International Talent Show Review

                                                     I don't know why there are 2 different fonts ...

The multicultural talent show was very unique. It's structure was awful but the content made up for that. The pieces of the show were mostly music, but a few other arts such as a poem and a dance showed up. 

             I really enjoyed the first performance, Mariah’s. She played a song about how she will do this that and the other thing, tomorrow. This may sound entertaining, but singing it in German made it very beautiful and Mariah’s voice was the icing on the cake. It was a great start to the awful structure that followed. My next favorite part was the man that had the various flutes and other instruments. He played 7 different tunes from the USA to Arabia and back. Some of the tunes were beautifully selected, while some were an artistic choice to include. It was the most unique part of the entire show.

               I've been bad mouthing the structure but not explaining what I mean. First, the audio of the event was awful, and the easiest fix for that is to select a different location on campus. Also, the order seemed silly. Singing should have been more distributed and the largest piece, the dance, should have ended the show. If those 2 things were fixed, then the show would be improved greatly. It was very nice to see both MCs participating in the show. They must have been stressed trying to plan this show, and having 2 important roles in the show sounds mind boggling stressful. 

A multicultural map!

Source: http://www.weloba.com/article/fc-barcelona-a-multicultural-team-0

Snow White Panto Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Snow White Panto was an interesting show to watch. It had a twisted sense of humor that could easily offend someone. But other than that it felt like a few fairytales and a couple of other stories all had hanky panky with each other and had this child. Having many parents sounds interesting but it can get very messy very fast. 

As I was watching the Panto, I was thinking of a more appropriate title. I came up with CinderThorneIng White and Company. As I said before, this show would have had many parents. First is Snow White because it had a vain queen and other Snow White themes, such as 7 woman disliking dwarves and a poisoned apple. Cinderella made her way into the Panto because Prince Charming, who seemed slower than McDaniels internet, lost his hat as he ran off and Snow White found the hat when she was a maid. This mirrors Cinderella because Cinderella was a maid for sometime and Prince Charming found her slipper as she was running off. During this portion of the Panto, a Sleeping Beauty song was played to move the story along. At one point the evil queen, who was written to be a character you love to hate, made an amnesia or brainwashing potion to get rid of Snow White, much like Hugh and Dominic did in Winterthorne. Muddles, a fun made up character, was brainwashed to kill Snow White, playing a similar role to the Huntsman. Other stories such as Goldilocks and Romeo and Juliet made their way into the Panto, by Snow White using various chairs, spoons, and beds as she first went into the Dwarves house and having Prince Charming and Snow White alternate small soliloquy like monologues when one thought the other was dead. 

As I said before, the Panto had many parents, but Snow White cared for it the most. But the original Grimm tale and the Disney movie had an equally large presence. The Grimm version came through when the Dwarves seemed afraid of Snow White purely because she was a woman. Also, the marriage wasn't shown, which is true to the original tale. 

But the Disney version came through when Muddles called up a little girl to the stage to say what Snow White needs. The little girl said true loves kiss, which is what she needs in the Disney version, but what Snow White truly needed was a clear throat via coughing, having her head yanked back to look up, or getting dropped by a clumsy guard. 

The 2 versions of Snow White agreed with each other when the 7 Dwarves had very minor roles, to the point where the dancers were more important, but they each had their own personality. Grimm told the Dwarves to be minor, but Disney said give them personalities!

All and all, the Snow White Panto was very interesting because of all of the influences it had, from Disney to Shakespeare it was a very entertaining show. 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                Notice there is more than one picture

This is Dominic from Winterthorne



This is Hugh from Winterthorne

These are Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty

This is Miranda from Winterthorne. She is included for the pure reason that she is a great character that looks so breathtaking in this clip from the series. PS: She delivers a very great b*tchslap. This is also included because, my blog my rules.

Sources: Leapfrog.com and Winterthorne.com

Reflection

            The best way to reflect about what I wrote is to talk about it!

             In the first blog, which I felt like I just wrote, I mentioned goals I had for the class and why I picked this class. I only picked this class because it had Disney in the title. Initially I had second thoughts about this FYS but I really enjoyed it. Before this class, I never read or saw Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, HoodWinked, or Silence of the Lambs. While I only hated, with the strongest use of the word one of these movies, and wish I didn’t see that certain one, I at least somewhat liked the others. It was fun to read the original tale that takes 15 minutes if it’s a longer one, then see how Disney appropriated, or as I said in my first blog “Disneyified”. I never would have guessed that the 7 Dwarves were just functions of the plot based on what Disney did to Snow White. At family gatherings, I ask others what they think about the tale. After they mention a Disney exclusive topic, I explain that its wrong. It’s always a fun time.

