A blog that explores the dark and twisting world of fairy tales, the history, psychology, symbolic interpretations, literary analysis, adaptations, and pop culture incarnations.
Today, Io9 posted a deliciously gory animated short film that uses silhouettes to tell the origin story of Little Red Riding Hood. It is almost as traumatic as Once Upon a Time's "Red-Handed" episode. Red does Buffy proud, and kicks some wolf ass, but then has to deal with the emotional repercussions of her actions. Incredibly well done. (Original Article)
The theatre person in me enjoyed the cardboard cut outs and low-tech special effects. The fairy tale scholar in me loved how theater and fairy tales combined to present a woman who was being pushed into various situations where she had no real autonomy. She may not have wanted to be there, but that is where she was expected to be by others. Theater had her being directed, and lead by stage hands from one scenario to the next. The fairy tale aspect presented the idea that fairy tales are how life is "supposed to be," and Sara has to break free from those constructs to become her own person.
A new trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman has come out, going into more depth about why the Queen must kill Snow White. Also, it gives a first real look at Bob Hoskins as a dwarf! All we need now is to see Toby Jones, Eddie Izzard and Nick Frost!
Voice of America has an article about a fantastic new children's hip-hop musical called P.Nokio, a version of the fairy tale Pinocchio for the modern age. It looks like a really exciting and relevant twist on the story, and has good lessons for the kids (and adults):
Scott Suchman/Imagination Stage
The Graffiti Fairy (Paige Hernandez) confronts P. Nokio (Psalmayene 24) in a scene from Imagination Stage's hip hop retelling of "Pinocchio."
"In this version, the main character’s name is P. Nokio, and he’s not a wooden puppet, he’s an animation in a video game, brought to life by the Graffiti Fairy.
The play, "P. Nokio: a Hip Hop Musical," is the creation of Psalmayene 24.
“For some reason Pinocchio has always resonated with me,” the playwright says.
Psalm, who has written other plays inspired by hip hop culture, thought the story “really lent itself to that type of interpretation.”
Psalm not only wrote the play, he also plays the main character. Like the wooden puppet, this P. Nokio chooses fun when he should be going to school.
And he lies, which causes his nose to grow, a development which that is shown on video monitors above the stage.
“At its core, Pinocchio is really a story about redemption,” Psalm says. “We have this puppet who makes many mistakes. He goes astray many times, but at the end he finally does the right thing.”
P. Nokio, like his predecessor, risks his own life to rescue his father. “We all make mistakes,” Psalm says, ”but you always have an opportunity to right your wrongs.”
Psalm has written adult plays, but he enjoys writing for young people. “I feel like I can really let my imagination run free and run wild, because children will follow you almost anywhere, as long as you keep things active and really interesting.”
The musical clearly does that, often using call and response to get the young audience involved. "P. Nokio" performances sold out at Imagination Stage. But the show will return after traveling elsewhere." (Original article).
Click here at the Imagination Stage blog for more video of the performance, and interviews with the artists!
"Strip fairy tales of all their pomp, circumstance, princes and princesses and you have a very basic story. And each fairy tale has some kind of hook, some sort of iconic image, item or idea that is easily identifiable. The graphic artist Christian Jackson recognized this and distilled a collection of classic and famous tales and conveyed each one into a simple, very minimalist statement.
Of his children’s story series, Jackson stated: 'My life was thrown in very childish direction when I became a father a little over 2 1/2 years ago. I guess this series was my way of releasing some of that energy creatively. I can’t really say that I “decided on children’s stories” my lifestyle pretty much demanded it. When the idea for the posters came to me, the iconic images for each story just sort of poured out.'"
These are beautiful! I think my favorite are Little Red Riding Hood, Princess and the Pea, Ugly Duckling, Pied Piper, and the Wizard of Oz.
Ok, folks. I finally got around to watching the newest episode of Once Upon a Time, "Red-Handed," and BOY was I impressed. (Gloat all you want, OUAT believers!). There was none of this jelly-fish dress fairies and dwarves hatching from eggs. There was not one Disney reference in the entire episode! It was dark, and the plot was twisting, and it had parallels without hitting you over the head with it, and the acting was stellar!
The trailer is not really promising, but you shall see anon how actually it was a really awesome episode!
BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD!
This week we got the story of Little Red/ Ruby and her crossbow-toting grandmother. And hey. They can act. Who knew? Their parts have been so dinky so far that I wrote them off, but they pack a wallop this episode. In fairy tale land, a large wolf is killing folks under the wolf moon. Granny's fortress of a house would make Buffy proud; she barricades herself and Red in every night, even going so far as to portcullis the fireplace (wolves have used that before, as the Three Little Pigs know well). Red meets Snow White, and we have a lovely little "Oh, they are Snow White and Rose Red!" moment, thought I am not certain that is what the writers were thinking. It was Jane Espenson, though and she is fucking clever.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Red has a fight with Granny, who is trying to give Red more responsibility at the diner, and so Red quits. She plans to leave town, and good ol' Jane dangles the possibly of Dr. Whale as the wolf as he harasses her at the bus stop (to which no bus ever comes in Storybrooke). I squealed with glee at this, as I had alas been spoiled on the ending, and knew who the wolf was, so it was a delight to watch the writers toy with the viewers. It got me thinking that maybe that is what they have been doing this whole time; they have been having so much fun playing the long game (leaving clues and red herrings, giggling to themselves and saying "Wait til they get to THIS part") that they forget to make individual episodes make sense in the world, or at least make them interesting in a short-term entertainment sense. My girl Jane, however, gets the balance exactly right.
Anyhoo, Snow invites Red to stay with her and Emma for a bit, in their fairy tale girl commune, until she figures things out, and Emma offers her a job as Sheriff's Assistant. Red learns she is capable of more than she thinks she is, learns a lesson, and oh by the way finds a human heart in a box by the Troll Bridge! WHAT? And with David walking around and acting weird and not remembering it, he is suspect #1, and actually really pulls off some stellar guilt and grief acting when he is told he could have unknowingly killed his wife, cut out her heart and put it in a box. But wait, there's more!
In an equally twisty plot, Snow and Red think that Red's boyfriend is the wolf, and he volunteers to be tied up. Red, in an act of love, vows to stay with him all night. So sweet. What is heart-breaking is that Red is the wolf, and boyfriend becomes puppychow. Very gruesome puppy chow. I definitely saw a detached foot in there. When Granny shoots her with a silver tipped arrow (hehe), and puts the protective red cape on her (yes, there actually is precedent for red being a protective color against the supernatural), does she turn back to herself, see what she had done, and understandably flip the fuck out. Again some fantastic acting from Red as she is at sea with incomprehension, wooziness, grief, terror and guilt. This sweet, innocent girl now has some serious baggage to lug around.
The final twist is in the real world, when we discover...dun dun dun....the fingerprints on the inside of the heart box were Mary Margaret's! Who saw that coming? Me, because I saw pics from next episode, which looks like it is going to be just as dark and tasty.
All in all a great episode! Just how I like my fairy tales: dark, bloody, women coming into their own, symbolic parallels, plot twists, and great writing. Lemurs. Watch it and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Sarah531 has paired the companions of Doctor Who with fairy tale heroines. I think these are rather perfect, though Rose's is a bit obvious and kind of a stretch-plot and personality wise. What do you think? Would you have done them differently? Who would you choose for other companions?
