Fairy Tale Retellings! discussion

A whole new world of Aladdin retellings! Let’s explore! 🤩

I haven't even watched the Aladdin movie, or even read anything about it, so I'm not sure if I would read a retelling

I highly recommend the live-action one! It was so good!

I haven't seen it, I really want to though.

I really like the live action Aladdin. I watched the animated one for the first time last year tho lol

Thank you for recommending!

The only one I've ever come across is Thief of Cahraman by Lucy Tempest, which is a gender-swapped Aladdin retelling?

It's never peaked my interest enough to greedily get my hands on it, but if it fell in my lap, I'd give it a go!

A really good Aladdin retelling that I enjoyed very much is The Orphan's Wish by Melanie Dickerson. It's one of my favourites of this particular author!

I tried the audiobook (The orphans wish) but couldn't pull through because the narrator Jude Mason tried emulate what I believe was an Arabic accent. It was horrible, she should have just narrated it normally. It sounded racist to me.

I have listened to most books in the series but I will have to read the book instead.

In another book she tried the French accent, a bit less but still horrible.

Fridey wrote: "I tried the audiobook (The orphans wish) but couldn't pull through because the narrator Jude Mason tried emulate what I believe was an Arabic accent. It was horrible, she should have just narrated ..."

Oh strange! That's one of the reasons why I don't listen to audio books much, the narrators are really hit or miss. :/ But yes, you should try to read it again, as a print book! :)

Yes a narrator can make it or break it.

Gabriella wrote: " This is a good retelling with some cute, clean romance ;)"

That retelling sounds very interesting! I've added it to my want to read list. Thanks for the recommendation. Can't wait to see how to story twists. :)

Fridey wrote: "I tried the audiobook (The orphans wish) but couldn't pull through because the narrator Jude Mason tried emulate what I believe was an Arabic accent. It was horrible, she should have just narrated ..."

Ohh I'm so sorry about that. I read that book when it first came out so I can't say whether or not the accents were done well, but I'm sure it's not good if you think it sounded so terrible. I'll be sure to avoid that audiobook in the future.

The Orphan's Wish by Melanie Dickerson wasn't one of my favorites because I didn't feel the connection to Kristie (the main girl) that I normally do through Melanie Dickerson's writings. I usually am able to relate or at least understand the main characters even if I'm polar opposite from whoever I'm reading about. But I'm really happy that even though I didn't enjoy it, you did. :)

Fridey wrote: "Yes a narrator can make it or break it."

Yeah, sadly sometimes poor narration can wear away at the story telling. Totally get you.

So I don't like Jude Mason's harsh voice in general and that is just me, but she should definitely stay away from any other accent than British, lol.

Hmm I'm wondering if authors actually listen to chosen narrators or maybe it's the publishers that decide.

Fridey wrote: "So I don't like Jude Mason's harsh voice in general and that is just me, but she should definitely stay away from any other accent than British, lol.

Hmm I'm wondering if authors actually listen t..."

Depends on the company, most of the time (like in Melanie Dickerson's case I'm pretty sure) the publishing companies assign a narrator to them. Sadly.

Ah ok :) A shame really.

Fridey wrote: "Ah ok :) A shame really."

Yeah, I feel like the authors should get a choice since it's someone else representing their book. But I guess it'll take too long for each author to go through all the narrators and chose? Who knows. I might be wrong and the author has a choice.

I have no idea how much say they have. Would be interesting to know.

Even though we're all different and not going to like the same narrator (I'm always in the minority on narrators, characters and books lol) but there is such a thing as most popular narrator. A lot of people seem to like for example Rosalind Landor.

Fridey wrote: "I have no idea how much say they have. Would be interesting to know.

Even though we're all different and not going to like the same narrator (I'm always in the minority on narrators, characters an..."

True, there are popular narrators. Just like popular authors. :)

I tend to be in the minority too. Feel ya lol.

