eah is just so unique and pretty, the details are insane and the animation is so pretty. decendants costumes are giving slightly higher budgeted party city vibes.
@@princesscherry5217 do you really think animation has no limitation either? Its made by disney they have more then enough money to do better with the costuming and CGI effects
@@Man-wolf- Disney does not give big budgets to their Disney Channel properties. There is a big difference between Disney big screen movie budget and Disney Channel movie budget.
@@javencummins1426 even so, eah designs needed to be made with doll clothing in mind. that already gives a big limitation on design, if the clothes are too much the dolls will be too expensive, you can't put too much detail. etc the budget of the show also wasn't that high. the animation was a vector style animation, it's partially computer generated, partially drawn, it's faster and cheaper to make.
Despite Ever After High being animated, the characters are WAY more fleshed out than the descendants characters. Compare Apple to Princess Aubrey. Both have kinda similar backstories, where they’re incredibly popular and expected to marry a prince, except where apple was genuinely a nice person and really did want to do good, Aubrey was radiating annoying mean girl energy from the very beginning, so her downward spiral is less tragic when compared to Apple’s
If Disney copied anything from Mattel, it was the Monster High premise of giving iconic, well-known characters of the public consciousness trendy highschool counterparts. Different design teams could independently create Ever After High and Descendants if you told them, "Do it with a less edgy canon."
As a kid, I just could not with the lazy names in Descendants. No last names, and all their first names are just shortened versions of their parents names. Who names their kid a nickname of their own name?
Descendants isn't any better in that department, with names like Mal (MALeficent), Evie (EVIl Queen), Jay (JAfar), Lonnie (MuLAN), Ben (BEast) etc. It's honestly hilarious how weird the names are in both franchises lmao 🤣🤣
@@KittyOfChess Oh my god 😭 you're right, I'm so sorry lmao I was very tired and completely misread it. I thought you were talking about EAH, which does have silly names too (although I think they sound a bit better), like Apple, Briar, Ashlynn etc and even MH does it 🤣🤣
Well I mean Maleficent does have some kind of excuse,in decendents canon she's suposed to be really self centured it's stated in the second book that Mal's full name is Maleficent but she's called Mal because Maleficent wants her to earn the rest of her name not sure what any of the other villains excuses are for the lazy names though
Apple White and Darling Charming was the first Sapphic kiss I had ever seen on TV, and for that Ever After High will always have a very special place in my heart :)
@@helgaschimmelgrau8405 OKAY I- thought it had to be because that's when she fell asleep. But I swear I just watched it on Netflix and do not remember that. I need to go back and see if they removed it or if I just spaced out. Like I just watched the scene on RUclips and it felt different from what I remember.
At the end of the day it doesn't matter.... Disney didn't understand THEIR OWN properties and no offense to the descendeds Fandom but it's literally based around ships and "awwww shes/hes such bean😚" while ever after high atleast looks good and has a compelling message
I'm someone who's in both fandoms and an adult. The biggest difference between them in my mind is that Descendants has a ton of plot holes and is kinda dummed down. EAH on the other hand seems more intelligent and thought out with a much more expensive world. I enjoy both franchises. I look forward to the next phase of the Descendants franchise and still desperately hope that EAH returns in some form
Has anyone here read the Descendants books? I noticed they weren’t mentioned at all in the video either and people seem to forget that they exist. They are not just retellings of the movies, they go into more depth. They’re in between and before. They make the difference for me when it comes to the Descendants. It is a franchise and story created by lovers of Disney characters, all kinds. There are obscure Disney characters mentioned in the books that are never mentioned in the movies. Without the knowledge of the books, Descendants does seem a lot less fleshed out but with them- the series as a whole really isn’t. With the books, I found the Descendants characters to be way more relatable than the Ever After High characters. I really love both.
@@princesscherry5217 I've read all the books for both series. I honestly had forgotten about the Descendants books tbh. The thing is that the Descendants books actually contradict the movies and show slightly. I get what you're saying but I still think EAH is more fleshed out (especially since there's a ton more books compared with Descendants)
I’d argue that EAH also had the much better names too. Like the EAH characters had like spin off names of their parents while Decedents had a shortened version of their parents’ names. Descendants felt really uncreative to me personally.
Personally, while I like both franchises, the team behind the EAH series feels like it far more dedicated than the Descendants team. Eah has a story that is/was different, character archetypes had more depth to them than their main traits vs Descendants where you get exactly what you see: the mean girl, the boy toy, the not like other girls girl, etc. It feels as if EAH had more care in their lore and for that it has a place in my heart.
@@via3155the “not like other girls” archetype is a person who makes not being like the basic girly girl her whole personality. Raven actually has a REASON she acts that why. She doesn’t want to be an evil queen. Her desire to be different from her mother is driven precisely by her ambition to be a good person. The “not like other girls” character is just a pick-me girl that wants to impress others. Raven definitely does not want to please others. Her want to not sign the storybook of legends actually initially drives her away from ppl like Apple White.
@@bryarodri8020 I don’t see how that makes how character different from being not like the other girls tho. Throughout the series they would show little moments to distinguish Raven from the other princesses and how different she was or “more real” in comparison. I don’t think that’s Raven entire personality but I don’t believe she’s exempt from falling into the archetype especially when in comparison she’s in highschool with a ton of princesses who will live relatively good lives after their stories in comparison to Raven. Whenever I think of a little small moments showing this I would consider the bird/singing scenes, how Apple is played up as the typical fairytale princess a bit over the top and Raven begrudgingly rolls her eyes at apples exaggerations and semi mocks it. Raven having a reason for her behavior doesn’t make her fall any less under that category same goes for Mal lmao.
@@bryarodri8020 and this is a second reply because I feel like it was getting too long but if you’re gonna make that argument for Raven then the exact same can be said for Mal. Mal desires is fueled by wanting to be exactly like her mother. As awful and wicked because she’s been indoctrinated by everyone including her mother that she has to live up to that standard or she’s a failure. She’s also not only doing it for the sole purpose of trying to exclude herself from other women. She’s doing it because that’s all she knows and that’s the only thing she knows how to do to get affection from her mother who is verbally abuse and borderline dislikes her
@@via3155 Regarding the bird singing scenes, how would you feel if your roommate, who you were already annoyed with at the time, pulled that shit EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING? Me personally, I'd be annoyed too. And Raven was distinguished from the rest of the cast solely because her idea of not choosing to go down the path of her parents was revolutionary at the time. She pretty much reinvented what being a rebel practically was at the time. That was pretty much the only thing that separated her from her peers as a character, and even then, she never thought of herself as above anyone else. She had full belief that everyone had the potential to choose their own destinies, and start new paths, no matter how they were raised. This is what makes her character feel so different from Mal's.
i remember during the eah rebranding, i saw the argument that part of why eah didn't do as great as it could've in sales was because when confronted with two fairytale-based dolls, parents were more likely to pick up the one they recognized for their kids. whether that meant descendants or disney princesses, the disney brand recognition is very powerful.
While this video definitely gives a lot of insight into what caused EAH death, I think we all should remeber that Disney is a company that strives to have a monopoly over fairytale characters, so EAH would have been destroyed. In addition, in some cases major retailers seem to have put EAH and Descendants merchendise side by side, which definitely contributed to the problem (it is not clear why that was done, but it must be noted).
it also must be noted that disney does not have ownership over fairy tales as a whole and CANNOT do anything to ever after high as long as ever after high didn’t step on any toes. the toe stepping happened outside of the franchises and their ideas as a whole. if mattel does not reboot the eah series, it will be because it’s their choice. not because disney could actually do anything about it.
