Fairy tale films

The films Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman are part of a trend of re-interpreting traditional fairy tales with contemporary twists that move beyond the bouyant Disney versions. Mirror, Mirror, which opens Friday, stars Julia Roberts in a humorous retelling of Snow White.  In a significant contract, the  Huntsman version is much darker, more brooding and somewhat in the trend of Twilight and Hunger Games. Clearly, Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwick who directed the first Twilight film, is part of this collection of films as well and Beastly with Vanessa Hudgens. Also released in March, direct to DVD, is Grimm's Snow White. When we saw Hunger Games over the weekend, we saw a previous for Snow White and the Huntsman, but not Mirror, Mirror, which opens sooner. 

As I tell my classes, every generation re-interprets fairy tales.  The wide difference in these two Snow White films suggests the malleability of this classic story.  Disney's version is primarily from the young princess's perspective, but in the two upcoming films, the older Queen has a more prominent role.  I will be interested to see Julia Rogers as the Queen, as she seems to be relishing the role and having fun.  I am not sure how evil she is in her version.  But in the film to be released in June, the older Queen is clearly evil.  Then, too, look at the title of the second film, Snow White and the Huntsman -- the focus is on the relationship between Snow White (played by Kristen Stewart) and the handsome Huntsman out to kill her (Chris Hemsworth). Charlize Theron, who some might say has a history of looking more stunning than Kristen Stewart, plays the Queen.  Theron also has played some roles of gutsy, powerful roles while Stewart seems to be majoring in mumbling, slightly awkward young women.  Hmm, the conflicts arise.

Katnis links with independent girl characters in books

The Hunger Games pulls together many threads in contemporary culture and literature -- including the appeal of the strongKatnis in The Hunger Games young woman character of Katnis. She's clearly linked to similar protagonists in earlier popular books for YA readers, such as Jo March in Little Women, Julie in Julie of the Wolves, and Pippi Longstocking.

Thanks to Monica Hesse, of The Washington Post, for interviewing me for her article "There’s room for both Katniss and Bella as heroines, but who’ll be remembered?"

There are many types of female protagonists.  Katniss is certainly a strong, independent, spunky, non-conformist girl.  This type of character has always appealed to many female readers.  Girls like to read, and watch films, about characters who break the mold, or stretch beyond their cultural construction.  Katnis is part Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part Xena: Warrior Princess.  She's also has some similarity to Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. There's also the element of a Cinderella-style makeover, too.Katnis restyled by the Capital

But the book, and perhaps the film, raises interesting questions about how American culture deals with violence.  Do we justify violence when it's done by a strong, spunky girl who is following her own path?  Does that make it more allowable?  It's pretty clear that the book is a critique of violence as entertainment.  But can the film carry out that message as well?  It will be interesting to see how the film is able to visually portray the violence, yet at the same time critique it. Is it okay for a young woman to be intelligent, independent, and have desire to kill people?

According to Roger Ebert's review of The Hunger Games, the film has more violence than thoughtful introspection, which is unfortunate since reading about how the characters think about their predicament was what made the books so compelling. Ebert writes that "the film leapfrogs obvious questions in its path, and avoids the opportunities sci-fi provides for social criticism."

Suzanne Collins has made Katnis an interesting, but deeply flawed, character.  Perhaps that's why she's so compelling.

Excitement for The Hunger Games continues

The Hunger Games film opens in a few weeks and we've noticed that several stores are featuring new covers of The Hunger Games in paperback as well as some other books. There's the Official Illustrated Movie Companion, the Unauthorized Guide to the Series, The World of the Hunger Games, and a Guide to the Hunger Games.  Quite a few.

There's also the question:  Is the Hunger Games going to be bigger than Twilight?  The possibility is there, as this article in the New Jersey Star-Ledger proposes, since the series is popular not just with girls and women but also with boys.  There's a bigger audience to draw from.  Still, as this article points out, the clip previews show that the film is going to be significant different from the book. We're still sad that the first Percy Jackson film was so significantly different.  If the Hunger Games films is too different will it alienate audiences? 

But Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters seems to definitely be in production.  And we'll probably see that.

In the meantime, we're disappointed that the Hugo DVD didn't take more advantage of the possibility to including more early film materials and clips in the basic DVD.

Children's Lit does well with Academy Awards ... or were kids and films misunderstood?

