fairy tales

Tag Archive: fairy tales

Broken Tales–New roleplaying game flips the pages on classic fairy tales

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June 17, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

This fall, Italian publisher The World Anvil is publishing a new roleplaying game that flips the worlds of classic fairy tales upside down, where good guys turn bad and villains of yore become the heroes. It’s called Broken Tales, a mash-up for fans of fairy tale retellings that allows players to dive into their favorite fantasy realms, while providing opportunities to expand their adventures beyond the core game. Broken Tales is available now here for pre-order. In advance of the release of the hardcover final edition, gamers can now get immediate access to the 268-page pre-release digital edition–so you can get started on this engaging, imaginative new journey with heroes and villains you only thought you knew.

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood–A novel even more ambitious and audacious than the movie

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January 13, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is clearly not the stuff of a first time writer, and it has plenty to say. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the twice Academy Award-winning writer taking another look at his grandiose mix of Hollywood fairy tale, historical pop culture nostalgia trip, and the wish-fulfillment fantasy dream. Tarantino is well-read and it shows. He’s sat with many a filmmaker from the 1960s era and it also shows. The novel, not a true novelization but something far superior, is his attempt at writing in the Elmore Leonard style. The result is a novel ten times as good as his giant-sized movie. His two Oscars for screenwriting should have clued us in. The book is available in two editions: one a pulp-style paperback, and the other a color photograph-filled hardcover that feels a lot like a Blu-ray with extra special features, including many deleted scenes. If you like pulp crime, and loved or merely liked the movie, you’ll want to give this a read. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is available now here at Amazon.

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz–MinaLima designs the ultimate edition of L. Frank Baum’s classic American children’s book

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September 27, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

It is easily the greatest and most influential American fantasy novel of all time, certainly the best of the 19th century creations, and after reading the original story, you may find it unlikely not to have influenced later British authors’ works like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It is L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900 and now given the ultimate dose of classical style and color by the renowned designers behind the Harry Potter movies, Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, the artists known as MinaLima. Especially considering the extra care taken in the margin artwork and the incorporation of the color in Baum’s story with every page, this may be the best volume in the now eight-volumes of children’s books in the MinaLima library from HarperDesign books. Take a look at a preview of twenty of those wonderful pages below. Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, lavishly illustrated with interactive elements by MinaLima, was published this month, and is available now here at Amazon.

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The Little Mermaid–With a live-action adaptation on the way, it’s time for MinaLima’s edition of Andersen’s original fairy tales

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July 27, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

One hundred and eighty-five years after Hans Christian Andersen first penned his fairy tale The Little Mermaid, the most famous fish out of water story continues to charm readers of all ages. Countless editions of Andersen’s famous story, along with his other famous works, have been printed and reprinted, and adapted for the small screen and big screen with the latest–a live-action version–coming from Disney by the end of the year, incorporating songs from the studio’s 1989 version. But if you haven’t read the original fairy tale lately–or at all–you may be surprised to learn how much closer the 1984 live-action movie Splash was to the original. With the new film on its way, what better time to revisit the original, and we’ve found an incredible new, lavishly illustrated edition from designers MinaLima that makes a great storybook to read to kids, full of interactive elements. Check out a preview of The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales for borg readers below, along with some details of what you’ll find inside, including some important fairy tales everyone, of every age, should know.

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First look–Emerald City… New Wizard of Oz retelling begins Friday on NBC

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Superheroes, TV — 1 Comment

January 2, 2017

The Wizard of Oz–whether or not you may be a fan of L. Frank Baum’s classic book or one of the best fantasy films of all time, you may want to tune in for a new NBC series airing Friday nights this winter. Featuring well-known actors Joely Richardson and Vincent D’Onofrio, Emerald City stars Adria Arjona as twenty-year-old Dorothy Gale, who is sucked into a tornado and transported to the otherworldly Land of Oz. D’Onofrio plays the famous Man Behind the Curtain who runs Oz.

But don’t expect the bright and cheery world of the 1939 production or something like you’d see from Disney. Look for a dark world in this modern-day retelling. It’s gritty and somewhat dystopian as seen in the first trailer for the series, below.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ana Ularu, Mido Hamada, Gerran Howell and Jordan Loughran co-star in the series. Series writers and executive producers include Shaun Cassidy, David Schulner, Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, Matthew Arnold, and Josh Friedman. Dhandwar directs the series.

Star Wars fans take note: Trisha Biggar, costume designer for the prequels and featured in the landmark book Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars, has created the costumes for the series. Keep Padme Amidala in mind when watching the wardrobes of the various featured witches.

Check out this preview for Emerald City followed by several character posters released by Universal to promote the series:

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Review–The graphic novel adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s iconic fantasy The Last Unicorn

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September 30, 2012

Review by C.J. Bunce

Once upon a time and long before Charles Perrault wrote down his version of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in the 17th century someone else created and shared through the oral tradition the fairy tales we know today. Before Jack and the Beanstalk and Snow White were collected as stories and written down and shared by familiar names like Grimm someone first thought of and created these elemental and immortal characters. But we will never know the names or these writers, shake their hands, ask them questions and know much about them at all. Creators of more modern classic tales are long gone as well, like Tolkien, Carroll, White and Lewis, and luckily a lot has been shared about them and their works. We know these creators of immortal works–stories that stick in your memory. But is The Hobbit and Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as elemental to our storytelling tradition as Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty? Maybe. If they don’t quite fit in that category they are certainly on the next shelf over.

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Tags: A Fine and Private Place, Connor Cochran, fairy tales, fantasy novels, IDW Publishing, literary greats, Peter Gillis, Peter S. Beagle, Ray Dillon, Renae De Liz, The Hobbit, The Last Unicorn

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First look–Hansel and Gretel grow up in January 2013 release

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September 9, 2012

This trailer seemed to come out of nowhere this week with no early hint that a new fairy tale spinoff was in the works. Although it would make a good Halloween film for next month it will not be in theaters until next January. Right on the heels of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, we have a film in a similar vein: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

From a set design standpoint the early part of the movie seems to portray the fairy tale as I’ve seen it in my own mind incredibly well. It has a great look, like Sleepy Hollow, and the action snippets seem to have a feel of the Hercules or Zena TV series, and maybe draw inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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