Fairies in Lampshades & A Forest of Forks - Meet Compagnie Akselere's Sleeping Beauty

This would have to be the most unusual theatrical retelling of The Sleeping Beauty I've seen in some time. Perrault is credited as the source author while Liverpool-born, French artist and puppeteer Colette Garriger is the creator & main performer. The show is just arriving in the US now after an lengthy international tour, with performances scheduled from September 2010 on.
Here's the official blurb:

At her birth they call her "Princess." Her fate is sealed. Left to her own devices and brilliant imagination, this modern day Princess pays off her debts and takes her skeletons out of the cupboard once and for all. Now arriving in the United States after an international tour comes a creative retelling of the Briar Rose tale joining shadow puppetry, object theater, and passionate monologue into a hard-hitting story filled with dark humor.Created by Liverpool-born, French-transplant artist and puppeteer Colette Garrigan.

* Funded in part by a Jim Henson Foundation Presenter's Grant (2010)

And excerpted from a review on Australian Stage:

This version of Sleeping Beauty is closer to a nightmare than a fairytale. A girl grows up in a poor family in Liverpool, England. She is the youngest of seven. Her father dies. She gets farmed out to her grandmother who locks her in the cupboard under the stairs. She steals and thinks it is so exciting to be going in a police car that she waves to all the people she knows. She meets boys who lead her astray. And she knows she is a princess and that prince charming will arrive - even if it is in the form of a medical miracle.From the mind of creator and puppeteer Colette Garrigan comes a passionate monologue with shadow puppets about the loss of innocence and reality versus fairytale.... Garrigan is very much centre stage, and creates the shadow puppets primarily from herself and various unusual objects on the table in the centre of the stage. Forks become a forest, a toaster rack a shopping centre, all projected onto the white semi transparent screen hung at the back. This is not puppetry as most would know it, with only one brief scene using small hand operated puppets that are ingeniously fitted into a lampshade.

You can read the whole article HERE and see more performance photos from the company site HERE.

Cinderella Gets A Live-Action 'Reboot' (& More)

The writer of The Devil Wears Prada recently had her live-action Cinderella pitch bought by Disney.

From The Wrap:

Using the working title "Cinderella," the film is expected to deviate from the original fairy tale, although it's unclear how, or whether the new version will be released in 3D like the studio's reimagining of "Alice in Wonderland," which has grossed more than a billion dollars since it was released in March.

(You can read the whole article HERE.)

Amanda Seyfried-Raymond (of Mama Mia, who is currently at work with Twilight director on another fairy tale, The Girl with the Red Riding Hood) is rumored to be the star. (see article HERE and IMDB's article HERE).

You'll also see rumors in the articles linked to above regarding Angeline Jolie's rumored attachment to play the lead in Disney's other live-action fairy tale revisit, Maleficent - a live-action Sleeping Beauty.

But that's not all. Snow White is looking at a live-action revisit with the seven dwarves being cast as robbers once again, plus a dragon (not by Disney but a company called Relativity Media). The Wizard of Oz is looking at a revisit too by both Warner Brothers and Disney once again.

[Sidenote: if you enjoy speculating on actresses playing other Disney princesses and why they may - or may not - fit, have a look at this faux casting couch HERE.]

And yes - this is all due to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, so you can thank (or blame) him. ;)

Granny O'Grimm's Oscar Message

Once Upon Blog wishes Granny O'Grimm much luck and fun tomorrow at the Oscars - "Brad Clooney" and all. Knock 'em dead Granny! (Well, er, not literally...)

Here's Granny's "Once upon an Oscar" tale (I hope she gets to say a few words during the show, with or without a golden statue):

"Waking Sleeping Beauty" Documentary

Even if you don't like or follow Disney (or animation) I thought the poster for this documentary film was still a must see. You must admit, dynamite is a unique approach to the problem... (probably not great for Beauty's hair though).

It should be noted that the age-old argument about Disney and fairy tales ("we should" vs "we shouldn't") can't help but be part of this film, even though fairy tales won't be the focus. It should also be noted that this documentary is causing quite a buzz in both the animation community and amongst Disney-philes.

Here's a little about it via First Showing:

Waking Sleeping Beauty is directed by Disney producer Don Hahn and features a behind-the-scenes look at Disney Animation during that 10 year period and what they had to go through to make movies. Beyond that, it has a fascinating look at the power struggle between then-Disney execs Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney (who passed away recently). This is, hands down, a must see documentary for anyone that loves Disney or anyone that wants to see a honest and intimate look at the world of Disney Animation. I'm glad to see that Disney is releasing it in theaters; we'll be supporting it through its release and beyond!

