Rumpelstiltskin (1987)

Usually these 80's version fairy tale films can be pretty cheesy, but this one was actually an okay live-action version of the story. It was still cheesy, but watchable.
The story is the standard fairy tale. A miller brags to a friend that his daughter can make gold from straw, and the story is passed from person to person until the king hears of it. The king then orders that the girl be brought to the castle and spin rooms of straw into gold, or she will face the death sentence. She is of course unable to do this, but then a magic man comes to her aid and offers to spin the straw into gold for her, in exchange for her necklace. The king is pleased upon discovering that she had passed the test and orders her to do it again. Once more the man comes to her and makes the gold, in exchange for her mother's ring. A final time the king orders her to spin straw into gold, and if she succeeds, she will marry the prince, and will of course die if she fails. Once again the little man comes to help her, but she has no more trinkets to give him, so the man strikes a bargain with her. He will do it, if she gives him her first-born child, and she agrees. The straw is turned to gold, the girl marries the prince, and a year later she's pregnant with the child. The little man comes back to collect his payment, but now the girl feels that she can't give up her child, so the man strikes a bargain with her. She will have three days to guess his name, and if she fails, he gets to take the baby. And then we all know what happens... and if we don't, go read the fairy tale, it's a classic.
The film was decent. There were cheesy songs and a little bit of overacting, but overall it was pretty bearable. The one thing that kind of bothered me in this film (and this is going to sound perverted but it really isn't), was the fact that the miller's daughter either has a very small chest, or that the clothes they gave her were too baggy. It was kind of uncomfortable to watch because half the time it seemed like she was going to fall out of her dress... but there was nothing there to fall out. Maybe they thought the low-cut dress would be alluring or whimsical or attractive, but seeing as how she doesn't have the upper body to fill the dress out, it's just awkward. Other than that, the costumes were actually not bad. It's not going to be on your 'best movies of all time' list, but it's a watchable flick.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

I was really skeptical about watching this movie. I always like watching a good fairy tale, but Kristen Stewart... not so much. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, though not completely proven wrong on the Stewart front.

The story is pretty much your classic Snow White story. Girl grows up with loving parents, mom dies, dad remarries witch, witch tries to kill her, she escapes, etc. They didn't really change the essentials of the storyline much, but they did change the roles of the characters slightly.

Snow White was given a harder edge in this story. Instead of living a comfortable life until her attempted homicide, the queen locked her in the castle prison for years and the first visual we get of her after she grows into a young woman shows her to be an unwashed, grimy, sheltered creature. She doesn't stay that way for the duration of the film, but she does have more of an impulse to stand and fight when danger arrives than do some of the other Snow White renditions. She also rouses and leads an army to fight the queen in a Joan of Arc like charge.

There is also an increased sense of an everyday magical world. That magic is normalized in this world, still to be wary of, but a normal occurrence. The queen is a witch of sorts. She made a sacrifice in her youth and must suck the life force out of young women to stay beautiful and powerful. Despite her girl hunt however, it is not this fact that she wants Snow White... or I should say not the only reason. Snow White is said to have a purity and a strength that is the only thing that could stop the queen from achieving true power and is what makes her weak, so she wants to consume Snow White to ensure her power doesn't wane. Snow White's ability is not as manifested as the queens, but she seems more to have a oneness with nature, to be the physical representation of life, and this is demonstrated in her interactions with non-human life forms.

What is really enjoyed about the film was the visual landscape of the forest. It was very magical and lush at times, and held that latent expectation and light. I thought that overall the characters were well cast as well. The queen was glacial, but you could see how someone would submit to her. The huntsman was running from his own demons, but was strong enough to put them aside to do what needed to be done. The only character I didn't enjoy was Snow White herself. I wasn't bothered enough not to enjoy the movie, but her voice showed too little emotion and was almost flat at times when emotion needed to be shown. Also, she does not seem to be able to display more than a handful of facial expressions, which really limits the character development and believability.

Aside from that however, I enjoyed this film. It was a pleasure visually and the storyline was gripping, as well as were the rest of the cast.

 

Grimm's Snow White (2012)

This is an okay movie to watch if you're in the mood for watching a fairy tale... but otherwise it's quite bad.