@@princesscherry5217 Disney can do something about it and imo did. Sure, Disney can't sue or anything, but a big contract, like Disney Princesses can be negotiated in a way that explicitly excludes the possibility of EAH.
@@bunnywar I swear, the way everyone on Twitter was calling the Danish racists for pointing out that The Little Mermaid belongs to them (and that the lore in the story actually stems from the undine, a folktale legend from North-west Europe), still makes my blood boil. Calling an ENTIRE COUNTRY, racist for trying to talk about the tales that inspired Hans Christian Andersen and that to their culture its an important literary piece, is one of the many examples how Americans literally bully Europeans into giving up pieces of their culture so Americans can profit off of it, which is the actual academic definition of cultural appropriation, yet woke snowflakes aren't combatting it, they are celebrating it. I'm not even Danish, but I feel like grabbing a pitchfork on their behalf.
Omg bro ur pfp is so cute and yes you’re totally right, they literally are f(x)! even tho I’m really young, they’re one of my favorite groups and deserve better.
EAH deserved way better, I still think it was the last project made with passion of Mattel and there will be never something like that again :( the way things ended is so bittersweet because we never got closure and almost a decade later the brand doesn’t even wants to acknowledge EAH
I have always preferred Ever After High to Descendants. I think the concept and world building were amazing and really thought out. So I makes me really disappointed to hear that Mattel did not value and care about this franchise that I loved so much. Thank you for making this video!
I really appreciate the fact that you focuses more on the others aspects of why Ever After High was canceled because of Disney instead of the usual “Disney Descendants killed Ever After High!” formula. It was a good content. Thanks! ^^
@@kclovie There's horrible acting in Descendants movies. (I bet Disney copied off EAH characters and changed lots of original stuff) Everything about EAH is absolutely perfect! Long live Raven Queen! ^ ^
I think Descendant fashion looks good enough for real life action, but cmon now, ever after high is couture and high fashion everyday for school so of course they’re better. Anyways it really pissed me off that they designed Mulan’s daughter with origami inspiration when origami is Japanese and not Chinese, or when she said whenever she cried her mom would bake her cookies like wtf, dumpling? Soup? What Asian mom bakes cookies?
I really appreciate a more nuanced take as to why EAH failed (or "failed", given that the franchise was still worth millions when it "died"). While I wasn't necessarily a fan at the time that they were on shelves, I really appreciated the unique designs that these fairytale characters received. That being said, the fact that Disney has a monopoly on folkloric fairytale characters that are hundreds of years old is ridiculous and more people should be mad about it.
Why did Disney think that Hasbro would be the toy company that would make the Princess line more empowering when Hasbro is just as guilty for the pink and blue isle?
@@timepasstubeeyes but also no Bratz getting big made mattel up it's game, but when Mattel was back on top it started to become lazy again, so there sales slipped. This led to them starting more doll lines, rinse and repeat
What I liked about Ever After High was that it was kind of an inverse of Monster High. While MH was dark on the outside, it was wholesome on the inside. EAH however, was all cutesy on the outside, but when you read deeper into the story, it was actually kinda fucked. The whole destiny thing is kinda dark from the perspective of someone like Raven Queen. Even if EAH wasn't dying at the time of Descendants coming out, it probably would've had a disadvantage because it lacks the Disney name.
When Descendants first came out I didn't even think it's in any way similar to EAH, though it obviously was at least a bit. Descendants was just very much "Descendants of Disney renditions of the stories specifically" while EAH was more free with their story interpretations. With how long doll production can take I think if anything Descendants was inspired by Monster High first and EAH coming out in the meantime might have been a coincidence.
I'm definitely an Ever After High girlie, most of my childhood dolls were Ever After High ones and i loved playing the games on the website (i actually found out about monster high from that website), when ever after high discontinued i was already too old to really be wanting to play with them so it didn't matter to me that much. Im glad monster high rebooted and i really dont think they could 'reboot' ever after high because the characters were so perfectly in place with their roles and heritage
You consistently have the best doll presentations. …Minus all the glitz and superficiality. Rich subjects, perspectives and to the point in a easygoing manner. This is so refreshing than what we get from the standard doll content makers on social platforms. ❤❤❤ I do hope to see a new g3-like version of EAH.
I miss Ever After High...it was so ahead of its time with queer rep, if it could come back, with what Monster High is doing now too, I think it could go further. Damn it.
Descendants dolls looked horrible compared to EAH. The clothes were printed, the faces were funny looking and the patterns were so busy, so much fake pleather. Disney was def a lil petty with Mattel and introduced competition to dethrone the EAH line (pun intended). The Descendants movies.. I love, the doll line not so much. And at the end of the day, Disney is Disney and the movies were a huge success so the doll line was also a success, leaving EAH in the shadows 😢
I have nostalgia for monster high and really love there is a comeback happening but ever after high legitimately shaped the way I grew into an adult. As a closeted femme lesbian watching the show it connected to me so deeply in a way I couldn't describe. I was heartbroken when it ended but seeing there is an active tumblr Fandom of adults like me really brings me comfort. I lowkey am relieved it doesn't sound like its going to have a revival--they would literally claw every cent of my adult money buying merchandise LOL
14:29, I love these early Decendants designs and the art style they’re in! You can almost instantly tell which character is the kid of which villain while still having thier own unique touches and personality. The official designs we got are alright, but I like these a lot more!
Honestly I love them both. Ever After High blew me away, but is so disjointed and confusing to figure out the watching of that I've only seen it once really, and I still don't know if I saw it all or not. Descendants is more accessible for me, and while Ever After High was something I watched and enjoyed alone, Descendants became a big thing among a couple close friends and holds a ton of memories for me. To take a side would be ignoring the importance of the other in my life. Plus I wasn't into dolls at that time so merch wasn't a factor.
I really liked this in-depth dive into the issue. Very well explained. As for me, I'm a fan of both franchises and I really don't think Descendants copied Ever After High. What I liked most about Descendants was the songs though, the world building wasn't all that interesting to me. I always thought Ever After High had more passion put into it with the character designs, animation and books. (Btw I find it sad how Mattel stopped making Barbie movies based on fairy tales too.)
Thank you so much for this video!! I've been wondering for so long on why Ever After High ended when the dolls and the series were doing well at the time. It's sad though that once a doll line starts to gain popularity, the quality decreases over time, and the designs that the designers have put a lot of effort on has changed because of higher ups' decisions to save on money. But won't cheap dolls that have been mass produced, but don't get enough sales be a waste of money if they keep doing this?
This is fascinating, thank you! I still don't know a ton about either of these franchises, so I'm really interested to learn about the intersections. What I appreciate about your videos is the insight and research you bring to them. Oddly, I was watching a review on "The School For Good & Evil" movie (they hadn't read the books, I guess) and someone compared it to Ever High. Not sure if that comparison makes sense or not.
