Picture Book Reviews from Inhabit Media

It was my niece's third birthday recently and I wanted to get her something special.  My sister told me that she was really getting into longer more involved stories like The Balloon Tree by Phoebe Gilman.  She also really enjoys A Promise Is A Promise by Robert Munsch.  I wanted to get her something that I didn't think she would get from anyone else.  I found out about this Canadian publishing company based in Iqaluit while at the OLA Super Conference.  I saw the vendor booth on the trade show, but Akilak's Adventure was also mentioned at the talk about Diverse Books.

I went to Chapters and it was kind of a pain to find these books since they are filed in different sections of 3 - 5 year old storytime books, but I persevered and the results were totally worth it!  Although I was tempted to get The Owl and the Lemming, I didn't think my niece would like that one as much.  The books that I eventually chose were The Caterpillar Woman and Akilak's Adventure.

This is a really interesting story about a girl who gives her jacket to a strange woman and takes on the appearance of a caterpillar.  When hunters come to her tent, she helps them and one of them takes her as his wife.  Eventually, she becomes her beautiful self again and her husband becomes young and handsome in this fairy tale ending.  There are a lot of words that are a little difficult to pronounce, but there is an Inuktitut pronunciation guide in the back.  In addition to the wonderful story, the pictures are done in very muted colours and have a very smooth texture, similar to watercolours.  My niece actually preferred this book and after we read it once, we read it several more times that evening until my voice started to get all croaky.

This is a fun story about Akilak who sets out on an adventure to her uncle's camp in order to get more food for her grandmother.  I thought this was going to take on a Red Riding Hood kind of twist, but it didn't.  It is a girl who goes on a physical journey, but also embarks on a journey of self-discovery.  I really liked the illustrations in this book as they struck me as being similar to Martchenko's drawings in Munsch's books.  Although I read this book to my niece, she preferred the other, at least at the time.

I really am looking forward to other books with which this publishing house will produce and am definitely keeping on eye on them for unique wonderful stories that are Canadian.

Movie Review: Ever After Vs. Disney's Cinderella

  vs  

I love Ever After!  It is my all time favourite version of Cinderella, so when I saw that Disney had put out a new live version of the film, I was pretty excited.  I didn’t think it would compare, but I have to admit that this new version looked pretty darn good.  So, I watched it.

One of the things that I love about Ever After is the costumes.  The time period is based in the Renaissance, so the costumes are Medieval based.  I really love the ball costume for Cinderella.  The ball gown from Cinderella, since it is by Disney, is very similar to the ball gown from the cartoon version, but they did such a great job on it!  The other costumes from the movies are also similar to Regency or Victorian.

The stories are fairly similar since they are both using the same source material.  I felt Cinderella handled the death of the mother particularly well, even going to far as to show a before and after shot of the family.  However, I finally figured out why I prefer Ever After.  The endings are so different that I just had to go with Ever After as it has the stronger ending.  Also, there is is this strange feeling that Cinderella is trying very hard to be like Ever After, but just doesn’t quite make it.  Although I prefer Ever After, Cinderella is still very good and I highly suggest that you watch it!

Into The Woods: A Movie Review

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I was just so busy getting ready for my trip to the West Coast that I just completely forgot about it.  Then, I was actually travelling and was completely exhausted from jet lag.  Once I recovered from the jet lag, I realized that I had writer's block and was struggling to come up with an idea.  So, here is my review of Into the Woods, a children's movie.

I recently watched Into The Woods.  I really enjoyed it!  I don’t normally review movies, but seeing as how this movie was based on the Grimm fairy tales, I thought it would be fun!  Into the Woods is a fairy tale musical and I am a sucker for musicals.

If you don’t know anything about the movie, Into the Woods starts with the town baker and his wife wishing for a baby.  A witch appears and tells them that they must fetch her some items before she will lift the curse from his house, for when the baker’s mother was pregnant, his father stole over the wall to steal a particular herb and the witch placed a curse on the family.

So each fairy tale character heads into the woods to accomplish their goals and this is the first song which is absolutely amazing!  So the intertwining stories are that of the baker and his wife, red riding hood, rapunzel, jack (and the beanstalk) and cinderella.  The plot is great since once you assume that everyone has their happily ever afters, the movie is over, but there’s still more to come.

The music was really well written and performed.  There were a number of reprisals, but my favourite song was still the opening number and Johnny Depp’s song as the wolf (yes, it is a little pedophilic, but that’s the point).  The song “Agony” was also hilarious due to the fact that two princes know how ridiculous they are and just go for it.  As for the storylines, I was really surprised by the fact that the stories followed the original tales very closely.  If you aren’t sure what I am talking about, I would suggest that you read some of the Grimm or Perrault tales.

If you like fairy tales and musicals, then you will likely enjoy this movie.  I hope you like it as much as I did.  Interestingly enough, one of my favourite reviewers, The Blockbuster Buster, also did a review, but for once, we really disagree on this particular movie, particularly the “Agony” song.

Exciting News!

I am very excited to have found out about the new Fairy Tales that were found in Regensberg Germany.  Although the news is no longer new, it is still very cool!  Here is a link to the news article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany

I am personally looking forward to getting my hands on a translation or even just a copy.  Sadly, it seems that noone local is carrying them, not even the universities.  Hopefully that will change, but in the meantime, I'll just have to stick to reading twisted and other fairy tales that are published.

Fairy Tales in Popular Media

      I have to say that I can't help but notice a trend in TV shows and films.  Not only one TV show, but two, have come out in one season that are both based on fairy tales.  It is my hope, though perhaps vain, that these two shows will help people realize that fairy tales aren't just for children.  The idea that fairy tales are just "kid's stuff" is something of a recent trend, when in fact these tales used to be for adults.
   
     Once Upon A Time is based heavily on the Grimm and Perrault set of tales, it is not above poking fun at itself once in a while or taking dark twists that you really don't expect.  Since it is produced by ABC channel, that means some of the Disney characters that you know and love will be making an appearance, although maybe not in ways you would expect.
   
     Grimm is also heavily based on the Grimm tales.  This show is a crime drama with fairy tale twists.  It is dark and gritty.  I would suggest this particular tv show for people who are interested in the darker side of fantasy and for horror fans.  One of the things that gets me hooked is the quote at the beginning.  I always Google it so I can see which tale it is going to be based on.  This is how I discovered that not all of the episodes are based on the Grimm set of tales.  One of the episodes, titled  "Beeware", has the quote from a film called The Queen Bee.  Another of the episodes, "The Thing with Feathers" is actually based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Nightingale.  I had never read that tale so I went and got it.  It's actually quite an interesting story about freedom.
   
     If you are not familiar with fairy tales, there are so many variations for each tale.  Each culture has its own version of Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood.  If you like darker versions, I highly suggest that you try to track down the gypsy versions.  Seriously, someone in my oral storytelling class told a gypsy version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and it was super creepy and adult.  Definitely not for children.
   
     If you want child friendly versions, I suggest you check out the children's section of your local library.  Grimm, Perrault and Anderson are all very popular, but see if you can find some versions from other cultures.  I know it may seem weird if you are in adult in the children's section, but the librarians don't mind!  398.2 is the fairy tale section in the public library.

     Also, two films are coming out this summer, both based on the Snow White tale:  Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman.  Personally, I think that Snow White and the Huntsman looks like a far more interesting version than Mirror, Mirror, but I tend to like films with a feminine twist (i.e. heroine kicks butt) much better.

Happy Reading (and watching)!