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Dark/Twisted fairy tales (movies)?
Alfred J. Kwak
is it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered User regular
is it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered User regular
That's right, what I'm looking for are movie adoptations of popular fairy tales with a dark twist/modern gritty fairy tales. Quality ones, anyway.
Movies I liked: Coraline (and all the other Stop-Motion movies), Pan's Labyrinth, Spirited Away
Movies I didn't like: Tim Burton's Alice, The Brothers Grimm
And related to the topic, what are the opinions on The Princess Bride and The Fall?
Movies I liked: Coraline (and all the other Stop-Motion movies), Pan's Labyrinth, Spirited Away
Movies I didn't like: Tim Burton's Alice, The Brothers Grimm
And related to the topic, what are the opinions on The Princess Bride and The Fall?
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PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
To clarify, movies only need to be fairy tale-esque, if that makes any sense.
edit: Stardust is the movie I was thinking of that is similar in style to The Princess Bride. There's also yet another that I saw within the last 1-2 years on TV (so it could be somewhat older) that I can't think of... girl lived in New York or the like, sucked into fantasy world, falls in love, saves world, has to chose to live in her world in the end... wtf was that?
Understood. Then yeah, City of Lost Children. Was hoping it was on netflix instant queue, but I just checked. No dice.
I'll try to think of more while I do boring spreadsheets.
That movie doesn't age super well, so if there's no nostalgia factor it might not work out. I guess give it a shot anyway, but always keep in mind when it was made.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Well, I already hated these movies when I was a kid. :P
Except my wife.
But maybe it's because she was a fresh foreign exchange student at the time. With 5 additional years of Americanization maybe she'll appreciate it more now.
Also, Startdust was OK. The book was much better.
I think the third movie I was thinking of was MirrorMask. The wikipedia entry isn't 100% what I remember, but seems very close, so either it's the same movie or it's a 4th movie, because I've definitely seen MirrorMask and enjoyed it.
MirrorMask is a Jim Henson film, if that means anything. You would probably call it a more modern "fairy tale," but it's rather enjoyable nevertheless.
Not only is it just what you're looking for, it has some of the best special effects I have ever seen.
And yeah, Mirrormask is good stuff too. I mean, it's essentially Labyrinth, with slight differences and modern special effects. And Dave McKean's art is awesome. It translated really well into live-action form.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
The 10th Kingdom. Probably. Not at all dark, though.
And I just read that MirrorMask was written by Neil Gaiman, so now I absolutely have to see it.
Mirrormask was awesome.
Yeah, it's in his OP already.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Stardust is Gaiman too. Based on a short story type thing he wrote. Geared somewhat to younger audiences but good for adults too. That's pretty much his MO when it comes to writing most stories for children/young adults anyway.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Actually, Stardust was the one time where I thought the movie vastly improved on the book. Gaiman has this thing about not really establishing a characters motivation very well; sometimes they just do things for no real reason. Stardust is a prime example of that (the book, not the movie).
For a modern take on a fairy tale I would recommend the movie Freeway, with Reese Witherspoon and Keifer Southerland. It's a modern take on Little Red Riding Hood, and something about it is just awesome.
I loved Mirrormask, but the music was AWFUL. Smooth jazz. Ugh.
You would also probably like Neverwhere. It was a six episode mini-series in England. It's also written by Neil Gaiman.
Oh well.
I never really thought about that before, but it's true. Sometimes that feels like a good thing, other times, not so much. I liked it in American Gods. You have to sort of fill in the blanks yourself of what Shadow thinks and feels.
And now I googled it ... yep, that's dark and twisted alright.
In that case, I actually enjoyed Enchanted. It's not very dark, but it's cute and funny.
I've heard good things about "The Dark Crystal," but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
wiki says it's a fantasy-musical film? o_O
You should seriously rectify that. The Dark Crystal is fantastic.
Also, if it doesn't have to be an actual fairy tale, I'd like to throw Dark City into the ring.
Both Mirrormask and Stardust were written by Neil Gaiman - well, Stardust was adapted from his book.
LEGEND
The Black Cauldron
Willow
edit: If you like anime
Samurai Champloo
Record of Lodoss War
Err, explain this please - isn't it just about a bunch of Samurais in medieval Japan?
Not exactly. It's a pretty odd story. It's about a convict swordsman, a little girl trying to find her father and a trained swordfighter/samurai.
It reminds me a lot of Cowboy Bebop in that there's some really fucked up shit that you can't help but be amazed at.
Jan puts his insane stop-motion animation to amazing use to give the tree-creature life, and the rest of the movie has his typical insane sense of humor. It's hilarious, creepy, and utterly bizarre. Everything it sounds like you're looking for.
EDIT: Also, if you like Pan's Labyrinth, you need to see Guillermo del Toro's Cronos. It's technically a vampire movie, but it's approach to vampirism is very much a fantasy approach, where it stems from alchemy rather than the supernatural, and it's just an AMAZING movie. All of Guillermo del Toro's films are great (and similar in tone), but Cronos is my favorite.
EDIT EDIT: And the hyperactive Tony Scott-esque action movie Running Scared (2006) is worth mentioning for it's bizarre Brother's Grimm approach to the inner city. It's kind of hard to describe, but the movie is essentially a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Sort of.
But that begs the question -- for you, does "Fairy Tale" mean it involves children/young people?
That was going to be my suggestion as well, a bit surprised that anyone else had thought of it.
If you get really stuck for options, which it doesn't look like you will, there's also a certain Red Riding Hood element to Hard Candy, but it's not exactly fairy tale-esque.
Not dark, but definitely geared more for adults. I thought it was actually pretty good. Older than 1-2 years, though, it was from around the turn of the century. That feels weird to say.
Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Stardust, and Dark Crystal are amazing.
I thought Black Cauldron sucked (if we're talking about the animated Disney movie), but maybe that's because I'd read the books, which they butchered.
I'd say no - take Burton's Alice for instance, who is 20 in the movie. It just so happens that many of the lead roles in this kind of movie are young characters.
I'll try to compile a list of all the suggestions so far:
City of Lost Children
Stardust
MirrorMask
Labyrinth
The 10th Kingdom
Motorama
Wristcutters
Neverwhere
Enchanted
Labyrinth
Freeway
The Dark Crystal
Dark City
LEGEND
The Black Cauldron
Willow
Samurai Champloo
Record of Lodoss War
Ink
Little Otik
Cronos
Running Scared
Delicatessen
Hard Candy
The Neverending Story
Pinocchio's Revenge
Hellboy 2
Oh, I'm pretty sure that some of these movies don't either fit into the "fairy tale" or "quality" department, but it looks like a good list to me. Anything I'm missing?
I'll also just reiterate The Dark Crystal, Dark City, Willow, Labyrinth, and Mirrormask.
Is a fucking great movie.
Yeah, I moved it to the top of my 'to see'-list since everyone is telling me that. What about The Fall, though?