I enjoyed both in different ways, Descendants is camp at its purest form, and it knows it (Having Kenny Ortega as director for the first 2 movies already gives the power of camp), Ever After High is the other way around, it's a very character heavy story with arcs and so on, way more than Monster High, it does show that the creators wanted to tell a story first and the dolls were just the by product of that. But Descendants also declined in quality, the first wave was great, the dolls were high quality but the second wave it started to fall down hill and the third it got worse. I don't know, after Cameron's passing Descendants kind of lost steam, sure Disney announce another sequel focused on other characters, but his passing was too difficult for everybody evolved that I don't know if Descendants will stay longer. I believe what helped Disney and Mattel to start working together again was that Mattel were the one who made Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. dolls and not Hasbro and the first 2 waves they proved themselves a lot with the dolls. Yeah, I do agree, 2012 Disney doll lines were really terrible and lazy, no care at all.
ngl descendants just wasn’t interesting to me, but since my mom didn’t let me get MH dolls bc they were monsters, it was only natural that I got into EAH as a kid instead. I still love the show/movies’ art style and the doll designs!! I still have my first chapter raven!! I just wish they would make a comeback, even if only for the MH/EAH crossover movie :c (shout out to ur cat meowing throughout the video and opening the door lol!!)
Tho it said that ever after high actually copied Descendants it was proven that this was not the case because Descendants was trademark and put in production 6 months after ever after high.
The way I LOVED both Monster High especially when they had a cohesive storyline and Ever After High was always about the storyline from the get go. They were so incredible. And free on RUclips for my little self😩
I remember when Descendants came out, I was trying to tell anybody who would listen (mainly my mom) that it was so similar to EAH and seemed like a copy. When it comes to competition Disney gets so weird. They saw EAH as a threat, but at the same time they knew that they could beat Mattel, because… well, they’re Disney. I really hope that Ever After High makes a comeback.
I preferred EAH over Descendants, both for their story and doll quality. I missed the boat in collecting all of the EAH dolls I wanted when they came out, but had seen most of their releases in store. Descendants dolls just feel cheaper (in my opinion) and the individual characters were harder to find around here. Disney should have given their license to Jakks Pacific. Their Encanto and Minnie Mouse dolls are wonderful and have a great likeness to their animated counterparts. I feel like Hasbro was kinda starting to sort itself out for their more deluxe Disney dolls and were experimenting with releasing their villain character dolls. They still were not great quality, but Mattel’s releases for the dolls don’t seem to be doing the characters any favors either. They may be more proportioned, but I don’t think their facial sculpts look very similar to their animated counterparts…
Literally every time i go to Target to the Mini Disney store section, I always look at the Disney Princess Single Fashion Dolls and laugh and say, They look so cheap and it makes sense!!
Wow, it's so interesting the way everything is intertwined! Doll drama is so fun to learn about. But also screw whoever wrote that Bloomberg article lol, the description of EAH gives me rancid man vibes. Thanks for another masterful video Cammy!
Ever after high had its own touch that Disney just was never able to reach, the animation, the dreamy colors, the charcters development, the storyline and EVEN the music and side animation for each charcter introduction, everything was GREAT, so losing this out of the blue, of course we'd be angry at all the possible reasons, even now we're hanging on the hope that a masterpiece well return someday like with monster high.
I havent thought about EAH in a long time. I think I still have both versions of C.A. Cupid somewhere- I really love her tbh, both designs are a delight to me
Thank you! I really didn't want to make this video myself. Next time I get into an argument with someone over this topic again, I'll just link this video instead. It's so frustrating how most doll fans don't keep up with doll news even for historical purposes! Great job!
Great video, I remember a video that was passed around on facebook back in the day talking about mattel giving barbie more love and ignoring disney and then ever after high came along and pissed off disney intensely, which i dont see tons of people talk about alone and just say descendants vs eah because of the dates they came out
As someone who is not a huge ever after high fan and just came here for the comments, seeing "eah" everywhere lead me to believe it was a name and it took me a solid 5 minutes to figure out it was ever after high
This really shows how essential marketing and availability is to brands, and I feel like it’s always the shows, brands, and movies that are the best and have the most potential. Another perfect example is the movie Treasure Planet, it’s an absolutely amazing masterpiece and after the movie was finished the head honcho at Disney Decided that it was the perfect movie to make fail on purpose to try and prove that they should only be doing 3D animation because it was more cost effective (kinda ironic that the 3D elements in that movie where what made it so expensive but most people didn’t know that). It was one of the most stupid decisions if not the most stupid because Treasure Planet’s cost for animation and advertising was 180 million dollars total and they had already been working on a sequel for a year AND were planning a tv show too, and this choice made them lose like 160 million dollars, plus whatever was already put toward the sequel and tv show, giving it the nickname “the movie that almost killed Disney”. Even in theaters it was done dirty, it was only in theaters for three weeks unlike the regular 2 months, and was put up against two big Disney sequels and a Harry Potter movie. Only after it was nominated for awards and I think won awards, and has a following and community literary TWO DECADES later they realized how much they screwed up and it was too late just like with EAH. To anyone who hasn’t seen Treasure Planet, you should 100% watch it because it is seriously the best movie I’ve ever seen and it deserves so much more than it got. Can you tell that I fell down a rabbit hole? Either way I just want people to know about Treasure Planet because it’s an underrated masterpiece just like EAH and it does kinda stink that neither got to their full potential, and I’m finally done with my rant 😂
I like both franchises but I’ve never even seen the Descendents dolls in person. Like, the stores close to me either didn’t get any or they didn’t get much of them. They still haven’t gotten any of the Monster High reboot dolls. I honestly only get princess dolls directly from the Disney Store now though because Hasbro and Mattel make pretty cheap looking ones. If I have to pay more for quality I will.
As someone who has always had special interests in dolls and fairytales, it was pretty upsetting to have EAH end up the way it did. Especially since I feel that Descendants was a much lazier and less interesting media about fairytale characters' children. So we lost a rather good franchise about fairytale kids and were left with a crappier one. Tbh I do harbor some hatred towards the franchise because it felt like it impacted EAH so far as to EAH ending. And I do have preference to animated shows to live action stuff.
For a while I'd thought that I'd watched Winx as a kid but when I did some research I realized that I actually watched a whole lot of W.I.T.C.H. ! I think I had just forgotten the name of the show and so my brain meshed those memories in with Winx, which I only barely ever watched lol
This makes so much sense, (playing your theme song in my head while writing this 😂) So I'm more or less mimicking your sentiments of both. Mostly I'm EAH Fan... Have all the Dolls (individual characters, not so much each line) mostly still inbox. I was so dedicated to these characters. However, I was Very butt hurt when it was cancelled and still a little salty. I DO have a few Descendant Dolls, mostly because I liked particular Dolls vs being connected to the show... Couldn't really get into the shows. I'm frustrated about all of it, BUT this really helped with Clarity. Once again told like only a Virgo can, 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾 very well done. Thank you 🫂💝
im surprised you didnt mention the old feud mattel and hasbro had with jem lmao! if anything that situation was evidence that corperate subterfuge IS real, although a lot more boring in practice. (also side note but the cat interuptions were VERY cute)
Descendants didn't personally appeal me, which is a shame, because I love Disney villains. So other than listening to a few songs, I didn't pay it much mind. But Ever After High as a concept I found so interesting and there is so many interesting and even dark rabbit holes you can go into if you stop to think about the implications of how this world is set up. All put into this very aesthetically pleasing package. Even if you had no interest in the dolls, Ever After High was a good series. Granted, I was a teenager when it came out, but I can imagine it would have been a good jump into the fantasy genre for kids if it continued how it was. I doubt they will bring it back, sadly, but also if they did I would be afraid it would lose the nuance it had that made it so interesting to begin with.
