 'dolls' change personalities, clothes and roles (and pushing their acting abilities to unexpected places), which is what the network has pushed as the hook for new viewers, that's the least interesting part of the show.
It was no surprise to see Mr. Whedon tap directly into the Sleeping Beauty metaphor and base the double-episode season finale on it. The first part (episode 1.11) was even titled "Briar Rose" and began with the Echo (the show's lead) playing the role of a social worker/counselor to a young abuse victim and placing the seeds of self-empowerment so the girl can rescue herself. Of course, this foreshadows Echo's own journey through the season finale and also through the series. Here we not only have the metaphors in play of the castle, the spell, the thorns and various dragons but also the vulnerability of the girl (be it the child or Echo herself) to sexual (and other forms of) abuse and how it can be a catalyst for waking up, or for permanent imprisonment of a different kind. Echo has shown increasing signs of self-awareness despite having her brain repeatedly wiped and imprinted with a variety of personalities and it's become clear the real Echo (or Caroline, as we're told her real name is in the first episode) is still in there somewhere, despite it being theoretically impossible.The show had a rocky start and, admittedly, I stuck with the show because of my respect for Joss Whedon's writing and his mythic sense of story. He said right from the start to "hang in there until episode six" when apparently network interference would back off and the true intent of the show would finally kick in. By episode five, I had just about lost my patience in putting up with apparently two-dimensional story-lines that barely covered as teen-boy entertainment but episode six did prove to kick the show into high gear. It wasn't until episode nine that I was won over though. From then on the show has been mesmerizing - intelligent, layered, complex and very much a thinking person's show (sorry fanboys!). I continue to be irritated by the shallow advertising approach (pretty-people-kick-butt-in-great-outfits-and-can-be-the-stuff-of-your-dreams through to iPhone apps in which you can 'dress the Dushku doll as you desire' - ugh!) but "Dollhouse" now transcends that mentality easily. The second season, though still in the Friday-night-slot-of-death, has gone from strength to strength, to the point that people are now considering this to - possibly - be Joss Whedon's finest work to date.In this sense, the whole show can be considered a type of Sleeping Beauty - and one that's not for kids. The way the story arc has developed and deepened harkens far more to earlier versions of Sleeping Beauty (eg. with Talia) than it does to the well known version, complete with sexual complexities and the intricacies of families and consequences of choices. On top of that the show has made allusions to Eden and Adam and Eve. Are we being told to wake up and create a new, more aware society or is this an indication of where we're headed right now? There are different types of 'sleepers' shown in the show in various states of awareness and, without going into detail on any plot points, each of the Dollhouse characters - dolls, staff and clients - are all dealing with being woken in one form or another. Mr. Whedon's work is already part of university curricula, not only for media studies but in philosophy, social sciences and cultural studies. Not even finished it's second season (and not really counting the first five episodes), already "Dollhouse" presents a myriad of deep questions of cultural significance within a mythic yet deceptively simple fairy tale-like structure. I wouldn't be surprised to see this show added to the 'required viewing' list for college students.There's so much more I could discuss with regard to the parallels with Sleeping Beauty but to do so would be 'spoileriffic'. Just be assured that this series blatantly examines the human condition and what it really means to be a person - just as fairy tales do.
If you like delving deeply into fairy tales, you owe it to yourself to give this show a viewing. (I would recommend starting at episode six, which is said to be extremely similar to the original pilot rejected by Fox. You can always go back and catch up later, perhaps with more patience than I initially had, to pick up on the subtle details that contribute to the show's layering. The original pilot is apparently available on the DVD/Blu-ray First Season box.)
Here's a fairly good trailer that hints at some of the depth in the show. It's a little longer than the usual ads but you'll understand why when you watch it:
Once you've watched the series you may be interested in exploring the Sleeping Beauty parallels in the Briar Rose episode in particular, further. I found this blog article HERE which has quite a few interesting observations about episode 1.11 but please note there are lots of spoilers as it assumes you've already watched the episode.
NOTE: If you're interested in following/catching up on Dollhouse, you should know that while it is regularly scheduled for the aforementioned Friday-night-kill-spot at 9pm, it has been pulled off during the November 'sweeps' (I can only speculate why). The network promises it will return in December with back-to-back episodes for the rest of the season, then, after a Christmas break will return to it's regular weekly time starting January 8th. I hope this is a good sign and that at least a third season will be aired. It certainly feels like we've just opened Pandora's box and I want to know what might happen next.
Set to debut this autumn for younger grade school kids, is Sandra: The Fairytale Detective.
The show is done with very stylized animation, emphasis on 'cute' (think 'toyable'!), and with deals for distribution worldwide through Disney Channel backing it, Fairytale Detective has a good chance at a decent run.Here's an excerpt from an article at Animation Insider, explaining the premise:
Sandra: The Fairytale Detective is... about a little girl, Sandra, who is the lone descendent from a line of fairytale detectives -- a perilous but necessary occupation. Although very few, if any people are aware of The Land of Once Upon a Time (where all of the fairytale characters live), even fewer are aware of the fairytale detective (who solves all sorts of mysteries therein). Roughly targeted toward children aged four through eight-years-old, Sandra: The Fairytale Detective uses a clever and inspiring color palette combined with a klutzy sense of humor to bring young viewers into the familiar realm of fantasy, but with a detective twist.
