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princess-ibri · 2 years

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I'd like to know; how do you think Don Bluth's Beauty and the Beast would have turned out? I wish everyone would have been able to watch it. Just what would have been though I am not really into this Beast's design maybe the Baboon design that Disney turned down?

Hey! Thank you for your patience I wanted to have time to give this ask a proper reply, with some pictures. Overall I think it would have done well in the way of becoming a cult classic, full of beautiful images and plenty of nightmare fuel but rather cluttered in the way that most Don Bluth films tend to be, something that definitely adds to their charm but keeps them from becoming as popular as the more streamlined Disney Renaissance movies they were competing with at the time.

In terms of plot I feel like it would have taken a lot of influence from the 1946 Jean Cocteau BatB movie, as well as some influences from the original Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve version, along with some of The Grimm Brothers and Abhorsen and Moe’s “The Singing Springing Lark/Lily and the Lion/East of the Sun West of the Moon” bits, as I will explain below.

I think the Cocteau influences would have been seen most in the primary look/atmosphere of the film, we can see a lot of his dark dreamlike Romantic influences in the clothing and set design of this poster in particular. The Beast and Belle’s clothes could have come straight out of the 1946 film.

This dark dreamlike atmosphere of that film would have worked quite well with Bluth’s style of filmography which tended towards that sort of Fever Dream Unreality in many ways. But of course we also have the abundance of side characters with their own small arcs (and animal sidekicks inexplicably wearing clothes) in the mix as well. We get most of our information about them and the themes of the film from this page:

From this we gain the main theme of the film ‘a thing must be loved before it is loveable’, and several names of our animal/fairy sidekicks. Below we can see Beauty with Nan the clairvoyant dog, with Otto the escape artist lizard on top of Nan. The bird on her finger could be Max the bird detective in a more realistic design then the one with him in the large hat, or possibly just a random bird to go with the random squirrels. Wether these characters would have been true animals with quirky traits or people transformed like the Beast I don’t know, though with Bluth’s other films to go off of I tend to believe they were likely just funky animals who would have used their skills to try and help Beauty unravel the mystery of the Beast and his cursed castle.

Try as I might I couldn’t find any depictions of the King Bats that were mentioned (fairly sure I have Queen Livia and the Wee Beasties though, we’ll get to that in a moment) so I wonder if they were later replaced with these wolves? They sound like they would have e been aligned with the villain in any case.

Here’s where we get to the ‘Singing Springing Lark/Lily and the Lion/East of the Sun West of the Moon’ influences I think would have been in the film. As we can see in the picture below we have Beauty and a very much human prince fleeing from the wolves on Pegusus back— in these versions of the BatB story the heroine is forced to go on a journey to rescue the prince from an evil princess, after his Beast initial curse is broken. She is usually aided by the Wind, riding its back to go and find him, and in the Grimm version the pair escape via Gryphon. It’s not to hard to imagine Don Bluth deciding to swap out a Gryphon for a more majestic and recognizable looking Pegasus for his lovers to escape on once they’ve been reunited.

And of course we have the villain of our story, who I’m pretty sure is meant to be this Queen Livia. I mean look at this lady, all deathly pale and decked out in villainous green, pretty sure that a crown on her head as well. In the original Villeneuve version the Prince is cursed into a Beast by a wicked fairy after he refuses to marry her, I could totally see this woman cursing people left and right. Add that to how the Prince in the sketch version below seems to be facing off against this sinister looking woman’s head and I think it’s a good guess to say that Bluth’s BatB would have had a similar premise.

I’ve also pulled out charters I’m very sure are meant to be Beauty’s father and sisters (the smaller head by the Father possibly being a sketch of their mother?) once more pointing to following the old traditional tale where Beauty is faced with opposition from her sisters as well.

We’ve also got a lot of sketches of what I’m assuming are the Wee Beasties, who are 1000% precursors to the Jitterbugs we later see in Thumbelina, along with some more butterfly like fairies, who could possibly be grouped in as a prettier type of Wee Beastie or just be fairies.

So yeah, I think it overall would have followed the tone of the Cocteau film, with some added animal and fairy sidekick shenanigans as Beauty tries to discover the secret of the Beast, eventually culminating in her discovering he’s been cursed by the evil Queen Livia who seeks to marry him. The climax would be that after Beauty has broken the Beat spell by professing her love he’s whisked away by Livia to her wolf guarded home base, and Beauty and her friends have to rescue him and defeat the evil Queen once and for all, with her and the Prince escaping via Pegasus to ride off into their happily ever after (oh and with his mask I’m thinking maybe Livia gives a masked ball or something to celebrate her wedding with the Prince and Beauty crashes it).

Per the Beasts design I dont really. Ind it so much. It is a bit close to the Disney one but honestly I still preorder a composite Beast over one based solely in one animal sorry 😅 But I did find some alternatives designs for him for you!

Some of these are straight up goblin-y I love it 😆

#don bluth #beauty and the beast #concept art #non disney #jean cocteau #Gabrielle Susanne de Villeneuve #east of the sun and west of the moon #the singing springing lark #Lily and the lion #animation #Don Bluth BatB #BatB #fairy tales #fairy tale adaptation #thumbelina

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vavuska · 1 year

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It's like Maleficent, but they are lesbians 💖

The princess isn't supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this darkly magical retelling of Sleeping Beauty, true love is more complicated than a simple fairy tale. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Holly Black.