            In the second blog, I had to write a working definition for a fairytale, and I wrote “A fairytale has fantastical forces and beings, but it also has, imagination, curiosity, excitement, simplistic symbolism a way of bringing you back to your childhood and most of all, it has magic. I hope this is a worthy definition of the term fairytale.” After seeing at least 7 movies adapted from fairytales, I know this definition IS worthy.

            The third blog was comparing the original tale of Hansel and Gretel with the MGM version starring Cloris Leachman. I knew Hansel and Gretel as 2 kids that got lost in a forest, if that much. Now I know that the kids were forced out of the house and had to fight for their lives from a cannibalistic queen.

            The fourth blog was explaining the reality of the “Rags to Riches” motif found it Cinderella. I don’t know why, but Cinderella’s character just annoyed me. Therefore, this blog was a tougher one to write, but I got to incorporate my soap opera into it! The point is, the “Rags to Riches” motif does exist out of the entertainment world. Also, Cinderella started the se*ualization of simple things. I rememeber that Cinderella’s glass slipper symbolized a vagina and her leg represented the “shooter”, but I don’t recall the reasoning behind it.

            The fifth blog was similar to the third blog, but with Snow White. I was shocked that Disney felt like it was ok to mangle the original Snow White. He left out to murder attempts, gave the 7 Dwarves personalities and made Snow White have to get true loves kiss to wake her up. This reminds me how much I hated Snow White’s singing and how my dislike of Disney started,

            The sixth blog was comparing The Frog Prince, or Iron Henry and Cupid and Psyche. I liked Iron Henry’s character. That was the only enjoyable thing about this blog because the princess was very bratty and I could imagine her and the story of Cupid and Psyche was very hard to follow.

            The seventh blog was finding a cartoon about Little Red Riding Hood, and dissecting it. I thought Little Red Riding Hood was eaten by the wolf and that was the end of that. But I was very wrong. This continued upon the se*ualization of simple things. The Red Riding Hood is supposed to represent menstrual blood. Initially that seems crazy, but if menstruation is looked as maturing, and the hood pushes Little Red to do something mature, the link is seen, barely, but seen.

            The eighth blog was about Fitchers Bird, Robbers Bridegroom, and BlueBeard. I hated all 3 of these tales. This only showed me that fairytales can be dark and not have a happy ending.

            The ninth blog was like the third and fifth blog but with Rapunzel. I knew Rapunzel had long hair and was stuck in a tower. The fairytale expanded on this idea. This blog let me have the opportunity to watch Tangled!!! I loved Tangled, but not for the Rapunzel aspects …

            The tenth and final blog is this blog about reflecting upon past blogs and the class. Each class was a different experience because Dr. Esa is an interesting individual with differing attitudes at differing things. But the 3 things I will always remember from this class are A) Zeitgeist is a German word meaning spirit of the time and the different approaches at one tale can most likely be attributed somewhat to zeitgeist and B) Magic is at the heart of all fairytales and C) to SHOW something NOT tell it.

            This class has inspired me to read other fairytales with movie adaptations, watch the corresponding movie, and analyze it based off analysis’ done in class. All in all, this class was a journey worth taking.

 

This blog made me think of a certain episode of my soap. On its 52^nd anniversary, it flashbacked to the first episode by having current actors, fill the shoes of the original actors.

 

Sources: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/573646071263090528/

Rapunzel VS Tangled

            Rapunzel is a classic Grimm fairytale that is about a little girl that was given up by her parents in desperation and grew up in near isolation. In 2010, Disney Animation Studios, released Tangled, which was intended to be a retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel. Even though these 2 sources of entertainment have some similarities, they are different stories with the same character.

            In both Rapunzel and Tangled, a mystical creature, named Mother Gothel, took Rapunzel when she was a baby. The timing was similar but not the same: In Rapunzel, she was taken by the consequences of a deal and in Tangled, she was kidnapped. But the long golden hair is important in both, but for different reasons: In Rapunzel, it was used as a ladder / pulley to get to gain access to the tower in Tangled, it was also used as a ladder / pulley, but it was also used to keep the witch / adoptive mother physically young and seemingly immortal. The story takes place at important ages in a woman’s life: 12, the average age for a woman’s first period, and 18, the age of adulthood in Rapunzel.

