The Art Of

Written, Adapted, & Illustrated by Emily Fajardo

Inspired by the Fairy Tale by the Brothers Grimm
A Visual Development Exploration
for a Hypothetical Animated Film
Preface
Exposition
Characters
Story
Closing
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When I frst read The Brothers Grimms Donkey Cab-
bages, which I was immediately taken with when I saw its
unorthodox title on a bookshelf, I remember being surprised
that I had never heard of this peculiar little story before
stumbling on it in the childrens section of the library. It
struck me as strangewrong, eventhat a tale as whimsi-
cal and weird as Cabbages had not fallen under the cultural
umbrella of animated flms retelling fairytales (successfully
popularized by Disney), where Grimm stories have thrived,
and where a tale about a boy who turns into a donkey should,
theoretically, have a very clear home.
However, it quickly became apparent that the revenge
story of the hunter-turned-donkey and his magical wishing
cloak had very little in common with the stories I loved as a
child, even when compared with the original, often very dark
texts of fairytales like The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow
White, and The Frog Prince, which have been adapted into
childrens flms regardless. In fact, beyond its basic concept
about magical vegetables that turn people into animals, there
is very little content in the original that could be reasonably
integrated into the screenplay for a childrens flm. In addi-
tion to the dark plot points, it conveys extremely questionable
messages concerning revenge, the treachery of women, and
the ruthless pursuit of self-interestwhich, while they do un-
fortunately appear in many forms of childrens media, are not
lessons most parents want their children to take home from a
day at the movies.
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But the intrigue of putting a modern spin on an old clas-
sic was exactly what got me interested in Donkey Cabbages
as the basis for a potential animated flm. I hoped that if I
could somehow reinterpret a text as off-kilter as this one into
a piece that could be entertaining and informative for todays
audience of children, I might be able to produce something
conceptually informed and unique, while still highlighting the
whimsical elements of the narrative that make the original
story so oddly compelling.
It was this line of thought that prompted me to
consider reimagining a contemporary version of the story,
approaching it from a different angle by asking myself a
series of questions. What if it was set in a civilization akin
to the ancient Aztec empire? Did the elements of romantic
love and sexual attraction need to stay, or could the narrative
instead focus on the love story of two platonic friends? What
if the old witch was never a villain to begin with? Instead of
focusing on revenge to the bitter end, could the hunter learn
to forgive? What kind of story would that be?
I kept asking questions, and I built the world of this
flm-that-might-not-ever-be in a way that I felt might answer
them. This book is a compilation of all the things I
envisioned in the three months I spent, blissfully lost in
Axnos universe. I hope that readers will open this book, take
the frst bite of what could be something magical, and get
lost with me.
Deconstructing a storybook narrative for modern cinema,
and other transformations caused by magical cabbages
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Axno (/sh nO/, lit. donkey in Nahuatl) is
an 8-year-old orphan who feeds himself by hunt-
ing birds with his trusty slingshot. He considers
himself to be a great hunter, even though he has
never killed anything bigger than a parakeet,
and often scares off prey with his loud voice and
his knack for making a scene wherever he goes.

His penchant for trouble causes the people of
his village to isolate him, but he fervently denies
that he has ever felt lonely, and hates asking for
help more than anything in the world.
Although his intentions are generally good,
Axno is as stubborn as he is aggressive, and
obsessively dreams up crazy ways to get revenge
on the giants who kidnapped his parents (so
much so that Itzel thinks he might be deranged
when they frst meet.) After fnding King Co-
tencatls wishing cloak, he hopes to make this
dream a reality, and heads for the palace on Mt.
Tlahtoani with Itzel at his sideonly to encoun-
ter a much more immediate problem when they
both turn into donkeys, and must work together
to fnd a way to become human again.
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Four legs grew on him, a large
head and two thick ears, and
he saw with horror that he
was changed into an ass.

