Beauty and the Beast Retellings

Disney just released a teaser trailer for their Beauty and the Beast live action film. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a link you the video. I’ve already played it several times! I like what I’ve seen, so far. Really can’t wait to see the movie. Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite fairy tale and I have a feeling this movie will be a good one.

Robin McKinley’s Beauty with Ipanema Beauty and the Beast flipflops in the background

Seeing the teaser trailer has me craving for a good Beauty and the Beast retelling. My favorite is still Beauty by Robin McKinley and I haven’t found another one that I’ve loved just as much. I remember enjoying Rose Daughter and Cruel Beauty when I read them but the rest of the titles I’ve read weren’t so memorable. Since I’m such a big fan of this fairy tale, I usually check out recommendations of other readers and bloggers whenever they mention a Beauty and the Beast retelling that they’ve liked. I’ve read quite a few of them and wanted to enumerate the titles before asking for recommendations. These were the ones that I’ve tried:

Aside from these titles, are there any other Beauty and the Beast retellings that you’d recommend? 🙂 Would love to discover more retellings of this particular fairy tale.

Movie Review: Tangled

I know I usually don’t post anything non-book-related here on the blog but I couldn’t help but bring up Disney’s Tangled since I thoroughly enjoyed watching it yesterday. A fairy tale retelling with a thief as one of the main characters? Definitely my kind of thing. I’ve been waiting for this movie to be shown here in the Philippines since last year so when I found out that there’s an advanced screening yesterday, I headed off to watch it right after work. I grew up watching Disney’s princesses films so I have a soft spot for those and I’ll watch any princess film that they produce on the big screen.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with Rapunzel’s tale so there’s no need for me to fill you in. I like where Disney went with this retelling, coming up with a reasonable explanation for why Rapunzel was stolen as a baby and kept locked in a tower. Both the main characters – Rapunzel and Flynn – are fully fleshed out and very easy to like. Rapunzel is determined to be capable even if she doesn’t know much about the outside world and she manages to do just that, using her hair as a lasso (somewhat similar to Shannon Hale’s Rapunzel’s Revenge) and her frying pan as her weapon of choice. I’m thrilled by Disney’s choice of a male protagonist because as I’ve said often enough here on the blog, I have a certain fondness for thieves. Don’t get me wrong, princes are appealing and all but charming thieves have more character. There were moments of hilarity, typical in a film for kids, and I found myself chuckling along with the rest of the audience. But overall, I find the whole movie heartwarming and I’m sure there are a lot of things in the movie that adults will also find enjoyable. I highly recommend this film to anyone who’s interested in a fun and feel good movie, especially if you’re a fan of fairy tales. Tangled will be shown in cinemas in Manila by February 2.

Oh and here are the characters promoting reading because of a Read.gov campaign:

Aww isn’t that cute? Click here to watch the trailer, in case you haven’t seen it. LOL at the smolder.

Now I’m more curious about fairy tale retellings of Rapunzel. I’ve only read Zel by Donna Jo Napoli so if you have other suggestions, please let me know.