Anticipating Scorsese's Hugo

Trailers for Hugo suggest the film has great possibilities for being a wonderful holiday family filmHugo (Asa Butterfield) and Isabelle (Chloë Moretz) in Hugo (2011)..  When I first heard about the film, I thought it a little unusual that Martin Scorsese would be directing Hugo and filming it in 3-D.  The book is a visual treat.  It  was the first chapter book and graphic novel to receive the Caldecott Award.  Yet, the idea of turning it into a film seemed charming, but worrisome.  Chris Van Allsberg's holiday picturebook The Polar Express became rather creepy in the film version that used high tech animation that made the characters seem less like people and more like robots.  Many teachers like this book, and film, because, perhaps, it allows them to talk about the Christmas holiday in the classroom without bringing in Christianity but still bringing in the related ethics.  On the opposite end of the religious spectrum, The Golden Compass film of 2007 based on the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series has a haunting, dark world that is not at satisfying as the way it's described in the books. 

Ben Kingsley in Hugo.So, we'll see about how Hugo does.  The early reviews from the New York Film Festival in October are positive; looks like the film appeals to adults as well as kids. Scorsese's interview with The New York Times suggests that turning the book into a film had to be appealing for him on several levels, including the opportunity to re-create George Méliès’s glass studio. Scorsese said, "We started replicating scenes from Méliès films as best we could. ...With Méliès’s films, especially the hand-colored ones, it’s like illuminated manuscripts come alive. We shot Méliès shooting his films for five or six days. It was one of the best times I’ve had shooting a picture."

I do think that this is probably going to be a film for children 8 and up and very appealing to tweens.  The complicated storyline is not one that young children may be able to easily follow.

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Fairy Tales re-imagined on TV and in books

Mix up traditional fairy tale characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming and Rumplestilskin with literary fairy tale characters such as Pinnochio, the Blue Fairy and perhaps someone from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a dose of contemporary fantasy and modern sensibility.  One result is a new television series on Sunday nights on ABC, Once Upon a Time.  This show is for families and fantasy fans while on the darker, flip side fairy tales get the law-and-order, violent treatment with Grimm beginning this Friday night on NBC.

Once Upon a Time intends to draw in readers of Harry Potter as well as the many YA, middle-school and adult books, such as Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series, E. J. Patten's new Return to Exile series, Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted and her subsequent princess books, Shannon Hale's The Princess Academy series, Cressida Cowell's How to Train a Dragon series, the Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series in chapter book and graphic novels, etc.  Combining fairy tales with fantasy and contemporary realism has become a popular story well to mine, accompanied by the elves and dwarves who know the way through the tunnels.Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Sister Mary Margaret

Once Upon a Time stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White and Josh Dallas as Prince Charming who are cursed by a wicked witch played by Lana Parrilla.  The witch's curse seems to be that the characters are transformed into the creepy world of 21st century Storybrook, Maine.

Not that long ago some book publishers, librarians, and adults directing children to books decided that kids did not want to read fairy tales or fantasy.  J.K. Rowlings opened up the floodgates by proving them wrong.  Kids enjoy the excitement, dark turns with usually happy endings, romance, and swashbuckling adventures in these kids of books.  So, it seems that it's about time that television has figured out that a series that interweaves these kinds of tales while still having a PG sensibility might work. 

Obviously, I've just seen one episode and the series is laying the groundwork for the complicated material that is bound to come later.  I do want to point out that there is a significant difference between  traditional fairy tales that the Grimms and others collected and literary fairy tales created by one author, such as Lewis Carroll or L. Frank Baum.  It's just a little unsettling to see the two mixed up so freely here.Josh Dallas as Prince Charming in Once Upon a Time

It's not surprising that Once Upon a Time has roots in the mysterious series Lost; two of that series writers – Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis -- are the creators of this show.  They also worked on the tightly crafted Felicity.

"We love the mish-mash,” Kitsis told the Hollywood Reporter last summer about scenes in which Geppetto interacts with Grumpy, etc. Maybe so, but the mish-mash may become a little confusing as viewers make the connection between fairy tale time and contemporary times.  For instance, Snow White becomes the beloved teacher Sister Mary Margaret in Storybrook.  Or remembering Rumplestilskin from the Shrek films and then from fairy tales and then trying to remember exactly why he was bad.

Maybe there's a need for a fairy tale quick guide. 

Banned Book Reading Wed. night

Celebrate the freedom to read at "Well, I'll Be Banned: A Reading of Challenged and Censored ‘Tween and Teen Books” Wednesday, Sept. 21. The free event will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 149 of the Center for the Visual Arts on the ISU campus.

The reading is organized by the students in my ENG 470 class.  Students will read short selections from books aimed at middle school or teen readers that have been banned or challenged and discuss why the texts are controversial.  Students are also working on publicity.  Thanks to that work the Pantagraph ran an article yesterday about the event, "ISU to host banned book event."

The reading is being held ahead of the annual national Banned Book Week that encourages people of all ages to advocate for their right to read. 

ISU's English Department has a long history of supporting the freedom to read.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. In 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; and PEN American Center also signed on as sponsors.

Weetzie Bat film?

Weetzie Bat, the imaginative adolescent book about creative kids in LA by Fransceca Lia Block, reads like a film script.  So it's exciting that there's a possibility it will finally become a film.  While teaching Block's book in Adolescent Literature, I found several Internet sources about the production.

In September 2010 actors, including Chelsea Staub and Corbin Bernsen, read the Script for Weetzie Bat and the Dangerous Angel in bookstore with Block.  Part 1  Part 2 Part 3  YT videos about 11 min each 

The film has potential for success given the popularity of similar type films for adolescents, especially based on the success of the Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Weetzie Bat, however, is a more poetic, slightly more surreal and perhaps more controversial.  Those ingredients have the potential for a big hit if marketed right to teenage girls.

Here is a short video based on film outtakes.  5 min

Production and Design photos for film 

Block's notes on scriptwriting

Link to Brian Gaskill's web page.  He is directing the film.

Here's the cast list, with links to their IMDB pages.

Weetzie Bat - Chelsea Staub

  

Charlie Bat (Weetzie's dad) - Corbin Bernsen

Brandy-Lynn (Weetzie's mom)  - Shannon Sturges

Dirk (Weetzie's best friend, who is gay) - Brant Daugherty

Grandma Fifi (Dirk's grandmother) - EG Daily  
She will also be reading several other characters as well as singing. 

Valentine - Dwight Ewell
He will also be reading several other characters.

Max/secret agent lover man  - Aaron Ashmore

Vixxanne - Crystal Mantecon

Buzz Cut - Jason Seitz
He will also be reading several the character of Bam Bam, Duck's friend.

Duck (surfer) - Kurt Collins

Quidditch at ISU

ISU's new Quidditch team plays an amazing season of rough-and-tumble Quidditch.  My family and I enjoyed watching the lively games rendered for Muggle-style as the teams played hard last fall on the ISU Quad. The season seems to have two parts, fall and spring. Here's a link to the team's Facebook page.

Since this week we're studying Harry Potter in one of my classes, I thought I'd post a few photos from a match we saw last fall. The team is definitely worth checking out.  It's an amazing mash-up of book fans with a curiously interesting real game that's a cross between rugby, lacrosse, soccer and broom ball.

Instead of having the golden snitch a flying ball, in the Muggle version it's a person dressed as gold who runs around and hides.The players ride broomsticks while trying to get balls through the hoops.The play can get intense.

The fans are enthusiastic and creative as well.