Fables

Prince Caspian, the second entry in the Chronicles of Narnia series, is a glorious medieval war movie. It's about war as the ultimate pitch of conflict that tries men's souls, and women's, too, in director-co-writer Andrew Adamson's liberated, post-feminist rendering of C.S. Lewis' novel. The battle between good and evil couldn't be more clearly drawn. But the movie also depicts the fluidity of change in every sphere of life, public or private, from a household of siblings to a civilization nearing Armageddon.

The gentle whimsy of Aurand Harris' 45-year-old play, Androcles and the Lion, enchanted young audiences and those young at heart for the past two weekends at Anne Arundel Community College with its message of kindness toward fellow human beings. The timeless play is based on one of Aesop's fables, a familiar story of a young slave who removes a thorn from a lion's paw and becomes his friend. Harris employed elements of Commedia del'Arte style of Italian theater, where troupes of energetic actors wearing elaborate costumes and masks entertain audiences with uplifting stories that laugh at human frailties.

A beat-boxing donkey, a grape-obsessed fox, and a narcissistic peacock provide a modern twist to ancient tales in Glenelg Country School's premiere production of Aesop's Foibles. Collaborators Carole Graham Lehan and Tom French created the original script and score for Aesop's Foibles, inspired by the well-known collection of stories, Aesop's Fables. This farcical musical follows the story of Thalia (Maeve Ricaurte), a fledgling muse sent to help Aesop fill a tome with his imaginative stories.

Have A Brandywine Christmas beginning the day after Thanksgiving at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa. The celebration includes displays of an O-gauge model-train setup, a Victorian dollhouse and holiday trees, as well as an exhibit of Jerry Pinkney's watercolor illustrations titled Jerry Pinkney: Aesop's Fables and Other Tales. His art gives life to such fables as The Tortoise and the Hare and The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. Returning to the celebration is Ann Wyeth McCoy's collection of dolls dressed in children's, antique and costume clothing.

GRIDIRON GANG -- Sony -- 28.95 On home video and theater screens, this January has become the month for fact-based inspirational fables, of heroic mentors helping to lift up city youths. Freedom Writers has been turning into a word-of-mouth hit at the multiplexes just as Gridiron Gang arrives on DVD Tuesday. Gridiron Gang stars Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson as the real-life juvenile probation officer Sean Porter, who molded tough underage felons into a football team, the Mustangs. At Camp Kilpatrick, a "last-chance" juvenile-detention facility nestled against California's Santa Monica Mountains, Porter convinces his charges that they can change from losers to winners - if they overcome gang allegiances and put the team he forms first.

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival has produced few -- if any -- fables in its 25 years, so Kimberley Lynne's The Return of the 5th Sister is an original, odd and welcome addition. It's also disturbing at times, as fairy tales and fables often are. Half of a double-billed program that is jointly titled, Just Outside the Garden, 5th Sister is a fable about feminism, self-reliance and not believing the stories we are told. It is being presented at Mobtown Players. Set in an unspecified period in the past -- the characters wear prairie dresses -- the one-act play concerns four adult sisters.

For a while, Microsoft's Xbox game Fable seemed like a myth itself, given how long it has been in development and how much pre-release hype it received. But Fable is finally here. Although it's not a revolution in the role-playing genre, it is well-written, beautifully drawn and a lot of fun to play. The game uses a third-person perspective, so you can watch your character traipse through the woods, interact with others and change his appearance. Fable is a lot like another Xbox role-playing game, Knights of the Old Republic.

NEW YORK - When Gerry Horton was growing up on Long Island, he and his family made an annual pilgrimage into Manhattan during the holiday season. They'd walk down Fifth Avenue, stopping in many a shop and checking out Rockefeller Center. But one of the highlights would always be a stop at the FAO Schwarz flagship store on Fifth Avenue, Horton recalls. "This was always part of the tradition of coming to New York City on Christmas," Horton said. "It's a part of what you think of when you think of New York."

When he was asked why he preferred publishing newspapers to making movies, William Randolph Hearst explained in his ruthless way, "You can crush a man with journalism, and you can't with motion pictures." It's still true that there is nothing quite as devastating to an ordinary person's reputation as a series of scandalous headlines, especially in tabloids where a blend of fact and speculation can be brutally employed. For a taste of the damage that cold print can do to private lives, read Zoe Heller's new novel What Was She Thinking?

Holes, based on a beloved, award-winning children's book, is so faithful to its source that legions of schoolkids and their teachers will clasp it to their hearts. After all, it's a glorified set of illustrations that will extend, or at least not get in the way of, their original reading experience. Those who come to the movie cold will find it an exasperating assembly of brutal pedantry and whimsies, boasting far less charm or grace than even the first Harry Potter picture. It's partly a broad satire on teen boot camps: The hero, Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf)