A re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story that's meant to be empowering for women but unfortunately Blackwell has stripped out all the traditional magic and replaced it with her own mash up of romantic stereotypes and superficial feminism. The sum total of her research seems to have been the Disney film. The characters are wooden, the writing is clunky, and the plot creaks like a cart with mismatched wheels.
Click HERE for an interview with the author.
Robin McKinley's Spindle's End and Jane Yolen's Briar Rose both offer better variations on the Sleeping Beauty story.
And if you are looking for something recent and really original, watch the PBS "Great Performances" DVD of Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty ballet, with its entirely new slant on the old story that marries Tchaikovsky's wonderful music with great choreography and ingenious stagecraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment