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.

I'm actually going to attack this topic in two sequential reviews, rather than trying to cram too many dolls into a single post.  Today I'll be talking only about the new Anniversary Mal, and next time I'll look at several Rise of Red dolls.

It's probably important to note that Mal is the main character of the first three Descendants movies, but she doesn't appear in Rise of Red.

Let's start things off with an old picture from my 2015 review of Hasbro's Mal, for those who don't remember what she looks like:

Hasbro's Descendants Signature Mal doll (from 2015), $19.99.

She has an oversized head with big eyes, a smirking mouth, and a cartoonish appearance.  She has good articulation, but her hair was bad right out of the box and I wasn't able to make it a whole lot better.

Hasbro released a bunch of other characters from the first movie, and that diversity is the most engaging thing about the collection:

Hasbro's Coronation Jane, Coronation Lonnie and Signature Audrey from Disney's Descendants movies.

In contrast, Mattel only made two anniversary dolls from the first movie: Mal and Evie.  I didn't find the promotional photos of Evie very appealing, so I didn't purchase her:

She looks nothing like the movie character.

Mattel focused most of their attention on the newest Rise of Red movie, which is fair, since that's the one that's probably been getting the most attention lately.

I was enticed by dramatic promotional posters like this one.

Mattel made at least nine dolls based on Rise of Red.  Six of which I'll look at next time.

I'm no movie critic, but I guess I should say that I enjoyed all four of the Descendants movies to some degree.  They're a lot like the Zombies movies.  The premise is clever, the actors are engaging, and everyone can dance extremely well.  Many of the songs are catchy, too, but the overproduced soundtrack almost drove me insane.  Everything sounded so unnatural and contrived.  I couldn't even tell which actor was singing which part, since all of the voices were made to sound the same.  There are a few tiny exceptions to that statement, most of them in the Rise of Red movie.  But I'll talk about that later.  

Let's get back to the dolls for now.

Mal came in a large blister pack box with a plastic cover and a cardboard back:

The box is appealing, with a colorful backdrop and molded embellishments on the plastic, but it's really hard to take apart and recycle.  I wish there could be some kind of progress towards more environmentally friendly packaging.  I've been complaining about stuff like this for 14 years now and have seen very few changes.

The bottom of the plastic cover has a cardboard insert with a picture of Mal from the first movie:

The back of the box has another photograph of Mal (played by Dove Cameron), and a lot of text:

Here's a closer look at the text:

It says: to celebrate a decade of Disney Descendants, this true leader, the daughter of Maleficent, dropped her wicked ways for true love and friendship.

That's making it sound like Mal dropped her evil ways to celebrate a decade of Disney Descendants.  Not quite.  AI probably let Mattel down.  I'd have written: to celebrate a decade of Disney Descendants, we're proud to introduce a new Mal doll!  Thanks to the power of love and friendship, this daughter of Maleficent dropped her wicked ways and grew to become a true leader.

She still looks a bit wicked (or mischievous, anyway) in the photograph:

I actually don't feel like that's a very flattering picture of Ms. Cameron.  It's hard to get a better one, though.  All I could do was grab a screenshot from the movie:

She's very pretty, and the older Hasbro dolls don't even come close to capturing her likeness.  I doubt they were even trying.

The Hasbro dolls look more like the animated version of Mal:

There have been several animated Descendants movies and shorts over the years, the first of which came out in 2015.  So it's conceivable that Hasbro was using that aesthetic as their guide.

Mattel was definitely using the live action movie as their inspiration, which you can see right away by looking at the new Mal doll:

Her hair looks a little wonky, but her outfit and face make it abundantly clear who she's supposed to be.

Mal's only accessory is a golden spell book:

The book has a molded dragon on the front, and is blank on the back:

It opens to reveal a small compartment:

The design is very similar to the Hasbro spell book:

Mal's spell book by Mattel (left) and Hasbro (right).

The Hasbro book also opens, and it has a fancier exterior.  The dragon is decorated with gold paint, and there's a red vinyl bookmark hanging down.

Mal doesn't come with a stand, but she doesn't need one.  She balances well on her own:

I like her face mold a lot.  It's attractive, and also resembles the character from the movie.  The eyes are slightly upward-facing, though, which means she can't look at the camera very well:

She reminds me of Kirsten Dunst from the Bring it On days.  I feel like a lot of dolls remind me of her for some reason.  Didn't I recently say that Tonner's Anne doll reminds me of Ms. Dunst?  I think it's the upward-facing eyes.

Anyway, here's Mal from the side:

And from the back:

You might have noticed in those pictures that Mal's hair is lopsided.  It's longer in front than in back, which is true to the movie hairstyle, but the long ends curl in different directions.  The hair on the right side of her face curls under, and the hair on the left side of her face flips up:

Is she caught in a crosswind?

Also, the hair came coated with copious amounts of hair gel.  It was rock hard.  I feel like if you're going to glue the hair in place with this much styling gel, at least make it look good first?  It looks better than the Hasbro Mal's hair, at least.

