Faeries is an animated film about a sister and a brother, Nellie and George, who are sent to live at a relative's farm for a time. They are somewhat unhappy about this, Nellie in particular. Once they're settled in, the children go out to play. George wants to play hide and seek and scampers off to hide from Nellie, and while she isn't looking, disappears into a tree. While looking for George, a creepy looking man (Jeremy Irons!) appears and tells her of a prophecy. She is a little shaken by this stranger and runs back to the house (not seeing him turn into a crow and fly away). She gets back to the house and continues her search for her brother and comes across a hobgoblin in her cupboard. It appears as though her brother has gone into the fairy realm, and Nellie must hurry and bring him back before he eats something and is unable to return. The goblin takes her to the faery tree and she goes in to find her brother. When she does get to him though, he has already eaten faery food and cannot return to the human realm ever. Nellie calls the faery king and pleads for the release of her brother. The king contents to give them three quests, and if they complete these quests, George will be able to leave fairy land. The nature of the quests change after the prince see's the farm hand Brigit (Kate Winslet). There is also the matter of the shape shifter, who is after the fairy king's throne. It is of course up to Nellie and George to save the day.
This film has a mix of both classic 2D animation as well as an early 3D animation style. For the most part the classic cartoon animation is used for the characters and the background, but several movement shots are done in 3D. Fairy land might have been real life foam fauna as well.
Photographing Fairies is a sci fi/ fantasy film set in the early 1900's exploring the idea behind the Cottingly fairy hoax. The story is about a young photographer named Charles Castle who looses his wife soon after they are married, and of course he is lost in his grief. He goes off to war and is employed as a photographer in the trenches, and after the war he is still consumed with death as we see him cut and paste photos of dead soldiers into new photos of their loved ones for a living. One day he finds himself at a supernatural convention of sorts and comes upon a lecture of a man telling people of the Cottingly photographs and supporting the existence of faeries because of them. Charles then proceeds to interrupt the man, telling him that there is no way the photos can be real, both from a photographers perspectives and as one who has lost faith with all things the eye cannot see. The character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in the film, as he was a supporter of the photos, even though he wasn't so supportive of them in the film. So, after attending the lecture, a woman comes to his studio and shows him some photographs that were supposedly of a real faerie standing on her daughter's outstretched hand. Of course Charles doesn't believe this any more than he believed the Cottingly story, but after closer inspection he finds that there is something not quite right about the photo and goes off to find the woman and ask her about it. The woman lives in the countryside with her husband, a pastor, their two daughters, and the governess for the girls. He finds the woman and tells her that he may believe her story, but she just smiles at him and tells him that the photograph doesn't matter anymore because she has seen them. The details after this point I will not go into because that is where the real mystery lies.
Charles struggles throughout the movie with his wife's death and cannot seem to get beyond the hold it has on him. Maybe because of this he has lost all faith in an after world or possibilities of another world within ours, until of course he goes in search of the faeries. When he does find a way to see them (whether or not he's hallucinating is debatable) he clings to this connection ferociously and uses this to try to get in touch with his wife. At the end he is somewhat set free of this, and embarks on an adventure of sorts.
This is not a film for children, or if a child does see it, it should be monitored by a parent. There is both nudity and death in the film, and though neither appear in excess, I would say this is a 14 and up movie.
