How to make your own Disneyland board game

Making board games is something I have fun doing with all the kids I babysit. It's a great craft and game at the same time, and a fun way to either anticipate a trip or relive fun memories of a place you love. My favorite version is Disneyland, but it can easily be adapted to fit other vacation spots or fun places/activities that the kids like. It's basically like Candyland on steroids (i.e., with more of the special cards).1. Create the game board. Have a path (or multiple paths) from start to finish. Fill in about a third of the squares with specific activities or places within the overall theme-Disneyland rides and attractions, for example. Ask the children you're with about their favorite things to do and include them, and they can be part of the creative process. Fill in another third with the word "card" (or, I have the Disneyland ones say "Fastpass.") Then leave the rest blank.

2. Next, create the game pieces. You could borrow dice and pieces from other games, or you could create your own. For Disneyland, I make the kids' favorite princesses and have them color them in. Draw the Princesses' face and torso and arms. Then for the skirt, fill in a semicircle-ish shape with the color/pattern of the skirt. Then cut out the pieces, and twist the skirt piece into a cone, then tape the top on.

You can also make your own die by cutting out the pattern above, then folding on the lines and taping.

For non-Princess pieces, you can make cones like the plain Princess skirts-

Or color small pieces of paper a little bigger than a penny. Then fold the pieces over pennies and tape them together in the back, so you have small weighted colored pieces.

3. Color! Kids can help color the squares in and draw little pictures along the game board of the different places written on the squares.

4. Make your cards (or Fastpasses). Fold a piece of paper into sections and cut on the folds. On each of the cards, put a direction to go to one of the special squares on the game board. You can also have cards with directions such as "Long lines-go back one space" or "Send another player back to start," etc.

5. Play! Roll the dice, and when you land on a card square, follow the directions on the cards. Kids have fun playing this, and I really do too! They also take great pride in having made their own game.

This little Beast was from another toy I had and I used him as my game piece.

I'll probably be doing more Disneyland themed posts as my trip there approaches! (Only 60 more days!!)

Link to Article

This article is a fascinating and educational look into fairy tales before the Grimms-from Straparola to Basile to Perrault and the French salons. My local library has several books on the brothers Grimm, many books of folktales, and a few on fairy lore, but little on fairy tales other than the Grimms, so my knowledge of these earlier authors is limited. In interpreting the tales, Germaine Greer considers carefully the historical context, something too often neglected in modern interpretations.

The Erl King

"The Erlking as a character has its origins in a common European folkloric archetype, the seductive but deadly fairy or siren (compare La Belle Dame sans Merci and the nix).[1] In its original form in Scandinavian folklore, the character was a female spirit, the elf-king's daughter (Elverkongens datter). Similar stories existed in numerous ballads throughout Scandinavia in which an elverpige (female elf) was responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy their desire, jealousy and lust for revenge." (From wikipedia)
The Erl King was further popularized by Johann Gottfried von Herder's story, in which a young groom is temporarily seduced by elf music. The Erl King's daughter attempts to seduce him, but he spurns her. In her anger, she sends him away and his bride finds him dead in the morning.

Goethe's later poem is an eerie dialogue between the Erl King, a young son, who sees the Erl King coming for him, and his father, who doesn't believe him...until it's too late.

"Who's riding so late through th' endless wild?
The father t'is with his infant child;
He thinks the boy 's well off in his arm,
He grasps him tightly, he keeps him warm.


My son, say why are you hiding your face ?
Oh father, the Erlking 's coming apace,
The Erlking 's here with his train and crown!
My son, the fog moves up and down.


Be good, my child, come, go with me!
I know nice games, will play them with thee,
And flowers thou 'It find near by where I live,
pretty dress my mother will give.


Dear father, oh father, and do you not hear
What th' Erlking whispers so close to my ear?
Be quiet, do be quiet, my son,
Through leaves the wind is rustling anon.


Do come, my darling, oh come with me!
Good care my daughters will take of thee,
My daughters will dance about thee in a ring,
Will rock thee to sleep and will prettily sing.