It began in 2010 ish when Disney remove the "collector" licence from any doll brand , so Disney Store could have the exclusivity of Collector Dolls , so Barbie Signsture could no logen make Disney Collector Dolls
I didn't really have a problem with Disney making Descendants, but at the time I did feel like it was a copy. But it was mostly because the characters didn't really have any depth or relatable personalities as Ever After High did. I mean come on, even the names were kinda basic. I feel like even if Ever After High wasn't "first" the concept was really basic for me, but then again, I grew up with Monster High always talking about important issues, so maybe my standards were a little high lol. Overall Disney and Mattel are not my favorite companies. Im kinda scared to see what's in store for the future.
If i won the lottery id pay to have Ever After high brought back, i need to know what happens to Apple and Darling since Darling is her “Prince Charming” that brought her back and just a whole other bunch of lore
My Walmart had a couple of the EAH dolls but it was usually the same ones for literally years. They never went on clearance and they were usually around $30(USD) because of whoever ran our Walmart
I missed the wave with these dolls, as I was going into middle school and my mom wasn't a big fan of edgier doll lines. The feud I always found so interesting, though. Great video!! Corporate drama is so petty
a few different points: 1. Bratz vs. barbie- the backlash was because Bratz was originally concepted at Mattel and then the designer left and went to MGA 2. Disney dolls will always be of lower quality because whichever manufacturer has to pay SO MUCH in royalty fees to Disney where as for EAH/MH it stays within the company but gets pushed around oddly. Descendants was a newer line so probably had lower licensing fees that Disney Princess. Plus the target market of 3+ girls vs 8+? for Barbie/Princess vs EAH/MH/Descendants drastically changes design choices including articulation/ piece count/ etc. But I do think EAH got the short end of the stick when it had such a good concept and storyline. Even as a die-hard Disney fan I just never even attempted to get into Descendants because it seemed like a second thought/ try to grab the market back.
Sounds to me like Disney and Mattel were taking advantage of the same cultural moment. Noting that slightly edgier, nonconformitive styles were in and running with them. That being said, Disney is a supremely hatable company and I understand why people would think they were to blame.
What is expecting you to talk about Mattel creating Barbie and the rockers to compete against Jem and the holograms. Also would love for you to do a video on that
I felt that the statement in the video that Hasbro was not known for fashion dolls is very off the mark. Jem and the Holigrams were iconic dolls and definitely made an impact in the fashion doll world. Definitely worth a video for the fashion doll history alone.
I'm definitely on the side of Everafter high... I loved the dolls and still got a bunch in the box. When I first found them at the justice stores, I showed my bestie and together we collected nearly all of them. There are a few we didn't get mostly lack of money or not finding them... And honestly, there was a winter line that was very hard to get as most of the products came already broken 💔 the stores were so ruff that the doll boxes had holes and all messed up hair... So that was sad
Knowing now the relationship between Mattel and Disney I realised there is no way Mattel probably wont collaborate with Rainbow to (re)relase winx dolls and it makes me sad
I love both franchises, personally. I think they could exist in tandem, if Mattel cared to do something with EAH again. EAH had a few years on Descendants in terms of content out there, including really well-written tie-in novels. But Descendants was its own thing. The world building in each franchise doesn't hold up to hardcore scrutiny, but the characters in each are likeable and the dolls ranged from amazingly detailed (Spring Unsprung & Way Too Wonderland, the Amazon exclusive deluxe Uma and Audrey dolls) to budget dolls that weren't worth the money (those last few EAH lines, like the ballerinas, the super-simplified basics; Descendants budget Mal & Evie dolls). Mattel committed the worst of all production sins, though, in my eyes, by denying Daring a doll at the same quality as the other boy dolls. Jeans that were legs, no articulation at the knees or ankles, plastic hair.... The super-budget didn't even have a cloth shirt! The only reason I bought him was to frankendoll him into a better fit for the line. Which... I need to finish doing. I have a spare Alastair I'm going to use for the body, give it Daring's head, and have been working on getting Ken clothing that approximates Daring's signature look. EAH had my heart first, but I glommed on to Descendants pretty quickly. Unlike with EAH, though, I didn't buy every doll. I've mostly stuck to film-canon characters, and the only reason I have duplicates of Ben and the Core Four are because their D2 Cotillion outfits were amazing, and I found the four pack for a good deal. I still need Lonnie to have one of every live-action character, but she's impossible to find (though not as impossible as CJ and Ally from Wicked World). I think EAH had overall better quality during its lifespan, but Descendants dolls were more consistent in quality (even if they whitewashed so many of the characters, starting with my girl Evie). I will happily tl;dr talk both franchises anytime.
I'm completely on the side of ever after high yeah disney decendants has great music but EAH had so much more story and plot lines and EAH always had better dolls.
I was so fond of EAH when it was in its original state, for a solid year it was like my favorite doll line and I loved all the animation that came out related to it then too. The soft reboot for it killed basically everything I loved about the line.
Fun fact, Decendants was originally a book series! I read the books before watching the movies and, honestly? I preferred the character designs in my head.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
eah is just so unique and pretty, the details are insane and the animation is so pretty. decendants costumes are giving slightly higher budgeted party city vibes.
this comparison is lazy as one is a disney channel live action movie and the other is an animated series. One has very obvious limitations.
And also the plot is better
@@princesscherry5217 do you really think animation has no limitation either? Its made by disney they have more then enough money to do better with the costuming and CGI effects
@@Man-wolf- Disney does not give big budgets to their Disney Channel properties. There is a big difference between Disney big screen movie budget and Disney Channel movie budget.
@@javencummins1426 even so, eah designs needed to be made with doll clothing in mind. that already gives a big limitation on design, if the clothes are too much the dolls will be too expensive, you can't put too much detail. etc
the budget of the show also wasn't that high. the animation was a vector style animation, it's partially computer generated, partially drawn, it's faster and cheaper to make.
Despite Ever After High being animated, the characters are WAY more fleshed out than the descendants characters. Compare Apple to Princess Aubrey. Both have kinda similar backstories, where they’re incredibly popular and expected to marry a prince, except where apple was genuinely a nice person and really did want to do good, Aubrey was radiating annoying mean girl energy from the very beginning, so her downward spiral is less tragic when compared to Apple’s
yeah however apple was kinda annoying at the start when raven didn’t wanna choose her destiny
Right even without the movies, the 5 min animated series did such a good job fleshing them out
it is a kids movie? i loved it when it came out and i was probably like 10? it’s for a different audience
@@dirtylaundry8949 Ever After High is also a kids show so this isn’t a very strong point
who is aubrey? like, i've watched all 3 descendants movies and read all 4 books...
If Disney copied anything from Mattel, it was the Monster High premise of giving iconic, well-known characters of the public consciousness trendy highschool counterparts. Different design teams could independently create Ever After High and Descendants if you told them, "Do it with a less edgy canon."
As a kid, I just could not with the lazy names in Descendants. No last names, and all their first names are just shortened versions of their parents names. Who names their kid a nickname of their own name?
