Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Thursday, December 29, 2016

New "Beauty and the Beast" Images In the Wild (Posters, Images, Costumes, Toys...)

New French Promotional Poster

There are more images of Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast out there in the world (wild), thanks to overseas posters, displays around LA to promote the film over the busy Christmas movie period and, of course, merchandising. Being the holiday period, if you can it's nice to indulge in frivolous things, so here's a image roundup for those looking forward to the film to enjoy.

The costume display will make people who have been less-then-thrilled with Belle's yellow ball dress a little more please, we think, as well as a pic below where she's holding a (different?) candelabra and you can see more costume/period details.

Take a look:

First up - books! And yes, they're releasing a new version of Villeneuve's tale, with Walter Crane's gorgeous illustrations too - yay!

1. A new edition of the making of Beauty and the Beast will be released including new material from director Bill Condon
2. A new edition of Villeneuve's original tale classic, the current known version is based on.
3. A French edition of Beauty and the Beast. No further info yet (March 8th '17)
4. Beauty and the Beast: Belle's library: quotes, drawings and new material from Linda Woolverton (January 31st '17)
5. Book based on the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. Unknown release date.
6. Lost in a Book: by Jennifer Donelly. Belle discovers a Book called Nevermore which takes her to a new magical world. (more detail on this and a better close-up of the cover below)

New promo poster 
This next one is interesting - channeling a little Jasper FForde and Thursday Next (wonderful series)... here's the description:

The story is an original addition to the beloved Beauty and the Beast fairytale. It follows lonely, bookish Belle as she finds an enchanted book in the Beast’s library called “Nevermore” that carries her into a glittering new world. There, Belle is befriended by a mysterious countess who offers her the life she’s always dreamed of. But Nevermore is not what it seems, and the more time Belle spends there, the harder it is to leave. Good stories take hold of us and never let us go, and once Belle becomes lost in *this* book, she may never find her way out again. 
 A collection of costumes and props on display in movie theaters around Los Angeles, during the popular holiday theater-going season:
Ball scene costumes
Lumiere and Plumette
Belle's basic outfit and magic atlas ('Magic' atlas!? Apparently yes.)
Enchanted rose and mirror on table
Gaston and LeFou
Lumiere, Plumette and Cogsworth
Accessories and enchanted objects set (I see the Enchanted Objects being coveted by adult fans) 
On the back of a toy box - not sure which one - but it shows nice dress details
Tea set - bringing tea time back for afternoons
The Royal Celebration outfit - note: NOT A WEDDING (people are getting yelled at for saying it is)
Royal Celebration doll pair (to show Beast's/Adam's outfit)
New promo image used a few countries, not just France 
For our costume and fashion readers: here are Belle's costumes seen so far

Monday, September 12, 2016

Labyrinth Fan Alert!

We admit we have a soft spot for Labyrinth, for many reasons, and there are some upcoming products that fans might like to keep an eye on as they're releasing very soon... (September 12th! Though, if you're very lucky you may find a pre-release in hidden portals around the web.)

I will just use the ad copy, as it says it all:
Be careful what you wish for!
Jareth, the Goblin King, is no slouch
when it comes to granting wishes!
Sarah must rely on Worm and the dwarvish Hoggle for
help to solve the Labyrinth and save her brother!
The playful beast, Ludo, is coming as a super-sized 6" Pop!


                                     Collect the whole line of Labyrinth Pop! figures this September!

Giant Ludo! And there's a Hot Topic exclusive, featuring the Jareth Sarah saw at the ball (but where's Sarah in her ballgown?!) 

I wouldn't mind a version of the Junk Lady either. She represents so much in terms of people's struggle to come to terms with childhood stories and loves...

And then there's also a wonderful-looking book that Corey Godbey (another favorite contemporary fairy tale illustrator) has been working on a while: Jim Henson's Labyrinth Tales. Here are some screen shots.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth Tales will be released on September 27th 2016. Pre-orders are available through Amazon.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

"Ever After High" Gets a Movie, To Become Netflix Original Series for Kids (+ Cerise Hood Exclusive Is Quite A Doll!)

New & much improved EAH Cerise Hood EXCLUSIVE for SDCC* 2014
(Available after SDCC from mattycollector.com - very limited supply - obviously)

A new movie and a whole new series for the very popular Ever After High from Mattel.