The movie takes place in a more magical world than the original story. The story begins by informing the viewer that once upon a time a green fire landed on earth high on a mountaintop. The fire was magical and brought with it dragons and elves, which embodied its power. We then fast forward to a dragon killing a king, and then to his wife who is practicing her false sorrow for his funeral, who is obviously the evil step mother. The prince from the adjacent land has come to propose marriage to her because he fears that she will invade his country, though he doesn't really like her as she's killed off all of the elves and dragons living on the king's land. Little does he know, she is also planing to attempt a union with him because the magical green fire is rumoured to be on his land, and she is of course power-hungry. We see some of her greed and vanity when she does the whole mirror mirror routine, which they explain by having her use the power stones she stole from elves. This all changes however, when the prince sees Snow White, which takes the story off into a familiar direction, save for a few altered details and a prophecy that has to do with the magic fire.

I thought the inclusion of the magical fire and the elves was an interesting spin, and I thought the film pulled it off quite well, it wasn't too campy. There were elves instead of dwarves, and the magic fit in with the storyline quite smoothly. The acting wasn't that bad either. There were some predictable character sub-plots, but overall it was decent. The thing that really killed this movie were the special effects. I was shocked and appalled when I found out this was made in 2012, because watching it, I pegged the CG to be maybe late 90's early 00's. That animation that poor was still being used in this day and age is just disgusting. The worst of it was the dogs... they could have saved the money and just used real dogs. Even if the dogs weren't as ferocious as would be desired... it wouldn't have looked like crap. This movie wasn't a blockbuster or anything, it might have gone straight to video, but for me that's not excuse for shoddy quality.
Besides that, I did enjoy it. Snow White played a more active role than housewife and mock corpse (taking nothing away from Disney, I love their version) and actually saved the day in her own way. The cinematography was decent too, so it wasn't horrible to look at. Overall this was an acceptable version of the story, but there are better versions our there.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)

This is a pretty good remake of the Snow White story. The story starts off with a couple running in the woods. There's something chasing them down, and it hits the woman, who is pregnant. The woman then tells her husband to save the child rather than her and to keep running. Then we're brought forward to see a young girl, who is Snow White (named Lilli). The father decides to remarry and chooses for his wife a lovely woman named Claudia, of what we later find out comes from questionable origins. Claudia is seemingly normal and nice to Lilli, even years after the wedding. It's actually Lilli who is wildly resistant to this new woman, feeling as though she's replacing her mother. There are subtle hints of Claudia noticing Lilli's youth, but nothing is acted upon. Claudia eventually gets pregnant and is very happy about the child, but due to complications during the birth, she lost both the child and the ability to bear any future children, and it is then that she starts acting crazy. Claudia hints at some point that her mother was a witch, or social outcast of some sort, and after losing the child, she starts consulting this mirror that was given to her by her mother. She then begins to hear her reflection say things to her, and it eventually suggests that she get rid of Lilli. From this point on the story is pretty typical, but the dwarves aren't all small people, but in fact discontented peasants who actually want to kill her at first. And in this version she may or may not end up with the 'prince'.

I liked this version. It had all of the main elements of the traditional Snow White story, but with a bit of a twist. It still had that old-time feel and was set in the past, all of the main players were present, but some of the more minor details were changed just enough to give the story a fresh feel. Sigourney Weaver played the 'evil queen', and I thought she did a pretty good job. Actually, I bring up this movie just to say her name out loud, it's an interesting one. I don't know if this is a keeper, but if you like the Snow White story, you will probably find this interesting.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon By: Grace Lin

This is the story of a poor young girl named Minli. She lived with her parents in a village near Fruitless Mountain, named so for the fact that it was barren due to the anger and pain of a dragon. Every day Minli and her parents worked hard in the rice fields to make just enough rice to feed themselves, and every night Minli would sit with her parents. Her mother would sigh in anger at their misfortune and her father told her folktales about dragons, evil magistrates, and the Old Man of the Moon (an immortal who read from the book of destiny).

One day a goldfish peddler passed through the town selling his wares, saying that a goldfish would increase the buyer's fortune. Hearing this, Minli  took one of the two copper coins to her name and bought a fish. Her mother is furious with her and tells her there that there is barely enough rice for the three of them and that they would never be able to feed another mouth. The night following this conversation, Minli decided that her mother is right and released the goldfish. As soon as she did so however, the goldfish thanked her! She was startled to find the goldfish talking to her, but was told that all goldfish talk, but only those who want to listen can hear. The goldfish then tells Minli how she can find her way to Never Ending Mountain, home of the Old Man of the Moon, so that she could try to change her fortune. This sets Minli off on a journey to try to change her family's fortune. She meets various characters, dragons, goldfish, places, people, all of which she heard of in folk tales and fairy tales.

