It's the final week of the Zhenya's Wonder Tales campaign! If you've been waiting to jump on board, now is the time!
To celebrate the moment and say thanks for all your support, our team put together this list of movie, music, and video game recommendations that have the right Zhenya's vibe! If you have suggestions of your own, we'd love to hear them!
Jenn’s Recommendations
The first and foremost that comes to mind is Three Thousand Years of Longing. While no wonder tale contains a djinn, the movie has a rich and strange feel to it and the different stories over time feel very similar to the wonder tales.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Huntersmay or may not be so bad it’s good (it’s not, it’s a bad movie), but I do find myself rooting for the witches every time! The dark forest vibes are very Zhenya and Peter Stormare as Sheriff Berringer is eminently hateable.
If horror isn’t a draw for you, Song of the Sea brings beautiful animation together with haunting music. My family watched this after the studio’s other film, Secret of Kells, and we were all crying by the time the credits rolled. A sad time, but a good time.
Song of the Sea (2014)
Child of Light is a video game full of magic and monsters, and the stories you discover in different areas echo the different wonder tales- especially the village of crows. This sometimes-side-scroller, turn-based combat game is beautiful and captivating and a very good time!
The Longing doesn’t share much on the surface with Zhenya’s Wonder Tales, but feels like it could be the epilogue of a tale, with the Shade tasked with watching over a sleeping king for 400 days. Played in real time, you can explore the underground kingdom you find yourself in, contend with boredom, read actual books and gather resources and decorate your room. Will you wake the king when the time comes?
Kristine’s Recommendations
I've always loved the vibes of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the 1975 animated television special by Chuck Jones. It's a bit like the Jungle Book in the animation but the conflict between the mongoose and the cobras feels very Zhenya's!
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975)
In terms of music, there's an album called Solon Islandus by Icelandic artist Gabríel Ólafs. Several songs make me think of Zhenya's Wonder Tales:
Solon Islandus - choral piece that warms and cools in tandem. There's something magical and sad about it.
Kyndir - A piano composition that makes me imagine that heavy feeling of longing while rain falls outside a thick glass window.
The Restless Bird- A voiceless song like birds flying across stark grey skies.
Jason’s Recommendations
I've talked about book recommendations in our previous post but for movies, my first stop would be Czech fantasy, most of it animated or using puppetry:
