Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre: The Three Little Pigs

I was not looking forward to watching this. The Three Little Pigs is not a favorite story of mine, and I am often perplexed as to how it gets lumped in with "fairy tales" when obviously it is just an overtold children's story.

However, as often happens when there's not a lot of tale to work with, Fairie Tale Theater does a surprisingly good job of filling in the time slot.

This is the story of three brothers: Peter, Paul, and Larry. All three are on their own agenda; all three think they have the best idea about how things should be done. Peter is scheming to make it big through real estate fraud, Paul is looking out for the ladies, and Larry is an artist, musician, and architect who has a lot of big ideas. When the three brothers are sent by their mother, they are all determined to make it in the world, though with very different ideas about how to do so.

With Billy Crystal as Larry and Jeff Goldblum as the Big Bad Wolf, I did get a few laughs out of this episode. It MAY be my favorite telling of the Three Little Pigs, though I am not sure I'm ready to admit that.

Definitely a strong entry in the FTT collection, with enough humor to keep the adults in the room engaged.

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

I went to see Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil last weekend. Bringing back the elements that I loved from the first one: movie and pop culture references, a kick-ass Red Riding Hood, and a lot of humor.

However... it failed to have an engaging plot. I mean I REALLY enjoyed the first one, and the sequel left me feeling a bit... hollow. I saw it in 3D because that was the only option at my theatre. Now, I don't hate 3D, but I don't think it adds several dollars worth of entertainment value per viewing. It's nice and all, but there are no instances where I think it adds so much to the film to be classified as "necessary." Good scenery will not make me love a movie.

Some of my acquaintances complained about the original movie's lack of stunning CGI quality. I stood up for Hoodwinked, defending it by right of "The STORY is awesome." I... can't say the same for the sequel. In the absence of a tight plot, the audience starts to look at the scenery. And it's not that impressive, especially with CGI technology becoming what it has.

So--problems. The writers had the characters do the thing, you know, where two characters are fighting, and we're not really sure they're that invested in what they're fighting about, and the argument is basically just a "let's move the plot along," thing. You know what I'm talking about. And it gave Red and the Wolf an almost uncomfortably sexual tension. (Which I am fine with in some interpretations, but it felt grossly out of place here.)

The first movie did a great job of taking a simple fairy tale plot, fleshing out all the characters, and letting the movie ride on their organically developed motivations. The second movie failed in every aspect of that. Also, although Hayden Panettiere did a good job, I couldn't help missing Anne Hathaway's richer and more complex voice-acting.

It had enough humor and enough references to other fairy tales to keep me chuckling: I would call it entertaining but not good. It's worth renting, popcorn for your brain.

Snow White and the Seven Samurai by Tom Holt

If you like Terry Pratchett or Jasper Fforde, Tom Holt might also be up your alley, filled with what I like to think of as British humor--rather dry and self-referential.

Our story begins with the wicked Queen's mirror, but when the Queen steps out for a moment, three kid-hackers break into the fairy tale reality and quickly set everything amok when they crash the Mirrors (computer) system.

With plenty of puns and loads of fairy tale references, though mostly well-known tales, this is an enjoyable read. The story is a bit disorganized and the ending is not as fully satisfying as I hoped it would be. However, seeing the stories come together and clash is always one of my favorite things to do, and this book is chock-full of that. If you like mashups of multiple stories, this is a fun one.

Glasgow Fairytale by Alastair D. McIver

I am especially excited to tell you about this book because the author, Mr. McIver, has been a long-time member of my fairy tale community on LiveJournal. We've had quite a few talks about fairy tales and folklore, so I am just thrilled to see his storytelling in action here.

The story starts as several fairytales begin to act upon one another, with often hilarious results--as, for example, Reggie King decides to take out Snowy White (in a nicely done gender reversal) to be the bonniest man in Glasgow--and he hires none other than Ella McCinders to get the job done.

I won't give too much away, but I will tell you that this is one of the funniest adaptations I've ever read, mixing stories and rearranging the elements to fit McIver's own Glasgow. I giggled out loud frequently, and the Cinderella ball scene is my favorite every Cinderella dance. Also: Best Frog Prince Ever.

McIver's penchant for telling stories is apparent in his prose, which is excellent for reading aloud. As an American reader, I had to sometimes slow down to read the Scottish dialect, but even then it wasn't so heavy that I had trouble understanding it.

This is only available in America through intermediates on amazon.com marketplace, but it IS available, and for an excellent price for a trade paperback. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes mixed up fairy tales and funny retellings. I hope you'll check it out!

The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

This is newly one of my favorite picture books. Not only a retelling of a classic tale, this is also a meta-fiction piece about stories and creativity. Honestly, I have never seen anything like this--although there are a few books that go for similar concepts, this one is so perfectly illustrated.

The pigs decide to escape their fate by escaping their story, and that is when the real adventure begins.

Weisner uses different illustration styles and even fonts to indicate the multi-storybook journey the pigs take in their attempt to alter their fates. Do they succeed? I can't give away the ending...

Whether you've got kids or just want to collect some picture books among your fairy tale collections, I highly recommend this one. It's unusual and fascinating.