New Book: Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney: International Perspectives

Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney: International Perspectives by Jack Zipes (Editor), Pauline Greenhill (Editor), Kendra Magnus-Johnston (Editor) was released last week. I haven't seen a copy of yet, so this is just in nature of my usual book announcements.

Book description:

The fairy tale has become one of the dominant cultural forms and genres internationally, thanks in large part to its many manifestations on screen. Yet the history and relevance of the fairy-tale film have largely been neglected. In this follow-up to Jack Zipes’s award-winning book The Enchanted Screen (2011), Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney offers the first book-length multinational, multidisciplinary exploration of fairy-tale cinema. Bringing together twenty-three of the world’s top fairy-tale scholars to analyze the enormous scope of these films, Zipes and colleagues Pauline Greenhill and Kendra Magnus-Johnston present perspectives on film from every part of the globe, from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, to Jan Švankmajer’s Alice, to the transnational adaptations of 1001 Nights and Hans Christian Andersen.

Contributors explore filmic traditions in each area not only from their different cultural backgrounds, but from a range of academic fields, including criminal justice studies, education, film studies, folkloristics, gender studies, and literary studies. Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney offers readers an opportunity to explore the intersections, disparities, historical and national contexts of its subject, and to further appreciate what has become an undeniably global phenomenon.

Table of Contents:

Foreword and Acknowledgements Jack Zipes
Preface: Traveling Beyond Disney Kendra Magnus-Johnston, Pauline Greenhill, and Lauren Bosc
1. The Great Cultural Tsunami of Fairy-Tale Films Jack Zipes
2. "My Life as a Fairy Tale": The Fairy Tale Author in Popular Cinema Kendra Magnus-Johnston
3. Spectacle of the Other: Recreating A Thousand and One Nights in Film Sofia Samatar
4. British Animation and the Fairy-Tale Tradition: Housetraining the Id Paul Wells
5. The Fairy-Tale Film in France: Postwar Reimaginings Anne Duggan
6. The Checkered Reception of Fairy-Tale Films in the Germany of the Brothers Grimm Jack Zipes
7. Fairy-Tale Films in Italy Cristina Bacchilega
8. The Fairy-Tale Film in Scandinavia Elisabeth Oxfeldt
9. "To Catch Up and Overtake Disney?" Soviet and Post-Soviet Fairy-Tale Films, Marina Balina and Birgit Beumers
10. The Czech and Slovak Fairy-Tale Film Peter Hames
11. Polish Fairy-Tale Film: 130 Years of Innovation and Counting Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak and Marek Oziewicz
12. Not Always Happily Ever After: Japanese Fairy Tales in Cinema and Animation, Susan Napier
13. The Love Story, Female Images, and Gender Politics: Folktale Films in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Jing Li
14. "It’s all a Fairy Tale": A Folklorist’s Reflection on Storytelling in Popular Hindi Cinema, Sadhana Naithani
15. The Fairy-Tale Film in Korea, Sung-Ae Lee
16. Stick Becoming Crocodile: African Fairy-Tale Film Jessica Tiffin
17. Australian Fairy Tale Films Elizabeth Bullen and Naarah Sawers
18. Fairy-Tale Films in Canada/Canadian Fairy-Tale Films Pauline Greenhill and Steven Kohm
19. The Fairy-Tale Film in Latin America Laura Hubner
20. Beyond Disney in the Twenty-First Century: Changing Aspects of Fairy-Tale Films in the American Film Industry Jack Zipes

Reviews:

"Fairy tales, like the air we breathe, surround us constantly and, usually, transparently in contemporary media cultures. Zipes and his collaborators explore these narratives that we take for granted, exposing the inanity of most Hollywood productions and bringing to light the transgressive, creative cinemas of independent and international filmmakers. We'll never think 'happily ever after' again without a pause to reflect on the implications." ―Donald Crafton, author of Shadow of a Mouse: Performance, Belief, and World-Making in Animation

"Thinking globally and acting locally, Jack Zipes and his collaborators have produced a landmark volume that reveals how fairy-tale enchantments have worked their magic in cinematic productions the world over. The partnership between film and fairy tale, we suddenly discover, is exactly what the dream factory needs to create its coming attractions." ―Maria Tatar, Harvard University, author of The Annotated Brothers Grimm

"This incomparable book of essays projects a panoramic view of fairy-tale films that is only possible when a multidisciplinary team of talented scholars collaborates. With its international scope and expert analyses, Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney lifts the curtain on spectacular realms from around the world." ―Donald Haase, Professor of German and Senior Associate Dean at Wayne State University