0 Disney Fairy Tale Movie Marathon (aka Princess Movies) on ABC Family This Weekend

HIstorical Cinderella Edit by Camile Eusse
something different - just for fun)

Need to catch up on your Disney (princess) fairy tales? There's a bunch showing on ABC Family this weekend:

Saturday, March 21, 2015:
The Princess and the Frog    - 5pm ET/PT 
The Little Mermaid                - 7pm ET/PT 
Sleeping Beauty                    - 8:45pm ET/PT 
Cinderella                              - 10:30pm ET/PT 

Sunday, March 22, 2015:
Pocahontas                           - 12:15am ET/PT (yes, VERY early/late!)
The Princess & the Frog       - 3pm ET/PT
The Little Mermaid                - 5pm ET/PT
Sleeping Beauty                    - 8:45pm ET/PT
Cinderella                              - 8:30p ET/PT
Pocahontas (again)               - 10:15pm ET/PT

(So we wouldn't expect Anna & Elsa - too soon - but where the heck are Snow White, Jasmine and Rapunzel - three princesses that had their status right from the beginning of the movie?)

Here's the programming pitch:

"Beginning this Saturday, March 21, at 5 p.m. ET/PT, ABC Family will be presenting “Princess Funday.” Princesses of all ages are encouraged to don their tiaras, raise their goblets, and celebrate “girl power” with a princess-packed viewing schedule of animated Disney classics. "

For Saturday that's not a "Funday". That's a sleepover at best. Not sure who in programming plans on having their "princess" up past midnight to watch Pocahontas, (or starting to watch a movie after 10pm on a school-the-next-day night!) but... if you need to catch up on those movies (or want to take the opportunity to DVR them) this is a good opportunity.

And there's a new Disney "Imagicadamy" that's promoting family fun play ideas on the Cinderella theme that have nothing to do with watching - or buying - anything. 

The activities suggested are:

• Find the Shoe - treasure hunt
• Wait for Midnight Noon - clothes change dash
• Scrub the Floor (unless it's already part of their chores!)

You can read the game details HERE.

Detail: Disney Fairy Tale Movie Marathon (aka Princess Movies) on ABC Family This Weekend

0 American Ballet Theater's Sleeping Beauty - Final Performances in Costa Mesa CA Today (Sunday)

A quick sneak-it-in post, since Sunday (today as you are probably reading this) is the last day this is being performed in Costa Mesa, California. But the production sounds all sorts of amazing, with new choreography and classic combined, full of symbolism and a different sort of storytelling to usual story ballets.

By the way - beautiful promotional pic, don't you think? Although it also looks incredibly uncomfortable.. that girl is going to need a massage when she finally gets woken up!

The American Ballet Theatre returns to the Center with the world premiere of its new production of The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and additional choreography by ABT Artist in Residence, Alexei Ratmansky. This classic story ballet tells the enchanting tale of the beautiful princess cursed to sleep for 100 years by an evil sorceress, until awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince. It’s ballet on the grandest scale with the superstar dancers and spectacular sets and costumes that only ABT can deliver. And it all unfolds to Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score, performed live by the Pacific Symphony.

New costume design left to right:
1st row: Rose Adagio, The Wolf, Queen at Christening, English Prince
2nd row: Catalabutte, Mandarin, King at the Christening, Indian Prince
3rd row: Hummingbird Fairy, New Wedding Dress, Ariana, Garland Couples

(You can see the costumes sketches much larger HERE.)

I wanted to point to a hilarious, irreverent post on her special night out to see an older ABT Sleeping Beauty production (at The Lincoln Center) HERE. The writer clearly was completely entranced, but makes some hilarious observations and connections too, such as:

"Any respectable girl knows the story of Sleeping Beauty. She is born, and at her welcoming ceremony, her parents offend Helena Bonham Carter, who curses the princess to an early death via poisonous spindle."

I had to laugh.

And if you get the chance to see the ABT's current production, consider going. It's touted to be a little bit more than a standard production of Sleeping Beauty (which is a very difficult ballet to stage and execute because of the technical difficulties - many companies are just not up to the grueling task!).

For this Sunday/today's last two performances, you can find more information HERE.


For more information on the American Ballet Theater touring (though I don't see any further performances of this new Sleeping Beauty production after tomorrow until June) go have a look HERE.Note: if you end up going and seeing a performance of this Sleeping Beauty later in the year, I've read articles which say the ballet, because it's a brand new production, is being tweaked and revised, according to critic and audience reception as it goes along (this is fairly standard for age companies adding a new signature work to their repertoire) so be assured that it will only get better.

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

Ballet legend, Gelsey Kirkland and her amazing Carabosse costume from the ABT production in 2007. I just had to share. It looks like beetles and magic! You can see more from the creator, Kari Love, who created the costumes for the 2007 production HERE.

Detail: American Ballet Theater's Sleeping Beauty - Final Performances in Costa Mesa CA Today (Sunday)

0 "The 7th Dwarf" Released in UK Theaters

There aren't much in the way of (English) reviews for this film but despite hopes for the production, with some ex-Disney Company names such as the talented (and, sadly, late) Harald Siepermann on the team (you may recognize some of his character design work from Tarzan, Enchanted and more), as well as design work from the amazing Man Arenas, I'm not sure I'd view this any way other than Netflix.

Even The Guardian's review, while generally a "thumbs up", is a bit sparse on details. But apparently there's a very successful franchise that this movie is a part of in Germany, so perhaps there's more to this than is immediately apparent.

The 7th Dwarf is the latest in the Snow White-inspired franchise created by German comedianOtto Waalkes. Two previous live-action versions of the series have together grossed around $75 million in Germany alone.

