0 Animated Movies Infographic Reveals Disney Is NOT All Over the Map

Disney Palaces and Castles in Movies by M.K. Reddington
(note: Tiana's restaurant is included - not a palace but still a key building)

You can probably get a quick overview of the bias referred to in the post title, just by looking at a selection of the different styles of Disney castles together (created a couple of years ago). Even this small selection of iconic Disney buildings tends to lean very... "West". (They're beautiful but they're not particularly diverse.)

The referenced infographic is ENORMOUS (you can see a small version of it near the bottom of the post) and very interesting to look around in. It's a map of the most popular animated movies  - also known as, the most influential children's films - from a variety of studios, showing the locations each of their films are set in. Disney's films are color coded red.

Why am I putting this on Once Upon A Blog? Because a large percentage of these films are considered fairy tales or overlap with people's definition of fairy tales, this is the overall impression many children are getting of story in general (especially if they're not being read to, or told other tales by family and carers).

At least 50 animated movies are set in North America and close to 40 in Europe.

It should come as no surprise that Disney's movies are "Western-centric, as The Independent calls is, since the people who created them initially were largely American and of European descent (meaning the stories they themselves were most influenced by were European). BUT as time has gone on, society has changed and the workload been distributed more evenly across the ethnic board, little has changed in this representation. Again, not a huge surprise considering the story influences perpetuated in American (and Disney) publishing BUT as more and more animators, story tellers, artists, designers, CG wizards and all round production people making these movies have hailed from places more and more distant and diverse, you would expect the stories being made to reflect that too. Instead it hints largely that the people in charge are making the decisions and what their (narrow) world view is.

Interestingly, the rest of animated cinema reflects the same trend, though not to quite the same extent.

There is a notably heavy concentration of movies in Europe and North America, clearly showing how Western-centric cinema remains. Just four of the most popular animated films of all-time have been set in South America and one of those, Rio 2, is a sequel. 

Only seven are based on African soil and most draw on common perceptions of the continent – The Lion King, Madagascar,Tarzan and The Wild for example. 

Australasia also fares badly, with four films set down under, while Asia boasts a relatively small proportion for its size with eighteen, including Mulan, The Jungle Book, Big Hero 6, Kung Fu Panda and Aladdin.

(FTNH Edit: I don't count Big Hero 6 as taking place in Australasia at all. It's clearly an alternate San Francisco - officially an urban mash-up of Tokyo and San Francisco aka "Japanamerica" - and is discussed that way in the 'making of' interviews as well. The university where key story points are set is likely an alternate MIT as well, so definitely very American).

It's a very telling infographic and should make people sit up and take notice.

Thankfully we are seeing some signs of change recently, and, as with any giant machine, a little change can be the start of a big one. It's just been a long time in coming. For instance: 

Disney is making moves to address the skewed representation of countries in its films, with the first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor announced in January and another, Moana from Oceana revealed last October.

The infographic was created by Slovakian designer, Martin Vargic, known for his Map of the Internet and Map of Stereotypes projects on Halycon Maps. He pinned the 124 most popular animated films onto a world map, color coding each film for the studio that created it (there is a key at the bottom of the map).

Each location mapped was either explicitly stated or shown in the movies, such as in Madagascar, derived from evidence within them, as in Frozen and The Lion King, or taken from the original work in which the movie was based, as in Snow White and Pinocchio. 

Vargic researched the films in detail by reading fan theories and studying where various animal species are geographically distributed. He did not include movies set in radically different worlds such as Treasure Planet and Wreck-It Ralph.

Disney Palaces & Castle Part 2 by M.K. Reddington
(including Elsa's ice castle)

One thing that is very odd to me is to see almost NO animated films set in Russia. I realize this is a "popular animated films" list, and therefore selective, but considering how very many animated films have been made there, (particularly fairy tales! - so very many) with a large percentage of those focusing on Russian tales and literature, it either shows how underexposed the rest of the world is to their animated filmmaking or how insular the industry there is.

