Of Slippers and Spindles - Fairy Tale Retellings and Adaptations in Books, Film, and Theatre

Drew RothhaarFebruary 16, 1990 - February 21, 2023"To die will be an awfully big adventure."Thank you all so much for being part of our lives the past two years.

Sadly, we are here to wrap up our final thoughts on Of Slippers and Spindles. Drew and Cassie return for one last episode to explain the sudden hiatus that began in December and has now led to the decision to end the show. In true Of Slippers and Spindles style, we each give three final book recommendations: three retelling novels we wanted to cover on the podcast and are disappointed we didn't get to. But before we go, we celebrate one major goal that we were able to accomplish! Thank you all so much for listening, supporting, and going on this journey with us! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Drew and Cassie begin our journey into The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen with a look at the 1977 anime film from Toei Animation. The anime is a pretty straightforward retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's tale, although it takes several cues from Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm as well. We discuss our experiences with anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the incredible sound effects, Eliza's tear friends, swans bartering for goods, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's time to tie up one fairy tale and fly into the next one! Drew and Cassie begin by giving their final thoughts on the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, including our ideas on how we would interpret the story ourselves. Then we begin our discussion of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, which starts with the story of Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm. We talk through each of these stories and note their differences, and then we finish by revealing the four retellings we will be looking at through December!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

For our final week of Rumpelstiltskin Month, Drew and Cassie are delighted to be joined by Bethanie from Prince Kai Fan Pod to discuss Gilded and Cursed, the recently-completed YA duology by Marissa Meyer. This duology centers around Serilda, the daughter of a miller who was blessed by the god of fate and fortune and who is known for the fantastical stories she tells. When she comes face-to-face with the dangerous Erlking, her ability to tell stories gets her in trouble when she claims to spin straw into gold. Locked away in his castle, all seems hopeless - until a young man named Gild appears and offers to help. We discuss Marissa Meyer's use of names, the meanings behind some of the location names, Gilded vs. Wicked word counts, Cassie's lack of trust in Marissa, Cassie's fondness for banter, and so much more! And of course, we wrap up by revealing next month's fairy tale! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Drew and Cassie are thrilled to be joined by Kimmy and Ryan from the Aloreing podcast for our third week of Rumpelstiltskin Month! We return once again to Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre to discuss the second episode of the series, Rumpelstiltskin, starring Shelley Duvall herself as the Miller's Daughter. This episode of the show is a relatively straight forward adaptation of the Brothers Grimm story, and though it gets goofy, it doesn't go off the rails nearly as much as some of the other episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre! Along the way, we discuss Shelley Duvall's wig, the trumpeter's wig, the trumpet itself, Shrek, Dwight Schrute, Li'l Sebastian, and more!Check out Kimmy and Ryan and Aloreing anywhere you listen to podcasts and at aloreing.com/links!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's week 2 of Rumpelstiltskin Month, and Drew and Cassie are back to dive into Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen. This is the story of two spinners. The first, a man who renames nameless throughout the book, hones his craft at a stolen wheel, crippling his leg, turning a room full of straw into a golden dress for his beloved - and losing her in the process. The second is Saskia, the daughter of a miller, a young girl who teaches herself to craft beautiful, unique yarns. And then the king learns of Saskia's talent, bringing the two spinners together. Tune in for some strong opinions about some of the genius ways this book retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin - and one devastating way in which it misses the mark!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

