Of Slippers and Spindles - Fairy Tale Retellings and Adaptations in Books, Film, and Theatre

This month we're mixing it up! Rather than focusing on various retellings of a specific tale like we usually we do, we're spending the entire month of November on just one retelling! In this episode, we start by wrapping up our final thoughts on Jack and the Beanstalk by recapping some of the recurring ideas that we found throughout the various retellings we looked at in October. We also...

"All the wealth, all the power, everything we have springs from the greed of your ancestor."  In the final week of Jack and the Beanstalk month, Drew and Cassie discuss Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story. This retelling is a 3-episode mini-series from Hallmark that aired in 2001 and features an all-star cast that includes Matthew Modine, Jon Voight, Mia Sara, Vanessa Redgrave, Richar...

All right, friends, this is a fun one.  Drew and Cassie are here to duke it out over a disagreement that has lasted many years! This week's retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk is The World Above by Cameron Dokey. This is the last book in the Once Upon A Time book series, which ran from 2002-2010 and retold various fairy tales as written by different authors. Cameron Dokey's take on the J...

This week, we return to one of the queens of fairy tale retellings, Donna Jo Napoli. Her reimagining of the Jack and the Beanstalk tale, Crazy Jack , came out in 1999 and focuses on a Jack who is dealing with the trauma of losing his father. When a handful of beans provide a possible clue to his father's disappearance seven years ago, Jack can't stop himself from chasing the truth. Drew...

"Fee, fi, fo, fum, Ask not whence the thunder comes For between heaven and earth is a perilous place Home to a fearsome giant race." For our first week of Jack and the Beanstalk Month, Drew and Cassie are here to talk about Jack the Giant Slayer! This 2013 film has an all-star cast including Nicholas Holt, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, and Bill Nighy. Alon...

It's time to let Little Red skip off into the woods and climb into the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk! Drew and Cassie give their final thoughts on Little Red Riding Hood, including how they have interpreted the story in their own writing. Then we work our way through an examination of October's tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. Plus, we reveal the criteria for Jack and which retellings we&a...

"What big ears you have!" "All the better to hear your many criticisms with." It's episode 40! Drew and Cassie are here to talk about this week's retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, Hoodwinked ! We discuss this movie's shockingly star-studded including Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Jim Belushi, David Ogden Stiers, and Andy Dick. We take a look a...

"Whatever creature you turn into, whatever form you take, I won't let go of you."  In our third week of Little Red Riding Hood Month, Drew and Cassie discuss Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge . We once again find ourselves asking the question, "What does it take to count a book or movie as a true adaptation?" This novel, purported to be "inspired by" the story of L...

"Funny, that we always told stories with wolves and beasts and demons as villains, but in real life it seemed the humans were always the worst enemies." For our second week of Little Red Riding Hood Month, we are journeying back into the world of the (Fairly) True Tales Series through the third book in the sreies, Red by Liesl Shurtliff ! After we thoroughly enjoyed Shurtliff's Grum...

"I know there must be a God, because you're the devil."  It's officially the first week of Little Red Riding Hood month! This week's retelling is Red Riding Hood , the 2011 film starring Amanda Seyfried. We start off by discussing the importance of the year this movie came out and its promotional tactics, then we dive into this werewolf mystery. Did Cassie figure out who t...

We're back! After our hiatus, Drew and Cassie return to the podcast full time! September's fairy tale is Little Red Riding Hood, so we discuss the history of the tale and break down some of the major differences between the most well-known versions as recorded by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. If it's been a while since you've read them, you may be surprised at the en...

We're not fully back, but we're briefly back! Since we've been on hiatus since February, Drew and Cassie give an update on how our lives have changed over the past few months, and then we give our final thoughts on the retellings of Snow White we looked at so long ago. We discuss Disney's influence on the tale's prevalence in our culture, thoughts on some adaptations we di...

"Some day my prince will come..."  Well, today is "some day" and this episode is your prince! We recorded this episode back in February, and extenuating circumstances delayed it's release, but it's finally here! You can enjoy Drew and Cassie's debate once again as we disagree on Snow White's personality but agree that the sequence where the Evil Queen rushin...

Of Slippers and Spindles is taking an indefinite hiatus while Drew deals with some health issues. We hope to be back with you soon. 

"If the love you for anything, it will be your beauty."  In the third week of our Snow White Month, Drew and Cassie are here to discuss Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust. This 2017 novel switches perspectives between two characters: Mina, who learns that her magician father replaced her true heart with a heart of glass and eventually ascends to the role of queen in a ki...

"Lips red as blood, hair black as night, bring me your heart, my dear, dear Snow White." This week, Drew and Cassie are joined by Maggie and V from the I Met You On LJ podcast to talk about the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth! We discuss the film's strengths and weaknesses, world-building, bird imagery, Jupiter Asc...

"Life is one big mirror. That which we put out into the world will always come back to us." We're kicking off our Snow White Month with the middle grade book Grump by Liesl Shurtliff ! This take on the fairy tale is told from the perspective of Borlen a.k.a. Grump, one of the seven dwarfs. Having spent his whole life underground but wishing to visit the surface, Borlen finds himself...

It's time to let The Little Mermaid sail off into the sunset as we end January and bite into a new fairy tale for February: Snow White! We start off this episode wrapping up our final thoughts on The Little Mermaid, including our own ideas for how we would like to retell the story ourselves. Then we sink our teeth into the history of Snow White and summarize the version told by the Brothers G...

"Watch and you'll see, someday I'll be part of your world!" It's Disney week, and Drew and Cassie are here to battle it out! We break down the story, characters, music, and more of Disney's 1989 animated film , and explore further into changes made for the 2008 stage adaptation . We discuss the incorporation of Broadway-style storytelling, Triton as a father figure, D...

"There's something a little monstrous in both of us. And maybe it has to be that way for us to survive."  In the third week of our Little Mermaid Month, we read The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember ! This 2017 novel tells the story of Ersel, a mermaid living in frozen seas far north, who becomes entangled in the tricky dealings of the Norse god Loki. Among other things, we discus...

"Go and you will see that nothing is as wonderful as our dreams can make it."  In our second week of Little Mermaid Month, we are looking at Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon . This 2011 novel alternates points of view between Lenia, the mermaid, and Margrethe, the princess on the beach who finds the prince, as their lives entwine closer and closer together until they reach an unexpected ending...

"You will be will be eternal like a dream."  We open our month of discussing The Little Mermaid with the 1976 live action Russian film, Rusalochka . This movie makes some big - and often bizarre - changes to the original tale, and we're here to break it down! We talk about a little mermaid who keeps her voice, the random isolated musical numbers, new characters, whiplash plot points...

It's time to close the book on Beauty and the Beast and dive into The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen! We first discuss our main takeaways from Beauty and the Beast and how we would like to retell it as writers ourselves. Then we break down the original story of The Little Mermaid, including discussion of birthday buddies, the tale's true ending, the time Drew played the Prince...

"Now I know she'll never leave me, even as she runs away..."  We're back for Part 2! In the second helping of our conversation about Disney's Beauty and the Beast , we break down the 2017 live action reboot, the movie's presence in the theme parks, and our adaptation criteria. This time we talk about changes both big and small, character revisions, the yellow dress, t...

"For who could ever learn to love a beast?"  We could! This episode begins our discussion of a masterpiece among the Disney animated canon and a masterpiece when it comes to adapting Beauty and the Beast . In fact, our conversation went so long that we're bringing it to you in two parts! In today's episode, we recap the 1991 animated classic and discuss how it was reimagined fo...