Descendants isn't any better in that department, with names like Mal (MALeficent), Evie (EVIl Queen), Jay (JAfar), Lonnie (MuLAN), Ben (BEast) etc. It's honestly hilarious how weird the names are in both franchises lmao 🤣🤣
@@AKookieForYou I think you might have misread my comment. I was saying that the names in Descendants are lazy.
@@KittyOfChess Oh my god 😭 you're right, I'm so sorry lmao I was very tired and completely misread it. I thought you were talking about EAH, which does have silly names too (although I think they sound a bit better), like Apple, Briar, Ashlynn etc and even MH does it 🤣🤣
Exactly what I’ve always thought. The names of the Descendants characters always bothered me because it felt so lazy.
Well I mean Maleficent does have some kind of excuse,in decendents canon she's suposed to be really self centured it's stated in the second book that Mal's full name is Maleficent but she's called Mal because Maleficent wants her to earn the rest of her name not sure what any of the other villains excuses are for the lazy names though
Apple White and Darling Charming was the first Sapphic kiss I had ever seen on TV, and for that Ever After High will always have a very special place in my heart :)
WHAAAT 🥹 OMG I- missed this.
@@yoshgurt I believe it was during the wonderland arc!
@@yoshgurt It was in Dragon Games at the very end!
@@helgaschimmelgrau8405 OKAY I- thought it had to be because that's when she fell asleep. But I swear I just watched it on Netflix and do not remember that. I need to go back and see if they removed it or if I just spaced out. Like I just watched the scene on RUclips and it felt different from what I remember.
@@yoshgurt no it IS on Netflix, maybe you just saw it and took it as darling being a really good friend giving apple cpr 😳 nothing sus
At the end of the day it doesn't matter.... Disney didn't understand THEIR OWN properties and no offense to the descendeds Fandom but it's literally based around ships and "awwww shes/hes such bean😚" while ever after high atleast looks good and has a compelling message
Absolutely couldn’t agree more with the comment the whole so called feud Ever After High and the Disney descendants is a little ridiculous
Yeah true cause the best thing in Decedents is the music and Uma and EAH could have done those two things better if it didn't get cancelled
I'm someone who's in both fandoms and an adult. The biggest difference between them in my mind is that Descendants has a ton of plot holes and is kinda dummed down. EAH on the other hand seems more intelligent and thought out with a much more expensive world. I enjoy both franchises. I look forward to the next phase of the Descendants franchise and still desperately hope that EAH returns in some form
Has anyone here read the Descendants books? I noticed they weren’t mentioned at all in the video either and people seem to forget that they exist. They are not just retellings of the movies, they go into more depth. They’re in between and before. They make the difference for me when it comes to the Descendants. It is a franchise and story created by lovers of Disney characters, all kinds. There are obscure Disney characters mentioned in the books that are never mentioned in the movies. Without the knowledge of the books, Descendants does seem a lot less fleshed out but with them- the series as a whole really isn’t. With the books, I found the Descendants characters to be way more relatable than the Ever After High characters. I really love both.
@@princesscherry5217 I've read all the books for both series. I honestly had forgotten about the Descendants books tbh. The thing is that the Descendants books actually contradict the movies and show slightly. I get what you're saying but I still think EAH is more fleshed out (especially since there's a ton more books compared with Descendants)
I think Ever After High did it better story, fashion, and doll-wise. It also helps that one of my favorite YA/MG authors did the books.
You should watch the episodes then they are fun to watch I found a playlist on NICE NESTA🤩🎉 with lots of Ever after high
I’d argue that EAH also had the much better names too. Like the EAH characters had like spin off names of their parents while Decedents had a shortened version of their parents’ names. Descendants felt really uncreative to me personally.
Personally, while I like both franchises, the team behind the EAH series feels like it far more dedicated than the Descendants team. Eah has a story that is/was different, character archetypes had more depth to them than their main traits vs Descendants where you get exactly what you see: the mean girl, the boy toy, the not like other girls girl, etc. It feels as if EAH had more care in their lore and for that it has a place in my heart.
What exactly makes Raven different from being not like other girls trope?? 😭😭
@@via3155the “not like other girls” archetype is a person who makes not being like the basic girly girl her whole personality. Raven actually has a REASON she acts that why. She doesn’t want to be an evil queen. Her desire to be different from her mother is driven precisely by her ambition to be a good person. The “not like other girls” character is just a pick-me girl that wants to impress others. Raven definitely does not want to please others. Her want to not sign the storybook of legends actually initially drives her away from ppl like Apple White.
@@bryarodri8020 I don’t see how that makes how character different from being not like the other girls tho. Throughout the series they would show little moments to distinguish Raven from the other princesses and how different she was or “more real” in comparison. I don’t think that’s Raven entire personality but I don’t believe she’s exempt from falling into the archetype especially when in comparison she’s in highschool with a ton of princesses who will live relatively good lives after their stories in comparison to Raven. Whenever I think of a little small moments showing this I would consider the bird/singing scenes, how Apple is played up as the typical fairytale princess a bit over the top and Raven begrudgingly rolls her eyes at apples exaggerations and semi mocks it. Raven having a reason for her behavior doesn’t make her fall any less under that category same goes for Mal lmao.
@@bryarodri8020 and this is a second reply because I feel like it was getting too long but if you’re gonna make that argument for Raven then the exact same can be said for Mal. Mal desires is fueled by wanting to be exactly like her mother. As awful and wicked because she’s been indoctrinated by everyone including her mother that she has to live up to that standard or she’s a failure. She’s also not only doing it for the sole purpose of trying to exclude herself from other women. She’s doing it because that’s all she knows and that’s the only thing she knows how to do to get affection from her mother who is verbally abuse and borderline dislikes her
@@via3155 Regarding the bird singing scenes, how would you feel if your roommate, who you were already annoyed with at the time, pulled that shit EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING? Me personally, I'd be annoyed too. And Raven was distinguished from the rest of the cast solely because her idea of not choosing to go down the path of her parents was revolutionary at the time. She pretty much reinvented what being a rebel practically was at the time. That was pretty much the only thing that separated her from her peers as a character, and even then, she never thought of herself as above anyone else. She had full belief that everyone had the potential to choose their own destinies, and start new paths, no matter how they were raised. This is what makes her character feel so different from Mal's.
i remember during the eah rebranding, i saw the argument that part of why eah didn't do as great as it could've in sales was because when confronted with two fairytale-based dolls, parents were more likely to pick up the one they recognized for their kids. whether that meant descendants or disney princesses, the disney brand recognition is very powerful.
While this video definitely gives a lot of insight into what caused EAH death, I think we all should remeber that Disney is a company that strives to have a monopoly over fairytale characters, so EAH would have been destroyed. In addition, in some cases major retailers seem to have put EAH and Descendants merchendise side by side, which definitely contributed to the problem (it is not clear why that was done, but it must be noted).
it also must be noted that disney does not have ownership over fairy tales as a whole and CANNOT do anything to ever after high as long as ever after high didn’t step on any toes. the toe stepping happened outside of the franchises and their ideas as a whole. if mattel does not reboot the eah series, it will be because it’s their choice. not because disney could actually do anything about it.