'Malice is the dark and wicked heart of a fairytale carved into a book. This story is beautiful, vicious magic.'

Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand

'A truly original and clever retelling of a classic that had me racing to the end - you'll never look at Sleeping Beauty the same again.'

S.A. Chakraborty, author of City of Brass

Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love's kiss.

Utter nonsense.

Let me tell you, no one in Briar cares what happens to our princess. I thought I didn't care, either. Until I met her.

Princess Aurora, last heir to the throne, the future queen her realm needs. One who isn't bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. But with less than a year before the curse kills her, any future I might imagine for us is quickly disappearing - and she can't stand to kiss yet another idiotic prince. But maybe I can help her. If my power began the curse, it might be the one to lift it. Perhaps, together, we could forge a new world.

But we all know how this story ends. Aurora is the beautiful princess.

And I am the villain.

Credits: @kimocchika

You can find her original post here: [X]

My GoodReads: [X]

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themousefromfantasyland · 4 months

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I recently stumbled on this 2000, made for tv, Cinderella movie.

It's a very unusual adaptation of Perrault's Cinderella.

First, it seems to be set in 1950, the Prince is an Elvis/James Dean wannabe, and the Fairy Godmother is an immortal water nymph with a serious "Wine Aunt" energy.

And the film overplays the more magical elements so much with dated CGI, that it feels like the perfect spiritual companion to the 2001, Kristin Kreuk Snow White movie.

It needs to be seem to be believed.

youtube

@ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @adarkrainbow

#cinderella #Cinderella 2000 #fairy tales #fairy tale adaptation #Youtube

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gryffindorconsultingtimelord · 10 months

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Looking at the Fandoms and Fantasies release schedule to see what comes next!🧐. Listen to Hansel and Gretel, out now!

#nerd #talknerdytome #nerdy #fandom #fandomsandfantasies #movie #hansel and gretel #hansel and gretel witch hunters #jeremy renner #fairy tale adaptation #fairy tale vibes #fairy tale movies #movie recap #movie review #fandoms and fantasies #podcast

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iralibis · 1 year

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[IN THE END]

>> Anima

"Everyone loves a good story."

• • •

Paint Tool SAI | Wacom Intuos Draw

Reposting, editing, tracing, and recolouring are not allowed.

Instagram | Picarto | Twitch

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nine-frames · 1 year

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“You came back.”

Beauty and the Beast, 1991.

Dir. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise | Writ. Linda Woolverton | Art Dir. Ralph Eggleston, Ed Ghertner (Special version) & Brian McEntee

#beauty and the beast #us film #animation #1990s #fairy tale adaptation #disney #10 frames

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bmwiid · 11 months

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Being a fairy godmother wasn't all it was cracked up to be. There are thousands of babies who grow up and need something or other turned into a carriage or need to turn some overzealous suitor turned into a frog and honestly you are run ragged.

"Third one today," Gladsome sighed, leaning up against the wall, using it to keep her upright. "Honestly, if I have to conjure another french seam I'll turn myself into a pumpkin. No one ever asks for a nice two piece. I miss togas."

"Ball season." You shrug. It's not even prime time - which takes place between the hours of 'right before the balls start' and 'fashionably late' and it's been hectic. "I've had two froggings and a karma clause. Least it's something different." You look at your notes. "And next I've got a valuable life lesson."

Gladsome looks over her glittering glasses and quirks an eyebrow. "Swap?"

You've been godmothering for a long time and scoff. "If you want a life lesson as a swap then whatever you've got is a nightmare in tulle."

"It's another ball." She groans. "Honestly, just a ball! I wasn't kidding - these dresses drive me mad. Do you know how many magically different and showstopping dresses I've had to make this month? Thirty Seven! Five of them are going to the same damn ball!" She vents, glitter shaking off her wings as they quiver. "I had to invent three new Dukes and a Viscount just to make it work."

You both laugh, but mostly out of joined understanding and frustration. It's an easier job than Genie-ing, but you remember how long you'd spent begging for the opportunity to don the wings.

"Tell you what," you sigh. "Just this once, I'll swap. BUT," you interrupt the now bouncing best bud you have in the industry. "BUT, you take the life lesson and my next frogging."

"DEAL!" Gladsome sequels, taking the notes out of your hand. Froggings were quick but the paperwork was always a nightmare.

"Here is mine," she says, passing over a fairly small note. "She's 17 and lives with her stepmother and four step-sisters." She rolls her eyes and does a little hand wave. "Honestly, the lack of imagination hurts my soul. One of these days I'm going to tell them to bippity bop the fuck off."

The house is exactly what you expect. Large and a little decrepit. They tend to be like this. You arrive just as the 2nd hand carriage leaves, full of giggling girls in godawful glitter.

It doesn't take you long to locate your god-daughter for the night. She's sitting outside, looking up at the stars. You hang back a moment - waiting for the wish - but she just carries on looking up. Ah well, narrative be damned - you're on a time crunch.

You are one of the best in the business at gentle reveals. The fireflies start swirling and the crickets get with the program, turning from their nightly chorus to an actual chorus, and it's perfect. After nearly 200 years, it should be.

