Fairy Tale Spotlight: Don't Raise the Bridge (Lower the River) [Book Review]

"Don't Raise the Bridge (Lower the River)" is a novel written by Max Wilk. It was published in 1960. It was made into a movie starring Jerry Lewis in 1968. I read the book because I enjoyed the movie.

The plot here is a cynical inn keeper named George Lester is about to lose his inn when his ex-wife plans to get rid of her greater share of the business. She offers for George to buy her share, but it is way out of his budget to do so. So the whole book is about him scheming to make a whole lot of money really quickly. Being the cynical man that he is, he turns to an extremely elaborate crime to make that happen.

In fact, his scheme is so elaborate that is boggles the mind as to why anyone would try it. It was almost akin to some of the plans made in a "Mission: Impossible" episode. It was also extremely sociopathic in its means as well, taking advantage of good people in order to make it happen. George was not really a good man.

The plot in general had to do with stolen blueprints for an experimental drill. He hired a corrupt dentist to place the microfilm into the inlay on a suffering man's teeth who would soon be in the vicinity of a prospective buyer. He would then have horrible pain in the second location and be forced to see a second dentist there to relieve the pain... as well as remove the microfilm. Admit it: that's way too overcomplicated... but that's also the aspect that makes the book amusing. The title of this book really makes sense.

Because the plan is so egregiously tight, it is even more dependent that nothing goes wrong, and things actually do go wrong quite often. As George frantically tries to adapt to the problems in real time, it is very funny watching as he suffers and stresses over his own folly. That aspect alone is what makes this book a fun read, not because he is otherwise a bad person.

There was also a character named Cooney that made me laugh. He is technically the only good-hearted person in the whole story... at least in a verified way. George was really annoyed that someone could be so good in a world where evil is fairly mainstream. The problem with Cooney was that, even though he was a good person seeking justice, he was also not very good at it. He was definitely trying, but he always fell short of being the hero he wanted to be. But who cares?! It was great to see such a nice person in a book full of rotten people.

I know this may seem crazy, but I actually loved this book and even recommend it. It's mainly for the ending, which was surprisingly uplifting. The turn at the end was nice, and I won't spoil it. I would also recommend the movie, but I will say that the book's main character does not seem like Jerry Lewis to me. But then again, Jerry played a very unconventional character than he was usually known for. I think he still pulled George Lester off well. Give either one of them a looksee.

This blog was written on July 2, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Inside [Video Game Review]

"Inside" is a video game developed by Playdead. It was released in 2016. It is not the sequel to "Limbo," but it gets really close to being a similar experience. A lot of people might call this one a spiritual sequel in many ways.

No more black and white. No more film grain. No more silhouettes. You are a boy again, though, and the danger is as bad as ever. I am not entirely sure what the plot actually is, but everything is presented very well. It seems like some sort of worldwide plague event happened, and people are pretty much being shot dead in the streets to contain it. They absolutely do not care that you are a little boy. If anyone sees you, they will go out of their way to murder you in any way they can. Dogs will come after you too, and they are very fast. Most of the time you run from dogs, it comes right down to the wire. And if they get you, you get to watch a little boy get brutally mauled by them.

Even though it seems like you are dealing with a pandemic, things get a heck of a lot weirder as the game progresses. The government seems to be doing mind-control experiments as well, turning people into mindless drones. You can even control them yourself at certain points. It's all very strange and surreal watching people just sort of run around brainlessly.

There are also these really interesting moments where you have to act and move to a certain rhythm. The audio in this game is extremely good, opting once again for ambient noise rather than music. The noises sometimes form a rhythm that help you understand what needs to be done and when. This is a tried and tested formula that Playdead has turned into a science, and I love it.

Once you get to the end of this game, you will see and experience things only dreamt of in nightmares. This game exploits a lot of fears such as being torn to pieces and drowning. Yes, you spend a lot of time underwater with not a very good capacity for holding your breath. Every dive is a risk, but you have to do it.

The only criticism this game ever seems to get has to do with its extremely shocking ending. It has a lot of people split. I don't mind it as much, but I do know why people feel so divided on the issue. It does not come out of nowhere, but that doesn't take away the absolute horror of your final fate.

Like with "Limbo," I do recommend "Inside." It had everything good from their original title and just takes it all the farther. I hear Playdead is working on a third game. I look forward to whatever it is.

This blog was written on June 30, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Limbo [Video Game Review]

"Limbo" is a video game developed by Playdead. It was released in 2010. It is considered one of the most influential independent video games of all time and has inspired a bunch of copycat games from other developers.