Dear father, oh father, and do you not see
The Erlking's daughters so near to me?
My son, my son, no one 's in our way,
The willows are looking unusually gray.


I love thee, thy beauty I covet and choose,
Be willing, my darling, or force I shall use!
Dear father, oh father, he seizes my arm!
The Erlking, father, has done me harm.


The father shudders, he darts through the wild;
With agony fill him the groans of his child.
He reached his farm with fear and dread;
The infant son in his arms was dead.

Schubert's musical setting of the poem

Snow-White and Rose Red

Once upon a time, a woman lived with her two daughters. Snow White was quiet and gentle and stayed at home, helping their mother. Rose Red loved to run in the meadows, but despite their differences the two sisters loved each other, and their mother, immensely.


One cold night, there came a knock at the door. To their surprise, there was a bear seeking shelter. Though the girls were frightened, their mother had compassion on the bear. They let him sleep by the fire each night, and they became friends and played games with him.
Denise Marshall


In the spring, the bear had to leave to guard his treasure from the dwarves. The girls were very sad to see their friend go. As the bear was leaving, a piece of his hairy coat caught against a bolt in the door and tore off. Snow White almost thought she saw gold peeking through.


Later, the girls were in the forest and encountered a dwarf whose beard was caught in a tree. He hurled insults at them but asked for their help. Snow White trimmed the end of his beard to free him, but at this he was furious, because the beard is a source of pride for a dwarf. The girls encountered him later, with his beard twisted around fishing line, and again being carried away by an eagle. Each time they freed him, but they received no thanks-only complaints.


Once more the sisters saw the dwarf, this time carrying a load of jewels. But then a bear came out of the forest. The dwarf, in an effort to save himself, tried to convince the bear to eat the girls instead of himself, but the bear knocked him over with one blow.

Arthur Rackham


The girls were afraid, but the bear called to them-it was their special friend. When he had caught up with them on the road, his skin fell off to reveal a handsome man, dressed in gold. He was a Prince, bewitched by the dwarf, who had stolen his treasures. With the dwarf finally dead, the Prince was freed.


He married Snow White, and Rose Red married his brother, and they all shared the treasure and lived happily with the girls' mother and the white and red rose trees that had grown outside their cottage.

Peter Newell

"Snow White and Rose Red" makes everyone happy, as it defies a lot of fairy tale stereotypes. Most noteably-it is very rare in that it features positive mother/daughter relationships, and positive sister relationships. But I love that the girls have opposite personalities. The traditional fairy tale heroine is more like Snow White-quiet, does the housework, not one for adventure. This is one of the few fairy tales to feature an adventurous, more athletic heroine. Yet I love that it includes both, not just one or the other. With all the feminist critiques of past female stereotypes, one begins to feel guilty if one happens to be female, quiet, and more inclined to read a book at home than go out and have adventures. But neither one is wrong-females have different personalities and can still live in harmony with one another.

Possible link between Cupid and Psyche and Nightwish

Been a while since I posted a Nightwish song! High time again.

Their song "Planet Hell" repeats these lyrics: "Save yourself a penny for the ferryman/Save yourself and let them suffer." At first I assumed this was just describing a horrible place. But when I read the full version of "Cupid and Psyche" (the earliest known version in the history of "Beauty and the Beast"), I discovered that one of her tasks was to take the ferry to hell. She is given two halfpence to carry in her mouth (I don't know why) and specifically instructed, "and it shall come to passe as thou sittest in the boat thou shalt see an old man swimming on the top of the river, holding up his deadly hands, and desiring thee to receive him into the barke, but have no regard to his piteous cry..." and other sorry creatures Psyche is forbidden to share her pennies with, because otherwise she'll never leave hell. The people pleading for help, we are told, are traps set by Venus, so Psyche is not actually guilty of cruelty.

Was this an intentional allusion to Cupid and Psyche, as Beauty and the Beast is a favorite theme of songwriter Tuomas Holopainen? Who knows.

