#team zeila

[taocc-updates]

TAOCC but it’s 14 by Peter Clines because I am NOT NORMAL ABOUT 14

After all being offered what might be the lowest apartment rent in LA, a group of mismatched tenants start noticing some weird stuff about their new home. Bright green cockroaches with too many legs, a wall that’s freezing cold, apartments that are huge or have weird layouts, complex population calculations and circuitry below the painted walls, a massive geothermal generator miles below the ground, and whatever’s going on with the completely blocked off Apartment number 14.

CAST:

(If you’re wondering why they’re all so random, that was on purpose)

-Tennants-

Nathan “Nate” Tucker: Caleb A very normal guy with a very boring job in Data Entry in LA. After being offered an apartment for a ridiculously low rate, he moves into the Kavach Building. He ends up as the impromptu leader of the tenants, who slowly shift from a vaguely acquainted group of random people to a makeshift apocalypse prevention team.

Malavika "Veek" Vishwanath: Felicia A woman who works from home as a “call center employee”. In actuality, hacking and web investigation pays the bills. She’s closed-off and snarky, but does care for the group. She ends up with Caleb by the end.

Xela (Zeila?? Literally what is this girl’s name): Conny A bubbly, blue-haired Artist with massive social anxiety and a liking for the Greek Mythos. Has a large snarky streak, meaning she tends to bicker with Felicia.

Roger: Starro A outgoing wannabe actor who is stuck in set design. He does like his job, even if it isn’t his dream. Says “dude” a lot and has a hopeless crush on Conny.

Tim Farr: Charles A “retired publisher” who knows way too much about survival and has an arsenal of weapons big and varied enough to rival a police station. Turns out, his “publishing job” was probably the CIA. He’s being tracked by a PI because of his past.

Debbie: Elysia A very quiet ballet dancer who’s getting a degree in biology. She’s a good baker and very sweet, although she doesn’t handle the dangers of the Kavach building very well. At least she has her husband around.

Clive: Blaze A self-employed carpenter and the third guy who knows how to use power tools in the building. He’s upbeat and a bit dumb, but beloved by and super supportive of everyone.

Mandy: Umbra A nervous wreck who wants NOTHING and I mean NOTHING to do with the group’s investigations. Period. She ends up getting dragged into it anyways.

Ms. Linda(?) Knight: Sun The oldest tenant and everyone’s favorite snarky grandma. Nobody is spared. She also gets thrown into space. No, you don’t get context for that.

Oskar: Jacob The kind but a bit intimidating manager for the Kavach building. Very German. He knows both more and less than he’s letting on. Keeps telling everyone to stop investigating the horrors, to literally no success.

Andrew: Vamp A cleanly dressed member of some congregation. Everyone assumes she’s hardcore Mormon or something. But it gets more and more apparent as time goes on that whatever she worships, it sure isn’t a god we’re familiar with.

-The Cool Old People-

Alexander Kotorovich (please tell me I spelled that right): Dusk Saw beyond the veil, single-handedly figuring out the interdimensional threat to the world. She was called crazy, but she was right, and with her colleagues, she created the Kavach building. She died brutally inside the machine that she adored in the 1800’s.

Nikola Tesla yes that Nikola Tesla: Dialtone Dusk’s business partner and one of the people who helped turn her ideas into a physical reality.

W.P. (I can’t remember his name help): Uhhhhh like freaking Abayomi or smth Funded the Kavach building. He told his grandson (H.P. Lovecraft, yes THAT H.P. Lovecraft) the stories of Dusk’s theories after being minorly traumatized. Poor guy.

-the Horrors-

The Great Old One (“The Squale”): Clown Termed “the Squale (squid-whale)” by Conny in an attempt to make it less threatening. Whatever it is, it really wants worship and to eat all of humanity. The Kavach building is the only thing standing in its way.

The Kavach Building: It’d be really silly if it was House A huge machine created by Dusk, Dialtone, and Abayomi. Not alive in the original, buuuut heck why not make it House. It is benevolent, and saves the world every second that it exists. It is studied closely by the government and the manager. The control center is in Blaze and Elysia’s room, and apartment 14 just straight up leads to deep space as a counterweight for all of the dimension shifting that the control room does.

-Extras-

Anne: Niko Caleb’s coworker. Likes pizza. Thinks he’s pretty cool.

Eddie: Zachariah Caleb’s boss. Not too good at his job but goodness is he trying. Eddie sucks in the original but Zach in this version is a seriously cool guy.

Carmichael: Calamity Investigating Charles at the behest of the government. May or may not be dead by the end of the novel. Oops.

uhhh tags I guess because I used y’all’s sillies

@sh4tt3rg1rl @star-on-a-beach @feiar @silhouette-anon

Read 14.

[paralleljulieverse]

‘Who is queen of all the garden?’: 70th anniversary of The Rose of Baghdad (UK version) Christmastime 1952/53

Ask almost anyone the name of Julie Andrews’ first film and the automatic response will be: “why,  Mary Poppins...of course!” It’s part of Hollywood folklore that, having been passed over by Jack Warner for the film adaptation of My Fair Lady because she wasn’t a ‘proven movie star’, Andrews was offered the title role of the magical nanny in Walt Disney’s classic 1964 screen musical. It earned Andrews a Best Actress Oscar straight off the bat and catapulted her to international stardom as Hollywood’s musical sweetheart. Her film debut in Mary Poppins has even been a question in the ’easy’ category on Jeopardy!  (Answered correctly, natch, for $100 by Steven Meyer, an attorney from Middletown, Connecticut). 