Fairy-tale stories that they appropriated from other cultures and then disrespected those cultures
@@princesscherry5217 Disney can do something about it and imo did. Sure, Disney can't sue or anything, but a big contract, like Disney Princesses can be negotiated in a way that explicitly excludes the possibility of EAH.
@@bunnywar I swear, the way everyone on Twitter was calling the Danish racists for pointing out that The Little Mermaid belongs to them (and that the lore in the story actually stems from the undine, a folktale legend from North-west Europe), still makes my blood boil. Calling an ENTIRE COUNTRY, racist for trying to talk about the tales that inspired Hans Christian Andersen and that to their culture its an important literary piece, is one of the many examples how Americans literally bully Europeans into giving up pieces of their culture so Americans can profit off of it, which is the actual academic definition of cultural appropriation, yet woke snowflakes aren't combatting it, they are celebrating it. I'm not even Danish, but I feel like grabbing a pitchfork on their behalf.
@@inferiorinferno8859 oh yeah cuz the original little mermaid animated film was extremely danish
Sadly, Mattel treated EAH as the back sheep of the company or the f(x) (if you are old in kpop you know what I mean) of the doll world
Yes!! I like f(x)!
Barbie : Snsd
Bratz : Wonder girls
Monster High : 2ne1
Ever after high : f(x)
Omg bro ur pfp is so cute and yes you’re totally right, they literally are f(x)! even tho I’m really young, they’re one of my favorite groups and deserve better.
*black sheep not “back sheep”
@@timepasstubee sorry!, blame my auto-correct.
EAH deserved way better, I still think it was the last project made with passion of Mattel and there will be never something like that again :( the way things ended is so bittersweet because we never got closure and almost a decade later the brand doesn’t even wants to acknowledge EAH
I have always preferred Ever After High to Descendants.
I think the concept and world building were amazing and really thought out. So I makes me really disappointed to hear that Mattel did not value and care about this franchise that I loved so much.
Thank you for making this video!
Come to NICE NESTA🤩🎉
& see the newest playlist 🔱Ever after high⚜️magical paradise🪄
I really appreciate the fact that you focuses more on the others aspects of why Ever After High was canceled because of Disney instead of the usual “Disney Descendants killed Ever After High!” formula. It was a good content.
Thanks! ^^
Personally I thought the writing for EAH had a lot more thought put into it...Descendants is just kind of messy writting-wise.
So true, and I knew that I hate Descendants ever since I saw the 1st movie cover years ago. And still prefer EAH entirely.
Couldn’t even finish the first Descendants movie ☹️
@@kclovie There's horrible acting in Descendants movies. (I bet Disney copied off EAH characters and changed lots of original stuff) Everything about EAH is absolutely perfect! Long live Raven Queen! ^ ^
@@lattebones767 as much as I enjoy Disney's content, I absolutely hate Descendants.
I think Descendant fashion looks good enough for real life action, but cmon now, ever after high is couture and high fashion everyday for school so of course they’re better. Anyways it really pissed me off that they designed Mulan’s daughter with origami inspiration when origami is Japanese and not Chinese, or when she said whenever she cried her mom would bake her cookies like wtf, dumpling? Soup? What Asian mom bakes cookies?
Apparently Mulan does and must have started doing it after discovering the joy of chocolate chip cookies.
"This may seem petty... because it is" gurl i can't even drink my soda and watch your videos. When i say i choked 🤣
I really appreciate a more nuanced take as to why EAH failed (or "failed", given that the franchise was still worth millions when it "died"). While I wasn't necessarily a fan at the time that they were on shelves, I really appreciated the unique designs that these fairytale characters received.
That being said, the fact that Disney has a monopoly on folkloric fairytale characters that are hundreds of years old is ridiculous and more people should be mad about it.
Why did Disney think that Hasbro would be the toy company that would make the Princess line more empowering when Hasbro is just as guilty for the pink and blue isle?
I don't think Disney had that in mind it was probably cause they wanted their princess dolls to actually have some quality do they would sell
Also I worked for a Mattel subsidiary (American Girl) during all this and all the girl lines suffered horribly financially.
It ALL goes back to Barbie (and Bratz)! Every doll line (and their reboots, and eventual downfalls) is connected to each other!
bratz is totally NOT connected to this mattel vs disney feud
@@timepasstubeeyes but also no
Bratz getting big made mattel up it's game, but when Mattel was back on top it started to become lazy again, so there sales slipped. This led to them starting more doll lines, rinse and repeat
I’m not a fan of either franchise, but as an autistic with a special interest in dolls.. I could listen to you “over explain” any day 🙏
I wonder why toys with heavy marketing towards young boys never receives as much backlash as toys marketed towards girls
people care more about controlling little girls, its society for you. Whatever boys do doesnt concern them as much as what girls do.
What I liked about Ever After High was that it was kind of an inverse of Monster High. While MH was dark on the outside, it was wholesome on the inside. EAH however, was all cutesy on the outside, but when you read deeper into the story, it was actually kinda fucked. The whole destiny thing is kinda dark from the perspective of someone like Raven Queen. Even if EAH wasn't dying at the time of Descendants coming out, it probably would've had a disadvantage because it lacks the Disney name.
When Descendants first came out I didn't even think it's in any way similar to EAH, though it obviously was at least a bit. Descendants was just very much "Descendants of Disney renditions of the stories specifically" while EAH was more free with their story interpretations. With how long doll production can take I think if anything Descendants was inspired by Monster High first and EAH coming out in the meantime might have been a coincidence.
I'm definitely an Ever After High girlie, most of my childhood dolls were Ever After High ones and i loved playing the games on the website (i actually found out about monster high from that website), when ever after high discontinued i was already too old to really be wanting to play with them so it didn't matter to me that much. Im glad monster high rebooted and i really dont think they could 'reboot' ever after high because the characters were so perfectly in place with their roles and heritage
Ever After High came way before Descendants tho. I remember reading the book in elementary and the Descendants came when I was in middle school
You consistently have the best doll presentations. …Minus all the glitz and superficiality. Rich subjects, perspectives and to the point in a easygoing manner. This is so refreshing than what we get from the standard doll content makers on social platforms. ❤❤❤ I do hope to see a new g3-like version of EAH.
I miss Ever After High...it was so ahead of its time with queer rep, if it could come back, with what Monster High is doing now too, I think it could go further. Damn it.
There’s a playlist on NICE NESTA🤩🎉 with lots of Ever after high
CAT SPOTTED! 8:53
Thank you! I missed it hahaha
Descendants dolls looked horrible compared to EAH. The clothes were printed, the faces were funny looking and the patterns were so busy, so much fake pleather. Disney was def a lil petty with Mattel and introduced competition to dethrone the EAH line (pun intended). The Descendants movies.. I love, the doll line not so much. And at the end of the day, Disney is Disney and the movies were a huge success so the doll line was also a success, leaving EAH in the shadows 😢
😂
I have nostalgia for monster high and really love there is a comeback happening but ever after high legitimately shaped the way I grew into an adult. As a closeted femme lesbian watching the show it connected to me so deeply in a way I couldn't describe. I was heartbroken when it ended but seeing there is an active tumblr Fandom of adults like me really brings me comfort. I lowkey am relieved it doesn't sound like its going to have a revival--they would literally claw every cent of my adult money buying merchandise LOL
14:29, I love these early Decendants designs and the art style they’re in! You can almost instantly tell which character is the kid of which villain while still having thier own unique touches and personality. The official designs we got are alright, but I like these a lot more!
