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).

Mattel's slate of dolls from Rise of Red includes eight different characters, all girls.  There are two deluxe dolls (Cinderella and the Queen of Hearts), six regular dolls (Ella, Bridget, Red, Chloe, Uma, and Uliana) and two singing dolls (Bridget and Red).  There are some book-shaped playsets, too, but those dolls have minimal articulation.  Here's the Red playset:

Cheap outfit, unarticulated limbs, and red legs?  Hard pass.

In this review I'll be looking at both deluxe dolls, three regular dolls (Ella, Bridget, and Chloe), and one singing doll (Red).  Buckle up.

I would have loved to include Uma in the mix, since she's one of the best characters (played by China Anne McClain).  Uma has an interesting character arc, some of the best songs, and is the only main character who carries over to Rise of Red from the earlier movies.  Unfortunately, the Uma doll is crazy-popular right now, and is selling on the secondary market for $90-150.  Buying her at those prices would have trashed the budget for this review, so we'll have to settle for promotional photos:

She's a nice-looking doll who resembles the movie character, so I can see why she's popular.

The other character that I'm not going to review today is Uliana.  Uliana's role in the movie isn't super-interesting.  She's meant to be Ursula's younger sister, but I've never heard of her and would have preferred to see a young Ursula.

Here's a promotional shot of the Uliana doll:

I like her sassy smile, ocean-themed outfit, and colorful braided hair.  She's nowhere near as popular as the Uma doll, though, and is on sale for about $13 right now.

The doll I wanted most, of course, was Cinderella.  Her original retail price was $29.99, but she can be found for closer to $20 these days.

She came in a cardboard box with a plastic window:

There's a picture of Brandy in her role as Cinderella underneath the window:

There's a full-length version of the same photograph on the back of the box:

Cinderella wears a pillowy, crystal-encrusted blue gown in Rise of Red.  It hints at the gorgeous crystal-encrusted blue ball gown from the 1997 Cinderella movie.  The top half of that gown is visible on my DVD case:

Another reason I've been excited about this review is that it gave me an excellent excuse to watch Cinderella again!  It's such a good movie, and Brandy is perfection.  But Jason Alexander's fake accent irritates me now that I'm older and--apparently--crabbier.

Let's see if the text on the back of Cinderella's box is better than what we found on Mal's box:

It says: a forever dreamer, Her Majesty rules with elegance, warmth, and grace.  That's nice and simple, and it feels accurate.

Cinderella doesn't play a huge role in Rise of Red, but she's around for long enough at the beginning of the movie to have a duet with Prince Charming.  It's a sweet song with an older Disney feel to it.  And it doesn't sound quite as overproduced as the other songs.  What I like best about Cinderella and the Prince is that they're clearly still madly in love--more so than the other royal couples:

Singing So This is Love together.

After that scene (tears were shed...) the rest of the movie was basically unimportant to me.  But I watched it anyway, and enjoyed many parts of it.

One thing I don't understand is the royal hierarchy in these movies.  Like, Belle and the Beast rule Auradon, but all kinds of other kings and queens live there, too.  So how does Cinderella "rule with elegance, warmth, and grace" if she's not the ruler?  And also why does Ben, who is Belle and the Beast's teenaged son, take over the kingdom while his parents are still young and capable?  There are so many questions.  Basically, you have to let logic fly out the window in order to enjoy the Descendants movies.

Anyway, despite all of the confusion, I was gleeful that Mattel decided to release a Cinderella doll with that opulent blue gown and long braided hairstyle:

However, that long braided hairstyle caused problems from the very start.

I bought this Cinderella in person at Target, and every single Cinderella doll that was in stock that day (I think there were about seven) had visibly terrible hair.  All of the braids were a huge mess.  This doll, if you can believe it, was the one with the best-looking braid:

It looks played-with.

How was this allowed past quality control?  Ordinarily I'd be tempted to keep a sentimentally valuable doll like this in her box as a collector's item, but the hair looks so bad, it wasn't a good option.

I was happy to see the billowy, asymmetrical hem on the dress, though:

Just like in the movie.

The cardboard backdrop has an ominous-looking design showing a few buildings from Rise of Red washed out with an oversized red and pinkish-purple heart:

I think the castle on the right, with the pink color wash is Cinderella's castle.  In real life, it's actually Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany:

I want to go there right now.

Or it might be the Queen's of Heart's palace, which is fictional:

The red-tinged building on the opposite side of the backdrop is where Cinderella (Ella) lives as a child.  Those scenes were filmed in Atlanta at the Calhoun Estate or "Pink Palace:"

Why do I let myself go on backdrop tangents?  Sigh.

Here's Cinderella out of the box:

Similar to what we saw with Mal, she doesn't come with a stand, but also doesn't need one.

