Normally I would let an article like this one just quietly float past, without comment. But I found it so laugh out loud ridiculous that I can’t resist comment.

Apparently a group of Shakespeare deniers (I don’t particularly care to name them and give them any sort of Google juice) put up £40,000 to debate Stanley Wells’ Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on the usual, and of course Wells told the buggers to go pound sand, that he’s tired of rehashing the same old arguments.

The fun part comes at the end, where their leader gives us a perfect example of why it is impossible to argue logically with them:

“As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.’ We’ve got to the fight bit.”

First of all, yes, he really did compare his cause to Gandhi, so there’s that.  The more amusing bit to me, however, is that the entire article is about the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s refusal to debate the topic.  So no, Mr. Anonymous, you’ve not got to the fight bit. You’re barely at the ridicule bit, honestly. Most of us would prefer to keep ignoring you.

Thank you, though, for the demonstration in how to ignore facts when they’re right in front of you and only state what supports your case.  Ironic, innit?

Last night was NBC’s big #PeterPanLive event, as you may have noticed. I did not expect to blog about it.

But then this happened.  Wendy and the boys have gone with Peter to Neverland, where she is to play the role of mother and tell them the ends of all the stories.  And then…

Lost Boy #1:  Tell us the ending of Cinderella!
Wendy: Well, the glass slipper fit, and Cinderella and the Prince lived happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!
Lost Boy #2:  Tell us the ending of Sleeping Beauty!
Wendy:  The prince kisses her, and she wakes up and they all live happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!
Lost Boy #3:  Tell us the ending to Hamlet!
Wendy:  <blank stare>  Umm….well…..Hamlet dies, and the king dies, and the queen dies and Ophelia dies, and Laertes dies….
All: …
Wendy: ….but everybody who’s left lives happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!

I honestly have no idea if that’s a new scene or if that is in J.M. Barrie’s original in any form.

[Hat tip to Will Sutton of I Love Shakespeare for this one!]

The thought of a mass market animated Shakespeare has compelled me for years. I followed every story I could find while waiting for Gnomeo and Juliet to see the light of day (seriously – here’s a 2006 post, and here’s 2011 post when it finally came out). I’ve also been saying for years, you’ll note, that I think they should do The Tempest.

But I’ll take Midsummer, too!

It appears that Strange Magic will hit theaters January 23! Created by Lucasfilm (which was started by George Lucas and now owned by Disney), produced by Touchstone (who I believe did Gnomeo?) and directed by a Pixar veteran, the story is “inspired by” A Midsummer Night’s Dream so we’ll have to see what that might mean. The clip below has more, although I’m worried about the “battle over a powerful potion.”

IMDB gives us no clue about characters, listing all the celebrity credits as just “(Voice)”.

We’ll be watching this one closely! I’m quite sure I’m just getting my hopes up about the amount of Shakespeare content that might make it into the final product, but I don’t care.

I received a request this evening from Hikari, who is studying at university in I assume Japan (from his .jp email address). Hikari asks:

I’m going to write an essay about King Lear‘s sub-plot and its source Sydney’s “Arcadia“(the story of the Paphlagonian King). But I couldn’t find secondary sources for my essay yet. Do you know any sources about it?

I had to go do my research to even understand the question, but I’ve never been shy to admit when I have no idea. The story of the Paphlagonian King refers to the Edmund/Edgar/Gloucester plot of Lear, which drew on Sydney’s Arcadia as a source.

Some quick googling brought me here:

For the sub-plot of King Lear, Shakespeare relied upon a story from Arcadia, the epic romance by Sidney, published in 1590. We can see by examining Shakespeare’s wonderful attention to the characters of Edgar and Gloucester, how much Sidney’s tale of the king of Paphlagonia and his two sons sparked the Bard’s own imagination.

I’m not quite sure what Hikari is looking for in his quest for “secondary sources”. Does anybody else have some better sites to link?