The plot of "Limbo" is about a boy who enters Limbo in search of his sister. That's all you have to know. The problem with this place is that it is a world that sort of plays by its own rules. It is inhabited by creatures and other humans. There is also a really terrifying giant spider that you have to deal with early on.

Despite you being a young boy, this world is cruel and deadly. There are a lot of really horrible ways to die. One way this game softens the blow is by presenting everything in black and white with an old movie filter over it. All the characters are silhouetted as well. There is almost no music in the game, opting for more ambient sounds and tones. The aforementioned spider had a really deep vibrating hum that went along with it. Very intense. Atmospheric stuff like that always got to me, even after multiple playthroughs.

The traps of this world are terrifying and never feel as if they are intended to be fair, although if you are very careful you can figure them out before they kill you. Most of the time, impatience is what ends up being your undoing, and that's okay. I never really felt like the developers did anything wrong. This is just the nature of this world.

There are also these worms that will occasionally attach themselves to your head. If this happens, you will immediately turn around and walk until you eventually die of some random calamity. I call them "suicide worms." The only way to get rid of them is to find a creature that will eat it off of your head. You have to find a way to make that happen within the rules of the creature controlling you. Very cool and very scary.

There are a lot of mind-bending aspects in this game. In some places, the entire world will rotate, keeping the same gravity. In others, gravity itself will change. All these mechanics come with dangers that can either slice, crush, or kill you in some other manner. And like I said, even after multiple playthroughs, all these things seem fresh and terrifying. The developers made an experience that is fairly timeless.

The game also feels like the perfect length for what it is. It doesn't really ever feel like it's taking too long to get to its climax. The ending itself is very satisfying. Where some of the puzzles may be a little confusing for some players, I wouldn't call any of it truly obnoxious like I have seen in similar games.

Of course, I recommend "Limbo" to this generation of gamers and the next. Because of its simple style, it will always look good no matter how far we advance. It is one of the most atmospherically pleasing games to ever be made.

This blog was written on June 30, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Snow White (Disney 2025) [Movie Review]

"Snow White" is a movie made by Disney. It was released in 2025.

Cons:

-The main character was ruined by the actress being annoying in the public square. The character is also supposed to have white skin based on the original story, and she did not. However, I might have forgiven this if she had just been a more likable person outside of the movie.

-The portrayal of the evil queen was stilted and weird, despite looking the part.

-There were a lot of unnecessary musical numbers added to the movie that felt uninspired. The songs from the original movie had added lyrics which did not help any.

-Costumes and set design looked shockingly cheap.

-Bandits were added to the story for some reason.

-Dopey talks and is also the narrator.

-Dwarves reference the fact that they act like the names they have, which is cheap self-reference humor.

-There is no prince. Instead Snow White has a love interest throughout the film who is just some guy. He is also the one to kiss her at the end.

-The was no glass coffin, which was actually apart of the original story. She was just laying on the ground.

-The evil queen is able to turn back from her old lady disguise. This was a big one for me, because in the original film, it felt like, in her madness, she sacrificed her beauty for hate of Snow White. It felt permanent. She dies an old, ugly woman in the original film.

-The dwarves have random magic that is only used once in the entire film. It is never explained or used in any way that matters.

-Snow White defeats the evil queen by pointing out that she knows the names of everyone.

-There is probably more, but I can only remember so many things at one time. I'm only human.

Pros:

-The dwarves were not as bad as people complain about, but they were actually bad. Doc was my favorite. His portrayal was actually pretty entertaining.

-There was one musical sequence about how the queen is evil or something. Her singing was uninteresting, but the choreography of the other dancers and such was actually really good. I genuinely enjoyed that part of the film... for the choreography... not the song or the singing... or the evil queen which the song was actually about.

I do not recommend this film.

This blog was written on June 19, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Pigs is Pigs [Short Story Review]

"Pigs is Pigs" is a short story written by Ellis Parker Butler. It was published in 1905. It was later made into an animated short film by Disney in 1954. This is sort of a review of both, but I am focusing more on the story.

The whole concept of this story is about why bureaucracy hasn't really been a benefit to anybody. It all starts with a dispute between a the manager of a private postal worker at a train station (not U.S. Postal) and a customer. He ordered a pair of guinea pigs, but the manager wants to charge him the delivery rate for livestock. The customer points out that they aren't real pigs; they are pets. Pets get the cheaper rate, but the manager is following his rule book to the letter which is causing the problem.

This dispute leads to letters written to the company where an extremely complicated series of bureaucratic nonsense takes place in order to determine that the blasted guinea pigs are pets and not actual pigs. This long process might not be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the guinea pigs are male and female... and the female is pregnant. And as you might expect, they begin multiplying very quickly.