By the time you swirl into sight, the girl is on her feet - mouth agape. She's pretty, very pretty, which doesn't really make a difference to magic but it sure helps. Her hair is a lovely deep auburn, and eyes are glittering green. Perfect - you've gotten bored with blondes.

"Hello, my darling," you sigh, voice tinged with understanding and the exact amount of 'I am caring' and 'I'm here to help'. "My name is Gleeful, and I'm-"

"A fairy godmother!" She gasps, and her voice is lovely - just the right mix of melody and softness Princes tend to go gaga over.

"Thats right, my dear." You say, before your feet touch the ground with a little puff of glitter. "I'm here to answer your wish." You announce.

Her eyes widen, lovely lashes. This'll be a cakewalk. The only thing you might struggle with is the carriage because it's a little to early for pumpkins. "You... you can do that?" she whispers, and you nod gently, a little smile to show nothing is beyond your talents. "Oh my goodness!" she sighs, looking down at her ragged dress.

"All you have to do it make the wish." You say, holding out your hand.

She nods, before taking a deep breath.

And makes her wish.

#fairy tale adaptation #what does she wish for?#I dunno

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upontheshelfreviews · 9 months

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Faerie Tale Theatre Reviews: The Little Mermaid

View On WordPress

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gaywizardlovereal · 1 year

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Check out this queer dragon comic I did for school

#dragon art #gay comics #the dragon uses they/them #fairy tale adaptation #monster #my art #original comic #fantasy #dragon

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stardustedstudio · 1 year

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just breathe.

#my art #artists on tumblr #original art #ever after #drew barrymore #movie fanart #cinderella #fairy tale vibes #fairy tale adaptation #can’t Believe this movie is 25 years old this year #one of my childhood favorites #an all time fave

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nixcomix1 · 10 months

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In this short story based on The Frog Prince, the gift of a kiss means a new sort of evolution! Meet Ati and Isi in The Retelling of Fairytales

#fairy tale adaptation #fairy tale retelling #fairy tale illustration

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adarkrainbow · 1 year

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The sequels of the Three Little Pigs

I talked previously of Disney’s “Three Little Pigs”. But what few people know is that The Three Little Pigs wasn’t just one animated short among the Silly Symphonies, but a whole series! To bank on the success of the original animated short, three different sequels were created. Overall, all three were considered to be “failures” which led to an iconic line of Walt Disney “You can’t top pigs with pigs” - but they actually form a trio of important shorts that influenced further development of the “Three Little Pigs” world later on, for example by introducing several elements and characters that Disney would repurpose in various forms and shapes.

We are not here however to make a history of Disney characters - rather we are here once again to compare fairytales and adaptations, and analyze what exactly the adaptators did through their work.

The Big Bad Wolf, 1934

# Disney’s “Three Little Pigs” already played a bit with fairy tales inter-connections by referencing in an indirect way “The Wolf and the Seven Goats” - but here, the short “The Big Bad Wolf” fully plays on the fairytale crossover by having the Three Little Pigs meet Little Red Riding Hood. In this short, little Red Riding Hood, on her way to meet her sick grandmother to give her cake and wine, passes by the house of the Three Little Pigs. While the two first pigs are still playing music and dancing around, the third pig is still building with bricks - this time an extension to the house. It presumably seems to be a nod to the continuity of the shorts, as given his two brothers live with him now he needs to expand his own house.

# Here the careless two little pigs advise Little Red Riding Hood to take a shortcut through the woods to reach her Grandma, much to the dismay of the third pig who explicitely says how the shortcut is dangerous due to the wolf living in the woods - he rather advises to take a longer road out of the woods, but his brothers mock him and express their lack of fear of the Big Bad Wolf who just “huffs and puffs” (clearly here a reversion of the traditional tale, as huffing and puffing is precisely the very real threat of the menacing Big Bad Wolf, but here reinterpreted literaly by the pigs as the wolf being basically “full of hot air” or “just air”). Once more, the fault of the two first little pigs is too much careleness, not taking anything seriously be it threats or warnings.

# So the two little pigs escort Red Riding Hood through the forest. Someone else pointed out in a blog that it is quite disturbing how the human design of Little Red Riding Hood makes her look like the pigs - but I think it is the entire point. Like the Pigs, she is small, plump, pink-skinned, and when she leaves with the two pigs she becomes the third part of their trio. All of them the perfect victims for the hungry wolf... There is also a clear divide between the countryside and the woods - the countryside the pigs live in and Red Riding Hood goes through is an open place with no obstacle to see the sky, gentle slopes of pastel colors with gentle flowers, birds and insects everywhere... Meanwhile, the wood is clearly designed as an enclosed place where the trees prevent from seeing the sky or the horizon, with darker colors and a lot of shadows everywhere - and while it is not a “creepy wood” in itself, just a normal wood, there is a clear intention at creating a darker and more claustrophobic feel for the wood.