Tbh it took me a while to figure out that Vanessa is supposed to be Ursula's daughter. The seashell necklace made it click.
Honestly I love them both. Ever After High blew me away, but is so disjointed and confusing to figure out the watching of that I've only seen it once really, and I still don't know if I saw it all or not. Descendants is more accessible for me, and while Ever After High was something I watched and enjoyed alone, Descendants became a big thing among a couple close friends and holds a ton of memories for me. To take a side would be ignoring the importance of the other in my life. Plus I wasn't into dolls at that time so merch wasn't a factor.
YES! this is exactly what it’s like for me
I really liked this in-depth dive into the issue. Very well explained. As for me, I'm a fan of both franchises and I really don't think Descendants copied Ever After High. What I liked most about Descendants was the songs though, the world building wasn't all that interesting to me. I always thought Ever After High had more passion put into it with the character designs, animation and books. (Btw I find it sad how Mattel stopped making Barbie movies based on fairy tales too.)
BABE WAKE UP NEW DARLING DOLLZ VIDEO🗣🗣
Thank you so much for this video!! I've been wondering for so long on why Ever After High ended when the dolls and the series were doing well at the time. It's sad though that once a doll line starts to gain popularity, the quality decreases over time, and the designs that the designers have put a lot of effort on has changed because of higher ups' decisions to save on money. But won't cheap dolls that have been mass produced, but don't get enough sales be a waste of money if they keep doing this?
This is fascinating, thank you! I still don't know a ton about either of these franchises, so I'm really interested to learn about the intersections. What I appreciate about your videos is the insight and research you bring to them. Oddly, I was watching a review on "The School For Good & Evil" movie (they hadn't read the books, I guess) and someone compared it to Ever High. Not sure if that comparison makes sense or not.
Thanks for shout out @ Darling Dollz!
One day I will share my initial concept art for what eventually turned into Ever After High.
I enjoyed both in different ways, Descendants is camp at its purest form, and it knows it (Having Kenny Ortega as director for the first 2 movies already gives the power of camp), Ever After High is the other way around, it's a very character heavy story with arcs and so on, way more than Monster High, it does show that the creators wanted to tell a story first and the dolls were just the by product of that.
But Descendants also declined in quality, the first wave was great, the dolls were high quality but the second wave it started to fall down hill and the third it got worse.
I don't know, after Cameron's passing Descendants kind of lost steam, sure Disney announce another sequel focused on other characters, but his passing was too difficult for everybody evolved that I don't know if Descendants will stay longer.
I believe what helped Disney and Mattel to start working together again was that Mattel were the one who made Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. dolls and not Hasbro and the first 2 waves they proved themselves a lot with the dolls.
Yeah, I do agree, 2012 Disney doll lines were really terrible and lazy, no care at all.
ngl descendants just wasn’t interesting to me, but since my mom didn’t let me get MH dolls bc they were monsters, it was only natural that I got into EAH as a kid instead. I still love the show/movies’ art style and the doll designs!! I still have my first chapter raven!! I just wish they would make a comeback, even if only for the MH/EAH crossover movie :c (shout out to ur cat meowing throughout the video and opening the door lol!!)
I remember with Monster High. Disney also made that...weird Zombie High thing, but it was so freakin bad so people didn't care to made the comparison.
Tho it said that ever after high actually copied Descendants it was proven that this was not the case because Descendants was trademark and put in production 6 months after ever after high.
I really love these video essay style videos! Thanks for putting in all the effort to make this!
New darling dolls video! I could listen to you talk all day :)
The way I LOVED both Monster High especially when they had a cohesive storyline and Ever After High was always about the storyline from the get go. They were so incredible. And free on RUclips for my little self😩
i was hardcore monster high ONLY so i never paid attention to either of these lines, but BOY is this some delicious drama lolllll
rip EAH 🙏🙏
It’s crazy cause idk if Walt even wanted his company to becoming what it is now….
Would love to hear your commentary on Mattel’s treatment of American Girl in the same time period
I remember when Descendants came out, I was trying to tell anybody who would listen (mainly my mom) that it was so similar to EAH and seemed like a copy.
When it comes to competition Disney gets so weird. They saw EAH as a threat, but at the same time they knew that they could beat Mattel, because… well, they’re Disney.
I really hope that Ever After High makes a comeback.
I enjoy Descendants, been a fan since it’s been out. It’s just that, Ever After High has this certain spark and charm that Descendants lacks.
@@yellowstickers394not really
My childhood consisted of Disney’s Rapunzel having Holly and Poppy as family sooo…
I preferred EAH over Descendants, both for their story and doll quality.
I missed the boat in collecting all of the EAH dolls I wanted when they came out, but had seen most of their releases in store. Descendants dolls just feel cheaper (in my opinion) and the individual characters were harder to find around here.
Disney should have given their license to Jakks Pacific. Their Encanto and Minnie Mouse dolls are wonderful and have a great likeness to their animated counterparts. I feel like Hasbro was kinda starting to sort itself out for their more deluxe Disney dolls and were experimenting with releasing their villain character dolls. They still were not great quality, but Mattel’s releases for the dolls don’t seem to be doing the characters any favors either. They may be more proportioned, but I don’t think their facial sculpts look very similar to their animated counterparts…
My sister loved both Decendence and After Ever High- she was devestated when AFH was cancelled 😔
Literally every time i go to Target to the Mini Disney store section, I always look at the Disney Princess Single Fashion Dolls and laugh and say, They look so cheap and it makes sense!!
Wow, it's so interesting the way everything is intertwined! Doll drama is so fun to learn about. But also screw whoever wrote that Bloomberg article lol, the description of EAH gives me rancid man vibes. Thanks for another masterful video Cammy!
Ever after high had its own touch that Disney just was never able to reach, the animation, the dreamy colors, the charcters development, the storyline and EVEN the music and side animation for each charcter introduction, everything was GREAT, so losing this out of the blue, of course we'd be angry at all the possible reasons, even now we're hanging on the hope that a masterpiece well return someday like with monster high.
I haven’t been into dolls in a couple years and you have me right back, your videos hit just right!! :]
I havent thought about EAH in a long time. I think I still have both versions of C.A. Cupid somewhere- I really love her tbh, both designs are a delight to me
Thank you! I really didn't want to make this video myself. Next time I get into an argument with someone over this topic again, I'll just link this video instead. It's so frustrating how most doll fans don't keep up with doll news even for historical purposes! Great job!
Great video, I remember a video that was passed around on facebook back in the day talking about mattel giving barbie more love and ignoring disney and then ever after high came along and pissed off disney intensely, which i dont see tons of people talk about alone and just say descendants vs eah because of the dates they came out
As someone who is not a huge ever after high fan and just came here for the comments, seeing "eah" everywhere lead me to believe it was a name and it took me a solid 5 minutes to figure out it was ever after high
The video I've been waiting for
I liked Ever After High ok, but as a Descendants Stan I can’t with some of these comments. Descendants Is so good you just have to get into it!!
This really shows how essential marketing and availability is to brands, and I feel like it’s always the shows, brands, and movies that are the best and have the most potential. Another perfect example is the movie Treasure Planet, it’s an absolutely amazing masterpiece and after the movie was finished the head honcho at Disney Decided that it was the perfect movie to make fail on purpose to try and prove that they should only be doing 3D animation because it was more cost effective (kinda ironic that the 3D elements in that movie where what made it so expensive but most people didn’t know that).