With the exception (and it's a big exception) of that ratty braid, she looks really nice.  The open-mouthed smile is fitting for Brandy, and the dress and tiara are lovely:

The asymmetry of the dress hem is a nice mix of classic and modern:

And I like how part of the hair is pulled up high on Cinderella's head...but wow.  The braid is hard to get past:

Like a fraying rope on a big ship.

Here she is from the back:

At least you can't see the braid from this angle!

The braid came caked with stiff styling gel, but the hair wasn't as rock-solid as Mal's hair.  I was able to bend the braid away from Cinderella's shoulder and let it hang down her back:

Like an eel eating her head.

There are two smaller braids woven into the larger braid, and these make the style slightly fancier:

Baby eels!

With the braid out of the way, it's easier to see Cinderella's necklace:

This is made out of glitter-infused translucent white vinyl so that it looks a bit like crystal or glass:

She has matching earrings that are not removable:

The elaborate tiara is made out of this same type of vinyl, so everything matches.

Cinderella has a unique face mold that was designed to look like Brandy.  I think there's a decent resemblance:

She looks kind and friendly, and I like her mix of blue and silver eye makeup:

Now I wish Mattel would make a doll representing the younger Brandy in her original role of Cinderella!  Maybe for the 30 year anniversary of the film?  I'd love a rag clothes version and a ball gown version, please.

Speaking of ball gowns, let's take a closer look at Cinderella's dress:

It's not as poofy as the movie version, but it captures the general idea quite well.  The silver decorations are pretty, but I wish there was a bit more texture of detail to replicate the crystal-coated look of the movie dress:

I'm not crying, you're crying.

I think the bodice area is well done, with dramatic puffed sleeves and a nicely-fitted deep v neckline:

The dress closes in back with velcro, and is very easy to get on and off:

The silver decorations stop halfway down the back of the dress.  That might also be true of the movie dress, but I can't remember.  It looks wrong to me.

There are a few little holes in the dress made by plastic ties from the packaging:

Irritating.

The asymmetrical hem gets its bubble-like appearance from a row of tiny, evenly-spaced gathers on the inside of the skirt:

Like a jellyfish skirt!

The dress is made out of stiff, shiny, satin-like fabric.  It feels a little cheap for a deluxe doll, but it can stand on its own, so that's something:

Here's a closer look at the elastic detail on one of the sleeves:

We saw already that the skirt of the dress is lined, in order to create the bubble effect, but the bodice is unlined and doesn't look as polished:

I assumed Cinderella would be wearing glass slippers with this dress, especially because she gives glass sneakers to her daughter, Chloe, at one point during the movie.  However, she's wearing silver pumps that match the swirls on her dress:

The shoes are fine, but I wish they were made out of the same glittery, glass-like vinyl as the jewelry.

The outfit also comes with sheer gloves:

Fashion doll gloves always look a little silly to me.  They're basically long mittens.

Underneath her mittens, Cinderella has elegant hands with mostly separate fingers:

And no wedding ring?

After seeing Mal's small, childlike body in the last review, I was curious to see what kind of body Mattel chose for Cinderella.

Unfortunately, I don't even know how to identify it!  It's not a Barbie body:

Cinderella's head looks a bit too big for her body.  This was also true of Mal, making me think that perhaps this will be a theme with all of the Descendants dolls.  Part of what we're seeing here, though, is that the hair and tiara are very tall, so the head appears larger than it is.

The articulation looks promising, and very reminiscent of a Barbie body:

There's a 2023 copyright mark on the back, so maybe the body was put together just for the Rise of Red dolls?  They came out in 2024:

The body is 11 inches tall, so shorter (and a bit wider) than a regular Barbie body.  It's slimmer than a Curvy body, though:

Rise of Red Cinderella (left) and Curvy Made to Move Barbie (right).

At first it reminded me a bit of the Down Syndrome Fashionista body, but it's actually quite different:

Rise of Red Cinderella (left) and Down Syndrome Fashionista (right).

If anyone recognizes this body, please let me know in the comments and I can update the review!

I'm tempted to do a body swap for Cinderella, especially if I can find a Made to Move doll with a similar skin tone.  Lena's sister Sela (who is the blue tie dye yoga doll) looks like a good match, but I very much doubt that Sela will agree to donate her body!

Sela can at least help me by modeling Cinderella's dress, to make sure it will still fit if I attempt a body swap someday:

Sela (a Made to Move Barbie) wearing Cinderella's gown.

The dress isn't as long on a Made to Move body, which makes it look slightly less dramatic.  Also, the shoes are way too big.  But it works well enough.

Until I find a new body for Cinderella, she's stuck with the one she has.  So let's quickly see what the articulation is like.  

She has a total of eleven joints (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees):

Most of her movement is very similar to the Mal doll and to Barbies that aren't Made to Move.  She can look up and to the side:

And she can look down a bit, too:

Her head tips from side to side, too, but I didn't photograph that for some reason.

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her arms to lift up and away from her body to about 70 degrees:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges, and they can bend to 90 degrees in some directions but not others:

Cinderella can't touch her face or chest, which restricts her poseability in ways that frustrate me.