# The Big Bad Wolf tries to get the protagonists again through the use of disguises - this time, by becoming a ballerina-like fairy-queen called “Goldilocks”. On one side, it obviously plays into the grotesque here. The masculine, hairy, ugly wolf tries to mimick a beautiful and feminine entity ; in doing so he actually mixes up everything by acting both at the same time as a fairy and a ballerina, and adding the name “Goldilocks” taken from another little girl lost in the woods, there is a comical effect here. But on the other side, such a disguise is PRECISELY the best disguise the Wolf could have, as it is the complete antithesis of what he is. He takes an “superior” being, a fairy AND a queen, when he is an “inferior being” (an animal dressed like a hobo) ; he takes a female persona when he is male ; he tries to become your typical adjuvant and helper of fairytales when he is a villain ; and finally he tries to have the grace of a ballerina when he is clumsy and violent. In fact it is the later opposition that breaks his costume, as his heaviness is precisely what results in the destruction of his costume ; and later we again have a play on the wolf’s girth as he is too big to go through the narrow passages the smaller Red Riding Hood uses.

# As with the previous short, the story of Red Riding Hood is HEAVILY softened here. Not only is Grandma not eaten, rather hiding in her closet at the wolf’s arrival, but Red Riding Hood either is left untouched, as she joins her grandma’s hiding in the closet (which results in a funny call-back as the Wolf asks for the women to open the door and let him in, a clear re-playing of his earlier fights with the pigs, except here instead of trying to enter a house he tries to enter a closet). In fact, while the Three Little Pigs original fairytale was adapted in a pure “adaptation” way, this short plays much more with the fairytale of Red Riding Hood by notably having the Big Bad Wolf break the fourth wall during his recitation of the “Oh my Grandma what big X you have / It is better to X you”, asking the audience “How am I doing?” ; but also by changing the last line which isn’t anymore “The better to eat you!” (which becomes invalid as he doesn’t end up eating her), but rather “You haven’t seen the half of it”. Clearly, the short considers that Red Riding Hood is such a well-known and classic tale that it can’t be fully adapted in a straightforward way and needs to be played with to work.

# If we base ourselves on the Grimm version of “Little Red Riding Hood”, then the third pig actually fills here the role of the Woodsman, as in he is the one who, alerted, goes to save the two women. In another continuity-nod, we see that now the third pig has got a full arsenal of “wolf exterminators” ranging from rifles, bear traps and knifes to swords, canons and axes, passing by poisons and bombs - weapons he even keeps in a bag paralleling the Wolf’s own bag in which all of his disguises are hidden. But, fascinatingly, the third pig doesn’t use any of those weapons - rather he vanquishes the Wolf by throwing unpopped pop-corn in his pants, and coals.

This demise is supposed to mirror the defeat of the Big Bad Wolf in the first short: once again we have a food-related demise (popcorn), and once again we have the Wolf being hurt on his butt. Which, as you will notice, is a recurring theme of these shorts who have a strange “let’s harm the butt” obsession... I could push forward the idea that it might be a cultural reference to a very iconic wolf-demise in European literature, one of the harsh tricks of Reynard the fox played on Ysengrin the wolf - the fox betraying the wolf so that he loses his tail... But this is probably just looking too much into what was just the humor of the time. Hit them in the butt, everyone laughs. In fact this very demise, unlike the one of the previous short which robbed the Big Bad of his human disguise and pretense, this one is just designed to be goofy and silly as the wolf runs away in a rain of popcorn.

Three Little Wolves, 1936

# Now this short actually does what the subgenre of “fractured fairytales” would later do: start playing on the concept of twisting, reversing, breaking fairytales. And here the twist comes in the very title. We do not follow Three Little Pigs here anymore... but Three Little Wolves, who as it turn out are the triplet children of the Big Bad Wolf, miniature copies of their father.

# We are introduced to the “house” of the Big Bad Wolf, which as it turns out is an underground lair under a big tree. A negative picture of the brick house of the third pig : both are strong houses that hold on to attacks, but where one is bright and good-looking and on top of a hill, the other is a dark and creepy underground lair. The Big Bad Wolf is notably introduced singing to his sons a song about cooking pigs... in a strong German accent and with German words mixed with the English. We are in 1936... This is not a coincidence.

# The parallel between the Three Little Wolves and the Three Little Pigs is driven even further by the three wolves imitating the pigs’ song “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”... except that they perform this song to mock their own father due to them being naughty brats... and they use a bone instead of a flute.

# The previous short mixed the Three Little Pigs with “Little Red Riding Hood”. Here, the fairytale is mixed yet again with another famous wolf-involved children story, though not a fairytale: rather, it is The Boy who Cried Wolf, a fable. Here the two pigs play the role of the Boy, as they blow the horn used as a “Wolf Alarm” just to play a prank and have fun on their third brother. Which later bites them back when the Wolf kidnaps them and their brother ignores the horn as one of their pranks.

# Here, to trick the Little Pigs the Wolf disguises himself as Bo Peep, from traditional nursery rhymes (again, another confusion between fairytales, fables and nursery rhymes) and his sons as sheep. What I should note is that a recurring theme of all these sequels is how the Wolf takes on female disguises. Before we had a fairy-queen, and a grandmother ; here a sheperdess (even more, a “little girl” sheperdess), and as we will later see this continues in the next sequel. And this is driven even further by a later fact: when the Wolf, still in his Bo Peep disguise, manages to lock the Pigs in his lair... the Pigs blush and whisper “Oh, Bo Peep” as they believe something ELSE will happen now. Only to have their (either romantic, either lustful) hopes crushed when the sheperdess removes her disguise... There is clearly something to say here about the Wolf, a purely male force in all its nastiness (ugliness, brutality, hairiness), tricking the Pigs constantly with female disguises of various forms of kindness and innocence (fairy-queen, grandmother, little girl/sheperdess), and the disguise even pushing as far as hinting at a romance... Of course, the little wolves being disguised as sheep is also a nod to the expression “a wolf in sheeps’ clothing”, an expression already used in the first original short.

