France Month: Raiponce illustrated by Princess Camcam

Minicontes classiques : Raiponce par Anne Royer (Auteur), D'après les Frères Grimm (Auteur), Princesse Camcam (Illustrations) is the first Rapunzel I've featured for France month. Yes, the tale is German but there are some early French Rapunzels around, too. (There's a few in my Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World). However, the tale isn't well-represented in French picture books beyond the blitz of Disney tie-ins. This book is illustrated by Princess Camcam who also illustrated the brunette Cinderella I shared a few weeks ago.

Book description:

« Il était une fois un homme et une femme qui attendaient leur premier enfant. Derrière leur maison, il y avait un jardin où poussaient de magnifiques fleurs. Quand la femme les aperçut, elle ne voulut rien manger d autre que ces fleurs nommées raiponce. Or ce jardin appartenait à une redoutable magicienne... » Trop d'enfants aujourd'hui ne connaissent plus les contes classiques. Ces contes qui, pourtant, aident à grandir, enrichissent l imaginaire de milles et une créatures, fées, princesses ou dragons et apportent à la vie une morale pleine d'humour où les méchants sont punis et les plus petits récompensés. Des contes qui donnent envie d'apprendre à lire et plus tard de raconter, transmettre l'histoire à ses enfants ! Pour faciliter l'accès à cette formidable richesse de la littérature jeunesse, voilà une collection à petit prix, avec des histoires magnifiquement illustrées et surtout des textes, adaptés aux enfants, qui ont su garder l impertinence, l ambiance et les tournures si particulières des contes de fées...

UK: Celebrity Big Brother Fairy Tale Challenge

First off, I must issue my disclaimer. I have only seen part of a Big Brother episode once when I was visiting someone and had little control over my environment. If you love it, no judgment here. This is just to explain that I understand the concept of the show but have very, very limited firsthand experience.

But in my endeavours to show where fairy tales appear in pop culture (as where as everywhere else) I would feel remiss if I didn't mention that the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother had a fairy tale challenge this week. After all, it has had a lot of coverage this week, too, in entertainment news. I have no comments. I haven't viewed. I am rather ignorant, but still fascinated. Here goes:

Most celebrities live a life that seems like a fairytale for us ‘normal’ people - but this week the contestants on Celebrity Big Brother have been challenged to do it for real, in order to be successful in their shopping task.

The stars – who include axed X Factor contestant Frankie Cocozza, actress Natalie Cassidy, WAG Natasha Giggs and Loose Women’s Denise Welch – must work together if they want to get their hands on money for the house budget.

They have been tasked to carry out various tasks while playing the roles of much-loved fairytale characters including Pinocchio, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Geppetto. These include rescuing Rapunzel from the tower that imprisons her, and protecting the house from the Big Bad Wolf.

For this week’s shopping task, the Big Brother house and housemates have been transformed into a fairytale.
Yesterday, the housemates took part in the following challenges:
Rapunzel and The Prince – PASSED
The Prince (Gareth) managed to rescue Rapunzel (Georgia) from the tower by successfully climbing a near-horizontal ladder without falling into the deathly swamp.
Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf – FAILED
Red Riding Hood (Natalie) and the Big Bad Wolf (Nicola) failed their challenge because they didn’t manage to complete it in the 60 second time limit. The budget is taken down to 500 gold coins (£500).
The Three Little Pigs – ONGOING
The Three Little Pigs have so far managed to keep their straw house up and will continue to be tested throughout the day.
Beauty and the Beast – FAILED
In the diary room, The Beast (Andrew) had to rate how attractive he was against his fellow housemates. In the living area, Beauty (Kristina) had to decide how The Beast would rate himself against them. As Beauty had less than 10 correct matches, they failed and lost a further 100 gold coins taking the shopping budget down to £400.
Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears – FAILED
This morning, Goldilocks (Karissa) and the Three Bears (Denise) faced an eating challenge in the diary room. Presented with three bowls of horrid porridge in the diary room – cow’s urine porridge, spicy porridge and fishy porridge – Goldilocks had to decide which bowl was best for her and eat it. The Three Bears then had to eat the remaining two bowls. As Goldilocks failed to eat a complete bowl and the Three bears failed to eat two complete bowls, they failed the task and lost a further 100 gold coins.