But, with all due respect to Alex Trebek and general knowledge mavens everywhere, Julie's very first film actually came out more than a decade before Mary Poppins. In 1952, when the young star was just 16 going on 17, she was cast to voice the lead character of Princess Zeila in the UK version of the Italian animated film, The Rose of Baghdad. 

It’s an easily overlooked part of Andrews’ oeuvre, figured, if at all, as a minor footnote to her later Broadway and Hollywood career. But The Rose of Baghdad was a not insignificant stepping stone in Andrews’ rise to stardom and one, moreover, that prefigures important aspects of her later screen image. So, on the 70th anniversary of the film’s British release, it is timely to look back briefly at The Rose of Baghdad.

La rosa italiana

Produced and directed by Anton Gino Domeneghini, The Rose of Bagdad -- or, in its original title, La rosa di Bagdad -- was the first feature-length animation ever made in Italy and also the country’s first Technicolor production. As such, it commands a prominent position in Italian film history (Bellano 2016; Bendazzi 2020).

La rosa di Bagdad was a real passion project for Domeneghini, a commercial artist and businessman with a successful advertising company, IMA, headquartered in Milan. During the 30s, Domeneghini’s firm handled the Italian marketing for many major international clients including Coca-Cola, Coty, and Gillette (Bendazzi: 23). With the outbreak of WW2, the advertising industry in Italy was effectively shut down. In an effort to keep his company afloat, Domeneghini rebranded as a film production company, IMA Films. 

Inspired by the success of animated features from the US such as Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) and the Fleischer Brothers’ Gullivers Travels (1939), Domeneghini decided to produce an Italian animated film that could emulate the crowd-pleasing dimensions of American imports but with a distinct Italian sensibility (Fiecconi: 13-14). He threw himself heart and soul into the endeavour.

Based on an original idea developed from various stories Domeneghini had enjoyed as a boy, La rosa di Bagdad was conceived as an orientalist fairytale pastiche. The plot was patterned loosely after the Arabian Nights, complete with an Aladdin-style boy minstrel, a mystical genie, tyrannical sorcerer, and a golden-voiced princess. But it was embroidered with a host of other elements from assorted folktales and pop cultural texts.

To oversee the production, Domeneghini handpicked a core creative team including a pair of stage designers from La Scala, Nicola Benois and Mario Zampini, and a trio of head artists: animator Gustavo Petronio, caricaturist Angelo Bioletto, and illustrator Libico Maraja (Bendazzi: 23). They helped craft the film’s distinctive aesthetic with its striking blend of comic character-based animation and figurative exoticism of the Italian Orientalist School of painters such as Mariani, Simonetti, and Rosati (Fiecconi: 17). 

Music was crucial to Domeneghini’s vision for the film. Fiecconi (2018) asserts that “the original creative part of the movie lies in the musical moments where the film seemed to celebrate the Italian opera” (17). Domeneghini commissioned the celebrated Milanese composer, Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli, to write the film’s musical score. It would be the composer’s last complete work before his untimely death at age 66 in early-1949 and it has been described as something of “a summa of Pick-Mangiagalli’s art” (Bellano: 34). Combining Hollywood-style romantic underscoring with Italian and Viennese classicism, Pick-Mangiagalli composed a broadly operatic score replete with arias, waltzes, and orientalist nocturnes. 

Given the difficulties of wartime, the production process for La rosa was long and arduous and the film took over seven years to complete. At various stages, more than a hundred production staff worked on the film, including forty-seven animators, twenty-five ‘in-betweeners’, forty-four inkers and painters, five background artists, and an assortment of technicians and administrative assistants (Bendazzi: 25). Colour processing was initially done using the German Agfacolor system but it produced a greenish tint that was not to Domeneghini’s liking. So after the war, he took the film to the UK where it was reshot in Technicolor at Anson Dyer’s Stratford Abbey Studios in Stroud (Bendazzi: 24).

La Rosa di Bagdad finally premiered in 1949 at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix in the Films for Youth category. The following year, the film was given a general public release in Italy. Leveraging his professional training as an ad man, Domeneghini crafted an extensive marketing and merchandising campaign for the film that was unprecedented at the time (Bendazzi: 30). It helped secure decent, if not spectacular, commercial returns for the film in Italy and encouraged Domengheni to shop his film abroad to other markets in Europe (Ugolotti: 8). 

The English Rose 

It was in this context that a distribution deal was brokered in early-1951 with Grand National Pictures in the UK to release La Rosa di Bagdad to the British market (’Many countries’: 20). Not to be confused with the short-lived US Poverty Row studio whose name -- and, even more confoundingly, logo -- it adopted, Grand Pictures was an independent British production-distribution company established in 1938 by producer Maurice J. Wilson. While it produced a few titles of its own, Grand National was predominantly geared to film distribution with an accent on imported product from the Continent and Commonwealth countries (McFarlane & Slide: 301).