Her hips can only move a little bit from side to side:

But she can do full front-to-back splits:

Her knees are rotating hinges, so she can kneel on one knee:

And on two...sort of:

And she sits in a chair like a queen:

Cinderella's articulation is good, but not great.  Her arm movement feels particularly restrictive.  I really wish she'd been designed on a Made to Move body!

I put Cinderella back into her blue gown for a few portraits:

I like how the characters in Rise of Red (and all of the Descendants movies, for that matter) have brightly colored hair that fits with their Disney theme.  Cinderella's blue hair suits her, even if part of me wishes that she had the dark braids that Brandy wore in the 1997 movie.

While taking these pictures, I tried to focus on Cinderella's benevolent smile, rather than her messy braid...but it was hard with certain poses:

Cinderella seemed unbothered by her hair, though, and danced around the studio without a care in the world:

I have found him...

She briefly stopped to make sure that her tiara was still in place...

Am I all good here?

And was off dancing again:

I may never come down to earth again!

After a while, though, all of that dancing tired her out, and she had to relax for a bit!

Is it midnight yet?

When she got up, I felt like her braid had gotten even messier than it was before:

The rope is unraveling.

So it was time to take all of that hair down and see what I could do with it.

It took a while to get all of the braids loose, and this is what I was left with:

Chaos.

It was pretty scraggly, and felt dry and stiff from the hair gel:

I was happy to see that there's actually a rooted part down the middle of Cinderella's head (that's often missing on dolls with up-dos), but it seemed like the position of the part was different in the front of the hair:

Fortunately, I was able to get the part all going in the same direction.  And the boil wash was really effective!  The hair came out sleek and smooth...and very long:

Now that's pretty hair!

I was actually shocked that the hair is this nice!  I figured that the scruffy braid must be hiding a multitude of sins, but it wasn't.

Cinderella has a full head of beautiful blue saran hair.  I love it:

She really looks like Brandy here.

It would probably be possible to create a new fishtail braid that looked better than the original, but hairstyling is not one of my skills.  

I'm happy to have the hair down for now.  It feels great and is fun to swish around:

I absolutely adore this doll.  For so many reasons.  She's meaningful to me in ways beyond the minutia of her execution.  

There are a few things to critique, as always, but the detail that I was most upset about was that messy braid, and now it's gone!  I still wish that the dress was made out of slightly nicer fabric, or that it had more intricate decorations, but the basic shape is dramatic and pretty, and it looks like the movie costume.  I also think Cinderella's head is slightly too big for her body, and her body shape is odd.  I wish she'd been put on a Made to Move body instead.  But none of those things can take away from the fact that this is a Brandy Cinderella doll.  After all of these years.  Yay!  And as if that wasn't enough, she has a pretty face, long flowing hair, decent articulation, and a fancy blue Cinderella gown.  I never thought I'd get a doll like this, so I'm over the moon.

Impossible things happen every day!

I was so happy with Cinderella, in fact, that I decided to purchase the other deluxe doll in the collection: the Queen of Hearts:

Rise of Red Queen of Hearts doll, $29.99

The Queen is played by Rita Ora.  I don't know much about Ms. Ora, but I gather she's a British singer, and has been in a few movies.  Her photograph appears at the bottom of the doll's box:

There's a larger version of that photograph on the back of the box:

I may not have the kind of emotional connection to Rita Ora that I have to Brandy, but I have a pretty solid investment in that dress!  It's spectacular.  In fact, a lot of the costuming in Rise of Red is elaborate eye candy like this.

There's a bit of text next to the photograph:

It says: this tyrant rules the Kingdom of Wonderland with a thorn in her heart.  That's short and...brutal.

You might wonder why the Queen gets to rule Wonderland while the rest of the Disney villains live in  exile on the Isle of the Lost.  Well, apparently, Belle and Beast decided to simply seal off the rabbit hole and imprison the Queen and her family in their own land.  Seems like they got off much easier than the other baddies.

The Queen of Hearts comes attached to the same backdrop that we saw with Cinderella:

And she comes with a stand!  It's odd that she has a stand while Cinderella does not.  Maybe it's because the red dress is so big?

The stand is made out of plastic and has a simple saddle design:

Fortunately, the Queen doesn't need a stand most of the time, and can balance on her own two feet:

She has long red hair, worn loose down her back, with two small sections framing her face:

The hair looked a little messy right out of the box, but it was nowhere near as bad as Cinderella's braid:

My first impression of this doll was that she's a good likeness of Rita Ora.  The two strands of hair at either side of her face bugged me, though:

They were stiff with styling gel.

I tried pushing all of the hair behind the high vinyl neck of the dress, but this looks silly, too:

Especially from the side:

In the movie, Ms. Ora wears all of her hair in front of her collar, like this:

The doll's hair feels too thick for that approach, but I'll try to recreate it later.

