fairy

Chinese-Inspired Fantasy Books That Reframe Familiar Fairy Tales

Reframing fairy tales has long been a common subgenre of fantasy fiction and, at the end of 2020, three authors put their own spins on stories (or fairy tale structures) familiar to most Western audiences by incorporating Asian mythology and settings. S. L. Huang combined European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood with the Chinese tale of Hou Yi the Archer to form a story of redemption, love, and family in Burning Roses. Chloe Gong cast tragic English characters Romeo and Juliette as gangsters in 1920s Shanghai—pitting them against a Lovecraftian monster rising from the depths of the Huangpu River…
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How Neil Gaiman’s Uncredited Hellboy II Fairy Tale Enhanced its Story

While Neil Gaiman has been one of the most revered writers in the world of comics for decades, his live-action CV has grown in recent years as he fields an increasing number of adaptations of his own works. Interestingly, the author has revealed how an uncredited contribution to director Guillermo del Toro’s 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, was his first substantive foray into the world of film and television writing. It’s a contribution that, in retrospect, helped shape the film’s mythology-heavy plot. In a testimonial that appears in the new documentary, Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, centered on the…
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Fate: The Winx Saga Review (Spoiler-Free) – Tween Fairy Tale Wants to be Gen Z Potter

This Fate: The Winx Saga is based on all six episodes and contains no spoilers. Fate: The Winx Saga, the newest YA fantasy effort from Netflix, is the live-action remake of an animated series that takes the story and pitches it at an older age group. There’s a magic school surrounded by gorgeous landscapes (courtesy of filming locations in Ireland), a group of students trying to uncover a conspiracy protected by the teachers, and more than a couple of secrets about the origins of our main character. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The 6-episode series borrows liberally…
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Tales from the Hinterland Explores the Dark Feminist Heart of Fairy Tales

This feature is sponsored by Thanks to current pop culture, when the average reader thinks of fairy tales, something very specific probably comes to mind: Beautiful princesses. Cute animal companions. Handsome princes. Perhaps most of all, a happily ever after. Much of that is thanks to the Walt Disney Company, whose family-friendly retellings of classic tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are careful to remove the darker and more problematic elements from the stories, sanitizing them to the point where many modern viewers are most likely completely unaware of the popular films’ complicated – and often shocking –…
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