Note: In case you didn't know Once Upon A Blog is pro-Ever After High. Why? See my post HERE (and scroll down past the Descendants part to see why I ate the words of my first impression of this princessy-looking toy line with animated series tie-in).

Press Release:
June 16, 2014: Netflix Inc. and Mattel, Inc. today announced an all-new and wicked animated original series for kids of all ages based on the spelltacular Mattel franchise, Ever After High. The new animated series will premiere in all Netflix territories in early 2015.
...The Netflix original series will be preceded by Ever After HighSpring Unsprung, a new movie, in early 2015, and 12 episodes of Ever After High the series will follow. Both will feature the royally rebellious and spellbinding stories of the Ever After High students with new twists, turns and character introductions for current and new fans to enjoy.
I don't see any word on whether our girl Shannon Hale will be involved but here's hoping she is.

On a related note: the new Cerise Hood SDCC exclusive collectible is not your average doll!
Here's the regular one (photographed very nicely, but still):
 

And you can see the exclusive below with detail pics HERE (although this is not really my thing - ie. dolls - the accessories and motifs on this one are worth checking out).

*SDCC is the giant annual San Diego Comic Con

Friday, February 28, 2014

'Descendants' Movie Mirrors 'Ever After High' (We Hope...)


It would appear that the profitable 'Ever After High pie' has Disney drooling for a piece of their own.

Enter the 'Original Disney Movie, Descendants'. The show's development has certainly been boosted by the high anticipation surrounding the live action Maleficent as well. Clearly, the trend of villain stories and anti-heroes isn't going away any time soon for Disney. While it's been in development for a few months already (it was announced in December, I believe), we now have a release window and format: it's heading straight to Disney Channel, in live action form, and is set to air sometime during 2015.
The Descendants is going to be Disney's original movie that will feature the now teenage children of the heroes and (more specifically the) villains. 
Beast and Belle (of Beauty and The Beast) rule over an "idyllic kingdom" with a son of their own, who's waiting to take over the throne, according to Entertainment Weekly. In his first proclamation, the young prince looks to give some redemption to his not-so-well-behaved classmates Carlos (son of 101 Dalmatians' Cruella De Vil), Mal, (child of Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent), Evvie (daughter of Snow White's the Evil Queen) and Jay (son of Aladdin's Jafar).They all attend the kingdom's prep school with offspring of other Disney favorites like The Fairy Godmother (from Cinderella), Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Mulan.  

The children of Disney's villains are about to face a dilemma of whether to take the evil steps laid out by their parents or to follow the goodness in their hearts.
The famous High School Musical director will be directing Disney Movie Descendants with the script written by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott (The Starter Wife, Runaway Bride). Mark Hofeling, another High School Musical veteran will be in charge of the production design for the Disney movie "Descendants."

Disney Channel, despite some decent animation series in their offerings, doesn't have as stellar a track record with it's live action shows, other than High School Musical. Despite the credits of those involved being noteworthy, I still have my doubts about this. My guess is, if the movie does well, it may have the option to branch into a series.

The movie's redeeming factor - and the one thing that will set it apart - is that it will be focusing on the Disney VILLAINS' offspring, rather than all the possible offspring. It has good potential using this emphasis, but I'm very leery of the live action approach in comparison to the other Disney live action shows. Kitsch is just too easy a trap to fall into with whatever formula it is they use, but we'll see. Hopefully we'll be pleasantly surprised.

But why, do you ask, am I hoping that Descendants will mirror Ever After High? (At least, in some respects.)

Far from first impressions, Ever After High is, to coin a phrase from critics of The Lego Movie*, "far better than it has any right to be". Seriously. The designs are crazy-girly, the animation has a lot of flash bopping about but the characters, their development, the writing and the story lines are ridiculously good. Even the designs have far more to them than first looks imply. It's yet another one of those things I've been dismissing, only bothering to give it another look because respected fairy tale author, Shannon Hale's name remains attached.

I'm really glad I did.

