The Ugly Duckling

Whilst looking for stories about beauty to base my work upon, I came across the story of "The Ugly Duckling", and although I remember it from childhood, nursery rhymes and fables and such usually have a deep and meaningful message behind them, which we don't always pick up on as children.

 

 

So I looked into the story , to find out where it originated from, and have found a few different adaptations.

 

All of the written information below is from;

http://en.wikipedia.org

 

Adaptations

Disney's 1931 version

Disney's 1939 version

"The Ugly Duckling" became one of Andersen's best loved tales and was reprinted around the world. The tale was adapted to a variety of media. Films based on the tale include two Silly Symphonies animated shorts produced by Walt Disney called The Ugly Duckling. The first was produced in 1931 in black and white, and a remake in 1939 in Technicolor.

The latter film won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons),^[8] and was the last Silly Symphony to be made. The main difference between the Andersen story and the Disney version is that, in the latter, the little bird's ordeal lasts for only a few minutes, not for months. The anime Princess Tutu is about a duck that turns into a swan-like ballerina. In 2006, the Danish animation studio A. Film produced a spin-off CG feature called The Ugly Duckling and Me!, and later produced a children's CG television series Ugly Duckling Junior which featured the same characters as the movie. The 1954 Tom and Jerry cartoon Downhearted Duckling is also based on the famous story.

The tale has seen various musical adaptations.
In 1914, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed a work for voice and piano based on Nina Meshcherskaya's adaptation of the tale and, in 1932, arranged the work for voice and orchestra. This was transcribed by Lev Konov in 1996, and his opera was a great success in Russia. Other musical versions include the song “The Ugly Duckling” composed by Frank Loesser and sung by Danny Kaye for the 1952 Charles Vidor musical film Hans Christian Andersen, and Honk!, a musical based on the tale which was produced in Britain and won an Olivier Award.

In 1998, the musical played the Piccolo Spoleto for seventeen days.
In 2009, the Dance Theatre of Bradenton, Florida, presented the ballet version of the popular tale (Allison Norton: The Ugly Duckling).
In 2010, Garri Bardin directed a feature-length stop-motion musical of the story set to Tchaikovsky's ballet music.
In 2012, a musical adaptation of the story, with ten original songs, was released by JJ’s Tunes & Tales. The album, titled “The Ugly Duckling: Story with Songs” contains both songs and spoken narration.

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The song for "The Ugly Duckling" was also recently used to advertise the Audi A5. And unlike some of the previous videos, where a woman is singing, this version is sung by Danny Kaye.

 

 

 

Then i found this very, very strange video, produced by 'Muffin Songs'.

 

 

To conclude this post, ignoring that strange last video, I am now going to transform myself from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, photograph it all and make it into a film!

 

Stayed tuned to see the film...