Heart's Blood

Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood is listed as one of the modern interpretations of Beauty and the Beast on Surlalune. At first, from the summary, it seems like hardly a version of Beauty and the Beast and more of a young adult fantasy novel whose hero happens to have partial paralysis that makes him look slightly asymmetrical.

However, I applaud Marillier for creating a truly unique and original story that has clear parallels to Batb. For example, Caitrin-not her father-meets Anluan in the garden, while looking at a rare flower-not a rose, but heart's blood. He responds angrily, like the Beast. Unusual circumstances compel her to stay with him-not bargaining for her father's life, but working as a scribe to translate documents of his ancestors (which is a lot like Mercedes Lacke's Fire Rose). There is a period of growing to love him, and then one of separation, where she returns because she sees a vision of his dying body in a magic mirror she had brought with her.

The plot also reminded me a lot of Jane Eyre (which gets a lot of tags for a fairy tale blog...) the employment in Anluan's house, the similarities between Anluan and Mr. Rochester, Caitrin's independence, and the scene in which she sees him in the mirror and speaks to him and imagines that he hears her is like when Mr. Rochester calls to Jane from miles away and she hears and replies. At times the action and character of Caitrin also reminded me of Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, an all-time favorite of mine.

In general I tend to be very critical of modern writers. It seems that we have mastered the exciting, page-turning plots, but lost some of the mastery of language and depth of realistic characters of older novels. They tend to be more like vicarious wish fulfillment than powerful, moving stories. So, with that said, I wasn't thrilled with the writing style and characterization, although I've read much worse. But there were good messages, and the plot was a clever nod to the fairy tale while being fresh, dark and interesting-I literally couldn't put the book down.

Heart's blood, the flower in the book, is fictitious, but there is a flower called Dicentra, which is also called Bleeding heart. The reason is pretty obvious:

EDIT: Marillier contributed to Seven Miles of Steel Thistles and talked of her love of Beauty and the Beast, the tale's history, and her process in transforming the traditional tale into this novel

Vintage Disneyland

Disneyland opened in 1955. In 1956, the year my Dad was 2, his parents took him and his sister (pictured above) there for vacation. My grandmother kept very detailed scrapbooks. Above are pictures she took, below are postcards she had saved.
Notice the park was a lot more simple and bare then-a lot less rides and more open space. In fact, the original park had a genuine Native American village in it.


Pages from the scrapbook:

Only 70 more days until I go there myself!!!

Lusmore

This is an Irish version of a story that also has Spanish, English, and German counterparts. I like it because though Lusmore isn't entirely a "Beast figure," since it's not a romance, he's still a deformed man who goes through transformation-and it's about the power of music.

Once there was a hunchback named Lusmore, who found it hard to walk. One dark night he was resting on his way home and heard sweet music coming from a ruined fort. The little voices inside kept singing over and over, "Da Luan, Da Mort!" (Monday, Tuesday!) He listened, but felt the need to add another phrase. Finally when he heard a pause in the music, he piped in, "Agus da Cadin!" (And Wednesday too!) There was a moment of silence, and then the voices started their refrain again, only with Lusmore's addition. The fairies burst out of their fort and pulled him in, waiting on him and thanking him for finishing their song. Knowing the danger humans can come to in fairy company, Lusmore was uneasy, but the fairies rewarded him by removing his hump.

Jo March

This joyous news spread, and woman who knew another hunchback named Jack Madden asked for the whole story. Lusmore gladly told it, and Jack's mother and her friend wheeled him to the place Lusmore had lost his hump. The fairies were singing the song Lusmore had helped them finish. Though there was no pause in the music, Jack yelled out with his own "Augus da Cadin, Augus da Hena." But this time the fairies were furious with Jack for spoiling their song, and as punishment they gave him an extra hump and kicked him out into the moat, after which he didn't live much longer.

Aladdin-Arabian Nights

There was once a poor tailor whose son was so idle and lazy that the tailor eventually died from grief. Still nothing persuaded Aladdin to change his ways.