# In a very nice moment, after locking up the Pigs in his lair, the Big Bad Wolf swallows the key. Beyond it possibly triggering any trauma one may have gotten watching “Coraline”, it also highlights subtly the nature of the Wolf. He is a being of devouring. He only cares about eating little pigs or little girls, and he even only teaches his sons about how to cook and eat pigs - so of course, it would make sense for him to swallow the key. Swallowing the only mean of escape for the pigs is a foreshadowing of how the wolf himself will swallow them later. And the little wolves are not paling in comparison to their father, as they gleefully hunt down the pigs with a big meat cleaver - but hopefully for the pigs, the little savages are as much busy fighting each other for the meat as they are hunting the pigs.

# The plot of this short is resolved when the Pigs trick the Big Bad Wolf into blowing the Wolf-Alarm horn. This is the reusing of a traditional and classical element of fairytales: tricking the villain in its own demise, or more specifically tricking the ogre into destroying itself. You can see it for example in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale, when Gretel convinces the witch to climb herself in the oven, or in Puss in Boots when the cat plays on the ogre’s pride to trick him into becoming a mouse. Here, as with many ogres of fairytale, the Big Bad Wolf is tricked by his own meal as his preys play on his arrogance.

# Interestingly, to defeat the Wolf, the Third Pig reverses the original situation of the first short: this time, it is the Pig who disguises himself (into an Italian merchant) and knocks at the door of the Big Bad Wolf. And the Pig plays on the Wolf’s greed and gluttony - by offering “free tomato samples”. But unlike the Big Bad Wolf, who wanted to ENTER the Pigs house, here the Pig tries to convince the Wolf to come out, so that he can fall in the trap he purposefully designed for him... a trap disguised as a Fruit and Vegetables Shop. Here a double-play, again: the Wolf, the meat-eater by excellence, meets his doom by entering a place selling anything but meat ; and the Third Little Pig did not built a real, safe, solid building as he did with his brick house. Rather he completely inverted things by building a fake building that crumbles as soon as the wolf enters, to reveal its true nature of a trap.

The Practical Pig, 1939

# The fourth part of the Three Little Pigs series, and the third (and last) of the sequels of the original short. Here we have again an opposition between the two little pigs and the third, the former mocking the latter for working all day and having no fun. Even more egregious: they mock their brother for building “yet another wolf machine”, and think he is crazy for building so many defenses against the wolf. And they decide to go swimming in the nearby pond, despite their brother’s insistance that the pond is a dangerous place as the Wolf is known to roam nearby.

This is what actually made a lot of people dislike those sequels: in each of them, the two little pigs seemed to remember less and less about their original ordeal. The “moral” and the “lesson learned” after each short disappeared by the next, making it seem like the two little pigs basically deserved to die for not learning anything and not growing any kind of common sense. But it also shows one of the “traps” of fairytale adaptations: the cycle. Fairytales are basic stories with identifiable structures, repeated again and again and again. And while this series of Silly Symphonies tried to capitalize on one given story, they did so by repeating the story again and again - more specifically, they ended up returning to the same beginnings, the same “faults” leading the characters in dangers, the same mistakes... which in turn makes it feel that nothing is learned, that all the adventures are worthless, and that ultimately the characters of the Pigs and the Wolf are trapped in an endless cycle of hunts and pursuits. We already have here the logic of cartoons such as Looney Tunes - but this logic clearly was not mastered by the creators of the shorts ; OR was not appreciated back then by the early 20th century audience.

# The Wolf tricks again the swimming Pigs by putting on a disguise ; again he uses a female disguise, as I pointed out earlier. He takes the form of a mermaid - after the supernatural fairy-queen with insect wings who flew around like a bird, we have now a half-fish half-human creature. But as I also pointed out earlier: as the shorts go on, the Wolf’s disguises and luring tactics become much more overtly sexual and seductive in nature. In “The Big Bad Wolf” there was no obvious seduction or sexuality ; in “The Three Little Wolves” there was sexuality/attraction coming from the Pigs and not wanted by the Wolf ; but here the Wolf expressively plays on that, sending kisses and roses to the Pigs to lure them.

# We find back the Wolf in his lair with his three boys, and we have a bit more of a glimpse at the dysfunctional family that is the Wolf family. This clan was clearly designed to be a clan of disorganized and chaotic brutes. In the previous short we knew that the three wolves clearly did not respect much their father (using slingshots on him and openly mocking him, even though they did obeyed to his plans and went searching for him when he was defeated), and also were quite selfish as when it came time to eat the bigs they fought among themselves. Here we see that the three little wolves are like their father brutal embodiments of gluttony, unable to wait to eat the pigs on the spot. But we also see how the Big Bad Wolf is a brutal father that answers his sons lack of obedience with violence, at first by hitting them, then by using his “huffing and puffing” on them to blow them away. It is clear that this “clan” is broken by their own selfishness and lack of respect for each other.

