Disney Descendants: Rise of Red Dolls by Mattel

I'm back with the second installment of my two-part Disney Descendants series!  And I have to admit that this is the review I've been looking forward to the most.  All of the dolls that I'm going to talk about today are from the fourth live action Descendants movie, Rise of Red.  This movie has all of the same sound overproduction issues as the first three, but it features Brandy Norwood as Cinderella and Paolo Montalban as Prince Charming.  The casting is important to me because those are the same actors who played Cinderella and the Prince in the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella--a film I have always adored.

Another reason that Brandy is special to me is that I was fortunate enough to see her on Broadway when she appeared for a brief stint as Roxie in Chicago.  I think that was back in 2017, and we had front row seats.  I might have already gushed about that experience here on the blog, but for good reason: it was unforgettable, and the closest I've ever gotten to meeting Cinderella in real life!

Knowing all of that, imagine my delight when I discovered that not only had Brandy reprised her role as Cinderella in Rise of Red, but Mattel had made a doll of that character!  And the doll looks quite a bit like Brandy herself:

Rise of Red Cinderella by Mattel ($29.99).

Disney Descendants Anniversary Mal Doll by Mattel

I have to say, a lot of my review inspiration lately has been driven by nostalgia.  I think it's because I'm still in the process of updating the List of All Reviews page, which involves going back through each of my old posts, tidying up dead links, enlarging some of the photos, and general housekeeping stuff like that.  And of course every third or fourth review, I'm like, "ooh!  Those dolls were fun! I should get them out and play with them again."  And sometimes I'm like, "ooh!  I loved that doll!  Why on earth did I ever sell her?"  And then I go to eBay and try to re-purchase the same doll.  It's really bad...but ever so predictable.  I should probably talk to my therapist about it.

Anyway, as I sifted through my 2015 reviews, I was reminded of the Hasbro dolls from the Descendants movie.  Do you remember those dolls?  They have funny caricature faces and bad hair.  I realized that, despite having written two reviews of the dolls, I never actually watched the movie!  And now, more than ten years later, there are three more live action Descendants movies with a fourth slated for 2026.  There are also a ton of new dolls, now being made by Mattel.

After discovering all of this, I purchased a bunch of the new dolls and watched all of the movies.  My favorite movie is the most recent: Rise of Red.  I like it because it includes Cinderella, played by none other than Brandy Norwood!  Like, the same Brandy who starred in the wonderful 1997 Cinderella movie!  Eeeee!  The prince is played by the same actor, too, which is incredible.  So, anyway, I'm going to focus on the dolls from that movie for the most part, but I want to start by taking a look at Mattel's Anniversary Mal doll, so that we can compare her to the Hasbro Mal that I reviewed back in 2015:

Disney Descendants Anniversary Mal doll by Mattel, $24.99.

Sweet Sisters and Cotti Motti by Orange Toys

It was a tough winter, wasn't it?  I'm struck by that as I sit here in the sun, with signs of spring finally bursting out all around.  It's easier to be optimistic in the spring, I think, and there's a lot that I'm grateful for, despite all of the chaos and evil in the world right now.  Most notably, I forgot to tell you that one of my kids got married last month!  So now we have a wonderful new daughter-in-law.  And we have a new dog in the mix, too: a twelve-year-old deaf Maltese named Norman.  I also dodged a possible cancer diagnosis, so I'm feeling thankful for my health.  On the doll front, I have a very special baby doll that I ordered five months ago who's finally on her way to me...and a whole project series that I have in mind to complement that doll.  So that's all pretty exciting.

I'm excited about the dolls that I have to share with you today, too, although there were some disappointments that I didn't anticipate.  You might remember back during my Lucky Doggy review, I was browsing the Orange Toys website and fell in love with their Sweet Sisters line of cloth dolls.  I ordered way too many of those dolls, and in the process discovered the Cotti Motti plush animals, also from Orange Toys, who can share clothing with the Sweet Sisters!  So I had to buy a few Cotti Motti characters, too.  Obviously.

In today's review, I'll focus mostly on the Sweet Sisters dolls, but I'll also take a peek at two Cotti Motti animals:

Sweet Sisters Sunny (left) and Cotti Motti Daphne (right) by Orange Toys.