            In both stories, Rapunzel disobeyed her adoptive mother by spending time with a man. In Rapunzel, she let a man up into her tower and later had hanky – panky, which was implied when Rapunzel told the only mother she knew that her clothes were too tight. In Tangled, after Flynn Rider enters the tower by climbing it, he and Rapunzel escaped the tower together. After both of these betrayals, Mother Gothel was very upset. Also, near the very end of the fairytale, Rapunzel shed a tear that had healing effects for the man in the story: In Rapunzel, she shed a tear that hit the prince in his blind eyes and he magically regained his eyesight and in Tangled, she shed a tear on a seemingly dead Flynn Rider and he came back to life.

Other than the differences in similarities between the stories, the major difference is the storyline. Disney appropriated the living daylights out of Tangled, so there are to many differences to pick from, but a few I can think of. First, they made Rapunzel a princess, to go along with all of the other Disney “Grimm” Princesses. Second, why did the witch want to be immortal? Just to get Rapunzel? That could have been done better … Maybe use the original Rapunzel lettuce idea? The king and queen are later seen in the movie, so an introduction would make more sense. Third, the disobedience from Rapunzel was taken to the extreme in Tangled when she broke out of the tower, and had a mental break when she initially disobeyed her mother. But Rapunzel didn’t get pregnant in Tangled …

I loved the movie, Tangled, but because of the purely Disney created love story, not because of its lacking similarities to the Grimm Brothers Rapunzel.

 

This is Rapunzel letting her long golden hair down to allow someone entrance into her tower.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/106397609917006322/

Fitchers Bird VS Robbers Bridegroom VS BlueBeard

Fitchers Bird and Robbers Bridegroom are both variations of BlueBeard. These 3 tales are similar in 3 aspects: The woman married a “nightmare”, the way the man was killed and the way to show distrust. The tales are also unique with their ending.

 In each of the tales, the woman married a “nightmare”. In Fitchers Bird, the woman married a sorcerer like man that used his magic to deceive others. In Robbers Bridegroom, the woman married a robber who instilled horror in his bride’s heart. In BlueBeard, the woman married an ugly man who lured women to be with him.

            The man was killed at the end of each tale in a different way. In Fitchers Bird, the man and his followers were burned alive. In Robbers Bridegroom, the man and his cohorts were all killed when it was revealed they were thieves. In BlueBeard, the man was stabbed with swords by the woman’s brothers.

            An item was used to show the distrust between the man and woman. In Fitchers Bird, a key to a room full of corpses and an egg were used to show distrust between the woman and the sorcerer. In Robbers Bridegroom, the woman’s grandmother’s severed finger with a golden ring was shown to legitimize the claims the woman made. In BlueBeard, a key was used to show the mistrust between the woman and the man.

            These 3 tales are very similar and unique. Not many of the Grimm Tales and other fairytales we analyzed have gruesome endings. The Disney adaptations of tales such as Briar Rose, Aschenputtel, and Little Snow White, all had happy endings with a “happily ever after.” So if we only stayed strictly to Grimm history and Disney adaptations, we would never get to stories that broke “the norm.” With these gruesome endings, these tales also showed that “nightmarish” side of marriage and it isn’t always “happily ever after” like in Disney adapted films.

 

Honestly, I didn’t like any of these stories because I couldn’t get attached to the characters. By that I mean I barely got to know them, and root for or against them. On my soap opera, a character named Levi was on the show for about 5 months, and I got to hate him as much as a fictional character can be hated. When he was murdered, I was so elated that he got what he deserved. I didn’t get that feeling of satisfaction when the men in the 3 stories were killed/murdered/executed.

 

                                    

 

Fitchers Bird: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/153122456056368794/

Robber Bridegroom: http://www.focusfeatures.com/slideshow/what_are_the_grimm_brothers_doing_in_hanna?film=hanna

BlueBeard: http://wordsmith.org/words/bluebeard.html

 

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is the story of how a little girl who wants to give treats to her grandmother gets eaten, but lives to tell the tale and another near death experience. Little Red Riding Hood has themes such as maturation and naïveness embedded into it. This comic explores a possible thought that the wolf had after he swallowed Red’s grandmother whole. He said, “There’s no way she’s gonna to fall for this”, to himself. What if Red was mature enough to see past the hat and figure out the Wolf’s sly trick? Fortunately for the Wolf, Red only got her red hood, not the symbolism of being reborn. When Red makes her “typical” comments such as, “Oh Grandma! What big teeth you have!” and “Oh Grandma! What a big nose you have!”, the Wolf is quite relieved and stunned that Red’s naïveness is so strong. This could be due to being babied for much of her life, as brought up by (I believe) Emma in her written letter. Red hasn’t had the chance to experience life and make little to no harm mistakes.

This comic is a social comic due to the fact that it was created on Reddit, a very non serious website. It is clearly making fun of Red’s naïveness on its surface, not the symbolism under it.