Retitled The Rose of Baghdad, the film was part of an ambitious suite of twenty-six films slated for distribution by Grand National to British theatres in 1952, the company’s “biggest ever release programme” (’Grand National’: 16). The screenplay and musical lyrics were translated into English by Nina and Tony Maguire, and a completely new soundtrack was recorded at the celebrated De Lane Lea Processes studio in London (Massey 2015). 

To do the voicework for the English-language version, Grand National assembled a roster of diverse British talent from across the fields of theatre, radio and film. The distinguished BBC actor Howard Marion-Crawford lent his sonorous baritone to the role of the narrator. RADA graduate and popular radio comedienne, Patricia Hayes voiced Amin, the teenage minstrel. Celebrated stage and film star, Arthur Young voiced the kindly Caliph, while rising TV actor Stephen Jack provided a suitably menacing Sheikh Jafar. 

The biggest and most publicised name in the line-up, however, was Julie Andrews 'enacting’ the role of Princess Zeila. Much was made of Julie’s casting, and she was the only member of the British cast to be given named billing on the film’s poster and associated marketing materials. Scene-for-scene, her role wasn’t necessarily the biggest. Other characters have more lines and more action. But, as the symbolic “rose” of the film’s title and the focus of narrative attention, Julie as Princess Zeila had to carry much of the film's emotional weight. 

And, musically, Princess Zeila certainly dominates proceedings. Her character is meant to posses a golden voice of rare enchantment and the film showcases her virtuosic singing in several key scenes. As mentioned earlier, composer Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli imbued the score with a strong operatic flavour and this is nowhere more apparent than in the three coloratura arias that he penned for Zeila: “Song of the Bee”, “Sunset Prayer” and the “Flower Song”. In the original Italian release, the part of Zeila was sung by Beatrice Preziosa, an opera soprano of some note who performed widely in the era with the RAI and had even sung opposite Gigli (Bellano: 35).

In her 2008 memoirs, Julie recalls the challenge of recording the Pick-Mangiagalli score:

“I had a coloratura voice, but these songs were so freakishly high that, though I managed them, there were some words that I struggled with in the upper register. I wasn’t terribly satisfied with the result. I didn’t think I had sung my best. But I remember seeing the film and thinking that the animation was beautiful. I’m pleased now that I did the work, for since then I don’t recall ever tackling such high technical material” (Andrews: 143-44).

The Rose opens

The British version of The Rose of Baghdad had its first public screenings in September of 1952 at a series of trade events organised by Grand National to market the picture to prospective exhibitors. The first such screening was on 16 September at Studio One in Oxford Street, London, followed by: 17 September at the Olympia in Cardiff; 19 September at the Scala in Birmingham;  22 September at the Cinema House in Sheffield; 23 September at the Tower in Leeds; 25 September at the Theatre Royal in Manchester; and 26 September at the Scala in Liverpool  (’London and provincial’: 32; ’Trade show’: 14). 

In promoting the film, Grand National pitched The Rose of Baghdad as wholesome family fare perfect for children’s matinees and double features. “A fascinating cartoon to enchant audiences of all ages” was the campaign catchline. They especially plugged the film’s potential as a seasonal attraction with full-page adverts in trade publications that billed it as the “showman’s picture for Christmastide”.

One of the film’s first UK reviews came out of these early trade screenings with Peter Davalle of the Welsh-based Western Mail newspaper filing a fulsome report:

“Ambitious in scale as anything that Disney has conceived...it has very right to demand the same intensity of judgement conferred on the Hollywood product. I have little but praise for it and I hope my enthusiasm will infect one of the country’s cinema circuit chiefs to the extent of giving it the showing it deserves” (Davalle: 4).

Ultimately, the film was unable to secure an exhibition deal with a major cinema chain. Instead, it was given a patchwork release at various independent and/or unaffiliated theatres across the country. 

The Tatler theatre in Birmingham proudly billed its 14 December opening of The Rose of Baghdad as the film’s “first showing in England”. Archive research, however, evidences that it opened the same day at several other provincial theatres such as the Classic in Walsall (’Next week’: 10).  Other notable early openings included the Alexandra Theatre in Coventry on 22 December -- the day before Julie premiered in the Christmas panto, Jack and the Beanstalk at the Coventry Hippodrome -- and the News Theatre in Liverpool and the Castle in Swansea on 29 December.

The film’s initial London release was at the Tatler in Charing Cross Road where it had a charity matinee premiere on 28 December sponsored by the West End Central Police with 470 children in the audience from the Police Orphanage (’Pre-release’: 119). The film then continued a chequerboard rollout across the UK throughout early-1953 with concentrated bursts around school holiday periods.

Because of the fitful nature of the film’s release pattern, The Rose of Baghdad didn’t attract sustained critical attention, though there were short reviews in various newspapers and publications. The critical response was lukewarm with reviewers finding the film pleasant, if lacking in technical polish. Most praised the English soundtrack with generally kind words for Julie:

The Times: “This Italian cartoon, ‘dubbed’ into English, proves once again how much more happy and at home the medium is with animals than with human beings. Mr. Walt Disney never did anything better than Bambi, which was given entirely over to the beasts and birds of the forest, and the Princess Zeila, the rose of Baghdad, proves just as unsatisfactory a figure as Snow White and Cinderella. The fault is that not of Miss Julie Andrews, who speaks and sings the part; it seems inherent in the medium itself...The Rose of Baghdad is not, however, without some delightful incidentals (’Entertainments’: 9).

The Observer:  “Intelligently dubbed English version of full-length Italian cartoon...Nice use of crowds and minarets; one or two brilliant shots...; variably jerky animation; trite comedy; chocolate box princess...Not at all bad, a little too foreign to be cosy” (Lejeune: 6).

Picturegoer: “Charm stamps this full-length Italian cartoon, dubbed in English. Technically, it hardly bears comparison with the best of Disney. But it has genuine freshness and some appealing character studies...There is a delicate, very un-jivey musical score, and Julie Andrews sings attractively for the princess” (Collier: 17).

Photoplay: “The under 20′s and the over 50′s will love this one...Young B.B.C. star Julie Andrews ‘enacts’ the role of the Princess and sings three of the film’s seven tuneful songs....Yes, you’ll love this -- make it a must” (Allsop: 43).

Kinematograph Weekly: “Refreshing, disarmingly ingenuous Technicolor Arabian Nights-type fantasy, expressed in cartoon form. Made in Italy and expertly dubbed here...It hasn’t the fluid continuity nor flawless detail of Walt Disney’s masterpieces, but even so its many charming and novel characters come to life and atmosphere heightened by tuneful songs, is enchanting” (’Late review’: 7).

Picture Show & Film Pictorial: “Such a charming mixture of heroics,  villainy and romance should not be missed, and although the animation is not as good as first-class American cartoons, the colour and the songs are delightful” (’New Release’: 10).

The Birmingham Post: “[A]n Italian cartoon in colour which equals Disney in artistic invention though not in smooth animation...Fancy flies high but always it takes us with it. Much of the colour work is beautiful...The characters remain always between the covers of the story book, but within their limited living rom they are a  gay and enterprising company” (T.C.K.: 4).

Coventry Evening Telegraph: “It would be difficult to find a more delightful fantasy for Christmas entertainment than “The Rose of Baghdad” (Alexandra) -- the new Italian full-length cartoon. Until recently, Hollywood held an unbreakable monopoly in this field of coloured picture making. Now we have the opportunity to see a new and refreshing approach to the subject...All dialogue has been English-dubbed and appropriately enough Julie Andrews, who opens in Coventry pantomime tonight, sings and speaks the part of the little princess Zeila” (Our Film Critic: 4).

Faded Rose 

The Rose of Baghdad continued to pop up at various British theatres across 1953 and was even screening as a second feature at children’s matinees into 1954 and 55. In 1958, the film had a special Christmas TV broadcast in Australia where much was made of the fact that it featured Julie Andrews who was riding high at the time on the success of My Fair Lady (’Voice’: 15).

Ironically, the film would receive its most high profile release many years later in 1967 when a minor US film distributor, Trans-National Film Corp, secured North American exhibition rights for the property. Trans-National was one of a series of companies set up by Laurence “Larry” Joachim who would find modest success in later years as a distributor of martial arts films. With a background in TV gameshows, Joachim was known for his aggressive marketing strategies and he was very “hands on for the theatrical campaigns and art work for all the movies with which he was involved” (’Larry Joachim’ 2014).

In an effort to capitalise on Julie’s sudden film superstardom in the mid-60s, Joachim tried to sell The Rose of Baghdad as a ‘new’ Julie Andrews musical. He gave it a new title as The Singing Princess and marketed it with the dubious tagline: “It’s joy, it’s magic, it’s Julie Andrews”. He even billed the film as made in ‘Fantasticolor’, an entirely fictitious process. 

Registered with the Library of Congress in April 1967, The Singing Princess wasn’t released to the public till November of that year, likely to coincide with the holidays (Library of Congress: 121). It opened with a series of ‘children’s matinees’ at over 60 venues in New York before rolling out to other theatres across the US (’Children’s show’: 105).

It’s not clear if Joachim had access to the original UK source elements or if he just used a standard release print, but release copies of The Singing Princess were decidedly sub-par. They were marred by artefacts, colours were muddied and the soundtrack was prone to distortion. Moreover, by 1967, the film was hugely dated with old-fashioned production values and glaringly anachronistic elements. Joachim even had to edit a few sensitive scenes which were either too graphic or impolitic for the times.

The Singing Princess was not well received. Indicative of the dim response is this New York Times review summarily titled, ‘Feeble Princess’:

“The Singing Princess has joined the parade of foreign-made movies that turn up on weekend movies, most of them only fair and some of them incredibly awful...Parents would do well to read the smaller print in the ads...for the picture stars ‘the magic voice of Julie Andrews’ and emphatically not the lady’s magical presence....As an hour-length, fairy-tale cartoon of Old Baghdad the film is feeble entertainment compared with the technical wizardry and dazzling palettes of Walt Disney and others. It is possibly best suited for very small toddlers who may never have watched a cartoon on a theater-size screen. The distributor said that the film was made years ago in Italy and later dubbed into English in London, where apparently a very youthful Miss Andrews was recruited to sing three very so-so tunes. Those pristine, silvery tones certainly sounded like her on Saturday, but in the diction department she could have learned a thing or two from the Andrews Sisters. As a matter of fact, while London was revamping Old Baghdad, Italian-style, it might have been a good idea to set it swinging” (Thompson: 63).

The hatchet-job US release of The Singing Princess is the English-language version that has largely circulated since. In the intervening years, it has been given several TV, video and DVD releases of varying degrees of technical quality. None of which have helped the film’s reputation.

Not surprisingly, the film has enjoyed rather more favourable treatment in Italy. To mark the 60th anniversary of the original Italian release in 2009, La rosa di Bagdad was carefully restored and reissued on Blu-Ray. There have been some recent attempts to couple these restored visuals with the existing Singing Princess soundtrack, but it would be nice to see a properly remastered English-language version, ideally from the original audio elements if they still exist.

Heirloom Rose

Although it was never a major entry in the Julie Andrews canon, The Rose of Baghdad is not without critical significance. Not only was it Julie’s first foray into film-making, but it was also an early instance of the animation voice-work that would become a major part of her latter day professional output with recent efforts such as the Shrek and Despicable Me series. 

In addition, Princess Zeila signals an early entry in the long line of royal characters that would come to inform the evolving Julie Andrews star image. By 1952, Julie was already a dab hand at playing princesses, having donned crowns several times both on stage and in song. She would proceed to ever more celebrated royal character parts from Cinderella and Guinevere in Camelot to Queen Clarisse in The Princess Dairies and Queen Lillian in the aforementioned Shrek films. 

Ultimately, though, the principal historical significance of The Rose of Baghdad lies in its status as one of the few recorded examples we have from Julie’s early juvenile career in Britain. She worked assiduously in these early years, giving hundreds, if not thousands, of performances on stage, radio, and television. Sadly, other than a few 78 recordings and the odd surviving radio programme, very little of that early work remains. One lives in hope that more material may surface in coming years. In the meantime, The Rose of Baghdad offers a tantalising glimpse back into this fascinating early period when Julie was ‘Britain’s youngest singing star’.

References:

Allsop, Kathleen (1953). ‘Photoplay’s guide to the films: Rose of Baghdad.’ Photoplay. 4(1) January: p. 43.

Andrews, Julie (2008). Home: A memoir of my early years. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Bellano, Marco (2016). ‘“I fratelli Dinamite” e “La rosa di Bagdad”, l'Italia e la musica’. In: Scrittore, R. (Ed.). Passioni animate. Quaderno di studi sul cinema d'animazione italiano, Milan : 19-52.

Bendazzi, Giannalberto (2020). A moving subject. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

‘Children’s show’ (1967). Daily News. 8 November: p. 105.

Collier, Lionel. (1953). ‘Talking of films: “The Rose of Baghdad”.’ Picturegoer. 25(929): pp. 17-18.

Davalle, Peter C. (1952). ‘Film notes: Italy treads Disney trail.’ Western Mail and South Wales News. 20 September: p. 4.

‘Entertainment: Film Of Botany Bay. (1952). The Times, 29 December p. 9. 

Fiecconi, Federico (2018). ‘L’arte preziosa della Rosa / The Precious art of the Rose’. In Gradelle, D. (Ed.). La rosa di Bagdad: Un tesoro ritrovato. Parma: Urania Casa d’Aste: pp. 6-11.

‘Grand National offers ten British.’ (1952). Kinematograph Weekly. 1 May: p. 16.

‘Larry Joachim, distributor of kung du films, dies at 88.’ (2014). Variety. 2 January.

‘Late review: The Rose of Baghdad.’ (1952). Kinematograph Weekly. 18 December: p. 7.

Lejeune, C.A. (1952). ‘At the films: Dan’s Anderson.’ The Observer. 21 December: p. 6.

Library of Congress (1967). Catalog of copyright entries: Works of art. 21(7-11A), January-June. 

‘London and provincial trade screenings.’ Kinematograph Weekly. 11 September: p. 32-34.

‘Many countries covered in big Grand National List’ (1951). Kinematograph Weekly. 1 February: p. 20.

Massey, Howard (2015). The great British recording studios. London: Hal Leonard Publishing.

McFarlane, Brian, & Slide, Anthony. (2013). The encyclopedia of British film. 4th Edn. Manchester University Press.

‘Next week’s cinema shows.’ (1952). The Walsall Observer. 12 December: p. 10.

‘New Releases: Rose of Baghdad’ (1952). Picture Show and Film Pictorial. 59(1361). 20 December: p.10.

Our Film Critic (1952). ‘Seasonable fantasy.’ Coventry Evening Telegraph. 23 December, p. 4.

‘Pre-releases and release dates.’ (1952). Kinematograph Weekly. 18 December: p. 119.

‘Rose of Baghdad.’ (1952). 

T.C.K. (1952). ‘Cinema shows in Birmingham: Italian cartoon.’ The Birmingham Post. 17 December: p. 4.