The Queen's crown came plastic-tied to her head.  I cut it out so that I could take a better look:

It's made entirely out of semi-translucent red vinyl, with no painted decorations.  I wish it looked a bit more like the crown in the movie, which is quite impressive, with some black heart accents throughout:

I think the high vinyl collar on this dress looks okay, and it's certainly necessary in order to mimic the opulent collar from the movie, but I was eager to get it out of the way so that the hair could have some room to move.

The collar is part of a corset-like vinyl top:

It would have been hard to make something like this out of fabric, especially with the price constraints on a play doll, but the vinyl looks plain and heavy.  I wish there was more variation in texture or something.  It detracts from the elegance of the rest of the dress.

 The corset opens down the back:

Here's a closer look:

There are two vinyl tabs that hold the corset closed, and these were easy to snap apart.

Here's the piece on its own:

The vinyl is thick, and so this thing is pretty heavy!

Here's how the dress looks without the corset:

I think this is an improvement, if only I wasn't distracted by those gloves...

There's a tulle ruffle accent along the neckline of the dress, and a choker necklace that matches fairly well:

Those gloves don't match at all.  I'll deal with them in a moment.

First, I wanted to tie the Queen's hair back so that I could get a good look at her face:

Okay, that's a big head.

The large mouth, full lips, and expressive eyebrows are what remind me most of Rita Ora.

There has also been an effort to replicate the elaborate eye makeup from the movie.  Here's a look at what the designers were trying to copy:

The approach is different with the doll.  Instead of having red eyeshadow encrusted with red rhinestones and glitter, the doll has reddish-orange eyeshadow adorned with metallic gold dots:

Like a ladybug.

It's a decent effort, although I wonder why they didn't just do red eyeshadow with glitter in it?  I think that would have looked better.  The polka dots remind me too much of a clown.

Still, the eyes have a unique appearance, and I like the warm color tones.  I also like that the paint is clear and bright with no pixelation and no obvious defects:

Overall I think this doll does a good job of imitating the movie character.  She has some beautiful elements while also being believably evil.  I like the face for its uniqueness, but wish that the eyeshadow was different.

Anyway, now I can get rid of the ultra-shiny red pleather gloves:

Gross.

These shiny abominations do zero credit to the movie dress.  That dress has sheer red sleeves with creepy nail extensions on the left hand:

Epic.

Sheer sleeves might have caused trouble with the doll's fingers, so I understand why a different choice was made.  But there has to have been a better option than those shiny mitts!

I took the gloves and the choker off:

I'll keep that choker, but the gloves are never going to see the light of day again.

Here's the Queen in her dress with no extra embellishments:

Love it.

It was ambitions of Mattel to take on the construction of this elaborate skirt in 1:6 scale.  I think they did a good job, though!

Here's a reminder of the movie skirt for reference:

 

The rosettes in the doll's skirt are not heart-shaped, like they are in the movie, and the volume of the skirt isn't quite what it should be, but otherwise this is a very nice replica--and an impressive piece of doll clothing!

The fabric edges in the flowers are not finished, and the stitching looks minimal, but the overall effect is very good:

It reminds me of the underskirt on Jett Dawson's dress.  Remember that?

The construction is very similar.

So Mattel has done this kind of thing before.

The back of the dress closes with a velcro seam, so it's easy to get on and off:

The construction is about the same as what we saw with Cinderella's gown.  The bodice is unlined:

But the skirt is lined with red mesh:

Amazingly, none of that red left any staining on the body.

Under her dress, the Queen is wearing fairly plain red high heeled vinyl shoes:

These have small molded buckles on the toes, but no other decoration:

Not surprisingly, the Queen has the same body as Cinderella:

With a massive head.

That's a big noggin.  I mean, her head is almost the same width as her shoulders, and her mouth is the same width as her neck.  Can you imagine?

I'd contemplate swapping her onto a Made to Move body, but honestly I think that would make the head look even bigger.

Here's the Queen alongside Cinderella so that you can see the difference in coloring...and the difference in head size:

Rise of Red Queen of Hearts (left) and Cinderella (right).

Cinderella's head looks perfectly normal by comparison, even though I was feeling like it was large earlier in the review.  Maybe the designers made the Queen's head oversized in order to balance out her huge skirt?  I really don't know what they were thinking.

I put the Queen right back into her dress and took her hair down, both of which help to disguise the planetoid cranium:

I must say, though, that despite the size of the head, this is a photogenic doll.  I really like the shape of her mouth:

Her hair is thick and long and made out of a nice saran.  It looks very dramatic:

I just wish it was easier to arrange the hair around that large, stiff collar:

I feel like this doll would have benefitted from an up-do, even though the character in the movie is always wearing her hair down.

I attempted a quick and easy up-do to see how it might look:

Yikes.  That hair is too far up!  

I used a braid to reduce the volume a bit, and got a slightly better outcome:

Did I mention that I wasn't great at doll hairdos?  Lena got the best that I have to offer with her wedding hair.  And that required a lot of time and a lot of gel.  But I think the Queen would look great with her hair up in a sophisticated way.