This comic stood out to me for a few reasons; one was purely the art style. But the content was ultimately the reason I chose to analyze this comic. It is very blunt and to the point, but the story of Little Red Riding Hood must be known to understand it. Other than that, it was cute. If I were in the Wolf’s position in the tale, I would be more concerned for Red than for my cover. If something itches at me, I will call it out, in person to a human that might change, or at a TV that won’t respond to me at all. It relieves a bit of stress, for me at least.   

Original Source: http://tubeytoons.com/comic/candy-man

Direct Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/2rnqtm/red_riding_hood/

Author: TubeyToons

 

The Frog King, or Iron Henry VS Cupid and Psyche

My initial thought was these 2 tales are completely different, and couldn’t possible have anything in common. For heaven’s sake, one tale, The Frog King, is short and simple due to being a fairytale, and Cupid and Psyche is much longer and convoluted due to being an old Greek tale. Looking at the 2 tales through a simple “lenses” then looking at the deeper meaning of them, they have a few similarities and differences.

The first similarity is the catalyst to the story: a drop. In the Frog King, the Princess dropped her precious golden ball down the well, thus summoning the prince in his frog form to get the story rolling [: - )] In Cupid and Psyche, after Cupid accidentally shot himself, Psyche went to his castle. At one point, Psyche accidentally let a drop of oil drop onto Cupid, making him fly off and inadvertently testing her loyalty; another similarity.

Loyalty is another similarity between the 2 tales. In the Frog King, after the Prince reverted to a human, he was riding home on a carriage with his loyal servant, Henry. The Prince hears 3 cracks throughout his ride. Those 3 cracks are revealed to be bands that were around Henry’s heart so it wouldn’t break after his master was transformed and taken away from him. The bands also show that Henry was only loyal to the Prince to the point of locking himself to him and only him. In Cupid and Psyche, when Psyche wanted to apologize for her actions, she had to prove herself to Cupids mother, Venus. Venus made Psyche engage in 3 tasks: sorting grains, crossing a river for golden wool, and transferring beauty. These were done to show how loyal Psyche was to Cupid.

A smaller similarity between the 2 tales was the usage of water and gold. In the Frog King, the princess drops her gold ball down the well (with water in it). In Cupid and Psyche, Psyche had to cross a river to collect gold wool from the sheep on the other side. As discussed in class previously, water loosely symbolizes maturity because it can be a large obstacle to overcome, like it was for Hansel and Gretel. The Princess only matured into a not spoiled brat when she dropped her golden ball in to the well and Psyche was maturing by apologizing for her actions against cupid. Also, the gold represents power because it is one of the strongest metals from the earth and it looks like the sun, which gives off heat for basic life. The golden ball represented the royalty that the Princess came from, and the golden wool represented the power and strength that Psyche needed to show to move past that task.

An interesting similarity is that the non magical being was coerced into confronting the magical being. The King told the Princess that she made a promise to the frog and had to honor it. Psyche’s sisters made her confront Cupid, because she never saw him. This was done because confronting the unknown is a very scary thing to do, and usually it is not done on one’s free will.

As I said before, these 2 tales are very different, but they aren’t very comparable with their differences. I found 2 small differences in between the 2 tales. In the Frog King, after the Prince was transformed back into his human form, he instantly redeemed the Princess and was Ok with her actions, shown by (implied) hanky panky and bringing her home to his castle. In Cupid and Psyche, Psyche had to redeem herself with the 3 tasks. This redemption may link back to the kind of tale being told; Fairytale (Short and action oriented) VS Greek Tale (Long and action AND detailed oriented).

The other difference was how offended the man in the story was. The Prince wasn’t offended at all by the Princess, because h never gave up on her. Cupid was very offended when Psyche first confronted him with a knife and dripping lit candle, because she never saw his face before. At this point, it seemed like Cupid gave up on Psyche, but through details it was shown he didn’t.

Overall, these 2 tales are more comparable than I thought was possible. Using a the action of dropping as a catalyst for the rest of the story, the use of the number 3 with loyalty, the usage of gold and water to show power and maturity, and coercion to face the unknown are a few of the similarities throughout the 2 tales, but redemption and degrees of being offended were very different.  

This shows the Frog Prince guarding the golden ball for compassion and love from the Princess.

This is Cupid and (presumably) Psyche from the animated series, Fairyodd Parents

[These blogs are supposed to be fun right? : - )]

 

Sources:

http://mark33776.deviantart.com/art/Commission-Psyche-and-Cupid-516318165

http://www.artlimited.net/image/en/148334