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:
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| Disney Descendants Anniversary Mal doll by Mattel, $24.99. |