Donkey Cabbages
Axno, Human | Digital
Style Studies | Digital
Axno, Donkey | Digital
Expression studies Axno | Digital
Axnos Slingshot | Digital
The Magic Cloak | Digital
Itzel is the true identity of the wanted bandit
who brings food she grows to the starving people of
the tribe every week, wearing the enchanted cloak of
the deceased King Cotencatl to conceal her identity.
This causes many people to try to steal it, and others to
mistake her for the kings ghostbut unbeknownst to
her or her people, she is actually his lost daughter, who
disappeared on the day he allegedly died.
At 16 years old, Itzel has no memory of her
childhood before age eight, when she woke up wrapped
in a cloak in the middle of the jungle with Quetz pro-
tecting her. Her only memory is the hazy image of an
old woman, who prophecized that Itzel would one day
meet the chosen one with the power to use the magic
cloak, and show her the way to her rightful place.
When she rst encounters Axno and discovers
that he is the chosen one the sorceress spoke of, Itzel
decides to go with him on his journey to the palace on
the mountain, having always felt a strange connection
to the place, and hoping to discover who she really is
along the way. But their quest is made difcult when
they both turn into donkeys, and not even the magical
cloak can change them back to their human forms.
In contrast with Axno, Itzel is an even-tempered,
resourceful pacist who lives in quiet solitude among
nature, minding a modest patch of crops, and emerg-
ing from the wild only when duty calls her to defend
her people. As soon as she regains her memories, she
resolves to rescue Chimalma and the people of her
kingdom at all costs.
Said the maiden, over there lies the granite
mountain, where the precious stones grow.
I have a great longing to go there, so that
when I think of it I am very sad.

Donkey Cabbages
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Itzel, Age 8 | Digital Itzel, Present Day, Donkey | Digital Itzel, Present Day, Human | Digital
Expression Studies Itzel | Digital
Itzel & Quetz | Digital
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Character movement studies - Itzel | Digital
Character movement studies - Axno | Digital
A powerful enchantress who created the magic
wishing cloak, High Priestess Chimalma (/ch ml m/,
named for the Aztec goddess who mothered Quetzal-
coatl) was once the right hand of King Cotencatl, and the
guardian of his daughter, Princess Itzel. When the story
begins, Chimalma has been imprisoned for the last 8
years in the kings dungeons, villifed by rumors that she
was the one who brought the giants to the city while the
king controls them in secret.
As punishment for stealing his wishing cloak, and
enchanting it to obey the prophecized human who would
overthrow him, Cotencatl forces Chimalma to create en-
chanted crops that turn humans into beasts of burden.
Chimalma refuses, until Cotencatl claims to know where
Itzel is and threatens to do her harm. Fearing for the
princesss safety, Chimalma does as she is told, hoping
that one day, she and Itzel will fnd each other again.
Chimalma
Itzels fying, feathered, 50-foot friend. A giant
snake Chimalma created to protect Itzel and the kings
enchanted wishing cloak, Quetz (/kets/, from
Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec feathered serpent god) is
smart, loyal, and brave, but not always friendly to new
people. He attacks Axno when he frst encounters him,
thinking he has come to steal the magic cloak, which
Itzel left in his care while she went to tend to her crops.
Quetz is an excellent tracker, and helps Goyo fnd
Axno and Itzel when the three get separated. This
would make him a very good hunter, but he
lives on sunlight, much like a plant.
Quetz
At 10 feet tall, Goyo (/goi o/, Spanish) is the
smallest and most softhearted member of the giant
army, who has spent most of his life being pushed
around by his fellow soldiers. Goyo hates violence of
any kind, and wishes he could leave the army to live
among the humans in peaceif only they werent so
afraid of him.
Fearing punishment when his cowardice allows
Axno to escape the group of captive humans, he deserts
his squad and runs away to be alone in the jungle. He
and Axno meet again by chance after the latter has
teamed up with Itzel, and the two convince Goyo to lead
them to the fortress on Mt. Tlahtoani, developing an
odd friendship along the way.
Goyo
Cotencatl
Once a kind, benevolent king, Cotencatl
(/k ten k tl/, named for Xicotencatl II, the Aztec
emperor) made a wish to become king of both giants
and men, hoping to save his people from the giant army.