For our first week of Rumpelstiltskin Month, Drew and Cassie are discussing A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce. This 2008 YA novel follows Charlotte Miller, a young woman who inherits her father's mill upon his death. Although there are rumors that the mill is cursed, Charlotte has never believed them - but it's hard to deny the bad luck that piles up as workers depart, impossible debts are revealed, and an domineering uncle enters the scene. But then a strange man named Jack Spinner offers to help, and Charlotte finds herself caught up in his bargains until she can unravel the truth of who he is, what he wants, and why - and the mill, her community, and her family are at stake. Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's our 100th episode! Drew and Cassie celebrate by answering questions sent in by our amazing listeners, patrons, and supporters. We tell the origin story of the podcast and then we dive into the amazingly thoughtful questions you all sent in. We discuss our favorite episodes of the podcast, fairy tales we'll cover in the future, favorite tales from outside Europe, favorite books and TV shows, writing advice, Shakespeare, theatre, and so much more! Thank you all for your questions and thank you for listening!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's time to climb down from the pile of mattresses and start spinning a new tale! Drew and Cassie begin this episode with our final thoughts on The Princess and the Pea, including our disappointment in the presence of the concept of the divine right to rule. As always, we discuss our ideas for how we would like to retold the story ourselves. Then we begin our journey into a new story for November, which is Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm. We talk through the plot of the story and the many questions it brings up - and we disagree strongly on the randomness of the tale's ending! Then we reveal the criteria we'll be using for the story of Rumpelstiltskin and which retellings we'll be talking about throughout the month! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"It wasn't the pea, it wasn't the pea, it wasn't the pea at all!"For our final week of The Princess and the Pea Month, we are discussing the ultimate retelling of The Princess and the Pea: Once Upon A Mattress, the 1959 Broadway musical with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. We focus our plot discussion on the 2005 TV film starring Tracy Ullman and Carol Burnett, but we also reference the changes made from the original musical and for the 1964 and 1972 TV adaptations, all of which also starred Carol Burnett.  We discuss Carol Burnett's comedic genius, the set and costume designs, the subversion of tropes, the minstrel's presence, our love for the song "Happily Ever After," the genius reveal at the end, and more! Plus, we reveal which fairy tale we'll be looking at next month! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's week 3 of The Princess and the Pea Month! Drew and Cassie return to the Once Upon A Time series of YA books from the 2000s to discuss Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguié. This book centers around Violet, the daughter of a farmer who encounters her kingdom's prince when he is found unconscious in their fields after a storm. The two quickly fall in love - but Richard's parents want him to marry a true princess. Violet soon finds herself competing with princesses from throughout the land in order to prove her identity and character in hopes of winning Richard's hand.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