Here's the premise (from Wikipedia), in case you have no idea what I'm talking about:
The Ever After High storyline is based on the lives of the teen children of famous fairytale characters who are destined to follow in their parents’ footsteps in order keep their stories alive through the generations. If they do not, these stories will cease to exist and the characters will disappear. 
The main characters are Raven Queen (daughter of the Evil Queen), who is unhappy with her destiny, and Apple White (daughter of Snow White), who is destined to "live happily ever after." Raven would prefer to create a new destiny for herself, while Apple White believes that if Raven changes her own story. this will put her own "happily ever after" in jeopardy. The school gets divided into "Royals and Rebels". The Royals are supporters of Apple who also know they will have a "happily ever after" and are content (even enthusiastic) with their fates. The Rebels are supporters of Raven who prefer the idea of creating their own destinies. Many disagreements and fights result between the groups.

When I finally took the time to have a proper look, I was truly surprised that something so 'fluffy looking' had so much real fairy tale soul. In fact, I would bet that there are a LOT of fairy tale references in the dialog, plots and designs that are completely missed by those not up on their slightly-more-obscure fairy tales reading. And I LOVE that! For the EAH fandom (which is growing fast) who are really getting into the characters (and they really are!) there's always more to mine and if you take time to peruse the EAH fandom Tumblrs you see the discussions border on 'Buffyverse depth' at times (if you're not Buffy-savvy, that means it's a good thing).

The fandom are getting into the ideas so much they're looking up the 'original' tales for themselves so they can better speculate motivations, among other things, and discovering other lesser known tales they'd like to see explored as well. Here's an example in 'Ever After High Confessions' format:
I want a child of the princess and the pea, and I want them to either have insomnia or be a sleep walker. I feel like it’d work with the princess and the peas story line.You could even make that character constantly worried that because of his/her insomnia or sleep walking, they won’t be able to follow their parents story right. It’d be a super intense storyline. I’d LOVE IT! (Source)
HERE's my original post about the toy line and series before it premiered. You may notice the bit about "is it 'scarier' than Monster High?', meaning, are little girls everywhere in for another disturbing dose of pop-sexism? Surprisingly, the answer is 'no, they're not'. In fact, those 'out there' concerns, commented on by Tumblr people when they heard the announcement of the dolls (eg, "...this is giving me some serious NO REALLY THIS IS F***ING DISTURBING feelings regarding fate and free will and the fact that some of these kids are expected to have no choice beyond ultimately dying in unbelievably gruesome ways..." ), are specifically being addressed - smartly! - by the writing. And all this effort is primarily for A TOY LINE.
Clearly, someone understands just how influential dolls can be and has chosen to not only give them what they think they want (sparkle, girly, glitter, pink, SHOES!), but dose it liberally with real issues and embed it with some meaty tale explorations.

Thank you Ms. Hale!!

I discovered this by realizing I hadn't really given the series the time of day and that Ms. Hale's work deserved better attention than that so set up the Ever After High Valentine's Day special to record as a reminder. Cleaning out the DVR last week I let the special run while I was doing other things "just in case there was anything worth noticing, fairy-tale-wise". Boy was there ever! I went back to watch the whole thing without distractions and, although I couldn't stop wincing at the over-the-top sparkly-curlicue designs (and the thinness - although they are not as thin as the Monster High dolls - and the crazy high shoes) I was amazed at how layered it was.

How they/Ms. Hale, struck this balance, I have no idea. It feels as ridiculous on the surface as the 'pinkest' shows out there (I know, you know what I mean) and yet... we have a truly girl-empowering show (and - surprise - boys too!) that sneaks in really solid fairy tale motifs, themes, plot lines and archetypes with many a modern twist. While 'choose your own destiny' seems like a simple enough premise at first, the Ever After High treatment of the (very large) topic has more gravitas than much of what I've seen come out of Once Upon A Time on the same theme.

Take, for instance, the True Hearts Day special, in which Valentine's Day celebrations have been banned because of the danger that the kids might consider people other than their 'destined partners' as potential mates. This all comes across as 'our fun party has been sabotaged by the meanie school principal' but you look closer and realize a key antagonizer in this episode is Odile, the 'false', black swan from Swan Lake and you start to get an idea of the layering.

