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fairy tales

Pop Culture

Pop Culture’s Most Complex Cat Characters

By Sarah Fonder on

The Internet loves nothing more than cats, but it’s rare that we look beyond the cute photos and memes to more seriously consider their place in our world. Flavorwire’s Highbrow Cat Week is an attempt to remedy that, with a series of pieces devoted to analyzing their impact on the cultural realm.

Despite their endless dumbing-down at the hands of everyone with a wifi signal and a copy of Photoshop, cats have been rich symbols for thousands of years, commonly associated with intelligence, femininity, evil (more on that later this week), sin, and class. Themes like these prove that there’s a lot behind the surface of our culture’s most ubiquitous animal, and cats continue to be incredibly stimulating subjects in books, movies, and the like. The creators of the following feline characters expanded upon those themes, subverted them, or ignored them completely to create some of culture’s most interesting cats. … Read More

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Art

Charming Fairy Tale Paintings on the Palm of a Hand

By Emily Temple on

Want to catch a little beauty in the palm of your hand? Moscow-based artist and poet Svetlana Kolosova has figured out an adorable way to do just that with her fairy tale-based paintings, each one composed on her own left hand. The paintings, which we spotted over at Wave Avenue, reference classic works by Hans Christian Andersen and even William Shakespeare, and are remarkable in their level of detail — particularly considering they only last for a few hours before being washed away. See a few of our favorites after the jump.

… Read More

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Art

Adorable Gender-Swapped Fairy Tale Princes by Yudi Chen

By Emily Temple on

We’re suckers for anything fairy tale related — especially when it’s a little bit twisted — so of course we fell for Yudi Chen’s charming gender-flipped princes when we spotted them over at io9. After all, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your beard!” does sort of have a nice ring to it. Now all we want is an accompanying story to go with each image — any volunteers? After the jump, see what our picture books might look like if Cinderella was born a man, and then head on over to Chen’s Society6 to buy a print for yourself. … Read More

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Art

Gorgeous, Dark Fairy Tale Illustrations

By Alison Nastasi on

Russian designer and illustrator Nadezhda Illarionova creates entrancing, somber illustrations of fairy tales. Her dark palette shapes murky, shadowed visions of nymphs and hybrid creatures that seem to dwell somewhere in the pages of Grimm’s famous stories. The foreboding works are subtle and mysterious, with gilded highlights peeking out from the darkness. Click through our gallery for more of Illarionova’s beautifully illustrated fables. … Read More

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Art

Wonderful Posters Inspired by Classic Fairy Tales

By Caroline Stanley on

Just last week we looked at the disturbing early versions of some of our favorite fairy tales — we’re talking gruesome stories that make the Brothers Grimm look lighthearted, chock full of stuff like blindings, sexual misconduct, and baby eating. In her ongoing series La Ligue, New York-based illustrator and graphic designer Hae­jeon Jes­sica Lee gives classics like Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast a visual treatment that, while absolutely delightful, taps into the extremely dark nature of the orig­i­nal source mate­r­ial. Click through to see the trio of foldable posters that Lee has created thus far, and check out her website for even more illustrated goodness. … Read More

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Web

Classic Fairy Tales Retold for Twenty-Somethings

By Emily Temple on

Fairy tales are an elemental part of our culture, our world, and the way we tell and experience story. But for some twenty-somethings, tales about losing your way in the forest and getting tricked by wolves don’t really have any resonance — didn’t Little Red Riding Hood have Google Maps? Enter the awesome new Tumblr Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings, pointed out to us by the fine folks at io9, which imagines your favorite characters from fairy tales and children’s books as they might face the world today, embroiled in their quarter-life crises. Luckily, unlike wearing novelty t-shirts, hanging unframed posters on your walls, and staying out all night every night, you’ll never get too old for fairy tales. Click through for a few of our favorites, and then head on over to Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings, or well, follow them on Twitter to see more. … Read More

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Art

Exquisite Bohemian Fairy Tale Illustrations by Artuš Scheiner

By Emily Temple on

We can always count on our friends over at 50 Watts to introduce us to gorgeous vintage illustration from around the world, so it’s no surprise that it was there that we stumbled over the sublime fairy tale illustration work of Artuš Scheiner, a Bohemian artist working in Prague at the turn of the century. If you can believe it, Scheiner was a completely self-taught financial clerk, who began drawing as a hobby — if only our own hobbies turned out so well. Click through to see some of our favorites from Scheiner’s extensive body of work, and then head here to see many more. … Read More

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Art

Little Wolf Riding Hood and Other Fractured Fairy Tales

By Emily Temple on

This weekend, a deliciously irreverent art show entitled Fractured Fairy Tales opened at WWA Gallery in California’s Culver City. WWA is the sister gallery to the Wonderful World of Animation, it’s no wonder that they curated this particular show, which presents a slightly skewed view of your favorite fairy tales and legends. After all, when will we ever get tired of irreverent retellings of the stories of our childhood? We say probably never. Click through to see a selection of our favorite pieces from the new show, and if you’re in the area, be sure to head on over now through August 11th and check it out! … Read More

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Art

Storybook Fantasies: 10 Classic Children’s Fairy Tale Illustrators

By Alison Nastasi on

In a world where it’s not uncommon for children to own electronic devices that are far superior to the phones the rest of us have been holding together with duct tape until our next paycheck, International Children’s Book Day is a beacon of hope. The celebration honors the import role reading plays in healthy child development, aiming to instill a lifelong love of printed works for young bookworms across the world. The event coincides with Hans Christian Andersen‘s birthday — the Danish author whose fairy tale gems like The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Snow Queen have delighted the minds and hearts of readers big and small.

Children’s storybook illustrators have been bringing the tales of Andersen and other authors to life for eons, offering an imaginative entryway into each fable’s unique universe — many of the artworks now inseparable from the books. With this in mind, we wanted to share the incredible creations of several famed fairy tale illustrators. Click through for more, and tell us who captures your imagination most in the comments section. … Read More

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Film

10 Twisted Fairy Tales on Film

By Alison Nastasi on

IFC Films’ Sleeping Beauty — the Jane Campion “presented” movie directed by Australian novelist Julia Leigh — slinks into theaters this Friday. Sounding more like Anne Rice’s sadomasochistic Sleeping Beauty trilogy than the classic tale we knew as children, the film finds Emily Browning as a university student who gets wrapped up in an erotic whirlwind with a dark twist we’ll let you discover for yourself.

Many films have lifted the veil on fairy tale fantasies, revealing the depraved, pitch-black narratives hiding in literature’s fabled legends. One flip through the storybook confirms that our childhood fantasies were a treasure trove of primal fears and sexual anxiety. Coming-of-age nightmares, patriarchal distress, and feminine paranoia are just a few of the Grimm-inspired subjects that Hollywood has explored in its retelling of these mythic stories. Click through for a look at ten films that put a dark twist on our favorite fairy tales. … Read More

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