I made do by putting all of her hair behind the collar:

At least this way I can see her face!

That collar is really awkward, though.  I wasn't able to get the portraits that I wanted with the hair hanging strangely down the back:

And I couldn't recreate the factory style with the two tendrils of hair around the Queen's face:

So I boiled the hair, and kept it combed forward as it was drying, hoping to make it look more natural when it's in front of the collar.

This worked to a small degree, but the hair is so thick, it basically covers the Queen's entire chest and waist:

It covers a lot of her eyeshadow, too, which I think is a good thing:

Maybe the best style for the Queen is to have all of her hair swept in front of the collar, but only on one side, like this:

Best of both worlds.

This doll is frustrating, because she's just a few missteps away from being great.  She has a regal and photogenic face mold, a distinctive mouth, nice thick hair in a striking red color, and a dress with a beautiful and detailed skirt.  I'm hung up on three main things: her head is too big for her body, her vinyl collar is too plain and does not play nicely with her thick hair, and I could do without the spotted eye makeup.  Oh--and those gloves are ridiculous, but they're already in the trash.

Off with their heads!

The reason I wrote this review was because of Cinderella.  Having looked at her, it seemed logical to review the only other deluxe doll (Queen of Hearts) as well.  However, the next few choices were hard, since I can't review all of the dolls, and all of them are appealing for one reason or another.

To keep things simple, I decided to stay consistent along character lines.  That means that since I reviewed Cinderella, I will also review her daughter (Chloe) and the younger version of her (Ella).  Likewise, because I reviewed the Queen of Hearts, I will also review her daughter (Red) and the younger version of her (Bridget).

I won't go into these last four dolls in much detail, but I'll show you some highlights and give a few quick impressions.

First up is Ella, the younger version of Cinderella:

Ella has a pretty big role in Rise of Red--bigger, even, than Brandy's adult Cinderella.  This is because the majority of the plot takes place in an earlier time period.  Not to spoil anything, but Red and Chloe go back in time and meet up with the younger versions of their parents.  It's like Back to the Future meets a random Disney Princess movie.

Ella is played by Morgan Dudley.  I wish she'd been played by a young Brandy, but that wasn't really an option.  And Ms. Dudley does a nice job.  There's a photo of her on the back of the box:

I don't really like the color or style of her hair--especially those bangs.  I wish she'd been given the same dark blue hair that the older Cinderella has.  The teal curls make her seem like a completely different character, which confused me when I was watching the movie.  Also, teal is not a color that I associate with Cinderella at all.  It's more of an Ursula thing.

Another thing is that the texture of that hair makes it too obviously a wig.  To sum up: I don't like Ella's hair in this photo.  There are scenes in the movie where it's better than this, but it's never good.

Fortunately, the doll has better hair:

She's also wearing a really cute outfit.  This is the outfit Ella is wearing when she sings her big song, Get Your Hands Dirty.  I love the contrast between the sheer, puffy-sleeved blouse and the patchwork chaos of the overalls.

The overalls are woefully plain in back, though.

I could do without the light yellow vinyl pieces (necklace, belt, fanny pack) in this outfit, but they have butterfly accents on them, which is cute and Cinderella-appropriate.

Here's a look at the blouse with the overalls pulled down:

That fabric print is attractive--and it matches Ella's hair!

The doll's hair, if I can get back to that topic, is longer than it is in the movie--with tighter, denser curls and less obvious bangs.  The color is also more uniformly light blue.  This feels like a logical choice given the color of adult Cinderella's hair.  It's like the equivalent of a young girl having blonde hair and then growing up to be a brunette:

Ella gets yet another unique face mold, and this one has a wide, toothy smile with very bright lips:

The face looks a little cartoonish to me, and the head is large--but it's not Queen of Hearts large.  I don't see an obvious resemblance to Morgan Dudley in this face, but I guess the big smile is fitting?

Ella has the same body as Mal, so I won't go into too much detail about it here.  For those who didn't read the Mal review, this body is similar to a Skipper body, but with more articulation:

Rise of Red Ella (left) and Barbie Skipper (right).

The body is much more childlike than the bodies of Cinderella and the Queen of Hearts:

Rise of Red Ella (left) and Cinderella (right).

The best body swap option for this girl would probably be a Made to Move petite body:

Rise of Red Ella (left) and Made to Move petite body (right).

And for anyone brave enough to make that swap, rest assured that Ella's adorable outfit will still work:

Barbie petite doll wearing Rise of Red Ella's outfit.

It's interesting to see Kit in that outfit because she has a normal-sized head.  It looks so much more realistic than the Rise of Red doll heads.

