Archive | July 19, 2019

The location of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (from “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales,” 1992) is purportedly ancient Greece (specifically Athens, during the preparations for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta), but the fairies who populate the nearby woods are all drawn from the Celtic and Germanic folklore of northern Europe, which makes this a natural segue from the tale of Fionn mac Cumhaill; and the hostility between the estranged king and queen of the fairies and their struggle for control over the Indian prince resembles the hostility between Mozart’s Sarastro and the Queen of the Night, and their struggle for control over Pamina, from before that.

The artistic style for this one reminds me a bit of Gahan Wilson.

Passing from The Magic Flute to Fionn and the Fianna (2001; from “Animated Tales of the World”), but continuing the theme of magical quests, magical tests, and magical gifts – this adaptation of the Irish saga of Fionn mac Cumhaill (a.k.a. Finn MacCool).

Several themes we’ve seen in other stories recur here, such as the chess-playing challenge (The Green Man of Knowledge) and the monster-periodically-attacking-the-royal-hall (Beowulf). And the fact that the monster can be killed only in a doorway (i.e., neither indoors nor outdoors) is another example of the magical-loophole stories I discussed last week.