Fairy Wings is a story about a fairy named Fia who was born without wings, and because she isn’t flying around with the other fairies and instead plays with frogs and rats and crows, she is ridiculed and outcast. One day while she’s playing along the river, a boy fairy finds her and asks her to play. He tore one of his wings and is grounded for the time being. Fia tells him that she can fix his wing and they play together for a while. when Fia returns home that evening her family tells her that the royal family has come and is throwing a ball. Her sisters don’t want Fia to come because of her winglessness but her father says that she could attend. The night of the ball her friends frog and rat bring her a chair floating on a lily pad with wings on it and pull her to the centre of the ball. as it turns out the her friend who happens to be the prince sent over the chair to her (and her friends added the wings). He lifts her out of the chair and dances with her, but when he lifted her everyone sees that she doesn’t have wings, especially the king and queen and they are outraged and they send her away. Right after this happens however, a troll comes by and captures all of the fairies at the ball in a net and walks off. Fia scrambles around to find help and comes across some woodkins. Normally woodkins don’t like fairies because fairies are mean to them, but they like Fia because she doesn’t bully them. They do not go with her because they feel that it’s bad luck to help a fairy, but one of them tells her a riddle about trolls that will help her. And the riddle goes like this, the old troll’s home is a rat like place. his greed is a frog like thing. but when crow wakes, troll hides his face, or gather moss not wing. Fia then goes to save the fairies with only her friends rat, frog, and crow and solves the riddle, turning the troll into stone. Then all the fairies fawn over her and the royal family want her to marry their son.
This story is somewhat predictable and almost feels a bit overplayed because of the every popular Cinderella story line, but I do like this story because unlike many stories these days, Fia doesn’t gain wings at the end of the story. The fairies just accept her as she is, she doesn’t have to change her form to become acceptable, which is where the story deviates from the Cinderella idea. The prince takes time to notice her and like her when she is playing in the mud and being herself, and the rest of the fairies only accept her after she saves them even thought they’ve treated her so poorly, but no ugly duckling transformation takes place. This is really rare in children’s books, and adult books too, and is really discouraging to people with disabilities or differences. There are very few stories saying that you don’t need to change your physical state of being to be accepted. She still ends the story getting married, not so great, but it’s still really refreshing that she remains wingless.
I love faeries, and anime, and this is the perfect combination of both. Alright, there are definitely some flaws in the movie. The colours are kind of faded, the bad guy is cheesy, and as is typical of 80's cartoons the girl just whines instead of doing something, among other things. My mind was telling me this as I was watching... but a stronger voice drowned that one out and was wishing I'd seen this movie when I was five years old. I would have loved it then. I still appreciate it now, but there's something about a child's perception that makes magic come alive and this story is full of magic.
It's about the son of the sea king and the daughter of the fire queen. As legend has it, the king and queen are siblings and were very close and always together. The wind saw this, became jealous of their happiness and told lies to each of them making them distrust the other. They quarreled and the fire queen went to live in the sky and the sea god the sea, and the wind was banished to the depths of the sea and his eye was removed. One day the prince of the sea goes to a forbidden place and sees the fire child watching over the eternal flame. He comes back the next day and they fall in love, and from there they try to find a way to make their impossible love work.
One of the things I love about anime is that it's not disnified. Obviously. What I mean by that is that a romanticized ideal is achieved, but not without cost. There isn't a false message that you can have your cake and eat it too. You should strive to achieve your desires, but you have to know that there may be a price to pay. This isn't ominous by any means, don't take it the wrong way, the movie isn't sinister and won't worry a child. The moral isn't that bad will always come from getting something you want, but more that sometimes you have to choose between two things you might like and if you choose one you might mourn the loss of the other, even though the choice you made was the best one and is what will make you the happiest. This isn't always the message in main stream films. Most of the time the idea expressed is that you go through a tough phase, but then by making the right choices all goes well in your life, happily ever after, without regret or pain or thoughts of what if. The story end with the idea that the couple will always be happy in their paradise, but in real life situations life isn't so black and white, and it's refreshing to see films reflect this every now and again, especially films for children.
The fire people are all faeries, and all except for the fire queen have a sprite-like appearance. The prince is human looking, but very lanky, and all of his subjects are fish (so both boys and girls will watch). It was a great film full of fantasy, adventure, whimsy, and romance. Great film.
Well, the first book, Wicked Lovely, was a decent read, so I was expecting I guess more of the same in this book. Instead the author attempted to take on darker subject matter and instead of fleshing this out to the full, she skirted around the issues and didn't really address them, Kind of making the story/ characters fall flat. Basically a PG book took on R rated issues but kept them PG, relying on suggestion to get a point across rather than just addressing the issues. Because of this the plot had a kind of cardboard feel to it. I kind of felt like she kind of skimmed through the plot as well. Events took place, but there was no conviction to anything and the author didn't really follow through and finish an event. I thought the ending was kind of rushed.