I like Ella quite a lot.  However, with Cinderella dolls it's always hard for me to tell if I like the doll, or if I just like that she's Cinderella!  Ella's best features are her outfit and her hair.  The outfit is charming, with its contrasting floral blouse and patchwork overalls.  The construction is good, and I love the mix of textures and colors.  I also think Ella's light blue, tightly-curled hair is better than the character's hair in the movie.  I appreciate the face sculpt for its originality, and happy dolls always make me smile.  But the features don't immediately remind me of the movie character, and both the smile and the head itself are a bit too big.

The next character that I'm going to look at is Bridget.  She's the young version of the Queen of Hearts:

Rather than being decked out in red with bright red hair, this character is all pink!  That's because when Bridget was young, she was sweet and optimistic and tried to make friends with everyone.  But on the night of the school dance, a cruel trick was played on her and she abruptly turned evil (and red, apparently).

Bridget's role in the movie is acted by the (appropriately named) Ruby Rose Turner, who is featured on the back of the box:

Bridget is a delightful character, and Ms. Turner has a smile that can light up a room:

The text on the box says: bubbly, generous, & sugary sweet - the kindest soul you'll meet!

I feel like it should say the kindest soul you'll ever meet, but whatever.

Unfortunately, the doll does not have a smile that can light up a room:

And she has crazy-big sausage curls.

She has a nice outfit, though, and even comes with a cupcake!

Here's a closer look at the cupcake:

Bridget's face is pretty, but her smile looks hesitant, and she doesn't resemble Ruby Rose Turner at all:

It's funny, because this was my favorite non-Cinderella Rise of Red doll before I saw the movie.  I was drawn to her pink hair, complex outfit, and attractive face:

She's clearly a character doll, but she's also versatile enough that she could jump in and hang out with Barbie or other similar fashion dolls.  However, after watching Rise of Red, I'm distracted by how she doesn't remind me of the character very much at all.  

I'll try to look past that and focus on her good qualities, though!  Like her outfit.  The outfit includes a pink satiny jacket with tulle ruffles around the waist and cuffs, and printed designs on the right side:

Underneath the jacket, there's a dress with a detailed skirt that cleverly imitates the costume from the movie:

The top part looks like a waitress uniform.

The dress has a heart design on the bodice, and a tiered skirt that peeks out from underneath an asymmetrical overskirt.

A fun surprise is that underneath the tiered skirt, there's a third type of patterned pink fabric hidden away!

Sadly, the back of the dress is plain, with no layers whatsoever:

All of the dolls have some kind of vinyl element in their outfit, and I feel like Bridget's vinyl pieces are the ones that work the best.  She is wearing a gold heart necklace and a matching belt with heart charms:

If only those darn sausage curls would stay out of the way!

Underneath Bridget's dress, I was bummed (but not surprised) to find yet another childlike body:

This is the same as Ella and Mal's bodies, and it probably goes without saying that Bridget's head is also too big:

I guess the big head epidemic was a style choice that Mattel made for this line.  It actually doesn't bother me too much when I'm looking at the Descendants dolls on their own, but if they have to share the screen with Barbie, things get awkward:

I just have a really big brain, is all!

This is another solid doll.  I love her pink theme, and the details in her outfit are fun and movie-accurate.  I'm eager to wash out the oversized sausage curls in her hair, though, and I wish her face mold was more reminiscent of Bridget's effervescent personality.  And of course we have yet another combination of a childlike body and an oversized head.  At this point I'm going to stop expecting anything different.

Just have a cupcake and relax, Emily.

The last two dolls that I want to look at are the children of Cinderella and the Queen of Hearts.  I saved these two for last because they are quintessential Descendants characters.  After all, the whole premise of the franchise is to follow the lives of Disney's royal progeny.

First up is Chloe Charming, the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming.  One interesting factoid here is that in the first three movies, Cinderella herself never appears, and she has only one child: a son named Chad:

Oh, Chad.

First of all, I dislike the name Chad.  Sorry if your name is Chad.  Also, Chad is a normal white guy, and obviously not the biological son of a pair like Brandy and Paolo Montalban.  But that's fair because I doubt Disney had even thought about casting Brandy as Cinderella back in 2015.

The bigger problem is that Chad Charming is mentally slow and not very nice or honest.  Which isn't the kind of child I'd want for Cinderella.

Thankfully, things were rectified in Rise of Red, with Chad off to college somewhere non-selective, and Chloe taking his place.  Chloe is lovely, with a kind heart, fierce swordsmanship, good hair, a lot of courage, and a nice name.  And she even looks believably like the child of Brandy and Paolo:

I shouldn't be this invested in Cinderella and Prince Charming's daughter, but I am.  It is what it is.

Chloe is played by the lovely Malia Baker, and there's a photo of her on the front of the doll's box:

There's a different photo on the back, showing the full outfit:

This is my least favorite of all the movie outfits.  I straight-up don't like it.  It looks too much like a theatre costume, not something a teenager would actually wear.  And it's not especially flattering.

Chloe's character description says: an aspiring royal champion, she always fights for what's right!

