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This film reviews feature examines two relatively recent films featuring mythological creatures. The first rating presented for each film is an overall rating, while the second "Creature" rating judges the quality of the film's representation of mythological creatures, based on realism, originality, folkloric or literary accuracy, the film's portrayal of folklore transmission, or a combination of these factors.
Rating: 4/5 Creature Rating: 4.5/5
In 1917, when Britain was exhausted from war and hungry for a taste of magic, two young girls from West Yorkshire captured the attention of the world when they borrowed their father's camera and produced what they presented as photos of actual fairies dancing in their garden. This film cleverly relates the events surrounding the Case of the Cottingley Fairies , and speaks as much to adults through its portrayal of the Fairy craze at large as it does to children through its young protagonists. Among those caught up in the fairy glamour are the famous theosophist Edward Gardner and the celebrated author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . The third highly visible figure in the Cottingley Fairy controversy is the master illusionist Harry Houdini. Although the actual Cottingley Fairy case remained unproven for several years, and was regarded as a symbol of hope for many years, the photographs were finally exposed as a hoax in 1980, when one of the two girls involved at last admitted that the photos were staged. In spite of this mundane fact, the film insists on the possibility that the fairies are real, presenting them to the children as beautifully rendered apparitions even as the adults fiercely debate their existence. The film's gorgeous animated fairies are presented as both real and impossibly elusive to those who do not seek them out, and, in true mythical fairy fashion, seem to enjoy the confusion their elusiveness creates among mortals. Although cut-outs of fairies, which could be used to stage photographs in the manner revealed in 1980, appear in a scene toward the end of the film, actual animated fairies have already made several appearances by this time. Although the inconspicuous nature of the fairy creatures is what allows the film's sly suggestion of staged photographs co-existing with actual fairies, many viewers have been disappointed by the fact that the fairies, though tantalizingly beautiful when they do appear, receive very little screen time.
The copyright of the article Mythical Reviews: The Odyssey(1997) and Fairy Tale: A True Story in Monster Legends is owned by Sarah Davis. Permission to republish Mythical Reviews: The Odyssey(1997) and Fairy Tale: A True Story in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Sarah Davis's Monster Legends topic, please visit the Discussions page. |
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