When I first began reading this book I didn't understand why it had won the Newbery Award. The story seemed pretty typical, kid goes on an adventure, meets some people, learns a lesson, that old thing. But as I read on I found the story to be more than that. All of the folk tales, even the plot itself were taken right out of a Chinese folktale, and all were seamlessly interwoven. If a folk tale was told early on in the story, Minli would interact with the people in that folk tale later on in the plot. So often fantasy and make-believe and imagination is passed off as a foolish waste of time with no practical application in the real world. This story reminds us that folk tales do come from somewhere, that there are lessons we can learn from them that we can apply to our own lives, and most importantly, we can see how stories give Minli and her family hope and happiness.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

I heard great thing about this book and I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. It was not bad by any means, but I didn't exactly live up to the rave reviews I've read either.

The story follows a young princess named Ani who, when she was born, did not open her eyes for three days. She opens her eyes after her aunt comes to her and this aunt raises Ani with stories of magic. More importantly, her aunt teaches Ani how to communicate with animals. She teaches her how to understand and talk to swans and tells her that there are three abilities people are capable of possessing; people talking- talking so that your words convince your listener to agree with you, animal talking- to talk with animals, and the very rare nature talking- to talk with nature itself. After a certain age, people in the castle start to notice Ani trying to talk to animals and her aunt gets sent away. Ani is penalized for trying to talk to animals and must instead train to be the next in line for the crown, which she is very horrible at. Ani is very weak-willed and timid at this point in the novel (as she remains through pretty much the entire novel) and allows people to walk all over her and feels insufficient at all she does. After her mother discovers that a much larger and more powerful neighbouring kingdom may threaten to go to war with their country over resources, the queen tries to satisfy them by Promising Ani to the heir to their throne, without consulting Ani first. So off she is sent to an unknown land to marry a complete stranger. On the journey however, an even takes place that hinders Ani on her way and she is forced into hiding and eventually comes to hold the position of goose girl for the kingdom's geese. She learns more about herself and eventually overcomes the injustice done to her.

The plot itself I rather enjoyed. I thought it progressed in a very steady and logical manner. It wasn't boring but there were no inexplicable leaps either, so overall light reading in that department. There is a supernatural element to the story as well, but it is not portrayed as magical ability. Ani's ability to talk to animals is presented as a language she is trying to learn rather than a special ability, even though she is the only one who can seem to do it. It was almost like we watch her work through translating a newly discovered lost language rather than tapping into a magical ability.

If anything bothered me about the novel it would have to be the character Ani herself. Overall I didn't mind the characters in the novel. There was a decent mix up of personality types. Actually I think one of the reasons this story is so like a fairy tale is because many important people who decide Ani's fate are in their own way cruel about it, and those who aren't cruel do nothing to really help her until she gains some self-confidence. It wasn't her weak-willed nature or lack of self-confidence that bothered me however (that is the character and in time she grows beyond her perceptions of her short comings). In fact I applaud the author for keeping Ani so timid throughout the novel, but still forces her to go on despite her timidity. What bothered me was her naiveté. The author would spell out situations that would otherwise build suspense so that the reader is very aware of the plot and is waiting for the heroine to wake up, because even though she is given many clues she is unable to suspect anything until it is actually happening to her, and that was kind of frustrating to me as a reader. I usually like experiencing the story along with the main character, not with the author or the narrator where I know ahead of time what will happen. This is personal preference of course and I'm sure there are several people who didn't mind this. The other thing that I found slightly bothersome was at the end of the novel, her big climax of coming out of her shell and telling off the king, it sounded so juvenile. I was expecting some sort of outburst from her seeing as how she was introverted for most of the novel, but I was expecting that outburst to be somewhat mature and enlightened (which can be done in a passionate way) instead it seemed more like an angsty teenaged 'so there!' which was disappointing.

Despite that however, I did enjoy the book. It was a good read and a nice adaptation of the original.

Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Mayer

This is possibly the best children's version of this story I've come across. The pictures are beautiful with attention paid to detail. The illustrations are kind of reminiscent of classical art... whatever era that is, but you get the idea from the front cover. There's a lot to look at in any case. The storytelling isn't bad either. The author knows how to put a decent sentence together.