Incidentally, I got this doll on sale for about $5.  I think she's more like $10 now, but that's still a really good deal for an articulated fashion doll.  She's currently the least expensive of all the Rise of Red dolls, with Bridget coming second at $11, and Ella trending near $35.  The original retail was $24.99 for all of them. 

The doll is instantly recognizable as Chloe Charming, mostly because of that full head of long, curly blue hair!

She comes with a sword, too, which is nice because swordplay is Chloe's passion.

I like how Chloe's hair looks, and the color is great, but the tight curls are hard to tame (I won't brush them, don't worry!), and they tend to get stuck on the edges of the jacket or in my fingers:

Chloe has a pretty face with a subtle smile.  She has big brown eyes with minimal eye makeup, and blue tendrils of hair drawn in at the top of her forehead.  In the movie, Chloe has sparkling crystals above her eyes, which I think are pretty, but there's been no attempt to replicate those here:

The outfit has a gold-lined bolero jacket over a metallic blue jumpsuit.  The vinyl pieces include a thick blue Elvis belt, a matching choker, and a pair of gold gloves:

I like the choker and the gloves.

Here's the outfit from the back:

The split colors in the pants make me think of a court jester, not a badass swordswoman.

I popped the hands off so that I could remove the bolero jacket.  This also gives us a chance to get a close look at the gloves:

Underneath the jacket, Chloe's jumpsuit has two distinct areas: a patterned tank top and color blocked joker pants:

The outfit looks underwhelming to me.  But since the movie costume isn't very good, the designers didn't have a lot to work with.

The best part of the outfit might be the glass sneakers!  In the movie, these are given to Chloe by her mom, right before they leave for Auradon Prep:

The left shoe has yellowed slightly, but I still like the idea behind these.

I expected Chloe to have the same childlike body that Mal, Ella, and Bridget have, but no.  She got the mom bod:

Rise of Red Chloe (left) and Cinderella (right).

I'm not sure why this character was singled out to get the larger body?  Malia Baker is quite slender.  But at least the doll's head is reasonably well in proportion to that body.  It would have looked massive on the smaller one.

Chloe was my least favorite doll from the promotional photos, but she ended up being a nice surprise.  I find her outfit unattractive, but I like almost everything else about her.  Her hair is un-brushable and can get caught up on the fabric of the jacket, but it looks dramatic and I love the curls and color.  I also really like the face mold and face paint on this doll.  I think she has my favorite face of the whole group.  I'm glad she came with a sword, too, because it's a great accessory that really brings out the personality of this feisty girl.

Last up is Red, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts and the titular character of the movie.  There's an articulated version of Red that's equivalent to the three dolls I just showed you:

Articulated Red doll.

This doll has a fantastic-looking outfit, a cool hairdo, and a time travel clock accessory.  Her face mold is distinct, and definitely reminds me of the actor, Kylie Cantrall:

This appears to be one of the more popular dolls in the series, since she's still selling for just under $20.  I purchased her, but then decided that I should probably look at one of the singing dolls, so I left this one in her box and switched tactics.

Here's a promotional photo of the articulated doll so that you can get a better idea of what her outfit looks like out of the box:

That jacket is cool.

The singing doll came in a much simpler box and cost me $29.99.  She's on sale for $17.99 now:

Singing Red doll from Rise of Red, $29.99.

The back of the box has a big, dramatic photograph of Kylie with the caption: this rebel is ready to sing her heart out!

That's not much of a description of Red's character, but I guess mapping out the whole angsty dynamic with her mom would have taken up too much space.

The Red doll can stand on her own, but not very well.  I had a lot more faceplants with this girl than I did with the others.  She's also wearing a simpler outfit than the articulated Red:

Red's face mold clearly looks like Kylie Cantrall, at least to me:

The doll's eyes are enormous, though.  Like in a whole different size category than the other dolls.  But Ms. Cantrall's full lips, dark brows, and long nose are captured well:

Red is wearing a different outfit than the puffy-sleeve jacket ensemble that we saw on the articulated doll. This ensemble mimics the costume that Red is wearing at the very beginning of the movie, but it's rendered in a simplistic way:

The shirt and the pants are separate, but they come attached to one another with two tiny plastic ties.  The shirt has some stitched detail, with a fabric zipper and the illusion of layers, but the pants are plain.

Here's the back of the outfit, where you can see a black hood hanging down:

Underneath her outfit, Red has the childlike body, but it's been modified to accommodate a sound feature.  It also has minimal articulation, with only neck, shoulder, and hip joints:

She's struggling to stand upright.

I'm not sure why the elbow, wrist and knee joints had to be eliminated in order to add the sound feature?  Probably that was an unrelated cost-saving decision.

The singing feature can be activated by pressing a large button that's right in the middle of Red's chest, above the circular speaker:

The doll sings a verse from the song Red, which I recorded for you here:

It's a catchy song, and the overproduced vocals from the movie aren't as offensive when they're coming out of a tiny doll speaker!  Lower standards.