In our second week discussing The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, Drew and Cassie are taking a look at The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine, the third in her middle grade series called The Princess Tales. This quick little book centers on Lorelei, a blacksmith's daughter who is born with extreme sensitivity, who falls in love with Prince Nicholas, whose parents want to abdicate their thrones. Nicholas's parents insist Nicholas must marry a true princess and thus put 79 princesses - and Lorelei - through a series of ridiculous tests to determine who is worthy of their son.  We discuss the other books in the series, the series's writing style, a modern way to interpret Lorelei's sensitivity, Gilmore Girls, the lorelei of German folklore, the terrible princess tests, the Crocodile Princess, and more! Plus we make a very special announcement at the end that you won't want to miss! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"Never underestimate the power of a vegetable." Drew and Cassie open The Princess and the Pea Month with the 2002 American-Hungarian animated film The Princess and the Pea from Feature Films For Families. We had a bit of a hard time when it came to enjoying this particular film, so we work our way through the story in an attempt to understand a very convoluted plot.  We discuss Sebastian's obsession with pea lore, tapestry vs. parchment, bizarre rules of succession, physical indicators of villainy, the stained glass window ghosts, nature vs. nurture, various similarities to other animated films from the 90s, dancing inconsistent world rules when it comes to animals, Drew steals Cassie's catchphrase, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Are you ready to leave the ball and climb some mattresses? Because it's time for a new tale! Drew and Cassie wrap up their final thoughts on Cinderella, including some themes that we've noticed that have been arising now that we have covered 10 different retellings of Cinderella. Then we begin our new story, The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen. This tale is short and sweet, so we talk through its plot real quick before revealing the criteria for this new tale and which adaptations we'll be looking at through October! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." It's the final week of our second Cinderella Month! We are joined by Bethanie Finger from Prince Kai Fan Pod, the Marissa Meyer Bookclub Podcast, to discuss the 2004 film A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, and more. This teen romcom take on the Cinderella tale follows Sam, a modern-day high schooler who is left in the custody of her wicked stepmother, Fiona, and is forced to work in her family's diner while navigating high school. Things come to a head when Fiona insists Sam work instead of attending the Halloween dance, where Sam knows she could possibly come face-to-face  when her anonymous penpal crush for the first time - of course, Sam has no idea that this anonymous penpal crush is actually Austin Ames, the most popular boy in school. We talk about the various A Cinderella Story spinoffs, cell phones in the early 2000s, Sam's friendship with Carter, casting adults as teenagers, comparisons to The Princess Diaries, Bethanie's many red flags about Austin, the wacky timeline, some jokes that didn't age well, and much more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"'My feet are not bound.' 'I noticed,' said the prince." For our fourth retelling in our second Cinderella Month, Drew and Cassie are taking a look at Bound by Donna Jo Napoli. This 2004 book specifically retells the ancient Chinese legend of Ye Xian, reimagining the main character as Xing Xing, a young woman whose circumstances have left her orphaned and living with her cruel and jealous stepmother and half-sister, Wei Ping. We discuss the appropriateness of Napoli as a white author telling this story, the lack of development for the prince, the complicated family relationships, the way Napoli uses foot binding to connect to the Cinderella story, the inclusion of the toe removal from the Grimm version of the story, Stepmother as a clever villain, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"I'm not happy pretending everything is fine when I know it's not." Drew and Cassie return after a hiatus to continue our Cinderella Month with our next book, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. This 2020 YA novel imagines a harshly patriarchal world set 200 years after Cinderella's death, in which her story is used to enforce the rules of the world. Our heroine is 16-year-old Sophia, who is about the attend the ball for the first time, and who is desperate to rebel against the world thanks to her love for her best friend, Erin. Sophia ends up fleeing the ball and starting a campaign to bring down the king along with help from a descendant of Cinderella's stepsister, the original fairy godmother, and more. While we share many of the same frustrations with this book, we do appreciate some of the ideas at the core of the story! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"His father wanted him to choose Lavaliere for Prince’s Preference, but he had to talk to Ella."Drew and Cassie are so excited to talk about Megan Morrison's Tyme series but also sad that this is the final Morrison book that has been published! For our second week in Cinderella Month, we are discussing Morrison's Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella. This novel is told from three points of view: Ella Coach, a young woman whose mother died in a sweat shop and wants every laborer in the Blue Kingdom to receive fairer treatment; Prince Dash Charming, a young man whose familial curse has recently been broken, and who wants to be a better person than his father and grandfather before him; and Serge, a fairy godfather who is losing his magic, and who finds himself in a position to help one Ella Coach. We discuss the creative world of Tyme, the incredibly themed characters names, Serge/Jasper, fantasy slang, the way the Cinderella elements are rearranged, awesome mom Queen Maud, and we say "these books are so good" about ten times!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindlesVisit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindlesWe love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.comMusic: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

"I don't want a life stuck waving from a royal box any more than a life confined to a basement."Drew and Cassie begin our return to the fairy tale of Cinderella by discussing the Amazon Prime movie from 2021 starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, and more. This jukebox movie musical incorporates songs like "Rhythm Nation," "Somebody to Love," and "Material Girl" while reimagining Cinderella as a young woman who dreams of designing fashion and owning a dress shop. Meanwhile, Prince Robert is struggling with his father's expectations versus his own desires, and soon the two protagonists find their ambitions entwined. We discuss jukebox musicals, the movie's similarities to other Cinderella-adjacent movies, the aggressively contemporary dialogue, the reinterpretation of Cinderella's relationship with her stepfamily, Cassie's idea on how to fix the story, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com