CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

The Vulture column at online arts ezine New York Entertainment has collated a slideshow of clips from twelve children’s films that have caused, or could now cause, controversy. They include:

• The new kid on the block – Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
• The Black Cauldron (1985) adapted from Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain
• Little Buddha (1993)
• A Disney trio: Dumbo (1941), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Peter Pan (1953)
• North (1994)
• Song of the South (1946) adapted from Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories
• The 5000 Fingers of Dr T (1953)  – a Theodore Geisel affair, later disowned by him
• The Thief and the Cobbler (1964) – based on stories from the Arabian Nights
• Babe : Pig in the City (1998)
• The Brave Little Toaster (1987) adapted from a novel by Thomas M. Disch

More here about the brouhaha that Wild Things is generating, but for the rest, see the annotations on the slideshow.

The link to this fascinating piece of film history was first spotted on the educating alice blog.

With the arrival in cinemas this month of Li Cunxin’s story of peasant to international ballet star,  TrailerTuesday this week focuses on Mao’s Last Dancer – the books, the picture book and the film.

Dig deeper

The man

• Li Cunxin’s website
• Biography (from the website)
• Interview (ABC RN’s Life matters – podcast, 2007 )
• Interview (Radio New Zealand National – podcast 2007)
• Interview (Ballet Magazine UK, 2003)
• Interview with Peter Thompson, Part 1 (Talking Heads 2006, ABC TV) Transcript only
• Interview with Peter Thompson, Part 2 (Talking Heads 2006, ABC TV) Transcript only
• Article – Dance of the peasant prince (SMH 2003)

The texts

Adult edition (2003)

• Extract
• Fiction Focus review
• SMH review 2003

Awards

• Joint winner – Australian Booksellers Association – 2004
• Short list – National Biography Award – 2005
• Short list – Australian Book Industry Awards (International Success) – 2008
• Short list – Courier Mail Book of the Year – 2004

Young readers edition (2005)

• Extract
• Teaching Notes
• CMIS Review

Awards

• Winner – 2008 Young Australian Best Book Award (YABBA) - Fiction for Years 7-9
• Winner – 2008 Kids Own Australian Literature Award (KOALA)  - Fiction for Years 7-9
• Short-listed – 2008 COOL Award - Fiction for Years 7-9
• Short-listed – 2008 KROC Award - Fiction for Years 7-9

The Peasant Prince, with Anne Spudvilas (2007)

Published in US as Dancing to Freedom (2008)

• CMIS review
• PaperTigers blog post
• Adaptation – Adelaide Arts Festival 2009. Review
  

Awards

• Winner – Australian Book Industry Awards - Children’s Book  – 2008
• Winner – Queensland Premier’s Literary Award - Children’s Book  – 2008
• Winner – NSW Premier’s Literary Award – Patricia Wrightson Award – 2008
• Honour Book – CBCA Picture Book of the Year – 2008

The film

• Website
• Reviews

The history

• Webquest on the Cultural Revolution (from ThinkQuest)
• Film clips and teaching notes from Australian Screen

Nothing beats having the real thing in your hand as you read, but if you haven’t read Coraline yet, make a start at the HarperCollins Browse Inside site before the film is released.

He’s having a great week. A few links:

• Articles from The Guardian, New York Times and the Washington Post
  
• Short video interview on MNSBC (with Caldecott winner Beth Krommes). Note: advertisements
• His blog and Twitter
  
• His reading (on video) of The Graveyard Book. Yes, the whole book (and hasn’t he the most delicious voice!)
• The news about the film
• Where he gets his ideas

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.

With the Twilight movie opening big, big, big in the USA last weekend, and the fans here impatiently awaiting its Aussie release, Sarah Seltzer has some useful things to say about vampires on her Reality Check blog:

This not the first time vampires in pop culture have been a perfect expression of the currents and anxieties of their time. In fact, one might argue that that is their purpose.

With immortality, a killer instinct, and a life on the fringes, Vampires are a perfect conduit for musings on the human condition.

The movie of John Boyne’s novel opens in the US this week. Here’s the website and here’s the trailer:

Neil Gaiman’s wonderfully dark and scary Coraline will be on the screen early in 2009. The website gives a taste of what we can expect, along with the trailer.