# Unlike his sons’ desire to eat the pigs on the spot, strangely the Big Bad Wolf refuses. Despite having his long-desired meal in his grasp, he decides to wait. Why? Because as he explains he wants to have the Third Pig too and to eat them all at once. And this, as it turns out, will be his downfall, because his very decision to go after the Third Pig before eating the siblings will make his entire plan fail. Did he act by pure gluttony, wishing to have all three in his belly? Or did he act out of a petty revenge, unable to let go of the several times the Third Pig beat him? Or was it more of a mesure of cautioness, not wanting the third brother to spoil his fun at the last minute, as he always do? We don’t know for sure.

# Similarly it is the three wolves own gluttony that will lead to their meal escaping: not only do they not follow their father’s orders of not eating anything until he gets back home, but they also decide to add pepper for the flavor to the baked pigs. This act of gluttony will actually accidentally free the two pigs and immobilize the three wolves, unable to catch their prey fleeing away.

# The last thing I want to talk about is the machine the third pig newly built for the Big Bad Wolf: a lie-detector machine that beats up the liar strapped in it. What is interesting is that the machine displays only two types of punishment. One, rincing mouth with soap, which is a traditional expression when it comes to punishing people for lying or saying bad words (and unfortunately was sometimes taken literaly by some very harsh and unpleasant parents) ; and the second is rather spanking - a punishment clearly designed for a child. By using these two punishments in the machine, the short clearly targets its audience as children, because they are precisely two typical punishments inhabiting the minds of children and existing in the “children universe”

#disney #the three little pigs #fairytale adaptation #the big bad wolf #fairy tale adaptation #silly symphonies #the three little wolves #the practical pig #cartoon #walt disney

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talesfromarandomsapphic · 10 months

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Some of my favorite aesthetics I’ve made, these are for Return to the Emerald City!

If you happen to like retellings of fairy tales, this may be up your alley!

#wattpad #original story #wizard of oz #wicked #retelling #fairy tale adaptation #fairy tale retelling

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ddoubleblindd · 11 months

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The Red Shoes

2/15/2259 06:34 a.m. EST Kei Nakamura—billionaire tech giant and mastermind behind Global Omnium Solutions—was announced dead this morning. Found unresponsive in his hotel room while visiting Syneaux on business, Nakamura’s cause of death remains unknown. City police say further testing is necessary.

Nakamura’s entire existence summarized in less than ten words—squashed between hyphens no less. It’s a blasé, lazy synopsis for a man only known on the outside for his mind and his money. Beneath the three-sentence announcement is a picture of the man himself in a sharp, three-piece business suit.

If there were even an ounce of journalistic integrity in the article’s author, the truth would have served as a salacious, clickbait-fueled piece amongst the rapid-fire articles surrounding the billionaire’s death.

Kei Nakamura was a man chasing a high. It didn’t matter where it came from or how much it cost. At the end of a needle, at the bottom of a bottle, beneath the sheets of a stranger. Twice at the edge of a blade and once on the firing end of a pistol. Every rush of adrenaline and extra dose of dopamine was his reason for living. There weren’t enough hours in the day to drink it all in. But you knew all that, right Cypher?

That’s right. You’re just the same—on a desperate, carnal search for the greatest highs that life has to offer. You’ll try anything. Legal or not; dodging the cops is part of the overall experience.

I know all about you, Cypher. Your fortune came from a trust fund after you barely passed primary school. You knew you’d never have to work, so why put in the effort? I doubt I would have, either. Then, your listless existence led you down the rabbit hole of the deep web; chasing a rumor that began as little more than a murmur in a chatroom.

The Red Shoes.

Strange name for a neural chip, you thought. Someone mentioned it stemmed from some ancient fairy tale. But that didn’t matter. Designed by Nakamura himself, The Red Shoes is a goldmine to those who can get their hands on it and a dream come true for people like you. Once inserted, the fabled chip starts small, nearly invisible changes in the brain with exceptional results. No longer will the user need a full night’s sleep or three meals a day. No wasting time on trivial bodily functions that stand between you and the rush.

Just hours after insertion, the mind accesses energy reserves from excess fat and tissue—nothing precious, of course. It rewires your organs to metabolize chemicals like alcohol and amphetamines faster and more efficiently while still giving you the stamina to keep moving. The pleasurable side effects of consumption will linger without the fear of a crash.

To you, The Red Shoes was the ultimate creation for a man who jumped from rave to rave, bed to bed, needle to bottle to needle. You didn’t care how much it cost or whose hands it passed through. Nakamura only made ten chips, and you had to have it.

The FDA was not happy to discover another unapproved chip circulating on the market. So the nickname changed every time you looked. ‘Ruby Slippers’ was one unimaginative solution; my personal favorite was ‘Fruit by the Foot.’ But I digress.

Beyond the homebrew encryption protecting the data itself, each chip was hand-numbered and signed with a code that was impossible to perfectly recreate. It didn’t stop people from trying, and you yourself were victim to a handful of very expensive dummy chips.

But when the FBI started cracking down, a lot more people were willing to part with their tiny piece of heaven. You found one from an inside man at Global Omnium Solutions—an exorbitant amount of money changed hands and your package was delivered by a man in a mask.

Your heart hammered as you opened the unremarkable box and held the thumb-sized tech in your palm. Chip number six. Just like your birth month.

