0 Save Daylight: Reward Offered

Goldilocks by Scott Gustafson

Due to it being one of my most detested times of year (the start of daylight savings and back-to-work-after-even-less-sleep-than-usual-day), I thought to cheer myself up, I should hold a contest.

Soyou go:

Save daylight during Daylight Savings Time! 

The rules are simple: 

Beginning with the first day of Daylight Savings Time, those entering the contest must begin saving daylight. Those who save the most daylight by midnight of the last day of Daylight Savings Time will be awarded a prize. 

Only pure daylight is allowed. No pre-dawn light or twilight will be accepted. Daylight on cloudy days is allowable. Moonlight is strictly prohibited and any of it mixed with daylight will bring immediate disqualification. 

Contestants are instructed to save their accumulated daylight in any container they wish, then bring the container to the Once Upon A Blog office at the end of DST — or when they think they have saved enough daylight to win. 

All entries will be donated to less fortunate nations that do not observe Daylight Savings Time.

*Original contest held via the ElDorado Journal. I do not take credit for this genius.

Detail: Save Daylight: Reward Offered

0 Disney Junior Begins "Goldie & Bear" (Maria Tatar Consulting!)

I will admit I sort of yawned my way through this announcement, initially - Disney Junior is starting production on another fairy tale mash-up animated series, etc, etc.. - until I saw a very familiar name in the text: Maria Tatar.

Hold the phone!

I had to back it up and take another look and, given the lateness of the hour I'm writing, I thought I'd fallen asleep and was wish-dreaming but no, it's all there in black and white.

I've put the most exciting news in bold below.

Here's an extract from the announcement by Broadway World:

Production has begun on Disney Junior's "Goldie & Bear," a fairytale-inspired animated series for preschoolers. Slated to debut in Fall 2015, the series follows the adventures of newfound friends Goldie and Bear, following the renowned porridge incident of "Goldilocks and The Three Bears."  

... (EVP) Kanter said, "Disney Junior embraces strong storytelling and memorable characters, and nothing reflects that more than classic fairytales. We are excited to continue the story of 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' from a new perspective and hope to inspire kids to create their own 'happily-ever-afters' by giving them new stories featuring classic characters they already know and love." 

Set in the Fairytale Forest, the series follows the adventures of plucky Goldie and her best friend, Bear, as they encounter well-known characters from fairytales and nursery rhymes, including Little Red Riding Hood, Humpty Dumpty and The Three Little Pigs. 

Maria Tatar, John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and Disney Junior Advisory Board Member, serves as the series consultant, advising on storytelling, fairytales and folklore. The importance of storytelling is central to the show's curriculum, with episodes referencing original fairytales and nursery rhymes while providing new insights into their narratives and underlying messages. Throughout the series, Goldie and Bear model friendship and community, demonstrate creative problem-solving and exhibit critical thinking skills such as logic and strategy.

I'm just... floored by this fantastic news! And it appears to be on the "fast-track" too, set to premiere in Fall 2015. (I wish it were a little more unique looking, but other than that, all the news on this is great!)

The writer/creator isn't a newbie with regard to fairy tales either. Jorge Aguirre has had his own brand of fractured fairy tales in the form of the popular kids comic book, Giants Beware, (see above) out there for a while now.

(And coming soon, Dragons Beware).

You can read more on the talent and crew, along with a few hints as to the characters we'll be seeing, in the whole announcement HERE.

Between this and other developments in various companies in various places, it does seem that there might be some sort of "old tale revival" happening - at least for children. I could NOT be happier about this!

Detail: Disney Junior Begins "Goldie & Bear" (Maria Tatar Consulting!)

0 Aussies 'n' Fairy Tales Week: Debra Phillips, Painter of Stories

You may have seen her work recently in conjunction with the AFTS conference, but not known the name of the creative woman behind this new vision of Snow White. Her name is Debra Phillips and she tells stories. But not just with words. She also tells stories with paint.

While she is a writer and is currently involved with an academic study related to storytelling and fairy tales, she also creates stories using paint and often incorporating other media as well. Be it stitching, photography, old maps or her own brushstrokes, there is always a story woven into the work.

A Grimm View of Life series: Three Little Pigs

From Ms. Phillips:

When I paint I tell myself a story about the people in the scenes, the events leading up to the scenes and the qualities of each person within the painting. For me, a painting is a story. Although it is entire in itself, there is always a story before the image and a story after the image.  Decades ago when I painted the series of saints, I also wrote on the back a short story about the life of the saint (either imagined or real). 

A Grimm View of Life series: Goldilocks and porridge

What you seeare some of her intriguing paintings, exploring familiar fairy tales in a new ways, something, she says, is bring influenced by her current academic research and study, with an emphasis on the notion of time experienced in fairy tales and how they can transform to become a distinct narrative about an imagined future.

But that's not all she does.