One day an African magician came to Aladdin, claiming to be his uncle. The man offered to buy and stock a shop for Aladdin. They set out on a journey, and on the way the uncle revealed a magical entrance to an underground cave. Aladdin is instructed to go into the cave, touching nothing, and bring up a lamp. The uncle also gave Aladdin a ring.

Edmund Dulac

Aladdin fetched the lamp as he was told, but refused to give his uncle the lamp until he was out of the cave. The magician became furious, and magically rolled the stone back over the mouth of the cave. The uncle was really not Aladdin's uncle at all, but had needed someone foolish enough to get him the magic lamp so he could kill him afterwards.

After a couple days alone in the dark cave, Aladdin clasped his hands to pray, and in doing so rubbed the ring. Immediately a large genie appeared and stated that he would obey Aladdin in all things. Aladdin doesn't even hesitate but orders himself out of the cave. He returned home to his mother. He offers to sell the lamp in order to get money for food, and began to rub it since it was so dirty. Another genie (this one is "hideous") appeared to do Aladdin's bidding. He ordered food, and he and his mother ate their full.

With the genii, Aladdin and his mother were never poor again. One day Aladdin was seized by the desire to view the Princess as she went to her bath, which was forbidden. He caught sight of her as she lifted her veil and was instantly in love. He forced his mother to stand by the Palace every day in order to ask the Sultan for his daughter's hand. She took with some of the enchanted fruits that "sparkled and shone like the most beautiful jewels."

Errol le Cain

Eventually the Sultan noticed her, and impressed by her rare treasures, promised his daughter to her son, in three months' time. But during this time the Sultan forgot his promise, and in two months his daughter was about to enjoy her wedding night with another man. Aladdin ordered the genie of the lamp to carry the Prince in his bed outside and leave him there till morning, and Aladdin took his place next to the terrified Princess. After another night of this, both bride and bridegroom were willing to be separated. When it was the appointed time, Aladdin ordered himself a splendid procession from the genie, and built a large and bejeweled Palace for the Princess. He left one jeweled window lattice undone, to allow the Sultan to have the pleasure of finishing it. But the Sultan realized he did not have enough jewels of his own to fill even one window lattice.


Aladdin was a gentle and wise ruler, loved by the people. However, the magician had not forgotten about the magic lamp. He heard of Aladdin's fame and tracked him down. Posing as a lamp trader, he tricked the Princess into giving him the magic lamp for a newer one. The genie of the lamp obeyed his new master and brought the entire Palace, with the Princess in it, to Africa. The Sultan sent for Aladdin, who was out hunting, and ordered him to be beheaded. Aladdin pleaded for forty days in which to find the Palace and his wife. He intended to say his prayers and throw himself into a river, but once again accidentally rubbed the magic ring, bringing forth the other genie. However, the ring genie could not undo the magic of the lamp genie. So he brought Aladdin to the Palace. He found his Princess, who had treated the magician so harshly he avoided the Palace altogether. Aladdin told her to pretend to be welcome to the magician's advances, to beg for African wine, and to put a certain powder he gave her into the magician's wine.

Kay Neilsen

The Princess did as Aladdin said, and successfully poisoned the magician. Aladdin and his Princess were reunited and returned to China. However, the magician had a younger brother who wanted to avenge his brother's death. He posed as a holy woman, and was invited into the Palace by the Princess. The false holy woman convinced the Princess that a roc's egg was needed to make her home truly beautiful, and she requested this of Aladdin, who requested it of the genie. The genie shrieked, for the roc's egg was his master, told Aladdin the truth about the false holy woman, and disappeared. Aladdin requested to see the holy woman but pierced the magician's brother with his dagger. After this Aladdin and his Princess lived in peace.

Disney haters: Passive females

This article by Tolu Olorunda, linked by Surlalunefairytalesblog, seethes with hatred for Disney. There are many arguments addressed in the article which I will not all address now. And let me just say that, though I defend Disney, I don't pretend they're perfect. But a lot of haters-like Olorunda-draw too strong conclusions from their facts in a way that can weaken their arguments. The article basically claims that all Disney is white misogynist propoganda.