This is a documentary about the fairy faith, or the belief in fairies. The narrator takes the viewer around various places in Canada and the UK, talking to people who believe and looking at locations of relevance. Though it isn't the most well done documentary I've seen it is pretty good and it's the only documentary I've seen done on fairies. The film doesn't try to convince the audience of anything nor disprove anything. It attempts to achieve an unbiased perspective, taking in the opinions of those who believe and those who don't (mostly the believers though, as we're looking at the belief, not a criticism of the belief). I think it successfully documents the fairy faith and does a good job of taking seriously subject matter which the majority of western society sees as nothing more than fantasy and idle past time.
I would recommend this to everyone interested in fairies, and anyone with an open mind, because though it isn't asking for the viewer's belief it is asking for the viewer's acceptance of the belief. An iinteresting study.
I enjoyed the first three books in this series and this one was a great conclusion. The heroine is a bit sad at having moved to Canada and wants to return to Ireland so she's very morose and takes interest in nothing. To top it off she's starting grade 9 in a new school and has no friends. Then a mysterious boy transfers into her class and sticks up for her when the teacher yells at her (he yells at her because she was looking out the window aka trying to get into fairy land) this incident is important because though she tries to get into fairy land she can't because she's blocked by something, and this will determine her quest for the rest of the book; to find out why she can't get in. Also, there's something not quite normal about the new kid.
All in all I'd say a pretty decent book. I think that this one, more than the others, is about finding yourself. The battle the heroine goes through in this book is an inner struggle. At the beginning of the book she can't even use her magic because she's so depressed, but she gets stronger and overcomes things. Plus, once again she goes it alone. Unlike the previous heroines who were questing to save/ find someone, she was questing for herself, though granted, this time round she has a partner in crime. great conclusion to a great series.
I believe I first read this series is grade eight for a book report... and boy has it stuck with me since then. This ranges as one of the first 'adult' fairy books I've read and inspired me to further my fairy obsession. And when I say adult I don't mean 'adult', I refer to the fact that this story isn't about the fairies we use to entertain children. Stories like this one draw their content from the fairies of mythology, from Irish/ British myth and legends.
In this book there are three stories, there is a fourth and concluding story, but that's not in this edition of the book. Basically, the series focuses on different girls and their interactions with the fairy world.
In the first two, The Hunter's Moon and The Summer King, there are two girls and one get taken away by the fairies because she has caught the eye of a fairy king and we the readers are left with the girl left behind, who goes in search of the missing girl. The girl the reader is with eventually comes into contact with the fairies (which takes a lot of work as we might imagine) and she discovers that there is a problem.
In the first it was the Hunter's Moon, a monster that demanded sacrifice (which they fought) and in the second the problem's focus is on (you guessed it) the Summer King. I won't go into a lot of detail because it's been a while since I've read them and I don't want to spoil anything. The third story is a bit different than the first two it's called The Light- Bearer's Daughter and there's only one girl in the story... the light bearer's daughter (the title's are really helpful). The girl in this story is half fairy (that would be the light- bearer side) and she goes in search of her fairy mother. This story is continued in the final installation, or I should say expanded upon because there is something of an appropriate ending in this book.
All of the stories have strong, proactive heroines and are rich with fairy lore, making the possibility of fairies come alive for a new, younger generation. A good thing about the series is that the characters from the previous books will make an appearance later on in the series as a minor character, kind threading it all together.
I strongly recommend this series. I have very fond memories of it when I was younger and have actually purchased it not that long ago. It's a great intro to faeries for those who are unaware, and for those who are, well its a fun ride. It's aimed towards a late elementary school, early teen audience, but can be enjoyed by anyone with a like interest. It's pretty well written and doesn't take much time to get through. I recommend.