Click HERE to read the list of films and their locations. You can also see a huge version of the map there (just click on the link, which will take you to a new page but you will see there's a magnifying glass on that page too. Clicking on that will show you the map at 100% and you will need to move the blue scroll bar at the side AND the bottom of the window to see it all. As I said, it's HUGE.)

There's also this map below with most of the Disney animated movies (ie. just Disney movies) and their locations. Click HERE to read the list of exact locations.

Map by theantilove

Detail: Animated Movies Infographic Reveals Disney Is NOT All Over the Map

0 Theater: Kabuki "Pinocchio"

This makes complete sense to me. So much so I have to wonder why I haven't see someone do it before... 

(Note: apologies for the weird formatting below - I could not get Blogger to behave today!)

Here are some excerpts from a wonderful article in the Boston Globe:

A Kabuki-influenced version of “Pinocchio” may strike some as the sort of theatrical experiment best suited to an avant-garde troupe performing in a dimly lit basement. But Wendy Lement and Steven Bogart... promise all the laughs and tugged heartstrings traditional to the tale of the wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, along with some new shading. 

“When we went back to the original story, I was startled at how funny it is,” says Lement, Wheelock’s producer and co-artistic director. “It’s both hysterically funny and very dark in places, and both of those are combined in 
Kabuki.” 

Kabuki is a highly stylized form of traditional Japanese drama involving singing, dancing, and elaborate costumes and makeup. With performances through Feb. 22 at Wheelock, this “Pinocchio” is a world premiere version of the story of the mischievous creation of the poor puppeteer Geppetto. 

...But if it was not set in Pinocchio’s native Italy, then where? Soon she and Bogart discovered their mutual experience with Japanese theater.... They saw how masks and transformations were common to Japanese theater and “Pinocchio,” the 1880s novel by Carlo Collodi that spawned countless adaptations, including Disney’s classic animated film. 

“We’re not Kabuki experts, we’re not doing pure, traditional Kabuki,” Bogart says. “We’re Kabuki influenced, Noh influenced, even Butoh theater-influenced, pulling all of these elements in to create the story.” 

So audiences will face a stage backed by sliding screens, not unlike those in a traditional Japanese-style home, thatcan be moved to change the scene. Movement and dance and masks will echo Japanese styles. The band on an upper deck of the set will include a skilled player of the shamisen, a traditional three-stringed Japanese instrument. And as for the marine creature in whose belly Pinocchio ends up . . . 

“In the novel, the whale is not a whale, it’s a dogfish. I don’t know how big a dogfish is, but the Disney version turned it into a whale,” Bogart says. “We did some research and found a character, Namazu, in Japanese mythology, which is a giant catfish. It’s so big, it’s controlled by a god, and when the god is not paying attention, Namazu creates earthquakes and tsunamis.” 

You can read the rest of the wonderful write-up of the show and how it was inspired and created HERE. 

I wish I were able to see this! Unfortunately, I will have to settle for some photos and perusing the many costume designs posted on the Wheelock blog for now, but if you get a chance to see it, do let us know!

PINOCCHIO
Based on the book The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Colladi. 

World premiere of an original adaptation by Steven Bogart and Wendy Lement. 

Influenced by Japanese theatrical traditions, Pinocchio’s adventures are told through mystical creatures, live musicians, and gymnastic choreography, making the transformation of an animated puppet into a real live boy, a magical, dynamic, and deeply moving experience. WFT’s Pinocchio will surprise and delight audiences of all ages. 

Playing January 30th to February 22, 2015

Wheelock Family Theatre is located in Boston, MA, USA.

You can follow Wheelock Theatre on their blog HERE and on their Facebook page HERE, and they've included a useful study guide for kids on Collodi and Pinocchio HERE as well.