However, this mutated him into a power-crazed giant,
consumed by his hatred of humanity and its weakness.
When he learns that Chimalma hid his wishing
cloak away, and enchanted it to obey the champion of
humanity destined to defeat him, the king becomes
obsessed with fnding and eliminating that human be-
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fore they fnd the cloak and overthrow him. He devises
a plan to steadily transform all the kingdoms human
citizens into the beasts of burden they truly are,
using the imprisoned Chimalmas power to create an
enchanted crop that transforms people into donkeys. He
then uses the docile animals as workers in his moun-
tain mines.
8 years after the kings transformation, it is up to
Axno, one of the last humans of his tribe, to put a stop
to his tyranny once and for all.
Cotencatl Giant Form | Digital
8 years after the fall of King Cotencatl, we meet
Axno, the village outcast, who is known for being
a thief, a liar, and an all-around problem child. He
constantly attempts to come up with a way to get
revenge on the giants who took his parents away,
but fails repeatedly, all the while causing trouble for
the townspeople, who are living under the threat of
the giants and their high demand for food offerings.
When he steals from the offering altar, the villagers
talk of banishing him for good, and he angrily tells
them he doesnt need any of them anyway.
Exposition
The Capture
The Enchanted Cloak
Axno Meets Itzel
The Donkey Cabbages
The Journey
The Giants Fortress
Confrontation
Axnos Wish
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The giants come to collect the food offerings, but
there is not enough on the altar to meet their quota.
The scouts, one of whom is a cowardly, abnormally
small giant named Goyo, begin apprehending villag-
ers to take to the king in lieu of the missing offer-
ings. Goyo is ordered to seize Axno (because he looks
small and weak enough for even a new recruit to
handle without diffculty.) He resists, but eventually
carries out his orders and knocks out Axno, taking
him hostage along with the other humans.

When Axno comes to, he manages to escape from
Goyos hold and runs off into the jungle, leaving his
captor in the dust. Horrifed that he let the boy get
away, Goyo fees into the wilderness to search for
Axno alone, deserting his squad and his post in
the giant army.
The Capture
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The Enchanted Cloak
01. [CAM. - Fade in & pan to AXNO walking
through bushes. SFX - Jungle ambiance.]
He stumbles through the jungle, pointing his
slingshot in different directions.
02. AXNO: Hey! Is anything out there?!
Cause Ill shoot! One time I fell out of a
tree and shot a jaguar in the face in midair!
Im serious!
03. AXNO: Hello? Anybody? 04. He slumps down against a tree.
06. [CAM. - Rack to the cave when
AXNO looks at it.]
07. Frog croaks. [SFX - bushes rustling.]
05. Hugs his knees to his chest.
08. AXNO steps over bushes, frog leaps O.S. 09. Walks toward the camera.
AXNO: Whoa...
10. [CAM. - Pan up the structure.]
11. AXNO: Now thats what Im
talking about!
12. Walking toward viewer. AXNO: Kicked
a giants butt, ate four bugs without
puking...
13. AXNO: ... found a shelter... youre
on a roll, Axno...
14. Crawling into structure.
AXNO: You are on a
15. AXNO: ... Whoa.
A storyboard of one of the pivotal scenes of Act I, in which Axno, who is lost in the jungle,
encounters a strange coiled cave, a magical cloak, and a death-defying face-off.
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16. [CAM. - Pan up.]
He slowly climbs to his feet.
17. He takes a few cautious steps forward.
AXNO: A blanket? But hows it hanging in
the air like that?
18. [CAM.: Pan left as he gets closer.]
AXNO: Awesome...
19. He reaches out to touch it.
21. Light eclipses AXNOs surroundings.
Fade to white.
22. He lets out a yelp as his feet lift off the
ground, and the cloak wraps itself
around him.
20. His fngers make contact with the
fabric, and fash of light instantly flls
the room.
23. Corners drape over his shoulders. 24. Corners tie themselves into a knot. 25. [CAM.: Pan down as AXNO descends.]
His feet slowly return to the ground as the
light fades.
