Last night's Once Upon A Time, an episode entitled, "Dreamy," featured two actresses from fan favorites Lost and Angel. The fairy tale world and Storybrooke highlighted the story of a dwarf named Dreamy and a very grumpy man named Leroy (Lee Arenberg). Emilie de Ravin, who played Claire on Lost reprised her role as Belle, and dispensed some advice to the lovelorn dwarf, Dreamy. Angel's Fred, Amy Acker, played a fairy who dreamed of becoming a fairy godmother in the fairy tale world. In Storybrooke she was a clumsy nun named Astrid who struck up a friendship with Leroy.
From top: Emilie de Ravin, Lee Arenberg, Amy Acker and Emma Caulfield
Once Upon A Time just keeps getting better and better, serving up twists to favorite fairytale characters and their stories. It is also a visual treat. The fairytale world can look both menacing and magical. Especially gorgeous was a scene set on a hilltop at night when Nova, the fairy, and Dreamy the dwarf, surrounded by fireflies, realized that they cared for one another. But the "real" world of Storybrooke is just as visually impressive. The office of the Evil Queen/Mayor is wonderful, with black and white trees printed on wallpaper, stark furnishings and, of course, a bowl of blood-red apples.
It's fun to see old friends from Buffy and Angel. Just a few episodes back Buffy's Anya, Emma Caulfield played Hansel and Gretel's hungry witch. Could the presence of these Actors by the influence of show producer Jane Espenson, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame? Whatever the reason, hopefully Once Upon A Time will continue to give viewers an extra bonus by casting these actors in guest roles.
There was one sour note in the episode, which is hopefully just due to keeping Mary Margaret/Snow White in plot trouble. Mary Margaret is being shunned by most of the citizens of Storybrooke, and called a home-wrecker and much worse for her love for David/Prince Charming. It's more than a little sexist that David seems to get off scot-free, at least as far as scandal is concerned. At the end of "Dreamy" it seemed that this medieval attitude may have been showing signs of weakening, but with all of the strong female characters in Once Upon A Time the treatment of Mary Margaret still stuck out like a very unwelcome sore thumb.
My daughter discovered an animation series at the library, featuring beautifully animated Russian folk and fairytales. Mikhail Barishnikov's Stories from my Childhood features some traditional and familiar fairy tale characters, like Cinderella and Pinocchio, while also telling Russian tales not as familiar to an America audience, such as the wonderful Twelve Months.
This is part one. The rest of the fairy tale can be watched on YouTube.
From imdb: The Twelve Months On the last day of the old year, an old man tells orphan Christina about the unhappy girl queen. Spoiled by her power, she commands winter to leave and her subjects to bring her flowers. Christina's cruel guardian commands her to go to the cold forest in a snowstorm to find the flowers. She meets the Twelve Months in a forest, and April causes snowdrops to grow for her to pick, and gives her a ring so she can call for their help if needed. When she refuses to show the Queen the Twelve Months' hidden lake, the Queen casts away Christina's ring, and the Twelve Months help the queen see her behavior was wrong.
The style of this animation is very painterly. It also reminds me of 1930s -era children's book illustration. Each tale has a unique look. I can't think of a better way to welcome a new year than with this gentle tale full of nature magic. Plus, it's fun to safely and vicariously enjoy the snow.
I can't believe how much I liked Tangled. Our plans for the day took a different turn than originally planned, so I suggested taking the kid to see the latest output from Disney, loosely based on the Rapunzel fairy tale. I settled down to endure, I mean enjoy, another princess movie. Although Disney twisted the original fairy tale a tiny bit to make their new heroine join their princess sorority, that aspect of the tale is the least important. Tangled is not just a fairy tale, but a sassy animated action-adventure, with lots of comedy and a minimum of songs.
This will sound like blasphemy to many, but we had just seen Beauty and the Beast for the first time recently, and apart from the Jerry Orbach "Be Our Guest" number, I really didn't care for it. It's just a matter of taste, but I didn't like Belle's voice. I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, but have always felt that the message of Beauty and the Beast is pretty messed up—Belle supposedly comes to love the Beast no matter what he looks like, but oh what a relief when he is turned into a handsome prince at the very end, just in the nick of time before any bestiality might occur. Talk about the opposite of Shrek, who loves Fiona no matter how she looks. Beauty and the Beast is close to the original fairy tale of course, and the animation is superb, but Angela Lansbury aside, it just wasn't my cup of tea.
But back to Tangled. There are some great scenes and characters. Rapunzel trades barbs with a cute thief (not a prince!) in the best tradition of romantic comedy. Maximus the amazing horse almost steals the movie. And a musical number in a tavern is clearly inspired by Monty Python, which is always a good thing in my book. Tangled is definitely more in the tradition of the Shrek movies than Disney's recent Princess and the Frog. And we all love Shrek around here. The animation is first-rate. We saw it in 3-D and it wasn't too gimmicky. It did give a nice sense of the characters being three-dimensional at times, but it would work just as well in 2-D.
I was happily surprised that I wasn't the only one who felt she was seeing something special. As the movie ended the whole audience broke into applause. I can't remember the last time that happened at a movie I attended, certainly not a "cartoon." I'm actually looking forward to seeing it again, before the holiday season is over. The kid won't even have to twist my arm.
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