You can read more about it HERE.

For those interested in this, there will be limited public screenings happening in New York, LA, Chicago and San Francisco on March 26th.

Fairy Tale News Catch-Up - Mid February '10

There have been a few stories crop up I simply haven't had time to write posts for so, rather have you miss out, I'm doing a quick headliner post to catch you up and will link you to all the fairy tale goodness.

Just click on the headline to be taken to the story.

A straw-bale café and three little pigs?"Give me that straw to build me a house" by Leslie Brook

Energy efficient straw construction planned for Sutton in the UK, along with a permit for three little pigs to visit during the opening to continue the fairy tale theme.

Disney World expanding to add new fairy tale attractions & story interactions

Concepts for Gaston's Tavern

Guests will experience new rides including, an indoor Little Mermaid Attraction, and an expansion of Dumbo's Flying Circus. Fantasyland will also be more interactive. Guests will be able to train to be a knight, dine with princesses or have dinner in Gaston's Tavern from Beauty and The Beast. "Not only will it immerse guests into story lines of their favorite princesses, but it's actually going to make guests part of the stories," said Walt Disney Imagineer Diego Parris.

(More additions detailed in the article. Video promo included from announcement at the link. Older concept pics for the new additions at this link HERE.)

Nightmare reality for real life 'Sleeping Beauty' Louisa BallLouisa Ball suffers from sleeping illness

Fifteen year old girl (& family) come forward to highlight her contraction of rare illness Kleine-Levin Syndrome, also known as 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome' (sort of an extreme version of narcolepsy). Seen mostly in teens, it is hoped she will be 'cured' (outgrow it?) in 10-12 years. Additional coverage HERE.

New "haunting erotic fairy tale" Sleeping Beauty film in the worksSleeping Beauty illustration by Gustav A. Tenggren

Actress Emily Browning to play a narcoleptic prostitute that caters to those with a 'certain fetish'. (I kid you not.) This won't be a kiddie film (obviously!) but it's not supposed to be an 'adult' film either. I wonder if the girl's name will be Talia?


Original draft images of Beauty & the Beast by Walter Crane going up for auction

2 Beauty & the Beast images by Walter Crane up for auction

The pictures, which illustrate the most famous scenes from the French love story, are estimated to make £200-£300 when they go up for auction on February 20.

Hansel & Gretel online flash game featured as 'game of the day' in LA TimesTitle graphic from Hansel & Gretel flash game-of-the-day

The aim is to collect all the stones. Interesting graphics that aren't at all cutesy. There's also a 'how to play' on YouTube HERE.

Tech-ed students building witch's house from Hansel & Gretel in Bookworm GardensScreen capture from Bookworm Gardens website

Bookworm Gardens, (is) a 2-acre fantasy garden based on children's literature located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan. The gardens mix paths, shrubs, trees and environmentally friendly structures with a series of about 10 reading-themed areas based on 74 different children's books, including "Charlotte's Web," the classic story about a talented pig and spider.

... The centerpiece of Bookworm Gardens is the Hansel & Gretel Administration Building, an A-frame cottage-style structure with a curvy roofline to resemble the famous house of the classic children's tale. It will include a classroom, offices, gift shop, restrooms and a small kitchen.

Other buildings include the barn from Charlotte's Web and "Little House in the Big Woods". The gardens are due to open in October later this year.

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There are a few more stories (there's always more fairy tale news than I can cover!) but I hope to cover a couple more fun ones in the next few days. :)

Fairy Tales Going To 82nd Oscars!

The Oscar nominations have been announced and you'll be glad to hear... *drum roll*
.. fairy tales are going to the Oscars!

So here are the movies that are fairy tale or fairy tale/myth based and which category they're nominated for:

Best Animated Feature Film:

Coraline
(I know it's not a fairy tale exactly but it has a lot of fairy tale tropes and is often likened to Hansel & Gretel)

The Princess and the Frog

The Secret of Kells
(myth based and making much use of European/Celtic myths/tales - see HERE for interesting article written today about the film)

Also of interest is The Fantastic Mr. Fox - based on the Roald Dahl book, it has a definite Beatrix Potter feel to it.

Art Direction:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
(see The Fairy Tale Cupboard's review for reasons why you should be aware of this film as a fairy tale enthusiast)

Costume Design:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Music (Original Song):

The Princess and the Frog - twice

Short Film (Animated):

Granny O' Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
(not officially a fairy tale adaptation but if you watch it - or an available excerpt, you'll see why I include it here)

You may also want to note that Up in the Air, nominated for Best Picture, gives The Velveteen Rabbit a little cameo too. Just a lovely extra for fairy tale people.