26. He opens his eyes, adjusting to the
change in the light.
27. He notices the cloak tied around him and
starts screaming.
28. AXNO: Aaaah! Its on me! 29. Running in circles around the room.
AXNO: Its on me and it wants blood! Get
it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!
30. Runs past a puddle, we see his
refection in it.
AXNO: Get it off get it off get it
31. He stops next to the puddle, catching
sight of his refection. AXNO: Wow. Now
thats a look I can get used to.
32. AXNO: Oh man, I could pass for the
king in this! Not too shabby, jungle cave!
33. Music shifts as he plays pretend,
making sound effects for himself.
34. Music shifts as he plays pretend,
making sound effects for himself.
36. Yelps as he loses his balance. 37. Hits the ground.
35. He accidentally wraps himself in a
bundle while spinning.
38. [SFX - something large slithering.] 39. [CAM. - Pan up to the ceiling.] A
giant eye looks down at AXNO.
40. AXNO: Well, thats a weird thing to
put on the ceiling. Why would
41. The walls move in a serpentine
pattern, uncoiling.
42. Long shot of the SNAKE rising up from
its coil.
43. [CAM. - AXNOs POV.] SNAKEs head
rises up, it hisses and strikes at the camera.
44. [CAM. - SNAKEs POV., quick zoom
from high point to AXNOs face.]
45. AXNO: Oh crap.
The snake takes Axno to its master, a mysteri-
ous young girl named Itzel, who promptly ties him
up and demands to know why he was after the cloak
the snake was guarding. After interrogating him,
she realizes that he is the champion of humanity
Axno Meets Itzel
the old woman from her memories spoke of. She re-
leases him, and he tries to use the cloak to escape
but she grabs onto the fabric just as he is wishing
himself away, transporting them both to a remote
point on Mt. Tlahtoani.
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The Donkey Cabbages
01. [CAM. - Fade in.] AXNOs eye twitches
in his sleep. He lets out a quiet groan, which
sounds a bit like a bray.
02. He opens his eyes slightly. 03. [CAM. - Blurry, from POV of AXNO,
who is just waking up. He blinks, rack to
focused view of the feld he is lying in.]
04. He stirs slightly. We still cant see his
full form.
06. Yawning, scratching his head.
AXNO: [Mid-yawn.] Man, I slept good!
Hey jungle girl, you up over there?
07. Rubbing his eyes. AXNO: So, how
do you stay awake after eating stuff like
that? Cause I went into a cabbage coma,
like, bam. Right away. Have you ever
05. He sits up, stretching and yawning,
revealing his ears and hooves.
08. He fnally notices the hooves.
AXNO: Wait a minute. WAAAAAIIIIT A
MINUTE.
09. AXNO: No no no no no no, what is
this, what happened to me?! He stands
up on his hind legs, examining himself in
horror. Oh my
10. He yelps, losing his balance, adjusting
to being a quadruped.
11. He lands in a four-legged stance,
freezing for a moment, then frowns.
12. AXNO: JUNGLE GIRL! 13. AXNO: Of course she tricked me!
Double-crossing tree witch! I should
have known shed stab me in the ba
14. He turns on his heel, bumping right
into ITZEL.
15. [CAM. - pan up to ITZELs face.]
AXNO: Whoa. Hey jungle girl, youre
not looking so good.
Lost on the mountain, Axno and Itzel come across a feld of cabbages. Exhausted and hungry, they each
take a bite of one before falling into a deep sleep. The scene represented by the following storyboard oc-
curs as Axno wakes up, only to discover that he and Itzel have both been turned into donkeys.
Itzel and Axno continue traveling, this time in
search of someone who can help them return to their
human forms. Now that Axno is no longer human, he
does not ft the description of the champion of human-
ity from the spell, and is unable to use the magic of the
wishing cloak, leaving them stranded and powerless on
the forested mountain. Furthermore, they discover that
as time passes, they are steadily losing everything that
makes them human, gradually turning into mindless
animals.