This story ran pretty smoothly and wasn't at all a difficult read. It's about a shy girl who can see fairies but is told by her grandmother to ignore them or face the consequences. Then one day the fairies start singling her out as if she were someone for them to take note of and one even comes to her school to try to get closer to her. She decides to confront them and finds out that she's been selected as a candidate to break a curse. She has a guy that she likes, Seth, and a romance develops between the two. Though I really liked the character of Seth (he seemed like a really easy going guy, with lots of piercings) I found his immediate acceptance of the situation to be somewhat unbelievable. If there had been more hesitation at what she was saying in the beginning and then the unquestioning faith I think it would've been more believable. But the relationship between the two was a good one. He was a steady guy and was always very supportive of her. A healthy, 'modern' relationship. The story in itself had the feel of a faery tale... meaning a tale about faeries. It was almost reminiscent of O.R. Melling's Fairy Chronicles. The situations were believable and the story had life and emotion. overall a pretty good read.
I have loved Peter Pan ever since I was a child. It is a wonderful story about magic and freedom and the wonder of childhood, and I believe that this movie did an excellent job of capturing those themes and bringing them alive.
For those who are unfamiliar, Peter Pan is the story about three children, Wendy, John, and Micheal (but especially Wendy), and their adventures in a magical place called Neverland, with a magical boy who seems to have given up his humanity and can never grow up.
There was the added love interest in the movie, that was kind of suggested in the book, but never stated. Many times when movies deviate from the original plot in anyway its usually a major disappointment for those who fell in love with the original, but in this case the deviation was very well done and added greatly to the over all effect of the film. This movie is an enchanting retelling of a beloved classic and a must own for all lovers of Peter Pan!!!
I simply adore this book! It was my first book by this author and it was worth every penny, and then some.
It is a wonderful story about a young girl and her fairies. The narrator is a young girl who keeps a journal, but this girl is special in that she is constantly pestered by meddlesome faeries. She doesn't like that they bug her all the time so every so often she'll smack her journal closed on one, pressing it's image into the pages. There is a touching story in there some where, but I won't wreck it for you, you'll have to go read it.
It's a light, fun book. It picks me up whenever I am feeling down and entertains me whenever I'm feeling bored. It is undoubtedly one of the best books I own.
This was a magical tale about a girl who meets a faerie boy and follows him into faerie land for a night of fun. Though the girl has fun in faerie, she tells the boy that she must go back home because that is where she belongs. So she and the faerie boy exchange gifts to remember each other by and we see in the pictures that as they grow older they stay friends.
The story is told like a poem and it rhymes, which makes it ideal for reading out loud. The illustrations are soft and colourful and I think are successful in emphasizing the magical other-worldliness of the story. It's one of my favourite faerie picture books and I most definitely recommend it.
First off, this movie had the potential to be interesting and magical and exciting. The elements for what could have made this movie great were there somewhere, they just weren't touched upon. This turned out to be a movie about 'everyone's an individual, just like you' and near the end when I discovered that this was the only moral I felt really disappointed. It's just one of those movies that will leave no mark on you, washboard quality. If you've ever seen the sequel to snow white, the cartoon version, I forget what it's called because yes it was just that bad, it is reminiscent of that.
Now this would all have been fine and dandy if it was just another movie to sucker people out of 30 bucks or however much it costs... but it is a story about Tinkerbell... from peter pan. It almost seriously offended me that anyone would stray so far from a wonderful, classic story like that and steal one of it's signature characters and turn it into this. Such a bastardization of arguably one of the most memorable characters in children's classical literature... some one should be slapped, really hard. It offended me enough to go out and write this review, which probably isn't even that articulate because my mind is still boggled by the fact that these greedy, money sucking... people at Disney wouldn't just create some other nameless character, not drag a classic one through the dirt. .. Of course I doubt anyone would buy that nameless character because of late their story writing ability is far from decent... as this little jem proves.
There are other fairy stories out there, don't support this one.