Congratulations to our friends at Brown Bag Films! Can't wait to see what Granny will be wearing. ;)

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: End Notes & Recap

Sleeping Beauty Mucha Style
by freaksmg

I hope you've enjoyed the giant catch-up on news.

If you're just joining us, I've done a special set of posts today:

A Fairy Tale News 'New Year's Stories' Bumper Edition!

Once again, here are the 'newspaper sections' for you to browse through (the first one is the earliest post in the day, of course) - now with extra 'linkage'!:

INTRO & CONTENTS
General (& latest) fairy tale news headlines (that I haven't seen posted elsewhere)
Blog posts and/or articles discussing/using fairy tales
Friends and other fairy tale people online
Fairy tales in performance arts
Fairy tale artists & illustrators (past & present)
Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines
Fairy tale films & movies
Fairy tale influenced books (and reviews)
Newly discovered online fairy tale retellings
Fairy tale fashion news
Home & garden fairy tale style
Fairy tale sports
Fun fairy tale finds
Fairy tale funnies
Fairy tale weather & the natural world
Fairy tale music/audio
Food and dining fairy tale news
Classifieds/ads for fairy tale people
Careers - fairy tale knowledge required!
From the archives: fairy tale articles to read again (or for the first time)
End notes & recap

Please do let me know any comments you have here or on the posts. I'll even publish 'Letters to the Editor & Fairy Tale News Hound' if you email fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com!
Beauty and the Beast
by wdkimmy

I'll be back to daily blogging as soon as my commitments allow, so keep checking back for more news. In the meantime, happy reading and happy new year.

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UPDATE - 2PM:

I've just linked each content title to it's respective post to make navigation a little easier.

Also, as I was posting this morning, Cabinet Des Fées went live with their 9th Issue. More fairy tale reading - yay! More details will be added to the Fairy Tale Journals/Online 'zines post. In the meantime, the link is HERE.

Enjoy! :)

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Food and dining

• Young Chef's Academy will be hosting a Princess & the Frog themed event (& themed cuisine course too) on January 23rd in Warren County, Cincinnati, USA.

• What to feed a princess and a castle full of people after a 100 year nap - Cecelia Myers has put together a great first banquet for Sleeping Beauty's waking castle, complete with recipes so you can indulge and feast in your own castle. A Royal Awakening comes with stories and recipes to delight your mind and body. This is one of the awesome new offerings from new blogazine Enchanted Conversation.

• "Human, It's What's For Dinner", "Yum: Cannibalism", "I'll Take Cannibals for $200, Alex","Garden of Eden and Fairy Tales" - all student guest posts (links take you to each article separately) at Diamonds and Toads on the darker side of eating in fairy tales. Very interesting range of writing and ideas! (My apologies if I missed a post.) Please note: there are many other excellent guest student posts worth reading too - take some time to browse and go back a few pages to see the range of topics.

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BACK TO: CONTENTS

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Newly discovered online retellings

• "Elegance" by CMShaw - a modern retelling of Beauty & the Beast. This story has also been tagged 'steampunk'.

• "Cages" (my steampunk retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel) got a review & recommendation. :)

• Enchanted Conversation's Sleeping Beauties. The princess gets a whole lot of different perspectives and tales in Enchanted Conversation. The new online blogazine, had Sleeping Beauty as their theme for the first issue and has published some awesome new retellings. Eg, The 13th Fairy Confesses (yep - it was HER fault Sleeping Beauty slept for 100 years, not the bad fairy at all), The First Queen's Maid (Hint: remember how Sleeping beauty's mother-in-law was part Ogre?), The Dilemma of the Spindle looks at the decision this household object had to make and many, many more.

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BACK TO: CONTENTS

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines

• ** NEWLY ADDED AT 2:30PM ** Cabinet Des Fées Issue 9 is live! (Cabinet Des Fées in an online magazine offering new fairy tale fiction and poetry three times a year. The 'zine is known for it's excellence and scholarship and provides many wonderful fairy tale resources. You can see the wonderful range of tales and treatments just by glancing at their main page, which has enticing 'snapshots' [mini previews] of the contents.)

• Goblin Fruit's Winter 2010 Issue is live! (Goblin Fruit is a fairy tale/mythic poetry 'zine that now includes an audio component. This issue features an 'Editor exchange' with Mythic Delirium so 'diabolical guest Editor' Mike Allen is in charge of the offerings at Goblin Fruit while our talented GF Editors are reeking havoc - I mean, taking the reins - at Mythic Delirium. The topics for the Issue are darkly delicious...)

