Prince Harry to Marry Former Sleeping Beauty

Five years before Prince Harry proposed, Meghan Markle was already a fairy tale princess. The American actress, best known for her role as Rachel Zane on the legal drama Suits, guest starred as Sleeping Beauty in a 2012 episode of the crime drama Castle. In the episode “Once Upon A Crime,” (season 4, episode 17), …

Follow the White Rabbit

The following is a guest post written by Erica Smith, who was enrolled in Dr. Rudy’s 394R class Winter Semester. This was a final writing assignment for Applied English Visualizing Wonder: Fairy Tales and Television. We hope you enjoy!   When Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was published in 1865, it was received as …

Henry Mills, Child in Distress

Written by Erica Smith, one of our new team members! The traditional fairy tales which Once Upon A Time adapts often cast women in the role of damsel-in-distress. Since Once Upon A Time is structured around empowering the adult woman, Henry, a male child, steps in whenever the story calls for a “damsel” character. Targeted …

Unbirthday Tea Party: “We’re All Mad Here” Event Recap

Our 4th annual Unbirthday Tea Party brought in a wide variety of Alice fans and fairy tale fans alike. Everyone knows that our research team is mad about fairy tales, and we wanted to share that passion by discussing the portrayal of madness in Alice in Wonderland adaptations across time. As the audience enjoyed tea …

OUAT Premiere Screening — Event Recap

Once Upon A Time. At the end of a six-season run with a well-established finale, on the brink of a new curse to reset season 7, we meet as viewers, as scholars, as audience members and fairy tale enthusiasts, to discuss this show’s past, present, and future. Is Once Upon A Time a high-profile breakthrough for the …

Once Upon A Time Event: October 13th!

The BYU Fairy Tales & Television Group is having an event and we would like you all to join us! As you read about in Erica’s post, season 7 of Once Upon A Time is going to look a little different. After the two-part, tied-in-a-bow season 6 finale titled “The Final Battle,” which ended with a …

When is a Tale not a Fairy Tale?: “OUAT” 5.1 Review PART 1

  Season five is now upon us! The glitzy, cringe-fest, character-studded opera that we love, hate, and hate to admit we love, is back. ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT) opened its season five with “The Dark Swan,” returning to the dilemma we last left: will Emma be more Savior or Dark One? MINING WHAT MATTERED That said, …

Redheads and…Dead Heads?: “OUAT” 5.1 Review PART 2

  We return to the season five premiere of ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT), which we first covered in this post. OUAT is known for its character-a-minute cameos, but this week featured the best untamed mane in the business: Merida, from Disney/Pixar’s Brave.   AUDIENCE ACCESSIBILITY It’s a good season for Disney/Pixar’s Brave–not only does Merida appear in this premiere but she’ll …

Beauties and Beasts on TV: The Problem with Rumbelle

In honor of BYU’s December stage production of “Beauty and the Beast,” we will be looking at the lovely beauties and the brutish beasts on our weekly television screens. And luckily, we have a slew to choose from. Courtesy of our twin site, FTTV.byu.edu, we are able to trace the tale’s appearance on numerous shows from …