You installed it an hour ago, Cypher. What the hell are you waiting for?

Jacket in hand, you head out the door. Through the packed streets of New Chennai, you weave between corporate suits and neon lights. Down the main road to the A-Line bullet train, where you swipe your wallet and search out a place in the car to stand. Nakamura’s face appears on every screen on the train, scrolling words beneath the image announcing his death. Is it just your imagination, or are your senses more alert? The sounds are clearer, and the colors brighter. Surely you wouldn’t have heard the television with such clarity over the din of passengers before. Just a little longer, and the truth will arrive.

The train’s second stop is the Green District, where you take your leave. A place avoided by esteemed members of society with luxuries to lose. Swarmed instead by the drivel who seek the unmentionable. You’re one of them, though you seem to think you’re above the rest of the rabble that shows their faces in the Green District.

I assure you. You are not.

Into the Haze you step. Down two flights of stairs, a quick flash of your card to a bouncer standing rigid outside a door lit by a single bulb, and you gain access to one of New Chennai’s notorious clubs. The pulse of electronic music and the throng of those moving with its rhythm assaults your ears. A young woman with glowing purple eyes and teal blue hair appears before you, taking your wrist and pulling you close. You recognize her, though her name escapes you. She reaches into her jeans pocket, then presses a folded paper envelope into your palm with a wry smile before guiding you into the mob.

No words are needed, and none would be heard anyway. Sliding your thumb beneath the fold, you toss the envelope’s contents onto your tongue and wait, letting the glowing-eyed girl lead you closer to the stage.

You’re barely twenty steps into the club before the first rush hits. An immediate sensation of invincibility. The music throbs in your veins, and the touch of your partner’s fingertips summon goosebumps on your wrist. When she turns and aligns herself to your body, the overwhelming scents of strawberry daiquiri and off-brand perfume coat your nostrils and tongue. The heat of her chest against yours is intoxicating.

Then the second rush washes over you.

You can’t remember ever feeling this good. Pulling the girl closer, you run a hand through her hair and the other down the small of her back. You’re one with her, the music, this crowd. Emotions flicker through you in time with the strobe lights—one second you’re laughing, then whispering sweet nothings into her ear, then find your mouth on her throat.

While the new implant finishes distributing the drugs to your bloodstream, its lesser-known function executes, scanning the neural networks of those within two meters of you. It recognizes and replicates the highest levels of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins in the vicinity and then transmits them to you.

Even you didn’t know this about The Red Shoes. You gasp against her skin, and your fingers dig into her back. For some, the experience would have knocked them senseless. But not for you. A man that’s pushed himself to every edge takes it in stride. Sweat drips down your back, and you find yourself responding to the slightest stimulus—the infinitesimal breeze wafting from the air conditioning, your partner’s breath on your cheek, the folds of fabric gliding across your chest. In her glowing eyes you’re sure you can make out the answer to life’s most profound questions, so long as you stare a little longer…

Time no longer exists for you. Only this feeling—God himself couldn’t create a purer sensation. You don’t know how long you’ve been dancing; your phone claims nearly three hours have passed when the young woman takes your hand and guides you to the back of the club. You’re devoid of fatigue or aches, and your energy remains at an all-time high. Even after the curtain is drawn and you sink into the arms of the violet-eyed woman, your stamina reserves are hardly touched.

She falls asleep, but you’re far from finished. You dress and make your way back through the club, deciding a change of scenery would do you good.

When you return to the streets, you brace for the beginnings of a crash. The dip in emotion, the sudden exhaustion. But it never comes. You laugh, dancing your way between the late-night stragglers. Into the Last Drop you spill, finding a new array of lights and music. You buy a drink and slide two crisp hundred-dollar bills across the bar with a bottlecap. Sweat drips from the glass and your back as the bottlecap returns, filled with tiny pills. Swallowing them and your whiskey in one gulp, your search for a new partner is quickly rewarded.

You were exactly the kind of person The Red Shoes was made for, Cypher.

In addition to the goods from the bar, your new partner places a thin square of paper on your tongue. As it melts, sounds take on corporeal shapes while lights shape themselves around the girl’s body. You howl with ecstasy, and she laughs, wrapping her four arms around your neck.

The club moves with you, bending and weaving to your whim with a flick of your wrist. Some of its patrons no longer look human, but you’ve conjured your own safety net around yourself and your dance partner. You’re immortal.

This night never has to end, and you refuse to let it. The crash never comes, and the dip never happens. The hallucinations fade, but the energy remains. The sun rises as you make your way to your fifth club. A quick check in the mirror, and you’re elated to see your pupils are normal, the usual bags beneath your eyes are missing, and you no longer wear a flush of exhaustion. When your gaze slides to your hair, you notice the dark roots have turned a brilliant white. Tugging at your bangs, you lean in for a closer look.

When you blink, the color is back to normal. Just your imagination, you assure yourself. You move on.

Magazine stands shilling the morning news hold papers with Kei Nakamura plastered across the front page. Global Omnium Solutions is suddenly on the coals for hidden tech created by their CEO. The chip scans for elevated dopamine in the waking crowds but finds none. The back of your neck tingles, and the sensation slides down your spine. Just the sun on your black jacket, you conclude.

