First, tea and backstory. Cinderella is a story with thousands of various tellings worldwide. It was first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, and later by the Grimm brothers. Walt Disney released his classic animated version on March 4, 1950.
Fast forward 30-something years to my childhood. My 2 older sisters and I ended up with the video of Disney's Cinderella. I would insist on watching it over and over and over, usually with my sisters watching with me. I would roll on the floor laughing during the scene where the mice are creating Cinderella's (first) dress, when Gus (the chubby mouse) was cutting the fabric, bouncing up and down on the scissors, singing "Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut!"
The voices of the mice were so funny to me!
Well, as you may know, Disney's Cinderella was recently released on Bluray/DVD. I bought the Bluray/DVD combo and have watched it a few times. My older sister was married last June, and as my gift to them, I bought a personalized Cinderella snowglobe that played "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", since Cinderella was a great memory for us both. So with these events, Cinderella has been re-introduced to my adult self, which is why I wanted the doll.
The story of this doll and myself... I saw her in retail stores late last Fall, and thought she was adorable. I did want her, but I had other obligations and decided against buying her at that time. She has appeared at several retail stores that I frequent at varied prices. I came across her at Marshall's for 19.99 and I almost bought her. Again, being frugal, I decided against the purchase. Well, this evening I went to Marshall's with my best friend in tow. After giving most of the store a look-through, I made my way back to the toy corner. There was a clearance section, yay! I looked at a couple of things there, then looked down at the bottom shelf and gasped.
Cinderella! But was she on clearance, or had someone just stowed her there? Red tag on top - Clearance item! Woohoo!
She was ready for me to finally take her home at $15 even. I put down the other items I was thinking about buying and didn't look back.
THE DOLL:
(Above pictures from Amazon)
This doll is one of many physical interpretations based on Disney's Cinderella character, and is not an exact recreation of the magic ballgown featured in the film. This doll was not meant to be a recreation, of course. I love the glitter additions that echo the magic sparkles that surrounded the dress when the Fairy Godmother made it in the film.
But back to this doll. I do like this doll a lot. This doll was made by Mattel.
I don't like the tiara and earrings...
They are cute, but in combination with the dress kind of cheapen the look of the doll. (I wish that they had made the tiara and earrings like the ones in the stock pictures below.) However, one could paint them and they would probably look better (silver paint would be best, I'd imagine.)
I love the dress. I love the material. I just wish that the same material used on the front of the gown would be used on the back, instead of a different print/material. Luckily in this case, the material is the same, just without the opalescent glitter details.
Here's the back of the doll:
I am disappointed with the hairline at the back. When a doll's hairstyle is up, the hairline should be good all the way around.
Something I love about this doll is the way the gloves were made. In lieu of actual gloves (that always look like mittens on dolls), the entire fore-arms and hands are the glove, cast in a pearlescent material. The glove has great detail as well, with 'buttons' and a lace edge.
And what is a Cinderella doll without her glass slippers?!
They are pretty. They have the heart on the toe, of course, as well as the back of the heel, which is cute, but an addition to the original slipper, along with the curliques on either side.
I was expecting the slippers to be made with the same material that the tiara and earrings were made of, but I was pleasantly surprised with the clear material.
I love the 'ornament' that it came with, a replica of the doll's shoes. It is a little larger than the doll's shoes, and won't fit as a shoe due to a larger inside (the foot goes down deeply into the ornamental shoe, resulting in a look as if a child is wearing it's mother's heels.) The second picture is of the ornament with the doll's shoe next to it, for size and detail comparison (sorry it's out of focus!)
I don't like that the doll didn't come with a stand. At the moment, I don't have any extra stands, so this means I'll have to take the stand of another doll. This isn't a big deal to me, but to a collector who has only a few dolls - or just this one - that means they have to find a stand.
The dress's outer shell is a transparent material with a plain white skirt underneath.
I am not a huge fan of the inner skirt not being attached to the outer skirt. This is because often you are able to see a bit of the under skirt if not arranged just so. This has always bugged me, even as a child. I may sew the inner skirt to the outer one at the hem, should I be sufficiently bored one dark, rainy day.
One more thing before I close. I really like the decoration on the cardboard backing. I wish that they didn't have to cut it to secure the doll to the backing. I would love if they included an uncut backing in the box.
Here's the backing with the anchors:
And here it is with the anchors taken out:
As I've said before, I take my dolls out of their boxes. I save the boxes and the backing, because some dolls look better when displayed with their original backing. I plan to display this doll with the backing behind her.
To close this blog, here is a picture of the back of the box:
Many thanks to my best friend who made this purchase possible :D
(Click on any picture to see the larger size of it, or right click and select 'open link in new tab' or window for original high res photo!)
Update: I found out that the arm straps can be pulled out so they aren't just thick strap-like things.
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HOMEWORK: What is your favorite scene/part of the Disney's Cinderella film? Why? Do you own any Cinderella memorabilia?
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