• Enchanted Conversation continues to draw readers and interesting comments on the subject of Sleeping Beauty, and don't forget a thoughtful comment of a couple of paragraphs enters you into a contest too!

• Fairy Tale Review 2009 Aquamarine Issue is available for purchase. (Fiction, non-fiction and poetry on fairy tales and their continuing influence today, helmed by the amazing Kate Bernheimer who has edited some of the best essay collections on fairy tales to date.)

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BACK TO: CONTENTS

A Steampunk Sleeping Beauty (Animation Short)

This steampunk Sleeping Beauty animation is from the CG Society's contest for Steampunk Myths & Legends which finished earlier this year (and which produced some of the gorgeous steampunk fairy tale illustrations I've shown you in the last).

There were a few Beauties and I've shown you one beautiful illustration by Antonio Caparo that I thought was particularly well done HERE. Though the piece I'm showing today doesn't have quite the same impact as the illustration for me, I love seeing the different ways our girl has been kept in suspended animation (pun intended) and I'm a sucker for the opening of a story book at the beginning, I must admit.When the contest ran, you could only view it on the site HERE (which I can't seem to get to stream reliably, but that may just be on my end) but I recently found the animation presented as a short (without the 'making of' sections you can see at the CG Society website) so can finally show you the piece here.

I'm including some screen grabs to give you a heads up on what you'll be looking at as I missed seeing Beauty asleep, the first time she appeared until I viewed the trailer the second time around. (Can you see the figure below?)A little hint: let the trailer load (i.e. hit pause until it's loaded) before you watch it and it will play much more smoothly. And there's a little more story shown after the titles near the end, so watch it all the way through:

Sleeping Beauty
by Backlight-Studio

Although it's presented as a movie that will be coming soon, I can't find any confirmation that this was done beyond the concept and in the form of a trailer.

You can see the steps in construction as part of the trailer HERE at the CG Society website.The animation was entered under Olivier Selliez. There is very little information in either the progress entries or on his blog to confirm this but it appears he was the team leader for the project, which included seven other people, all of who worked on the project during the month of January this year to enter it for the contest (you can see their details at the CG Society site for this piece HERE). Mr. Selliez's website is HERE (I've used a translated link so I hope it works) and the company he works with, Backlight Studio, is HERE (which posted the work in the blog so I presume the other team members for the project also work at Backlight Studio).

If I ever hear of any more being done on this animation I'll be sure to let you know.

"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" Makes List For 2009 Oscar Contenders

Fairy tales might be going to the Oscars again - at least in short form.

In the "Animated Short Films" category, Brown Bag Film's "Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" made the list of ten from which the official five Academy Award Nominees will be chosen.

You can see the list of contenders and see some excerpts HERE and HERE.

Here's a description from the website:

We all know the Grimm fairytales. Granny's are grimmer... once upon a time there was a granny who dreamed of being the best granny in the world. Unfortunately, this granny was tormented by a lifetime of rage against the world and everyone in it. Luckily, nobody noticed what an angry old woman she had become because they took no notice of her one way or another. But there's only so much an anger an old woman can repress before it BURSTS OUT FROM THE DEPTHS OF HER SOUL IN A SCREAMING FIREBALL OF BITTERNESS AND RESENTMENT!

... or a bedtime story, as Granny herself likes to call it.

Granny O'Grimm is a 26 x 11 min animated series. Each episode features Granny O'Grimm's desperate attempts to be the perfect granny to her three grandchildren, before the fairytales unleash her demons. Produced by Brown Bad Films and directed by Nicky Phelan, the series will be created in 3D and 2D computer animation.

The website, with lots of great little behind-the-scenes and 'Granny comments', is HERE (a hint: click on the red fairy tale book next to the TV to see some of Granny's versions of fairy tales and nursery rhymes).

The SurLaLune Blog posted a great entry on the short film HERE so I won't repeat all the information except to show you a trailer:

You can see a little more of the story at the website HERE.

I love this little film for so many reasons, not the least of which it shows an amusing example of how, in the oral tradition of telling fairy tales to children, our own prejudices can get in the way.The Nominees who will actually be 'walking' that red carpet to the Oscars will be announced on February 2, 2010. I wish Brown Bag Films all the best. There's some fierce competition but I have a feeling Granny will do a good job of holding her own.

In the meantime Granny has a lot to say via Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE (along with an Agony Granny column both on Facebook, in 'tweets' and at the official website). From her 'advice' I'd say she's the lovably cantankerous sort. Not to be missed.