Along the way, Axno has a less-than-friendly re-
union with Goyo, who reveals that he knows about the
Donkey Cabbages, and explains that they were created
by a sorceress who lives in the giants mountain fortress.
In order to make amends for capturing Axno, Goyo offers
to bring the two donkeys to the sorceress to ask her if
there is a cure, insisting that he loves humans and never
wanted to hurt them.
The Journey
Goyo takes Axno and Itzel to the Giants Fortress,
where they sneak in and fnd the old sorceress. Itzel
is stunned to discover that the woman is the same one
from her memories, and has been imprisoned for the
last eight years, forced to live out her days creating
more and more of the Donkey Cabbages. The woman,
who introduces herself as the former High Priestess
Chimalma, recognizes the mark she placed on Itzels
arm, touches it, and magically restores Itzels human-
ity and her memories of her childhood. She insists that
Itzel run far away, because her father, the king, is still
alive, and will stop at nothing to destroy humanityhis
own daughter included.
Before Chimalma is able to change Axno back, the
kings men interrupt them, placing everyone under ar-
rest. The group is separated, and Itzel and Chimalma
are brought directly to the king for questioning.
The Giants Fortress
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Axno is thrown into a mine containing thousands
of other donkeys, discovering that they are the mindless
remains of the captive sacrifces the Giants have been
taking for the last eight years, forcing them to eat
the Donkey Cabbages, transform into domesticated
donkeys, and work in the jewel mines on the mountain.
He is dangerously close to forgetting who he is when
Goyo, who has found Quetz after being thrown out of
the stronghold, fies in to rescue him. They race to fnd
Itzel and Chimalma before it is too late.
Meanwhile, a crazed, monstrous King Cotencatl
questions Itzel about the magic cloak, demanding to
know where it is, who the champion from the proph-
ecy turned out to be, and how she stayed hidden for the
last 8 years. She refuses to tell him, even when her life
is threatened, but then Axno, Goyo, and Quetz burst
into the throne room. Cotencatl forces Chimalma to
speed up Axnos transformation. Itzel pleads for him to
stop, and tells him she is the Champion of Humanity.
He moves to kill her, but Axno jumps in his way, and
the cloak responds to him for the frst time since he
turned into a donkeyprotecting them both, and dis-
solving the giant king into a pile of rubble.
Confrontation
Axnos Wish
Itzel runs to make sure Axno is unharmed, but
he looks at her with a blank expression, having com-
pletely lost his humanity. Even Chimalma is unable
to reach him. Horrifed, Itzel starts to cry, holding
on to the donkey and the cloakbut then the cloak
glows again, and Axno transforms back into a hu-
man. Baffed, Itzel asks him if he wished to be human
again. He tells her he wished for her to be safe, which
stopped the giant king from harming her. Chimalma
points out that this must have restored his human
form, because he abandoned his selfshness and stub-
bornness, and proved himself to be a true Champion
of Humanity.
Acknowledgements
There are so many people I owe the completion of this
book to, but in particular, I need to thank John Hendrix, Jeff
Pike, Douglas Dowd, and Linda Solovic, who had faith in me,
challenged me, and helped me to grow every day I was in
their classes (even when I thought I was a lost cause.) You
made me remember why I love doing this work, and thats
not something a thank you can even begin to cover.
Thanks to my familymy grandma, with her snicker
doodle care packages and heart melting words of encourage-
ment, my dog, who stayed curled up by my feet the whole
time I worked over spring break, and most importantly,
my mom and sister, who have inspired and unconditionally
cheered for me every day since the day I was born. Thank
you so much, and I hope you will accept this as my weird
donkey-flled love letter to all of you.
Soon after, Itzel is crowned queen, and lives
together with Axno, Chimalma, Goyo, and Quetz in
the royal palace. Chimalma is reappointed as High
Priestess, and Goyo is made the head of human
and giant relations, leading the effort to help the
two groups live and work together in harmony.
Axno is Itzels right hand man, and uses the magi-
cal cloak to help her bring peace back to Tlahtoani,
returning all the donkeys to their original human
forms (his long-lost parents included.) They all live
happily ever after.
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