Fairy Tale

They say it’s the end. They say the Shrek empire is done making movies, if not lunchboxes and Pez dispensers. “Shrek Forever After’’ is being billed as the last of four big-screen romps featuring the lovable slime-green ogre with the cheesy Scottish accent. And to see this final installment is to know: It’s time. When “Shrek’’ debuted in 2001, it captivated audiences with its sly sendups of conventional fairy tales. Inspired by William Steig’s illustrated children’s book, the spirited animated comedy delivered a Happy Meal-ready title character (voiced by Mike Myers)

Everyone wants the happily-ever-after — that's why fairy tale movies are so popular. This week, we have "Mirror Mirror," a cheeky take on "Snow White" from the perspective of the evil Queen, played by Julia Roberts. So here's a look at five fabulous films that just might have you believing in magic: — "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006): A total original — very much in keeping with Guillermo del Toro's wondrously dark, strange aesthetic, and yet an unforgettable entity all its own. A little girl escapes the horrors of 1944 Fascist Spain by spending time in the ruins of an ancient labyrinth; there, the satyr...

A few years ago, the quick, trick ending of M. Night Shyamalan's superhero opus, "Unbreakable," left me in a state of wild exasperation. ("That was a beginning !") Then, a good friend offered this consolation: The movie, he said, was like watching someone meticulously snip through a stack of paper. Two hours later, the cutter puts down his scissors and reveals his deceptively ornate creation: a snowflake. My friend had perfectly captured the sense of craftsmanship that can be so captivating, so wondrous, and so infuriating about an M. Night film.

Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan has been a member of the paper's staff since the 1970s. He pulled out some of his favorite Red Sox-related columns on the occasion of the park's 100th anniversary. Sept. 12, 1999: Observers still awestruck by Pedro Martinez's performance May 9, 2004: Pokey Reese thrills Fenway with inside-the-park home run Oct. 19, 2004: How to explain latest Yankees-Red Sox epic? June 22, 2009: Nick Green's walkoff home run a fairy tale

Everyone wants the happily-ever-after — that's why fairy tale movies are so popular. This week, we have "Mirror Mirror," a cheeky take on "Snow White" from the perspective of the evil Queen, played by Julia Roberts. So here's a look at five fabulous films that just might have you believing in magic: — "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006): A total original — very much in keeping with Guillermo del Toro's wondrously dark, strange aesthetic, and yet an unforgettable entity all its own. A little girl escapes the horrors of 1944 Fascist Spain by spending time in the ruins of an ancient labyrinth; there, the satyr...

Right about the time Paul Pierce was striding into the FleetCenter last night with hopes of erasing one of the most appalling moments in sports history, word filtered through that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would be sticking around for a while. The news was hardly shocking. Although Brady recently expressed doubt that his negotiations with the Patriots would extend his happily-ever-after fairy tale with New England, we never doubted he was going anywhere. Brady is all about winning, he's all about doing the right thing, and he is smart enough and mature...

What's the craziest backstory in the world? A fairy tale. Here's my review of ABC's "Once Upon a Time" and NBC's "Grimm. "  Both shows are about contemporary characters whose pasts reach into the world of sleeping beauties and big bad wolves.

The sound of inflated plastic shifting under human skin is unusual. It crunches. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Air Doll ’’ means for it to be sweetly, strangely sexual. The movie is a fable etched in comedy, sadness, and mild existential philosophy. Yes, the object of Kore-eda’s fairy tale is a life-size sex toy, but it’s the size and emotional shading of the toy’s new life that interests him. In a section of a Tokyo neighborhood untouched by urban developers, a middle-age waiter (the comedian Itsuji Itao)

‘Ondine’’ is a fairy tale for grown-ups who need one. It’s one of Neil Jordan’s gentlest movies, but it continues the Irish filmmaker’s intermittent, career-long theme of spiritually exhausted men finding renewal in women who aren’t quite what they seem. “The Crying Game,’’ of course, was Jordan’s most extreme version of the tale, but the femme fatale at the center of “Ondine’’ is assuredly a woman. At least, temporarily. The rest of the time she may or may not be a seal.

In the waning years of the 17th century, just after the aging French writer Charles Perrault published his popular “Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals’’ (subtitled “Tales of Mother Goose’’), the derisive Abbé de Villiers took the opportunity to rip into fairy tales generally, except those of Perrault. “Follies in print,” was Villiers’s description of the genre — “Tales to make you fall asleep on your feet, that nurses have made up to entertain children.” Since that time, the fairy tale has gained prestige, dignified with the imprimatur of...