At the end:
-- SPOILER ALERT!!!!--
 (highlight the space below to read the text)
The kids are able to give their (physical) valentine tree hearts to the person of their choice and while it's completely expected that Cinderella's daughter (Ashlynn), who is in love with a 'rebel' (the Huntsman) instead of her destined Prince Charming, finally gets the courage to stand up to her friends and choose him no matter what their response will be, the surprise is that Apple White (Snow White's daughter, who has a serious problem with the Evil Queen wanting her own destiny instead of ending up Evil and thus guaranteeing Apple's preferred happy ending) gives HER valentine heart to her friend, Cinderella, saying "although I don't always agree with your choices, it doesn't mean you're not still my friend."
Gasp! I did not see that coming. Nicely done, Ms. Hale!
--END OF SPOILERS--

(Once again), I feel embarrassed by my initial dismissal of the show but even if it's too sparkly for your taste to sit through, you can be comforted in knowing that any girls (and boys) watching, will be getting good content. REALLY good content. And that the main things the girls buying these dolls are thinking about are not so much fashion and make-up but the issues of free will, destiny, responsibility and choice.

If you'd like to read more, you can currently get ebook samplings of the writing for free for the Kindle HERE by downloading various character stories (one link hooks you up to the others. There are six different character stories available for free download. To catch up you can watch the webisodes (which have already aired on TV) HERE (note: as girly as it looks, you may want to pay close attention to the various designs used. There's been a lot of research and thought about story going into all that as well), and, as of this week, you can also read the first two chapters of the second Ever After High novel, The Unfairest of Them All, for free on your Kindle HERE (the whole novel will be released on March 23rd).

Whether or not Descendants has any of the same type of substance as Ever After High has proven to have, remains to be seen, but we are hopeful... After all, once you start taking a closer look, fairy tales are rarely as dismissible as people are led to believe.

Additional source: HERE

*If you haven't yet seen The Lego Movie - see it. It has mythic aspects to it and is a wonderful, affirming ride to the land of make-believe.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Princess Apocalypse On the Horizon (New Toy Line For Girls Who Like Princesses AND Zombies)

This hasn't been on my radar at all and I didn't pick up any note of it around ComicCon time either BUT prepare to see some new fairy tale dolls - with an undead difference - entering stores in the near future: from the toy company that brought you Angry Birds, meet the princesses of Once Upon A Zombie. (Aimed at girls aged 6+ yrs.)

Initially released in Brazil (and received with great enthusiasm!) these dolls  - and corresponding game - are designed for little girls who love princesses but also love monsters, or more specifically, zombies. It's Monster High meets Ever After High.


Rather than talk about them at length I'll just show you the marketing and a bunch of released images as well as an introductory video. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know.






The marketing in the US appeared to begin at SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) this year, with cos-players carrying the dolls and posing them in various locations for photo ops, as well as a booth display.




I have no doubt there's a market for these. I kept seeing little girls  - 5, 6, 7 years old in the store around school supply buying time, preferring Monster High backpacks and folders to Barbie products, much to the chagrin of their suburbanely-coiffed* mothers (I fully admit to giving these kids a thumbs-way-up behind their parent's backs when I see this happen). The only problem is the quality of the doll design isn't quite up to Mattel's standard so they may seem like a poor substitute.

While they're clearly taking their cue from Disney movies as to which zombie heroine to do next, we may see some surprises. Here are some teased designs from their Facebook page:






They've even started designing some male zombies for the princesses to have adventures with.



I will admit, my reaction on seeing these was "you've GOT to be kidding" which quickly turned into "Well I can understand Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid being turned into zombies but why the others?" which goes to show you I may think about these things a little differently to most others... Heh. My six year old on the other hand: "Once Upon A Zombie? That's funny. They definitely need a zombie Big Bad Wolf..."

While it's most definitely news-of-the-weird** for fairy tales, it's interesting to see the current fascination in pop culture with zombies trickle down to kids - and include fairy tales in the process. Although Disney princesses have been getting the zombie treatment on mass in illustration (especially deviantArt) and on Tumblr for a little while now, and little boys have had their corresponding zombie toys and games since Plants vs Zombies took off in popularity (and won Game of the Year), this is the first overtly undead toy line for girls we've seen.


There are currently six dolls available for order and more coming. No word yet on when they will be hitting stores (ToysRUs, Target, Walmart, Walgreens for starters) but we can expect: a game, story books, notebooks, stationery, backpacks, trading cards, dress-up costumes for Halloween and probably more. If you can't wait you can download the "zombiecam" app and zombie your princess-self to share with your friends...


(If there were ever a time for Pixar  - and other companies - to get moving on their as-yet-untitled Day of the Dead movies, this would be it.)


* "suburbanely-coiffed" - I should copyright that...
** This blog has had some truly odd content recently!  I blame it on the news. And society. What can I say? I'm just telling it like it is.