I'm going to talk about this line today: "The White female raised on Disney mostly learns that her lot in life is to seek endlessly until finding that knight-in-shining-armor—without whom her life would lack meaning."

I've already somewhat addressed this claim, considering historical context and the sources of the tales. But first of all, not every Disney female is Cinderella. In the romances where the main characters are male (Lion King, Aladdin, Jungle Book, Tarzan, Robin Hood,) the men all end up with a girl at the end. Yet no one is concluding that a man's life wouldn't mean anything without a woman. Is not this one-sided argument also sexist, then? Then there are several classic cartoons that don't have a romance at all-Dumbo, Pinocchio, Sword in the Stone, Alice in Wonderland, as well as several of the other films and shorts, including many live movies, that have been mostly forgotten now. Then there are movies which involve romance, but on the fringe, where the bulk of the story is on the characters' adventures, or on family values-101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, Jungle Book (yes, I know I put Jungle Book in two categories, because the focus isn't on romance, but he does end up with a girl.)

Human love and companionship isn't a bad thing. The idea that a happy ending includes a marriage is not unique to Disney at all. Take a look at generations of folklore. And what about modern chick flicks? In some way they all imply that romantic relationships are part of a happy ending. Don't they all imply in some form that a woman is not complete without a man? Not to hold chick flicks up as the ultimate standard of comparison. It's not the idea that marriage is good and can even, yes, be fulfilling, though not without any struggles at all (which is not, I think, what "happily ever after means.") It's the implication that you can't be happy without a husband-or males, without a wife-which is wrong. But this is never stated explicitly, and not only implied by Disney.

Then the article goes on to cite Beauty and the Beast as the ultimate example of this catering to men-and I've heard this argument before too-because the Beast starts out violent, therefore it promotes abusive relationships. Now, the historical Beasts started out innocent completely. Various versions have explained why the Beast got so upset over the theft of a rose-basically they just need to get Beauty to the castle somehow. But I do think this is a very interesting interpretation by Disney-that the Beast reveals through his outer self what he is on the inside. However, the whole point of the movie is that people can CHANGE. Notice that, at the beginning of the movie when he IS a jerk, Belle wants nothing to do with him. She was in the act of running away when he saved her life, risking his own-that is the turning point and what makes her decide to come back. Then the key point of the next montage scene is the passage of TIME. Unlike...every other Princess movie? Except Mulan I guess-the lovers know each other for more than a couple days (or hours). It takes TIME to develop a relationship, and trust, especially when it starts out with the boy threatening your father's life for no reason. This is common in the literary precedents as well. The Beast asks Beauty to marry him, night after night, and she says no, again and again. She ultimately weilds the power. In fact, Belle is the opposite of the damsel in distress- it is the Beast is helpless on his own, sitting and waiting in the castle (and wrongly imprisoning the occasional passerby),and Belle is the one who hold the power and does the rescuing. He is the one who needs her. She might not go out and fight dragons, but wouldn't that also be prejudiced to say love and perseverance is not a valid way to rescue someone?

One more thing. I used to nanny for two girls, ages 5 and 7. Sarah's favorite Princess was Ariel, Michelle's was Cinderella. Among the games we would play, we would often assume the identity of our favorite Princesses and act our stories with our combined movie characters (I was obviously Belle). Now, I did not guide the play at all, but let the children come up with their own stories, but mostly what we did was rescue our Princes from the villains. We would often get ransom calls on our imaginary cell phones and have to bike down the block to Ursula's fortress and have to come up with a plan to get Eric out of there. We NEVER played that the girls were sitting around the house, trapped by the villain, and needed the boys to save them. To counter this, several children do like to play trapped, or captured-but then generally they really don't want to get rescued, either by a pretend Prince or by a girl-the excitement is in the being trapped. So maybe children aren't all mindless slaves who see a couple Princesses who do domestic chores cheerfully and assume from this that their lot in life is to sit and look pretty and prepare to be a good housewife. Just sayin'.