A Grimm View of Life series: Snow White and rotten to the core

In the past, Ms. Phillips could often be found writing stories for friends by request, often with the purpose of commemorating a specific and special life event (birth, wedding etc). Over time, she began to include water colors, collages or photographs she had created. At some point she added stitching and the concept of her unique brand of hand crafted books was born.

Detail from a mixed-media collage

Story writing has overtaken my self and my life. There is always a tension between the desire to write and the desire to paint. Sometimes the paintings emerge from writing and sometimes the story comes from seeing a theme running through paintings or collage images. 

Fairy story themes are a constant thread running through all the stories. Some fairy stories are obvious and others are hidden in the other themes of the story. All my stories are about the human condition, especially its frailties and it’s complex relationships.

As you can see at the head of the post, Ms. Phillips had the honor of being the cover artist for the AFTS Inaugural Conference program this year. She also attended and, along with everyone else, has been reported as being both delighted and inspired by the papers and presentations of all kinds.Which can only mean one thing: we should be seeing more from Ms. Philips very soon.  

A Grimm View of Life series: Snow White & Rose Red have the wolf at their feet

In the meantime, she has a small website with a few examples of her work HERE, including a fascinating introduction to her current studies with fairytales. I look forward to seeing what Ms. Phillips does next.

Detail: Aussies 'n' Fairy Tales Week: Debra Phillips, Painter of Stories

0 A Great Suggestion For the OUAT Writers (AKA The Call To Use Different Fairy Tale Characters From 'Round the World)

With the season end reveal of Elsa coming to Storybrooke for Season 4 of Once Upon A Time, speculation is rife with regard to story lines, additional Frozen world character additions, plot twists and, as you can imagine, concerns about changing an already much-beloved character. Clearly, from the brief finale teaser, Elsa will be fair skinned (ie caucasian) but there are a lot of people, many already concerned with Disney's lack of POC representation, that see the same in OUAT, and that the addition of Elsa just exacerbates that.

   

(I'll get to why I am posting images of all these cultural variants of Cinderella in just a sec. Bare with me.) 

      

The "discussion" throughout social media has birthed a petition, calling for Tiana (from Disney's The Frog Princess) to be added to the cast and canon but not just as "fodder" like it seems most other POC characters have been used in OUAT.
   

The lack of POC people in the ABC show Once Upon a Time is rather depressing. They are either villains, dead or forgotten. The character Mulan has disappeared and Rapunzel, who was added to the royal line up, had one episode and she wasn’t even the focus. For three seasons, the fans have waited patiently for at least one POC who doesn’t get shafted. So to the writers and creators, would you please give us Tiana? All we are asking is for a POC character that gets to go on a journey and not be forgotten.  

The fact that the POC issue is coming up so regularly these days says a lot to me: not just about the lack of representation by arguably the most influential company using fairy tales in the world, but also that people are tired of the same regurgitation of stories. Red Riding Hood has been told multiple times the world over in a myriad of ways, yet Western retellings of Red Riding Hood tend to default to the girl in the red hood in the wood with a wolf.

        
Carissa Shuman, of The Celebrity Cafe, however, came up with a solution that I want to applaud, (despite the fact that it's highly unlikely this suggestion will be implemented):
           

Should Horowitz and Kitsis decide to include more POC, they could possible draw from fairy tales of other cultures which are sometimes stand-alone stories, and sometimes variations of their European counterparts. Their focus has been predominantly on Disney princesses, which does include Mulan and Tiana. However, they have also included or alluded to other popular stories such as Hansel and Gretel. If they were to refer to some other stories, they may want to use Leola from Melodye Benson Rosales’ Leola and the Honeybears, which is an African-American version of Goldilocks, who although not a princess is a well-known fairy tale character. 

                    

Another option could be to incorporate “relatives” of Red or Ella by using a variation of their story. For example, Lon Po Po is a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood written by Ed Young. There are also several versions of Cinderella. The idea of rags to riches is a common theme, and the Chinese have told it in Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie. Robert D. San Souci told it in his story entitled Cendrillon, a Caribbean Cinderella, and Rafe Martin told it in The Rough-Face Girl which stars a disfigured Algonquin girl.

  

The whole things about OUAT being basically a Disney property and using Disney versions of fairy tales makes sense, from a production point of view (and an intellectual property point of view). That excuse doesn't apply for when they go outside the canon though. For them to use, for example, Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, which Disney do not have popular versions of, says that they're willing to step outside the Disney canon if they think it's worth they're while (read, ratings).
             


With regard to the fact that Horowitz and Kitsis are extremely unlikely to consider using cultural variations of stories, what I would like to see is: They decide, yes, they'll bring Tiana on board and yes, they'll bow to popular demand and offer Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o the role. She says "yes, on one condition". They say "anything!" and she demands that they bring some fairy tales from her cultural background to the show...

I can dream.

Detail: A Great Suggestion For the OUAT Writers (AKA The Call To Use Different Fairy Tale Characters From 'Round the World)