Detail: Theater: Kabuki "Pinocchio"

0 Angelina Jolie on Maleficent vs Sleeping Beauty, Fairy Tales & the Tashi Stories

The press events for the launch of Maleficent are heating up and Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning are currently in the UK promoting their film. Among the new fairy tale fashion statements (I adore Ms. Jolie's birds on branches dressand check those character-themed shoes below from the French tour!) are a whole lot of Q&A's which, I have to say, they're really brave to do. (I feel for poor Elle getting random questions thrown at her about everything from being a role model to what she thinks of illegal downloading and piracy! Poor kid.)

Today (Friday) they held a large press conference in London to spontaneously (and bravely) answer questions from the press, and it was a delight to hear people asking about real fairy tales and have Ms. Jolie in particular, talk, not only about the film and Sleeping Beauty, but also about fairy tales and the stories she tells her children.
                               
I took a 6(ish) minute video clip from beginning of the full press conference video (which is about half an hour long), since that's the part fairy tale people will be most interested in, but you can find the full interview HERE.

Here's the fairy tale relevant portion of the interviews:

One question asked of Ms. Jolie was what fairy tales or stories she reads to her children and although I wasn't very surprised to hear she likes to make up her own tales, she did say she reads the Tashi stories,  of which there are many volumes and that she loves. (Basically, she's recommending them to parents everywhere.)

The Tashi stories (16 books so far with 2 Tashi adventures in each) are written by Australian authors Anna Fienberg with and her mother Barbara Fienberg, and illustrated by award winning artist Kim Gamble. While these books aren't traditional fairy tales, they are definitely drawn from and inspired by fairy tales from all over the world, centering on a character named Tashi, who comes "from a place far away", and goes on many, many adventures. Tashi is a Tibetan name meaning 'good fortune' or 'auspiciousness'.)

Here's an introduction to Tashi and his world of stories:

A boy named Jack describes his new friend, Tashi, who arrives one day on the back of a swan from a magical country populated with giants, dragons, ghosts and all sorts of other things that go bump in the night. Tashi mesmerizes Jack (and Jack mesmerizes his parents) with tales of his exploits about outwitting a succession of deliciously horrible villains ("I'll pluck out your nose hairs, one by one," a bandit threatens Tashi). Sometimes Tashi tells a story, to Jack; sometimes Jack recounts a Tashi adventure to his parents. In an amusing role reversal, Jack's parents hang breathlessly on their son's every word ("So tell us," Jack's father says. "After Tashi tricked those giants and teased the bandits, how did he meet these ghosts?"), and the dialogue between the storyteller and his audience invisibly tightens the narrative tension. Teasers end each tale ("`So that's the end of the story,' said Jack sadly. `And everyone was safe and happy again.' `Yes,' said Tashi, `that is, until the bandits arrived'.."). (Description from Publishers Weekly) 

   

Tashi began as a conversation with my mother. She was telling me how, when she was a child, she used to tell whoppers. Creative fibs. Tall stories. And the kids would crowd around, dying to hear the latest tale. We began talking about a character like her - a character who told fantastic stories - and over many cups of tea we cooked up Tashi’ - Anna Fienberg 

 

(Tashi) had so many appealing qualities: a rich friendship between boy and friend (or alter ego); a teasing relationship between boy and father; a fresh take on the 'tall tale'; a fearless blend of European and Asian folk story traditions; larger-than-life villains; an irrepressible hero living by his wits (brain not brawn always triumphs); action aplenty; exotic landscapes; and scope for cinematic pictures… (from the Alien Onion children's book editors blog)

Although I haven't read them all (I will soon fix that problem!) the ones I've seen are enchanting, both in the story telling and the illustrations and it's delightful to find characters we're familiar with along the way, whether they be giants that sound familiar or Baba Yaga or even Bluebeard (yes, there's a children's story with Bluebeard in the collection! But don't be concerned. You, and any kids you read to, are in good hands with these authors.)

The official website for the many Tashi books is HERE and you can get them pretty much anywhere in the world (and Amazon is a good place to start as the collection is currently 29% off).

One of Brad Pitt's personal portraits of Angelina Jolie: "wife & mother"

Detail: Angelina Jolie on Maleficent vs Sleeping Beauty, Fairy Tales & the Tashi Stories