Like many kids her age, Sandra gets into arguments with her classmates, doesn't clean her room very often, and enjoys taking on a good challenge. But when her assistant and friend Fo, a 500-year-old elf with the guise and spirit of a child, arrives to say that there's a problem over in The Land of Once Upon a Time, the girl dons her overcoat and jumps into action. Maybe the adorable puppet-boy Pinocchio is kidnapped, or maybe Cinderella loses her glass slipper… for real, or maybe Snow White's evil stepmother's mirror mysteriously goes missing. Sandra is on the case; the kid detective lives for the challenge of the mystery, often using some convenient and humorous blend of magic and deductive reasoning to solve each riddle.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.Imira Entertainment (the developers/creators) have already planned to use 52 different fairy tales (that's a loose term as there are some legends on the list such as King Arthur). Here's the rundown of what appear to be 'case' titles (ie. episodes) and the tales they're from:
BAD WOLFE - Three Little Pigs. BUBBLES - The Little Mermaid. THE GOLDEN KEY - Hansel & Gretel. A PRODIGIOUS NOSE - Pinocchio. THE MISSING SLIPPER - Cinderella. PESKY RODENTS - Pied Piper. INVENCIBLE DRAGON - Saint George´s Legend. FRUITS OF THE FOREST - Little Red Riding Hood. THE OUTLAWED CAT - Puss In Boots. THE CURSED APPLE - Snow White. THE ROYAL EGG - Ugly Duckling. KING OF MORTADELA - Pinocchio Case 2. EVEN MORE DIFFICULT - Beauty And The Beast. A QUESTION OF SMELL - Jack And The Beanstalk. ASSAF THE SORCERER - Aladdin. THE WILD PARTY - Tom Thumb. THE MISTERIOUS CRYSTAL BALL - The Princess And The Pea. FROGS - Frog Prince SHOW US YOUR PAWS - The Wolf And The 7 Little Kids. FOREST WITHOUT MAGIC - Rapunzel. THE THREE ANCHORS - Cinderella Case 2. THE WATER OF LIFE - The Shoemaker And The Elves. TOY ROOM - The Steadfast Tin Soldier. DIE LAUGHING - Emperor´s New Clothes. THE 22.30 EXPRESS - Little Red Riding Hood Case 2. HONEY SHAMPOO - Goldilocks & 3 Little Bears. ACORNS - Little Red Riding Hood Case 3. GREEN MONKEY - The One Thousand And One Nights AVALON ISLAND - King Arthur. THE REPEATING GHOST - Fearless John. THE FAT WORM - Thumbelina. THE RIDDLE CHAMPION - Rumpelstiltskin. MAKILAKISKI - Makilakiski. THE GUIDE´S SERVANT - Ali Baba. THE SECRET BOOK - Sleeping Beauty Case 2. THE MAGIC FACTORY - Hansel & Gretel Case 2. THE GREAT MANDFREDI - The Bremen Town Musicians. THE FORBIDDEN ROOM - Bluebeard. THE PRINCE OF THE POOL - The Frog Prince Case 2. SIMPLETON - The Queen Bee. GIANT LOVE - The Brave Little Tailor. CAPTAIN BLACKBEARD - The Little Mermaid Case 2. THE SUPREME LAW - Sinbad. THE CUP FINAL - The Snow Queen. BROTHER OGRE - Puss In Boots Case 2. SCHOOL FOR PRINCESSES - Snow White Case 2. THE PRINCESS OF THE LAKE - Swan Lake. AN UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY - Three Little Pigs Case 2. THE MAGIC HARP - The 12 Dancing Princesses. SCOLYMUS - The Sorcerer´s Apprentice. PETUNIAS - Snow White Case 3.
Did you notice BLUEBEARD is on the list? I'm very curious to see how that's presented by and for kids beyond a blue-bearded dude!
The website HERE has a LOT of information about premise, characters and episodes. You can see some artwork of both characters and locations (although the cutesy look isn't really to my personal taste I do like the landscapes I've seen - very interesting design work!) and there's even an episode to watch.
Here are the Spanish titles (you can see an English version at the website) - they give you a good idea of how the cartoon will work.
It'll be interesting to see how this affects how fairy tales are thought of. If the series does well, becoming part of the standard viewing component for children, we should see some interesting developments regarding fairy tales in the years to come.
I couldn't let a post on a fairy tale detective go by without mention the recent hit novel series for kids called The Sisters Grimm. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that?!" ideas that's obviously striking a chord with kids (and older readers) everywhere.The series was created (and is being written) by Michael Buckley and follows apparent orphans (their parents were kidnapped) Sabrina, 11, and her sister Daphne, 7, who are adopted by their eccentric granny. The granny has some odd secrets she shares with the girls, clueing them in on their heritage, involving them in her detective work among the fairy tale inhabitants of a small town.
You can see an image of the first book above (there are seven so far). If you're not familiar with the series but are interested, I recommend finding the lovely cloth bound hard covers. With old-fashioned rough cut pages and wonderful illustrations every so often, they're the sort of books I think of when people say 'book'.
Felicia Day from her very funny music video from her web series The Guild,