Okay. I need some help, everyone! I’m reading the novelization of the live action Aladdin, and there’s something I can’t figure out:
Does anyone remember—in either version of the movie— a scene where the foreign prince (Prince Anders) shoots off a cannon he brought as a gift?

The book has some things added to make it more interesting, but the cannon part seems familiar and I can’t figure out why. I just watched the live action movie, and it’s not in there, but I googled it and I couldn’t find anything in either movie. Anyone else remember?

Oh. Found it. It’s a deleted scene. It’s HILARIOUS.

The scene from the live movie of the prince is super funny to. He starts waving a stick in Raja's face saying, "Here puss- puss" Then Raja goes crazy and runs him off.

In the cartoon Raja apparently bites a hole in his pants! But the prince is way meaner in that one. He deserved it.

Man, it's been a while since I've seen the animated one. I'll have to watch it again. Then the return of Jafar, then Aladdin and the king of thieves.

Me too. I just read a summary to compare. I’ve never seen the other two. Are they good?

Bookish wrote: "Oh. Found it. It’s a deleted scene. It’s HILARIOUS."

That sounds really funny. I need to go look it up now LOL

Aleah wrote: "Man, it's been a while since I've seen the animated one. I'll have to watch it again. Then the return of Jafar, then Aladdin and the king of thieves."

If they're good, I need to watch them too

They are AWESOME!!! You have to watch them!

Whoa. Okay then. Will do!

Iago will forever stay the same annoying bird.

It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize his name started with an I, not just a forever lowercase L. Oops.

I need to get my little sister to watch Aladdin. She loves monkeys and is as naughty/curious as Abu.

Which one? The original or live action?

I can relate! Although my brother is more annoying than naughty now.

The original. She doesn't like live action. Aren't all brothers??

True. I think it’s an age thing. But I do thing he’s better than most middle school boys… at least for now.

Mine is trying to over throw our government, then destroy China, in no particular order.
And turn the whole country into a chicken farm.

Wow. Mine just watches YouTube videos about fishing and Minecraft. And plays Roblox.

And then there’s me, who reads constantly and occasionally plays Minecraft to build things from books (tournament grounds from The Captive Maiden, ice castle from The Snow Queen by K.M. Shea, etc.). Oh, and I name pets after characters from the Timeless Fairy Tales. (Hvit, Pricker Patch, Roland Archibald Whisperpaws the Fifth)

Oh, and don’t even get me started on my Lego creations.

…am I the only one who does that?

I can't find the snow queen stuff from K.M. Shea anywhere. My brothers watch the king of random. He does all kinds of crazy rocket science projects.

I read the snow series on kindle, and then I bought the books from Amazon a while ago as one volume. I don’t know if they’re anywhere else.

I think they are only on Amazon. Since they are apart of the Kindle Unlimited program then the ebooks can only be on Amazon. But the paperbacks might be on Barnes and Noble or at least another store.

Hmm, looks like I'm going to have to look a lot harder then.

Yeah. The woes of reading self-published books.

Right.

But seriously, why can’t I find any clean retellings that are popular? (Except for TLC) It seems strange… Oh well.

Bookish wrote: "But seriously, why can’t I find any clean retellings that are popular? (Except for TLC) It seems strange… Oh well."

Probably because the marketing budget is much bigger for traditionally published books.

Your telling me. I'm glad my publisher is for kids and is free. And I get to decide how the cover art looks. Sometimes I wonder what the publisher was thinking with the cover.

Aleah wrote: "Your telling me. I'm glad my publisher is for kids and is free. And I get to decide how the cover art looks. Sometimes I wonder what the publisher was thinking with the cover."

So you write children's books? oooh, that's so cool you get to decide how the cover art looks! Mhm, so true!

Young Adult. I write similarly to K.M. Shea or Melanie Cellier. At leas my writing style. I like to take the classic fairy tales and find little loop hole to work through.