This story is probably what I would (in this day and age) consider to be a 'classically told fairy tale. A must read.

The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo

 This was a great story! And according to the back of the book, is the story 'The Anklet' from the Arabian Nights. I thought it was very well told, I didn't really like the pictures though. They kind of look like figures posing instead of characters in the story, and there are noticeable outlines around the people so as to make you think they're cut outs, or are not a part of the scenery they're presented in. The over posing and the not fitting into the background kind of reminds me of cheesy picture books I read from the 80's. Now these pictures aren't as bad as those, but the way they are presented are reminiscent of that... style. I still like the book and think it's worth reading as the storytelling was well done.

East by Edith Pattou

This was a refreshing version of the East of the Sun, West of the Moon story. I found the characters to be well composed and believable. In other variations of this story, the mother has been portrayed as evil or as hating the daughter, as happens with so many mothers in fairy tales. But in this version the mother's actions were explained and even after she did what she did she showed remorse, and the birth direction thing, almost like a horoscope, was used very effectively in explaining the mother's passionate reactions, as she followed it like a religion.

The main character, Rose, was well done. She was a 'north born' which means she's high strung and likes to travel. I think the author did a god job in constructing her character as that personality is very much what one would expect of the heroine of this story. This personality type also explained why she would go off to help the guy. In some of the other reviews people commented that the platonic relationship lessened the connection between the main characters and while I agree with this to some extent, I also feel that for the characters to have had sex would mean something different in today's society. In antiquity women were seen as more connected to the body, but in reality would you go running off to save someone just because they had sex with you? Probably not, it's the relationship. And while sex enhances the relationship, Rose didn't know who the man was and only later made the connection that he was the bear. So while I believe that if crafted properly, the sexual aspect of the story would deepen the connection between the two, I think that the way the story was portrayed here doesn't leave much wanting.

Overall, worthwhile read.

Once Upon A Winters Night by Dennis Mckiernan

East of the Sun and West of the Moon is one of my preferred stories from mythology, and this book did it little to no justice. I didn't connect with the heroine at all and at times felt like she was trying too hard and with not enough motivation. I felt that the author was making her out to be more clever and strong than she actually was, which is annoying. I mean, we all love strong, smart, courageous heroines, and because we love them we can tell when someone doesn't fit the bill, however hard the author tries to boost the character's image in the eyes of the reader (the truth always comes through).
 
Also, there's suggested bestiality in the story, which is cool, I mean besides the fact that some people are into that, it can symbolically bring a raw, primal aspect to the story, but not in a book intended for something of a younger audience. I am not against younger people becoming familiar with what sex is, as it would be absurd to hide it from them beyond a certain age and not do them some sort of harm, but the... flavour of sexual experience they are aware of should be left to human on human until later on... if ever. This may be my inner prude coming to light, but I would be hesitant to give it to anyone younger than me for fear that they might pick up on the suggestion.
 
I didn't completely hate it because I like faeries, and I suppose I appreciate the author's attempt to incorporate faeries into the plot, what with the red caps n such, and the prince being kind of a faery himself, so I put aside the poor writing for one of my obsessions, but other than that I deem it to be a failed attempt.

I've just finished reading another retelling called East by Edith Pattou. I found that to be more successful. The story is a good one, this was just a bad version of it.

East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon by Naomi Lewis

I have just read this book and.. well the pictures are nice. Quite honestly the telling of the story is kind of choppy, to the point where you can almost feel the gaps as you're reading it, but the progression is faithful to older versions of the myth. The writing was pretty bad, but the pictures were nice. They were colourful with an attention given to detail (which maybe should've been directed to the storytelling) that almost made up for what I disliked about the book. And on top of that this fairy tale is one of my favourites so maybe I'm just being hard on it for that reason.

The Little Mermaid by Charles Santore

 This was the first little mermaid story I was aware of. I'm not really a fan of Disney because they alter the stories, among other things, and so in retrospect I thank my mother for getting me this book when I was young. The story is beautiful and the pictures are as beautiful as the story. This is my standard for the little mermaid story and to date all other renditions I've read have been sub-par in comparison.