I blockquoted quited a bit, but these were some of the best descriptions, scary as they may be, as I could find.

Wow. Fairy tales are really taking over. Are you ready? I am! Although maybe perhaps not for this...

The images came from In Pictures: Celebrity Big Brother 2012's fairy tale task!

New Book: Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag

Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag is a recent book released in the UK with many short stories by well-known authors based on fairy tales. I missed this when it was released a few months ago and it is pushed primarily in ebook format here in the US. The ebook is $9.99 which looks like a bargain when one finds that each of the short stories are also available separately for $1.95 each in ebook format.

The best part--besides a stellar author list--is that many of these are lesser used tales for retellings. I'm not sure how much interpretation is in these versions or if they are more straightforward rewritings by the authors, but either way I am sure they are fun reading. I do know enough to recognize they are reprints of dollar books printed by Scholastic with each title. The illustrations appear to be included here, so this is a good way to collect them all if they interest you or a child in your life.

Book description:

Magic beans. Sow them. Plant them. Watch children grow.

'If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!' - Shel Silverstein, Poet

Each and every one of the stories in this anthology is a magic bean: a wondrous tale that will capture your imagination. Prepare to be dazzled by Rapunzel's golden tresses. Prepare to be moved by the suffering of the Little Mermaid. Prepare to laugh yourself silly as 'Mr Sultana' struggles to get the better of a little red rooster!

Lovingly crafted by the finest authors and illustrators, these 'magic beans' will delight, thrill and thoroughly entertain.

Table of Contents:

Adèle Geras
The Six Swan Brothers

Anne Fine
The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Henrietta Branford
Hansel and Gretel

Jacqueline Wilson
Rapunzel

Malorie Blackman
Aesop’s Fables

Philip Pullman
Mossycoat

Tony Mitton
The Seal Hunter

Alan Garner
Grey Wolf, Prince Jack and the Firebird

Berlie Doherty
The Snow Queen

Gillian Cross
The Goose Girl

Kit Wright
Rumpelstiltskin

Michael Morpurgo
Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana!

Susan Gates
The Three Heads in the Well

Linda Newbery
The Little Mermaid

Advertising: Dairy Farmers of Canada & Rapunzel

Dairy Farmers of Canada Rapunzel ad. Don't blink or you'll miss it!

And more:

Advertising: Dixon Homes and Fairy Tales

For small, local spot ads, they're not bad. And they're Australian! (I'm in the U.S., so that makes them more interesting...)

Advertising: Red Bull and Fairy Tales

Frog Prince

I'm not a fan of Red Bull myself and never really cared for these ads, but in the interest of sharing ad campaigns, here they are! At least they went for less of the princess tales and some of the others instead.



Rapunzel



Aladdin

Disney Characters As Humans by Jirka Väätäinen

Discovered via What Disney Princesses Would Look Like If They Were Actually Human by Jamie Frevele from the artist's blog at Jirka Väätäinen.

From the article:

Jirka Väätäinen is a graphic design student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth in the UK, and he’s come up with some really interesting interpretations of what Disney's animated heroines would look like in real life using photo manipulation

I really enjoyed these and thought you may, too.

This is the most recent and strongest celebrity influence--definitely some Amanda Seyfried in his version of Rapunzel.

Disney Princesses as Cover Models by Petite Tiaras

Oh, me oh my. I have to devote a few posts to Disney princesses this week because I really enjoyed these on different levels. First up, found at 13 Disney Princesses Magically Transformed Into Magazine Cover Models by Jill Pantozzi and originally from Petite Tiaras who I believe created them. Love the tag lines, too.

 

 

The Lady of Shalott in Art

Here are our Sunday morning videos tribute to The Lady of Shalott, courtesy of joshje777. I include a Rapunzel tag since she shares some lady in the tower motifs. Enjoy!

Part 1:



Part 2:

Call for Papers: How Do Our Views About Hair Affect Children?

This one is quite intriguing and I do hope at least one Rapunzel article makes it into the final collection! I know Rapunzel intrigued me with her hair as a child and now several new generations will get Disney's take on it, too, to influence them.

How Do Our Views About Hair Affect Children?