Coming soon to a theater near you: "The Nick Green Story. " Surely Matt Damon can slide this one into his schedule. Forget "Fever Pitch. " That was fictional. This guaranteed blockbuster would be a full-blown biopic, the rags-to-riches story of a career spare part who lands in Boston and becomes a folk hero. It's got everything, including the unhappy year languishing as a discarded Yankee. A chance to bash the Yankees about the One Who Got Away? Irresistible. Stealin' money.

Once upon a time? How about thrice upon a time? Why not admit we've lost count? The movies are in love with fairy tales again. "Mirror Mirror," a playful revamp of "Snow White" with Lily Collins as the heroine and Julia Roberts cracking wise as the Evil Queen, opens this Friday. Directed by the eccentric visionary Tarsem Singh Dhandwar ("The Fall"), the movie has won the battle of the competing bedtime stories, with "Snow White and the Huntsman" waiting until June 1 to hit theaters.

THE GLOBE'S story on the negative impact Massachusetts hospitals face in the wake of a recent federal payroll tax agreement ( "Tax deal reduces funds for hospitals," Page A1, Feb. 28) included quotes from two economists whose statements ignore some basic realities. The economists' claims that hospitals' concerns about Medicare funding cuts are "white noise" or "cry[ing] wolf" ignore the fact that hospitals are being hit with billions of dollars in payment reductions off a base that already falls short of covering the cost of care.

ON WGBH High School Quiz Show 6 p.m. WGBH (Channel 2) Sharon vs. Hamilton-Wenham. RADIO HIGHLIGHTS Only a Game 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. WBUR-FM (90.9) Fans of the NBA's worst team look ahead to brighter days. Innovation Hub 7 a.m. WGBH-FM (89.7) Work place of the future is discussed with Fred Foulkes, professor at Boston University; Wendy Murphy, professor at Babson College; David San Ford, vice president at the Winter Wyman Companies; and WGBH reporter Ibby Caputo.

Billy Crystal is back Sunday as host of the Academy Awards, a responsibility he's held eight times before. By now, the 63-year-old comedian is a pro at this — a reliable, familiar choice who's beloved and admired by his peers. And he's achieved that status in this business through his many indelible comic roles. Here are five of his best. — "When Harry Met Sally …" (1989): Easily THE performance of Crystal's career. Everyone involved here is at the height of his or her powers: Meg Ryan, director Rob Reiner, writer Nora Ephron (who earned an Oscar nomination for her screenplay)

Marc Jacobs, always the showman, turned his New York Fashion Week show into a mystical forest Monday night, presenting his fall collection amid an old-school fairy tale, complete with characters wearing oversized fur hats and embellished big-buckle shoes. There were hints of Victoriana, with bustles tacked on to some of the dresses, and a sequined faux-fur coat that appeared to be covered in snowflakes. Nearly hidden amid the onstage drama unfolding at the Lexington Avenue Armory were beautiful pieces of outerwear and chic cocktail clothes.

Once upon a time (I open with the same words that begin this corporate fairy tale), a man named James Cash Penney bought a handful of dry goods stores in the American West. Expanding his kingdom in the early decades of the 20th century, he told his store managers to do good things -- community service -- and rewarded them with good incentives -- autonomy and profit-sharing. The kingdom prospered. But then ogres took over and made bad decisions, according to author Bill Hare, a former speechwriter for Penney executives.

Reprinted from late editions of yesterday's Globe. Poor old Dvorak devoted himself to writing operas throughout his creative life. He wrote more of them than he did symphonies - about 10 operas in total - but you've probably never heard of most of them, despite titles as memorable as "The King and the Charcoal Burner. " The composer's operatic fairy tale "Rusalka" is the only piece to have found a secure place in the repertoire. It was written in 1900 and based on a text by Jaroslav Kvapil about forbidden love between a water nymph and a human prince.

The word that best evokes the melancholy mood of Eowyn Ivey's novel, "The Snow Child," is one not native to the icy climes of frontier Alaska, where the novel is set. It is the Portuguese word saudade: a powerful longing for something - or someone - that can never be fulfilled. It is 1920, and Mabel and Jack have left everything and everyone they know behind in Pennsylvania, going west to start over. But the one thing they can't forget is their stillborn child. "Mabel had known there would be silence" in Alaska, writes Ivey.

Lana Parrilla, whose dual roles on the fantasy drama "Once Upon a Time" include the fearsome Evil Queen, wasn't satisfied just knowing her character was evil. "You can also see she's a tortured soul," says Parrilla, "and I made a very conscious choice to reveal the pain underneath. " While she prepped for her audition, she asked herself: What caused that pain? "So I did a meditation, and I saw a lot of her past and tapped into it," discovering in the process that "a major betrayal and the loss of someone she deeply loves are what caused the darkness to...