Round five. This club’s sign has been covered with graffiti so many times it’s illegible. You can’t remember if you’ve been here before, but that doesn’t matter. The Green District is all the same. Show a few extra bills and the bottlecap, and you get whatever’s on the menu. As you wait for the concoction to take effect, you look over the thinning crowd. Most people don’t make it past the sun’s rise, but you’re very interested in the ones that do. Couples with bloodshot eyes dance close to the stage, and one woman in little more than black straps covering her skin struts around the flock in search of her next meal. A bombshell of a redhead catches your fancy as she nurses a martini in the opposite corner of the room. Her hips and head sway in time to the music, and a tight black dress clings desperately to the edges of her thighs. How many women have you been with this evening, Cypher? You’ve lost count, and you’re ready to go again.

You’re whispering in her ear before the song strikes its next hook. She has a hand on your chest, and her chin rests on your shoulder. The chip’s busy reading the pleasure sensors of those around you, pumping the replicated sensations through your veins. Her skin smells saccharine sweet, and her voice is low and cool against your cheek.

A hand grips a fistful of your jacket, and the room spins. The fist connects with your chin before you can recognize what’s happening. Your lip splits against your teeth, and the taste of blood coats your tongue. Another blow to the eye and a third to the solar plexus sends you to the ground. Onlookers jump back from the scene, and the redhead steps forward, attempting to quell your furious assaulter.

Ah, her jealous lover, you think. He can’t hurt you. Not now.

You spit a bloody mass to the polished floor and stand, rolling your shoulders before gently pushing the young woman aside. A growling challenge escapes your throat, and, to the guy’s credit, he looks surprised. The wicked smile that wipes away his temporary shock says he’s more than happy to oblige your demand.

The punches and kicks you throw may feel as if you’ve packed Olympian strength behind them, but that’s the hubris of the implant talking. He deflects them easily, then catches your arm in both hands. His wrists twist, and the snap of your elbow supersedes the thrum of the background music. The red-haired girl’s inaudible screams pulse between the rhythmic adrenaline pounding in your ear.

You laugh as you stare at your grotesquely twisted forearm, and your attacker’s features contort with disgust. You feel nothing. This bastard isn’t worth your time. You take your leave. There are more clubs to go to and more women to find. Just walk it off. You have The Red Shoes, after all.

The enormous flatscreen in the center of the Green District drones on with further details of Nakamura’s passing. The news anchor says that the FBI has publicized their investigation into a mysterious chip, one that matches the description of an implant found nestled in the depths of Nakamura’s neural network. You peer at the screen out of the corner of one eye and see your face in stunningly high resolution. Your heart skips a beat, and your feet pause. When you blink, the concerned-looking news anchor has returned in your place.

Just ride the high, Cypher. That’s what you’re here for.

The patronage in the clubs noticeably thins out as the day progresses, though that hardly deters you. Even a handful of people can make for a good time. And as each partner runs out of stamina, you move on to the next. When the next club is empty, you call a local buddy and offer to bring the booze if he shares his stash. It’s like being in eternal freefall and never fearing the bottom.

You skip down the alleyway, six-pack in hand, your arm dangling limply at your side. Whistling a tune you know thanks to a series of repetitive cereal commercials, you follow the rhythm in your feet. Every red cent you spent on the implant was worth it. Every last one.

Unfortunately for you, there are others who agree.

The man whose honor you damaged earlier awaits you at the end of the alley, tapping the end of a baseball bat in one open palm. Two other broad-shouldered forms flank him, eyes narrowed and hands stuffed in pockets.

“You really think he has one?”

“I broke his arm. Look at him.”

“Dunno. Could just be tweaking.”

“I said I’d pay you, didn’t I?”

Even in your euphoric stupor, the muffled conversation chills you to the bones. You turn tail and run, and the goons are on your heels. You laugh with the fight or flight response crackling through your blood—just another high. Lay low for a while, and even this guy will forget your face.

The news anchor’s voice cradles the district as you turn onto the main road. “The Red Shoes, as the FBI has named it, elevates essential brain chemicals to fatal heights should the implant be removed. There are ten of its like in existence…”

The bat is hurled at the back of your knees, striking true and catching you off balance. Pain is non-existent, and you scramble to your feet—but it’s too late. The cronies are on you, snatching your hair and snapping your neck forward. The second one holds fast to your feet, bracing against furious kicks and flailing arms. Their ringleader approaches and catches your limp wrist, sliding a blade free from his pocket. Neural implants require a biometric scan of your fingerprints to unlock, and he has no problem acquiring one.

You scream and shriek. But you seem to have forgotten that this is the Green District. Those who hear you pretend not to or move to the other side of the street. No one wants the cops involved when it comes to this town.

It was a good time we shared together, Cypher. You exceeded my expectations. While every instance of The Red Shoes has a specific AI encoded to monitor and grow based on its user, I’m confident that I can take my next user’s experience to a new level.

Adrenaline rockets beneath your skin as you watch the life seep out of the eyes of another human being. You weren’t sure you could do it, that the money you forked out of pocket was worth it for this damn implant. But as the dopamine levels rise, you start to believe that it is.

Don’t you, Neon?

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#cyberpunk #story #books & libraries #short story #original fiction #short fiction #fiction #fantasy writing #short stories #fairy tale adaptation #fantasy #dark fairytale

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