While it's difficult to truly assess trailers (what with the power of editing being able to transform a movie's story or genre), when I finally did view one I saw why it was initially thought to have a lot of potential.

Here's the trailer:

And the synopsis:

When Bobo, the youngest of the seven dwarves, accidentally pricks Princess Rose (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) and sends the kingdom into a century-long slumber, Bobo and the other six dwarves must travel into the future in order to revive Rose... and find that even the smallest dwarf can be a king.  

A hilarious mash-up of the best classic fairy tales for young and old alike, featuring a suicidal dragon, a brave little dwarf, non-stop gags, and toe-tapping songs in Stereo 3-D.

Clearly, "the gang's all here" (ie. all your standard fairy tale characters are here) which, admittedly, isn't my favorite fairy tale genre to begin with. Taking the little reviews have said though, I'm not confident it's as little-kid-friendly as it's supposed to be (think German sensibilities/humor!). There are bound to be some interesting ideas in there but are they worth mining for?

Additional sources: HERE, HERE and  HERE

Detail: "The 7th Dwarf" Released in UK Theaters

0 "Thorn Rose" by Errol Le Cain

Thorn Rose is the Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty (titled Little Brier-Rose) and one of my favorite illustrators, Errol Le Cain, created a stunning set of illustrations for it. Being the current hot topic fairy tale in entertainment at the moment (and that I haven't ever posted more than a couple of these illustrations), I thought I'd treat you to the set.

I decided to include most of the close-ups I found as well, so you can really see the detail in the illustrations (not just "bits" but design motifs, story touches, uses of shadow and shape and much more. It's really amazing to see how much is in these drawings and yet they're still beautiful to look at without being overwhelming.

Does it look familiar? Maybe you remember Botticelli’s Prima Vera. The branches are very much like the windows we see later, though less thorny.

Botticelli's Prima Vera

This also shows the arrival of the evil fairy at the christening. She is furious at being left out. You cant see it so clearly in this picture, but she is surrounded by autumn leaves, a nice contrast to the springtime of the “prima vera” fairies.

The thirteenth fairy's wings are like a wind-bufffeted, decaying flower turning into a storm cloud. In fact, the whole aspect of the thirteenth fairy recalls a storm. Also note the dragon staff she has as well.

Notice the evil fairy overlooking this, sitting up there on her little dragon, while the good fairy sadly looks on the destruction, toting a spindle-like wand. Also note the babyBrier Rose reaching out to the spindles as they go by below...

Can you see the little devil-fairy-imps that surround her?

Check that window design - an echo of the wall of thorns to come

As a bonus, I found a wonderful paper on Errol Le Cain's illustration as manuscript illumination by Veronica Ortenberg West-Harling and I am posting some excerpts from it below. (You can read the whole article which goes into much more depth, HERE.)

…all of these carry out a strong medievalist flavour in their choice of decoration and visual cues. First and foremost of these cues is the repeated representation of the fairyland multi-turreted castle, whether as a background illustration in the opening or closing pages in King Arthur's Sword and in Molly Whuppie (where it serves as a contrast to the Giant's house in the forest), or as the main focus of the story in Thorn Rose, Cinderella, and Twelve Dancing Princesses. This leitmotif is joined by a variety of medieval images, constructed from various sources, most notably in Thorn Rose, where the opening page weaves subtly in a picture based on late medieval French and Italian costumed ladies, in front of a tent with pennant, as seen in the Lady with the Unicorn tapestries or in paintings by Uccello, moving about in a millefleurs landscape* of the kind so often seen in such tapestries of hunting or courtly love parties. The next page fairy procession, also travelling through the forest at night in a millefleurs setting, includes a fairy riding a unicorn. 

The fifteenth-century setting continues through the castle style and courtiers' dress, and develops the Gothic theme of nature as it encroaches more and more on the palace through the growing wall of thorns, until the prince arrives, a hundred years later, correctly attired in Renaissance dress, to wake up the princess. All full-page illustrations in Sir Orfeo refer specifically to a fifteenth-century court: headdresses, caparisoned horses, knights in Crusader tabards are all present. This medieval fantasy style is used by Le Cain for the upper socialechelons of king, princesses and courtiers, often appearing seated at banquets, dressedin the appropriate brocades, furs and headgear. By contrast, a second type of medievalinspiration, used for the 'below stairs' folk, for example the castle's kitchen in Thorn Rose, or the giant's house in Molly Whuppie, comes from Flemish painting, especially Brueghel, in imitation of the peasants' costumes, activities and human types (the fat cook, the kitchen maid plucking a fowl, the round-faced children). 

Fascinating stuff! While I've been aware that one of the reasons I love Le Cain's work is because it reminds me of tapestries such as The Lady and the Unicorn series, I'd never thought about the motifs and more in such detail. The more I see, the more I see - the balance of shapes and colors, the repeated motifs, the repeated patterns and layouts echoing various pages - it's astonishing work.

I remain in awe of this illustration every time I see it.
Do I detect a Klmit influence in there as well? If so, I LOVE this version of the style.

 Notice her hair has been spun into the spiderwebs, and the stained glass shadows on her blankets.

The article, in which the author has obviously looked at the medieval motif and tapestry aspects in great detail, is very interesting and well worth the read, especially if you are interested in design or illustration. Recommended!

*Millefleurs landscape - I even like how it sounds. I'm all inspired to paint a whole wall  in this tapestry-like background! Unfortunately, I don't think our landlord would be quite as thrilled (though you never know...)

Detail: "Thorn Rose" by Errol Le Cain