From the side, you can see Mal's profile, with her long, distinct nose and prominent chin:

Her eyes are a bright emerald green color, which is not the color of the actor Dove Cameron's eyes, but closer to the color that Mal's eyes get when she's using her magical powers:

Here's an example of magic-eyed Mal:

Creepy.

The green eyes in the movie are spooky, but I think the doll has pretty eyes, and I love how they're accented with purple eyeshadow and a hint of silver at the very corner of each eye.

The face paint is nice and clear for the most part, with no defects and just a hint of pixelation in the eyebrows:

I got tired of the rock-hard hair and tried to brush out the stiffness with my wire brush:

Slightly better?

This gave the hair a much softer texture, but it was still really sticky and unpleasant to touch.

I tried to avoid touching the hair while I took a closer look at Mal's outfit:

She's wearing an imitation leather jacket with an asymmetrical shape and elaborate printed details.  She also has purple leggings with printed rips in them, and black ankle-height boots:

Her black gloves are made out of vinyl and can be removed:

One of the gloves comes off pretty easily, but the other one won't come off unless the hand is removed.

Hoping to avoid removing the hands, I went ahead and tried to take the jacket off.  It unfastens down the front with a strip of velcro:

I was surprised to see a fancy tee shirt underneath the jacket!  I'd assumed there was nothing there.

However, I wasn't able to pull the jacket sleeves over the bulk of Mal's gloves, so I had to pop her hands off:

What kind of evil spell is this?

Here's the right hand and its glove (this is the one that comes off easily):

The glove on the left hand has a completely different shape:

The Hasbro version of Mal has gloves that are molded and painted directly onto the hands.  I think I prefer the versatility of the vinyl gloves, even if the hands have to be popped off every now and again.  That said,  I found it quite difficult to put the hands back on again.

The jacket is really interesting.  I like all of the different shapes and colors, particularly the accents of green on the long sleeves and the dragon-like scalloped edges on the shorter sleeves:

I also like the green dragon-themed heart on the back of the jacket:

Spoiler alert: much like her mother Maleficent, Mal can turn into a dragon when she uses her magical powers.  Hence all of the dragon references.

The inside of the jacket is unlined, so the white backing on the imitation leather is exposed...and looks a little cheap:

It might have been nice to have some three-dimensional decorations on the jacket, like a real zipper or raised studs, but overall it's a functional piece that's true to the movie costume.

I'm not a huge fan of imitation leather, because it doesn't age well, but I suppose it was the logical choice for this garment.

The tee shirt underneath the jacket is quite elaborate!  It's purple with a green printed design, and there are black tulle accents at the neckline, on the sleeves, and around the waist:

Here it is from the back:

While the fabric part of the tee shirt has a velcro seam, the tulle section around the waist does not, so the shirt can't open all of the way down the back:

To remove the shirt, I first had to remove the leggings:

These leggings are straightforward, with an elastic waistband and printed details.  They're nice and easy to use.

Here's the shirt on its own:

I really like the printed design on the front, although I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be.  It looks like two racks of green antlers?

The last item in Mal's outfit is a pair of black vinyl boots:

These have a lot of molded detail, like laces in front and a scale pattern on the sides, but there are no painted accents.

Mal's feet have high arches, so she's not able to stand on her own once the boots are removed:

So, I put the boots back on before I examined her body and joints:

Does this body make my head look big?

She has an articulated childlike body with a small chest and hips.  

I don't think I've ever seen this body before.  Or if I have, I forgot about it.   There's a 2022 copyright mark on the back, so it hasn't been around for too long:

At first I thought maybe it was the same body that was used for the Wizarding World Harry Potter dolls?  But they're from 2018 and have longer legs and bigger feet:

Wizarding World Hermione (2018).

The torso section might be the same, but I don't have any of the Harry Potter dolls anymore so I can't be sure.

I'm not sure why Mattel used such a small body for this doll?  Mal isn't a child.  I feel like they should have used the same body they used for the Zombies teen characters.  But at least the articulation looks good.  It's similar to a Barbie Gigi body, with eleven joints.

Mal's head can spin around and look up:

But she can't look down very much at all:

Her head can tip from side to side, though:

Mal's shoulders are rotating hinges.  These allow her arms to lift up and away from her body to about a 70 degree angle:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges, but they can't bend all of the way to 90 degrees:

This means that Mal can't touch her face or rest her hand high on her hip:

How am I supposed to eat?

She can touch the top of her head, though, and almost pat her belly at the same time:

This is hard.

For a doll with so many joints, Mal's arm movement feels restricted.  I wish her elbows, in particular, had better mobility.

Her hips have a pseudo ball-and-socket joint that only allows her to slide into partial side-to-side splits:

Her front-to-back splits are much better, but her back leg can't fully extend:

She can sit solidly on the ground, though:

And, because her knees are yet another set of rotating hinges...

She can sit nicely in a chair, too:

And she can kneel on one knee:

Or on two knees, but her balance isn't very good in this position:

Faceplant in 3,2,1...