Martin's Scorsese's film interpretation of Brian Selznick's award-winning graphic novel The Invention of Hugo Martin Scorsese shows Brian Selznick's book to young cast members while filming Hugo.Cabret received five Academy Awards last night.  Pretty impressive.  Not the big picture of the year award -- that went to The Artist. But both films received the same number of awards.  Actually, Hugo was nominated for 11 awards, the most of any film this year. Curiously, too, both The Artist and Hugo are somewhat wistful film meditations on early cinema.

We were glad to read on School Library Journal that Brian Selznick was in the audience at the (former) Kodak Theater.

"Being on the red carpet, being in the room live as the telecast was underway, hearing the name Hugo called five times..., all of it was an experience I will never forget," Selznick told SLJ. "[I]t was really fun to introduce myself to famous people by saying I wrote the book that inspired Hugo and having them throw their arms around me, thank me for the story, and tell me they've seen the movie more than once... and some of them had even read the book and loved it too!"

In addition, the award for best animated short film  went to William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg's The A still from The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris LessmoreFantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Here's a link to the 15 minute YouTube video. It's also cool that the film was created by a Moonbot, a Shreveport, Louisiana, studio.  Good to see animation developed in the U.S. and from a studio in the south. It is also available as an Apple app.

The animated film is "a poignant, potent ode to books," according to the Kirkus Review, which seems ironic to incapsulize in an iPhone app.

William Joyce is another imaginative children's picture book author as well as an Emmy-winning television creator of Rolie-Polie Olie and George Shrinks. Disney's 2007 animated film Meet the Robinsons is based on Joyce's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson.

On the other hand...

As YPulse points out today, last night's Academy Award program was not particularly welcoming to tweens or teens.  It began with Billy Crystal putting on Justin Bieber for the "18 - 24 crowd" when, in reality, his core fan base is more 12 - 16 year olds, and primarily girls, too.

Oddly, only two songs were nominated for best song in an era when songs within films, and television shows, are important landmarks to creating a film's environment and atmosphere.  But neither song was performed live.  Why not?  "Man or a Muppet" is such a catchy tune, in an odd way, that even Terri Gross, interviewer of NPR program "Fresh Air," admits she likes it. 

Perhaps Justin Beiber could have performed "Man or a Muppet."  That might have excited Martin Scorsese's daughter, who was sitting next to him during the awards ceremony and looking a bit bored for most of the night.  Or, Why not have Oscar the Grouch present an Oscar?

The final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 was nominated for three Academy Awards, but did not receive a statue in any of them.  Huffington Post's high school blogger Marissa Piazolla understands Harry Potter fan's sadness when the final film failed to recieve an Oscar this time.  In the categories that Harry Potter was running against Hugo, I actually thought Harry Potter had the better achievement.

On a final note, did you watch closely the preview for The Hunger Games?  Didn't it look like the older sister Catnis is giving the Mockingjay pin to her younger sister Prim before the reaping?  But in the book, Catnis receives the pin from the mayor's daughter when Catnis is about to go off to the reaping.  Catnis isn't familiar with the importance of the Mockingjay pin at that point.  Clearly there are changes afoot.

But we're still going to see the film when it opens.

ENG 470 Course Description for Fall 2011

Now available for those scheduling their classes for next fall: the course description for English 470: Studies in Children’s Literature.  The topic will be Tween Literature & Culture.  For a complete course description with tentative book list, click here for a .pdf file.

This course will examine the often times confusing and contradictory world of middle school literature.   We from The Diary of the Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, a book we'll be reading next fallwill attempt to explore the growth of tween literature that has been produced in part with the development of middle schools in the United States since the 1960s, while looking at several influential examples from earlier time periods.  Many of these texts attempt to provide younger readers with a transition from childhood to adolescence as they progress from the sixth to eighth grade.  We will attempt to slip inside those overstuffed backpacks and lockers and try to understand some of the physical, social, and emotional concerns and issues that tweens face in contemporary culture by reading some of the books they are either assigned in school or that they are reading on their own outside of class.  Since this age group gains much of its information and entertainment from other sources, in addition to books we will also be examining other texts that tweens consume including magazines, television, films, music, and new media.

Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf, by Jennifer Holm, another book we'll be reading next fall in ENG 470Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, also on the ENG 470 reading list