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman

This is the Cinderella story, but each section of the story is taken from a different telling of Cinderella from around the world. the idea's nice... but i don't think it worked out. Instead of it being the story of Cinderella it was a book saying that more than one country had the Cinderella story... which is nice, but I'd prefer to have each of those stories told to me instead of having them all smushed together not being true to any of the stories but just delivering the general message they all share. Each Cinderella story is similar, but the story from each country does differ and therefore the stories are somewhat different, as each is being told through the eyes of a different culture and therefore places importance on different things. To me it feels like this story is trying to say 'we're all the same, all exactly the same' but I disagree with that, we're all different, and that's wonderful... so lets joyfully experience the difference instead of trying to make us all the same. 

Needless to say I would have preferred a compilation of stories rather than smushing them all together and doing justice to none of them. I truly dislike this cardboard sense of multiculturalism and hope this author doesn't get his hands on any more like material.

Zel by Donna Napoli

Zel is my favorite Napoli book. I enjoyed the alternate perspective and thought that she expressed herself in a very effective and enthralling way. It's basically has the same elements as the Rapunzel story we all know and love, it's just told on a more personal level. 

In this story, Zel lives with a woman who adopted her her because she couldn't have any children, and the woman loves Zel very much and never wants her to leave, so therefore feels threatened when Zel bumps into a boy we discover is the prince in town. She then takes action against Zel leaving her forever to live with someone she'll love more by locking her in a tower, and we more or less know the rest. I thought it was a good retelling. 

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I picked up this book because I've read other books by this author, the Sevenwaters trilogy and Wolfskin and Foxmask, and I enjoyed both the author's writing style and subject matter in those books, so decided to give this a chance. And it was good. It's set in a medieval (ish) Romania and is a retelling of the fairy tale the Twelve Dancing Princesses (and possibly another but to say which would kind of spoil it). Five sisters are given the privilege of being able to go to the fairy realm every full moon for a night of dancing with faeries and dwarves and trolls, and the like.
 
Near the beginning of the story, the girls' merchant father goes away on business, and he has poor health which causes the girls to worry throughout the novel about their future. When he goes he leaves the financial situation of the household to the second daughter, and narrator, Jena, and this is somewhat uncommon behaviour as women were not usually doing business at that time in Romania. Over the course of the book her male cousin forcibly takes more and more of her responsibility away from her and patronizes her and her sisters. That's basically the set up, and I think to go more into the plot might ruin it a bit, so read the book to find out what happens I guess.
 
Jena had a very practical and down to earth grasp on the world, and while I appreciated this quality in her, more towards the end of the novel it frustrated me a bit that she was so stuck in her practicality. Not frustrated in a bad way really, but a frustrated that makes you just want to shake her for her obtuseness. I was only this affected at one point in the novel though, for the most part I liked her.
 
One thing I kind of didn't like about the novel... the close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears and yell lalalala because you like the rest of the book part of the novel was at the endish of the book, Jena's older sister Tati's relationship with the guy she liked. She fell in love with one of the night people, which would be similar to a vampire I guess. And I have nothing against who she chose or how they interacted with each other, but with the way she reacted at the end of the novel because she of their uncertain future. It was very 'romantic' and not so much practical... but this was a minor annoyance and I didn't have to focus on it too much because there were other things going on, and the writing was well done.
 
I enjoy books by this author because she writes well, as I've stated, so the words flow nicely, almost to the point of having an air of sophistication around them, but it's an easy read. Also, the author knows what she's talking about subject matter wise. She seems to be well read mythologically, and retells the story knowledgeably. It's a believable rendition of a classic fairy tale, and it's done by a really good author. I say give this one a go

Rose And The Beast: fairy tales retold by francesca lia Block

This book was really great. Often with the retelling of a popular story there is the potential to fail miserably, as so many people know and love the original. Even taking the bare bones of a story and (like Cinderella for example) and using it as a plot line for other stories wherein you can clearly see the reference can go horribly wrong because there are so many examples of this story being told correctly and well... that is is somewhat admirable for an author to take on these stories and succeed as did this author.

The book is a collection of short stories, the retold fairy tales being snow white, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Rose Red and Rose White, Blue Beard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen.

The author has a very lyrical style of writing that leaves you with an almost evanescent interaction with the emotions she's throwing at you... kind of reminiscent of Patricia Mckillip, but not that intense. Some of the fairy tales are modernized and some aren't, but all of them take a different look the fairy tale in question, staying close enough to the original that you can clearly relate it, but looking at it from different angles, making it almost a different story. The plot doesn't change, the perspectives do.

Definitely a successful attempt.