Thompson, Howard (1967). ‘Screen: Feeble princess.’ The New York Times. 13 November: p. 63.

‘Trade show news: colour cartoon feature.’ (1952). Kinematograph Weekly. 11 September: p. 14. 

Ugolotti, Carlo (2018). ‘La rosa di Bagdad: il folle sogno di Anton Gino Domeneghini / The Rose of Bagdad: the mad dream of Anton Gino Domeneghini.’ In Gradelle, D. (Ed.). La rosa di Bagdad: Un tesoro ritrovato. Parma: Urania Casa d’Aste: pp. 12-21.

‘Voice of Julie Andrews.’ (1958). The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 December: p. 15.

Copyright © Brett Farmer 2023

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

here they are!! team zeila!!

team zeila has this thing where they wear flowers that correspond to one of the other two’s colours! imogen has tomiko’s signature orangey red, dew has imogen’s purple, and tomiko has dew’s green.

(it was zeila’s idea ofc ofc)

ill draw zeila later eh

[mantabanter]

HEY HO HEY all my friends with naruto ocs, gather round, for i have a gift for you. this took me like 4 hours. time well spent.

Anyway!! Team witchault, aka manta, laika, akira and witchault all belong to me! (as does nemo). Team Zeila aka imogen, tomiko, dew and zeila belong to @gaylittleinnkeepers​

Yosuga belongs to @doku--hime and Natsu belongs to @hiddenboink Gon belongs to @dawritingdragon

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

60 and 8 for team zeila!! :D

60: what are some of their simple pleasures?

imogen: this will sound sappy but she just loves listening to people talk. especially sakura, lol. she’ll spend hours sitting with a dopey smile listening to sakura talk about anything

dew: dew loves games. it doesn’t matter what game, whether it’s a running competition (which he always loses on purpose to let the other win), or a board game. he‘s happy when he’s moving, mind or body

tomiko: tomiko adores reading. he’ll always have a book nearby, just in case he gets bored with all other things. if he had an endless supply of books for the rest of his life, tomi would be perfectly happy. but his favourite thing is to read out loud to the team

zeila: zeila simply just loves spending time with her team. she plays games with dew, she listens to imogen talk, she reads with tomiko. her simple pleasure is letting others do theirs

8: what animal would they be? what animal do they think they would be?

imogen: probably a house cat. she thinks she’d be a caterpillar tho lol

dew: G O L D E N R E T R I E V E R or dolphin. he thinks it’s the former

tomiko: probably a woodlouse (we call ‘em butchie boys over here). he thinks he’d be a spider tho ahaha

zeila: zeila is a bear, but a soft fluffy bear. teddy bear.

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

10. what do they fantasize about?

imogen: PROBABLY SAKURA LOL SHES A SIMP

dew: hes aroace but dew probably fantasizes about getting a big place for all of them to live happily together lol

tomiko: that phat ass library from beauty and the beast

zeila: meeting the team’s (namely tomiko and imogen) families and kids in the future and still being friends

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

50. Do they have any insecurities?

51. What is their favorite thing about themselves?

50

imogen: oh, yes certainly. she’s pretty insecure about her inability to focus on anything for long enough, and whenever the team hits a tight spot she always thinks its her fault

dew: dew always thinks its his job to make anyone happy, so whenever one of them is sad he feels really bad and feels like he needs to make them happy

tomiko: he’s insecure about the little patch thing on his face. it’s a scar from a looooong time ago, but he thinks it makes everyone think he’s weak for not preventing it from happening

zeila: she’s insecure about the fact that she can be very protective of the team. she thinks that whenever someone is mean to them, it’s her fault for raising them like that, but whenever they fail she blames herself for slacking off

51

imogen: her favourite thing about herself is that she’s good at listening. she thinks that that’s what causes people to like her

dew: his favourite thing about himself is his ability to make people happy. it makes him feel like a superhero

tomiko: not much, really. tomiko doesnt like himself. but if he had to choose, it‘s his ability to make friends who are so much better for him

zeila: MAMA BEAR SKILLS

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

16. How would others describe them?

imogen: people usually describe imogen as an airhead, someone who doesn’t know the ceiling from the floor. and they’re pretty right, too.

dew: they always call him ‘like an excitable puppy’ which is also mostly correct

tomiko: they always call him a cryptid, someone who always wants to be left alone, but that’s not rlly right lmao

zeila: everyone gets annoyed with her bc apparently she’s too motherly to be a good trainer :(

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

19, 20 and 21 for team zeila!! if thats not too much-

OH ONK HI MANTA SIR

nonono this is good! i need to write shit to get my brain moving i just woke up

19 - hobbies

- imogen: she likes singing, which gets weird sometimes but it’ really soothing. she also likes eating (no surprise), sleeping (literally once after a mission imogen fell asleep for three days straight) and occasionally baking. she’s not too bad at it actually.

- dew: he likes dancing like an idiot, espcially in rain. he’a super carefree so it makes sense! also he likes playing with animals, he likes hugging, and he likes playing board games against his teammates. he usually loses but it!s okay because he’s cool.