Despite the underperforming arm joints, Mal has a nice repertoire of poses, including this dramatic action stance:

I'm fighting evil with this pose!

And a more casual stroll:

Evil conquered.

At 11 inches tall, Mal is shorter than a traditional Barbie like Petra, but taller than Skipper:

From left: Signature Looks Barbie, Anniversary Mal, and Barbie Skipper.

She's very similar in height to the Hasbro Mal from 2015:

Mattel Mal (left) and Hasbro Mal (right).

Those complexions are pretty different though, aren't they!  Whoa.  Mal isn't nearly as pink as she looks in my pictures, though.  It's a trick of the grey backdrop.  But the Hasbro Mal is so pale she's almost white, so the contrast is extreme.

The two Mals have similar levels of articulation, but the Hasbro version has a lot more flexibility in her arms:

I can eat whatever I want.

Word.

I put Mal back into her original outfit for a few more pictures, but before I did that I washed the styling gel out of her hair and gave it a quick dunk in boiling water.  This worked really well.  Her hair feels good now, and the two sides curl in roughly the same direction.

Here she is in her tee shirt and leggings--without the jacket:

The hair is pretty now, with a bit of gloss and a nice smooth texture:

The fiber feels like saran, which is a typical choice for Mattel.

I was able to slide the jacket back on over Mal's arms with the gloves out of the way:

But then I had to pop the hands off anyway in order to get the gloves back on.  Sigh.

Here's Mal in her full outfit:

She's a fun doll to play with.  She has good balance and a lot of personality:

I like her unique appearance, and the fact that she's easily recognizable as a character from the Descendants movies.

Kids who are fans of the Descendants franchise could have a lot of fun using this Mal to act out their favorite scenes from the original movie.  It's just too bad that there weren't more anniversary dolls released.  I'd love to see some of the boys!  Jane, Lonnie, and Audrey would have been fun additions, too.

You're stuck with just me, Emily.

Here are the two version of Mal side-by-side:

Anniversary Mal (Mattel) and Signature Mal (Hasbro).

The Hasbro Mal shown here is not the exact same doll that I featured in my 2015 review.  I gave that girl away a long time ago.  But I re-purchased a used doll on eBay so that I would have her for comparison.

You have an eBay problem, Emily.

I had to boil wash this doll's hair, too, but it didn't help very much.  The hair feels coarse, dry, and is extremely tangle-prone.

The outfit has held up well over the years, though.  It has the same basic design as the Mattel Mal's outfit, but the jacket has less printed detail, and the high collar and dragon wing sleeves are achieved via a separate vinyl shoulder piece:

The shoulder piece looks okay, but it's awkward to use:

One thing about the Hasbro outfit that I like better than the Mattel outfit is the boots.  The detail in these boots is great:

Hasbro's Mal boots.

After getting a chance to see the old Hasbro Mal again after all of these years, I'm less appreciative of her than I was back in 2015.  She feels a little goofy to me, and doesn't encapsulated the complex, bad-girl-turned-good character of Mal.

I still think Lonnie is the prettiest doll from the Hasbro group...and I still have her in my collection:

Here's one last picture of the two Mal dolls together:

Real Mal and cartoon Mal.

Bottom line?  It was fun to go back and watch the Descendants movies after all of these years.  It's amazing to me than the franchise is still cranking out content.  I think if I'd watched the first movie back in 2015, I would have been more critical of the Hasbro Mal doll.  That doll really doesn't capture Mal's character or the aesthetic of the live action movies very well at all.

Mattel's new version of Mal is better, though.  She has all of the features that I like to see in a higher-end Mattel fashion doll: good hair, solid articulation, crisp facial screening, and a detailed but user-friendly outfit.  I especially like this doll's face mold and face paint.  She's engaging and very recognizable, with bright green eyes that contrast beautifully with her purple hair.  And Mattel did a nice job with the complicated outfit as well.  I was impressed by the elaborate tee shirt hiding underneath Mal's signature jacket.  I also like the vinyl gloves, although they make it harder to take the jacket on and off.  The jacket itself is a faithful replica of the movie costume, and while I wish that there was some variety in texture or more three dimensional embellishment, it's fine how it is.

I have a few critiques of Mal.  First, I'm not sure why she has such a small, childlike body; it makes her head look too large.  And her arm articulation is not as good as you'd expect from a Mattel doll with eleven joints.  Also, her hands have to be popped off in order to remove one of the gloves, and I found the hands difficult to put back in place.  The biggest pain was having to deal with the insane amount of hair gel, though.  The hair was rock hard right out of the box, and became extremely sticky after a thorough brushing.  It wasn't until after washing and boiling the hair that I was able to enjoy it.

Overall, though, this doll is an improvement over the 2015 Hasbro equivalent.  I only wish that more characters from the original movie had been re-released as anniversary dolls.  But, thanks to the newest movie, Rise of Red, there are plenty more Mattel Descendants dolls to look at, and I'll be back as soon as possible to do just that!