From Barbie, Britney and Rapunzel to Pocahontas and Beyoncé, matters related to hair can be quite complicated when it comes to race, gender and class. A special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn will look at how hair affects the politics of identity in children's literature and for children generally. Submit essays of 15-20 pages (4,500-6,000 words) and a 250-word abstract by noon July 1, 2012, to editor Neal A. Lester, Dean of Humanities and Professor of English at Arizona State University.

Indie Saturday: The Wealding Word by A. C. Gogolski

I learned about The Wealding Word by A. C. Gogolski from a SurLaLune reader who highly recommended it. I hadn't heard of it yet, but thought it sounded like a great post for Indie Saturday. Which I keep forgetting to do, but I am making up a schedule to remind myself in the new year. The book draws inspiration from Rapunzel which always is of interest to me. From the reviews, it also appears to pull in some Arthurian legend so for fans of both, this may be a treat.

Book description:

Rapunzel escaped the witch and went on to marry her prince – everyone knows that story. But that's not the end of it. 100 years have passed since the days of long hair and secret trysts. During that time, Rapunzel has become a queen and a sorceress, learning magic words from the witch who held her captive. Now the girl once called Rapunzel is known as Lady Zel: Witch of the Weald, and mistress of the doorless tower. But her power is fading, and an evil presence threatens the kingdom she once ruled. With little hope, Lady Zel searches for someone to whom she can pass on her Words of Power before they die with her. And so it is that she discovers Nell Shoemaker, a 13-year old urchin girl who has an uncanny connection with the natural world. To Nell the sorceress gives the gift of the Wealding Word; but there is no time to explain how to use it. Left to discover the wonders of the Word on her own, Nell quickly finds her world transformed into a fairy tale where she can speak with animals and bewitch plants. But a shadow lurks in every fairy tale… Nell's uncontrolled use of the Wealding Word soon attracts the attention of a demonic creature known as a Malady. It isn’t long before the demon’s dark influence begins to ruin Nell's life. Beset by accidents and deadly creatures from which not even Lady Zel can save her, Nell flees into the ‘weald’. But in a world where evil witches siphon the life from children, runaway urchins make for easy prey. Caught in a power struggle between sorceresses, kings, and sinister forces, Nell's only hope for survival is to master the secrets of the Wealding Word.

Advertising: Student Work: Burger Kind and Fairy Tales

It’s another story. Burger King

Advertising School: Miami Ad School/ESPM Sao Paulo, Brazil
Copywriter: Renato Maroni
Art Director: Rafael Voltolino
Illustrator: Edson Yamasaki

Via Ads of the World. The concept on these is pretty weak and doesn't sell the brand, but they are apparently student work, so I'm not going to rip them very much. The illustrations were intriguing, so I thought I would make these a Saturday post. The more I look at them, the Little Red Riding Hood is the most effective and doesn't earn as strong a panning from me.

And, by the way, Burger King has used fairy tales in real advertising. See my old post of tv spots from Germany for Burger King.

Advertising: Rapunzel & Zain

Sometimes things don't turn out exactly like you'd expected. But this TVC is all about making life's journey a more pleasant and satisfactory one. Drawing on the much-loved fairytale, Zain takes us on an epic journey of magical, heroic, and humorous proportions, proving yet again that when it comes to a wonderful world, expectations are always met.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: M&C Saatchi, MENA, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Samer Younes
Creative Director: Odile Riachi
Associate Creative Director: Pierre Khoury
Senior Art Director: Rola Ghotmeh
Copywriters: Maya Macaron, Maral Ghanma
Producer: Elie Zreik
Director: Michał Sabliński / Platige Image, City Films
Composer: Harry Hadeshian
Account director: Olfa Mourad
Account manager: Raneem Mourad
Published: April 2011

So what did you think of that one?

Advertising: Rush Ultimate Chocolate and Fairy Tales

Rush Ultimate Chocolate

Just a little naughty

99% fat free

30% less sugar

Agency: De Pasquale, Australia
Writers: Grant Johnston & Cos Luccitti
Art Director: Grant Johnston
Photographer: Andreas Smetana
Producer: Ellie Smidt

Via Ads of the World.

I have to admit, I grow rather weary of the "bad girl" princesses advertising. Nothing really new here and the LRRH one is the best, but most of these girls come across as bad girl wannabes anyway. Which may be the point, but still...