- tomiko: he likes to say he likes nothing, but there are a few hobbies of his. tomi likes reading (usually you can find him up in a tree away from other humans), he likes swimming, and he likes playing board games with the others. he usually wins because of his cryptic self

- zeila: WELL, being the total mom she is, zeila loves spending time and training her kids. she adores each and every one of them and loves their hobbies too. she plays games with dew, she reads with tomiko, she bakes with imogen. the last one usually doesnt go well with her around

20 - clothing/aesthetic

- imogen: generally imogen wears the same thing, like all the fuvking time. the haori-like thing, a turtleneck underneath, the flowers in her hair. flowers are a recurring thing in team zeila. she has a purple-ish pink aesthetic (like her moms in a ~different universe~), but has the orangey-red flowers from tomiko’s aesthetic.

- dew: he likes green! very green. he’s got like a thing for dark greens, and generally only wears them. he has like a jacket over a fucking singlet (IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT SEASON. ITS ALWAYS THE FUCKINHDMG. SINGLET.), and usually likes to wear a little flower badge on his jacket. his aesthetic is- ofc- green, and he wears purple flowers bc of imogen.

- tomiko: his aesthetic is veryy orangey red. theres some orange, theres some red. he usually wears a scarf over his jumper. he doesn’t change clothes like at all. the other are convinced that he has hundreds of copies of his outfit in his closet. he wears green flowers bc of dew.

- zeila: zeila likes to wear warm, fluffy things. it’s really funny. sometimes she’s wearing a singlet in the summer, but her socks will be fluffy. it’s winter and she’s wearing a feather boa. it’s spring and her gloves are the softest things ever. she wears a lot of different flowers, all for the colours of her team.

21 - favourite foods

- imogen: she will eat anything. like, absolutely anything. ramen? yes. sandwiches? oh, for sure. biscuits. PLS. her all-time favourite food is probably anything to do with eggs, really.

- dew: he isnt picky but there are certainly things he prefers to eat instead of others. for one, he barely eats anything savoury. he’s super unhealthy. dew generally feasts on the baked goods that imogen makes, but otherwise nobody sees what he eats unless hes offered something. (his favourite foods are actually pies, lol)

- tomiko: hes super picky. tomiko will NOT eat anything with milk in it. lack toes in toddler ants, you see. which is why imogen bakes stuff specially so that he can eat them too. his favourite food is ramen, though. you can’t go wrong with ramen. there is no milk.

- zeila: she eats everything. like, everything. she’s sorta like mitsuri from kny? WILL. EAT. EVERYTHING. it seems really unhealthy but shes only getting started. really, her favourite foods are apples. she likes the cronch

=

THANKS FOR THE ASKS!,!!

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

just a team zeila sleepover

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

naruto imogen lore!!

ok so i finally made a team!!

*drumroll pls*

TEAM ZEILA!!

first off is imogen ofc! she’s pretty much the “child” of the team, lol. she’s a bit of an airhead, dumb but well-meaning. she’s a complete adrien agreste when it comes to feelings and shit like that. she’s gay as hell and very attracted to sakura but doesn’t know it lol

second is dew. dew is the oldest out of team zeila. he’s very upbeat and funny, and a complete clown. most of the time, dew acts as an emotional and mental support to everyone, and likes to crack jokes during near-death situations. also he adores physical affection

then there is tomiko. he tries his ABSOLUTE HARDEST to be a cryptid, but fails most of the time. he’s the middle child of team zeila, pretending to be annoyed at pretty much everything, especially dew’s famed group hugs. but really he loves all of them very much, and completes the obliviousness duo with imogen

finally, zeila herself! she’s a lot like shinobu in demon slayer, with brutal honesty but a lot of happiness. she’s also a total mom and loves her team very very very much. she also has a tendency to treat them like toddlers lol

i love them very much and if you have any asks or anything go ahead!!

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

9. Do they cheat to win or play by the rules?

imogen: she generally plays by the rules, but since shes a sneky snek she’ll cheat sometimes ;)

dew: NEVER CHEATS. refuses to cheat, no matter what

tomiko: oh he certainly cheats lol

zeila: same as dew AHAHA

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

azzie watches naruto— episode 5

Oh No Oh Fuck

(notes: NOTHING)

every time i watch the opening i die when narutos like “CAWM ONNN”

also the part it says “in fighting and in love” it shows sasuke with naruto so in conclusion i think thats gay

ah right i forgot the last ep ended with murder

kakashi getting mowed down

SUCK it was a LOG

sasuke is a monkey-?

sakura being obsessed with sasuke is scary

OH NO DID SHE GET KILLED

she looks mind controlled

THIS IS A DREAM RIGHT

SASUKES DYING AHAHAHAHA

kakashi likes to freak out girls lmao

sakura honey, this is where simping gets you~

SASUKE GOT A HITTT GOOD JOBB

but he dint get no bell uh uh

“THERES NO TIME TO READ MAKEOUT PARADISE”

sakura…stahp…

NARUTO its a trap isnt it? the lunch

oh fucc sasuke got that chakra

OH FUCC

HES LIKE A DAMN SKYRIM DRAGON

kakashi’s exactly like gabriel agreste in adriens life

*always disappearing*

sasuke became a sand mermaid god bless

aw kakashi gets to read makeout paradise <3

NARUTOS LITTLE “EHEHE” IS JUST SO FUNNY I CANNOT

sakura- SAKURA NO

sasuke is such an oblivious bean i-

sakura’s inner demon is back! love of my life

OHOHO IS SHE TRYNA OUTWIT HIM

omg sasukes demon guy looks like a twelve kizuki lmao

TIMES UPP YALL FAILED

“all i did was lay unconscious???” wahaha

YESS ITS SAKURAS INNER DEMON <3

fucking WHAT KAKASHI

this is some fucking brutal honesty

OWO LORD LESBIANNNB!!!