This is a situation where time is really of the essence, and the regular process is just going too slowly to keep up with it. Letters have to be written and replied to. Telegrams have to be sent. Nobody was using any common sense, because they had to follow the procedure instead. And meanwhile, the guinea pigs are filling up the postal station at an insanely fast rate. It's very comical and a lesson that can be learned even in 2025. We still have these problems sadly.

The story is written in prose, but when Disney did their animated short, they cleverly translated it into poetry. I like both stories, but the one Disney did is so much more satisfying. It's mostly the same story too with some small but much adored embellishments. If you can't find the story, then you should definitely watch the cartoon.

"Pigs is Pigs" is a great story with an accurate depiction of the problems we all have suffered with bureaucracy. It really is an awful thing, and they were apparently feeling it just as badly back in 1905. The short story is public domain now, and the Disney short is easily accessible on YouTube. I recommend them both.

This blog was written on June 18, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Two Kings [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main points of this story.]

"Two Kings" is a short story written by Norton Juster. It was published in 1965 as part of the book "Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys." This is the best of the set.

An extremely poor and miserable king lives in a kingdom of equally poor and miserable people. He is so poor that he is pretty much just like any other guy there. He just happens to be king. Also his name is RNP. His name is as broken as everything else about him. Although RNP is used to being miserable and having nothing, he does wonder if there are better things out there in the world, and so he sets out on a journey to find that out.

The other king is named Magnus. He is the polar opposite. He has everything anyone could ever wants. Riches beyond belief. All his people love him. He gets everything he wants, no matter what. But Magnus worries, kind of weirdly, if there is anyone out there who has more than he does. So he sets out on a journey to find out. Ironically, he chooses RNP's kingdom at random and sets off. Well, his people don't want him to be miserable in such a horrible place, so they all take a shortcut while the king goes the long way and absolutely renovate RNP's kingdom before he gets there, making it just as wonderful as his own kingdom. But when Magnus gets there, he just sees the same riches he already has, so his question isn't really answered. This makes him depressed and so he returns to his kingdom.

When RNP gets to Magnus' kingdom, the whole place has been wiped out by a really bad storm. Everything is ruined and nobody is there. When RNP sees this, he comes to the conclusion that the rest of the world really must be so sad and miserable, and so he turns back home feeling maybe a little better now that he knows the truth. He can now be content with his lot.

Cleverly, the story ends here, but you can take a good guess what happens to the two kings. I likes this story a lot. it's all about the humble inheriting greater things. "Two Kings" gets a great big recommendation from me!

This was the last of the three stories from "Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys." Norton Juster really is a wonderful author. I wish he wrote more stuff in his lifetime. I recommend this collection and really anything else he has written. Wonderful man. The world will forever mourn his loss.

This blog was written on June 8, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Rescuers [Book Review]

"The Rescuers" is a book written by Margery Sharp. It was published in 1959. Yes, this is the book that inspired the Disney movies, although the movies kind of do their own thing.

The story here is about a society of mice called the Prisoner Aid Society. They pretty much look for people in need and then pick one of their own to go try and help them. In this case, it was a Norwegian poet trapped in a really awful castle dungeon with guards and a cat. They end up voting for Miss Bianca to be the one to help the boy since she is also a poet.

Miss Bianca may be a poet, but she is not Norwegian. She then hires a companion in Nils, a Norwegian mouse, and also brings along Bernard, the mouse who came to ask her to do the mission in the first place. Even though the movies focus on Bianca and Bernard, Nils is actually really awesome. He was a sailor mouse who obsessed over life on the seas. Although he sometimes made Bianca uncomfortable, he still had a roughish charm that she appreciated.

I think the thing that I really loved about this story was how absolutely dedicated the mice were to helping people. It was a way of life for them. It seemed to be something all mice really talked about, even if they were not apart of the official society. That is so incredibly cute.

Without spoiling what happens, this is a very exciting story that deals with every obstacle in a realistic way. You just have to see the mice as people like us. They can even talk to us in this universe. Imagine having a pet mouse you could chat with!

I don't normally do this, but I really want to mention the brilliant illustrations by Garth Williams. I mention him specifically because this book has been illustrated by multiple people since it came out. Garth obsessively made sure that everything in his picture actually represented what was happening in the scene. This really brought the book to life with brilliant detail. If you read this one, make sure Garth Williams is the illustrator.

If you are looking for an exciting and cute book about mice on a rescue mission, you can hardly do worse than with "The Rescuers." I totally recommend it. While it was likely intended for children, this is still a great book for adults. They will appreciate the detail put into the situations that the mice have to deal with. Really well done.

This blog was written on June 7, 2025.

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