I'll confess that I rushed through this review of Red.  Sorry about that.  I bit off more than I could chew with this review, and by the time I was opening Red's box, I'd seen a lot of Rise of Red dolls with the same good and bad qualities.  I'm also never as impressed with a gimmicky doll as I am with one who has good articulation and long-term playability.

Still, there are good things about this singing doll.  Namely, her long, red, crimped saran hair is high-quality and fun to brush and play with.  Also, I enjoy her face mold and find it to be a good likeness of the movie character--despite the huge eyes.  I don't even mind the sound feature, since it's a catchy tune.  The biggest problem with this doll is the shortcuts that were taken in order to accommodate her sound feature.  She's minimally articulated, and her balance isn't great.  Also, her hollow plastic limbs feel cheaper than the articulated dolls.  Red's outfit is simpler than the other dolls that we've seen, too, and since the costumes are one of the things I've been enjoying most about this collection, the shortcut in this department feels like a big loss.  This doll's head mold and hair on an articulated body, with a better outfit, would be more my jam.  So, basically, I can all but guarantee that I would have liked the articulated version of Red more than this one.

To wrap things up, here's a picture of all three Cinderella family members: 

From left: Ella, Cinderella, and Chloe from Rise of Red.

The difference in skin tones between Ella and Cinderella is interesting since they're meant to portray the exact same person.  I also wish there was more continuity with hair color.  But overall it's a fairly cohesive group.  Cinderella is my favorite, obviously.  I love her face, her hair, and her gown.  And she brings up so many wonderful memories of the 1997 Brandy Cinderella, she can do no wrong.  Ella is also a doll that I'm going to keep.  Her smile is too big and I wish her hair was darker, but she has a great outfit and a sweetness that I'm drawn to.  Chloe probably has the best face of the trio, I just wish her outfit was more interesting and she had a different body.

With the Queen of Hearts clan, there's a similar skin tone disconnect: Bridget is much paler than her older self.  While we're on the topic of discrepancies, it's also weird in the movie that Bridget has an American accent and the Queen of Hearts is British.  But maybe it's best to just let some of these inconsistencies go.  Red probably would have been my favorite in this group, if only I'd decided to review the articulated version of her.  As it is, I really like the singing doll's face and hair.  I like Bridget quite a lot, too.  Her dress has some great details and her color palette is cheerful and appealing.  However, her head is big and those sausage curls are silly.  The Queen of Hearts is almost fabulous, but her face doesn't quite hit the mark for me, and that vinyl corset detracts from the elegance of her dress, and doesn't work well with her long, thick hair:

From left: Bridget, Queen of Hearts, and Red from Rise of Red.

Bottom line?  Whew!  That was lot of dolls.  This won't be a novel-length conclusion, though, because I already summarized the pros and cons of each doll as I went along.  At this point I'm just going to outline some general observations about this line.

There are two main problems with all of the Rise of Red dolls that I looked at.  The first is that they have large heads.  This might have been a purposeful style decision by Mattel, but it can be jarring.  The Queen of Hearts is the worst offender here, and I think Cinderella has the best proportions.  Another issue is the body choices.  There are two body types that were used: a childlike body similar to Skipper, and a more mature body that's shorter and wider than a standard Barbie.  I don't really like either body very much.  The articulation is not as good as it should be with so many joints, and the arms feel especially restricted.  The shapes and sizes of the bodies also don't feel right for these characters.  I'll probably look into Made to Move body swaps for Cinderella and the other dolls that I decide to keep.

The good things about these dolls outweigh the bad.  For one, they all have nice saran hair in fun, vibrant colors.  Cinderella, the Queen, and Red have my favorite hair, although Cinderella's messy braid was off-putting at first.  I also like the variety, uniqueness, and paint quality of the faces in this group.  Not all of the dolls resemble their movie counterpart, and there are a few odd choices like Red's eye size and the Queen's clownish makeup.  But I can find something that I really like in every face.  Another highlight of this collection is the outfits.  The movie is bursting with creative, over-the-top costumes, and the doll designers did a great job translating those looks into 1:6 playscale.  There are little missteps here and there, like the vinyl collar on the Queen's dress, Chloe's entire outfit, the plain backs on many of the garments, and the stiff, cheap fabric that's used for all of the satiny pieces.  And let's not forget about those horrible red gloves.  But for the most part, the outfits are detailed, playful, and movie-accurate.  I especially like Cinderella's blue gown, and Ella's patchwork overalls with that lovely floral blouse.

There's a lot of good stuff here.  The Rise of Red movie is colorful, lively, and jubilant, and that energy has translated well into this collection of dolls.  I ended up appreciating a lot of Cinderella's friends and relatives, despite being focused mainly on Cinderella herself.  And Mattel's Brandy Cinderella doll, while nearly 30 years late in the making, is certainly a wish come true for me.  I have found her, and her daughter, and I may never come down to earth again.