s q u i r t s

SASUKE STOP TRYNA KILL HIM OMG

“sASukE kUnNNnNnNnnn!!!!”

oh theyre supposed to work together

ITS CALLED FOUND FAMILY YOU FOOLS

B R A I N L E S S

SAKURA IS SMORT

kakashi calling out sakura’s simping lmao

KAKASHI WAT

wtf

OH HES KIDDING LOL

kakashi is sadistic as fuck istg

THE DEAD NINJAS

naruto you want ur name on there now???? huh????????

ohohoho extra chance??? noice

LMAO “dont let naruto have any”

IRUKAAAAA

LESBIANNNN

ive decided that iruka is also a lesbian OwO

imagine if naruto still had diarrhea

AHAHA SASUKE THATS GAY

“here have my lunch <3” THATS SO GAY CMON

sakura having troubles giving lunch is funnee

naruto simping zenitsu style

OH NO KAKASHI IS HERE FOR MURDER

OH NOEEEEE

rip team seven god bless

SQUAD GOALS OMGGG

OMG THEY PASSED YEAHHHHHH

thats cute ngl

kakashi like “i like these lil rats ima keep em”

SAKURAS PRECIOUS LITTLE SMILE I CANT

SASUKE SMILED WAAA

naruto being a sailor moon character lmaoo

YESSSSSS SAKURAS DEMON I LOV

@mantabanter THERE WE GOOO! this was such a wacky episode i cant. i loved it sm tho

like i am already in love with these idiots and its been FIVE EPISODES-

anyway watch out for ep 6!! soon!! (i need to write a bunch of shit)

oH and i finally made imogen’s team- theyre called team zeila hehehe

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

azzie watches naruto— episode 6

It’s A Mental Breakdown! *Kazoo Noises*

(notes: i am very confused but!, at least i got lore ahaha)

sasuke looks at naruto with Heart Eyes

THEY HAVE WALKIE TALKIES OMG THAS COOL

i fucking love walkie talkies

IS IT A DRAGON? IT LOOKS LIKE A SKYRIM DRAGON

oh i just realised that sakura wears her ninja band thingy as like a headband kinda thing

LOL ITS A CATT

lmao id be happy with that mission-

TORA’S FACE I CANNOT

LORD LESBIANNN

naruto-

I R U K A !!!!

knock him out kakashi!! go man!!

oh lol iruka is lower rank than kakashi

OLD MAN- NARUTO DONT DISRESPECT THE LESBIAN LORD

imagine being some respected person and having a simp, a prankster and an emo as your bodyguards

oops its a drunk

IDIOT FACE- NARUTO

hell yeah bridge builder !!! you go man !!

HES NEVER LEFT THE VILLAGE-?

s q u i r t

“i’m awesome, you see!” ok then

ayo mr bridge builder is just so brutal istg

oh land of the waves? thats cool!!

where is this set? is it a fictional place?

OWO DID THIS BECOME ATLA FOR A SEC??

OH LEAF VILLAGE IS THE FIRE PLACE? FIRE LAND?

AWESOME

sakura ur demon is showing

kakashi is such a dad i cannot

wait- does is iruka and kakashi gay? together!???

HOLY FUCK THERE IS A BITCH IN THE WATER

OH NO THERE ARE TWO BITCHES

HOLY FUCK THEY LOOK LIKE BUCKY FROM MARVEL LMAO

WAIT KAKASHI GOT FUCKING MELTED LIKE A POPSICLE

aw yeah sasuke pop off bestie

oooh sasukeeee~

AYO KAKASHI DIDNT GET MELTEDDDD YEAS

is sasuke jealous of kakashi or

WHAT IS IT WITH KAKASHI AND LOGS?????

OOOH SASUKE UR BEING MEAN HUHH

op naruto just being poisoned like

OHHH IS MR BRIDGE BUILDER ACTUALLY A BAD GUY?

*billie eilish voice*

watchu gotta say now huh mr onion head bridge builder????

NARUTO WTF

HE JUST HE, HE SGABBED HIS FUCKISNGNSNF ARMMSNFKDN

hEhEhEhE-

SAKURA NO

owo magic naruto

naruto ur demon fox is showing!

omg its a tiny man is he a mafia boss-?

his head looks so fluffy

ANOTHER DEMON??

bitch looks like he should be in demon slayer smh

@mantabanter we got lore!! (by we i mean i)!! very inch resting, also i got to see kakashi being a dad lmao

also i drew like a first draft kinda thing for team zeila

[gaylittleinnkeepers]

i want to write a fic where team zeila just goes

feral

because they should >:(