It was one of the most stupid decisions if not the most stupid because Treasure Planet’s cost for animation and advertising was 180 million dollars total and they had already been working on a sequel for a year AND were planning a tv show too, and this choice made them lose like 160 million dollars, plus whatever was already put toward the sequel and tv show, giving it the nickname “the movie that almost killed Disney”. Even in theaters it was done dirty, it was only in theaters for three weeks unlike the regular 2 months, and was put up against two big Disney sequels and a Harry Potter movie.
Only after it was nominated for awards and I think won awards, and has a following and community literary TWO DECADES later they realized how much they screwed up and it was too late just like with EAH.
To anyone who hasn’t seen Treasure Planet, you should 100% watch it because it is seriously the best movie I’ve ever seen and it deserves so much more than it got. Can you tell that I fell down a rabbit hole? Either way I just want people to know about Treasure Planet because it’s an underrated masterpiece just like EAH and it does kinda stink that neither got to their full potential, and I’m finally done with my rant 😂
I like both franchises but I’ve never even seen the Descendents dolls in person. Like, the stores close to me either didn’t get any or they didn’t get much of them. They still haven’t gotten any of the Monster High reboot dolls.
I honestly only get princess dolls directly from the Disney Store now though because Hasbro and Mattel make pretty cheap looking ones. If I have to pay more for quality I will.
As someone who has always had special interests in dolls and fairytales, it was pretty upsetting to have EAH end up the way it did. Especially since I feel that Descendants was a much lazier and less interesting media about fairytale characters' children. So we lost a rather good franchise about fairytale kids and were left with a crappier one. Tbh I do harbor some hatred towards the franchise because it felt like it impacted EAH so far as to EAH ending. And I do have preference to animated shows to live action stuff.
For a while I'd thought that I'd watched Winx as a kid but when I did some research I realized that I actually watched a whole lot of W.I.T.C.H. ! I think I had just forgotten the name of the show and so my brain meshed those memories in with Winx, which I only barely ever watched lol
had to pause after u said ur a virgo, i audibly celebrated as a fellow doll loving virgo girly
This makes so much sense, (playing your theme song in my head while writing this 😂) So I'm more or less mimicking your sentiments of both. Mostly I'm EAH Fan... Have all the Dolls (individual characters, not so much each line) mostly still inbox. I was so dedicated to these characters. However, I was Very butt hurt when it was cancelled and still a little salty. I DO have a few Descendant Dolls, mostly because I liked particular Dolls vs being connected to the show... Couldn't really get into the shows. I'm frustrated about all of it, BUT this really helped with Clarity. Once again told like only a Virgo can, 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾 very well done. Thank you 🫂💝
im surprised you didnt mention the old feud mattel and hasbro had with jem lmao! if anything that situation was evidence that corperate subterfuge IS real, although a lot more boring in practice.
(also side note but the cat interuptions were VERY cute)
Descendants didn't personally appeal me, which is a shame, because I love Disney villains. So other than listening to a few songs, I didn't pay it much mind. But Ever After High as a concept I found so interesting and there is so many interesting and even dark rabbit holes you can go into if you stop to think about the implications of how this world is set up. All put into this very aesthetically pleasing package. Even if you had no interest in the dolls, Ever After High was a good series. Granted, I was a teenager when it came out, but I can imagine it would have been a good jump into the fantasy genre for kids if it continued how it was. I doubt they will bring it back, sadly, but also if they did I would be afraid it would lose the nuance it had that made it so interesting to begin with.
It began in 2010 ish when Disney remove the "collector" licence from any doll brand , so Disney Store could have the exclusivity of Collector Dolls , so Barbie Signsture could no logen make Disney Collector Dolls
I didn't really have a problem with Disney making Descendants, but at the time I did feel like it was a copy. But it was mostly because the characters didn't really have any depth or relatable personalities as Ever After High did. I mean come on, even the names were kinda basic. I feel like even if Ever After High wasn't "first" the concept was really basic for me, but then again, I grew up with Monster High always talking about important issues, so maybe my standards were a little high lol. Overall Disney and Mattel are not my favorite companies. Im kinda scared to see what's in store for the future.
If i won the lottery id pay to have Ever After high brought back, i need to know what happens to Apple and Darling since Darling is her “Prince Charming” that brought her back and just a whole other bunch of lore
My Walmart had a couple of the EAH dolls but it was usually the same ones for literally years. They never went on clearance and they were usually around $30(USD) because of whoever ran our Walmart
I missed the wave with these dolls, as I was going into middle school and my mom wasn't a big fan of edgier doll lines. The feud I always found so interesting, though. Great video!! Corporate drama is so petty
I miss ever after high so much
If the day that ever after high comes back. i will cry tears of joy.
Descendants was in production 2 years before eah but I grew up on both so I love them the same
a few different points: 1. Bratz vs. barbie- the backlash was because Bratz was originally concepted at Mattel and then the designer left and went to MGA 2. Disney dolls will always be of lower quality because whichever manufacturer has to pay SO MUCH in royalty fees to Disney where as for EAH/MH it stays within the company but gets pushed around oddly. Descendants was a newer line so probably had lower licensing fees that Disney Princess. Plus the target market of 3+ girls vs 8+? for Barbie/Princess vs EAH/MH/Descendants drastically changes design choices including articulation/ piece count/ etc. But I do think EAH got the short end of the stick when it had such a good concept and storyline. Even as a die-hard Disney fan I just never even attempted to get into Descendants because it seemed like a second thought/ try to grab the market back.
Descendants is basically low budget
Sounds to me like Disney and Mattel were taking advantage of the same cultural moment. Noting that slightly edgier, nonconformitive styles were in and running with them. That being said, Disney is a supremely hatable company and I understand why people would think they were to blame.
As a descendants stan, Ever after high did the concept WAY better
8:52 Cat spotted! 🐈⬛
Ever after high is amazing
What is expecting you to talk about Mattel creating Barbie and the rockers to compete against Jem and the holograms. Also would love for you to do a video on that
I felt that the statement in the video that Hasbro was not known for fashion dolls is very off the mark. Jem and the Holigrams were iconic dolls and definitely made an impact in the fashion doll world. Definitely worth a video for the fashion doll history alone.
I'm definitely on the side of Everafter high... I loved the dolls and still got a bunch in the box.
When I first found them at the justice stores, I showed my bestie and together we collected nearly all of them.
There are a few we didn't get mostly lack of money or not finding them... And honestly, there was a winter line that was very hard to get as most of the products came already broken 💔 the stores were so ruff that the doll boxes had holes and all messed up hair...
So that was sad
Knowing now the relationship between Mattel and Disney I realised there is no way Mattel probably wont collaborate with Rainbow to (re)relase winx dolls and it makes me sad
I love both franchises, personally. I think they could exist in tandem, if Mattel cared to do something with EAH again. EAH had a few years on Descendants in terms of content out there, including really well-written tie-in novels. But Descendants was its own thing. The world building in each franchise doesn't hold up to hardcore scrutiny, but the characters in each are likeable and the dolls ranged from amazingly detailed (Spring Unsprung & Way Too Wonderland, the Amazon exclusive deluxe Uma and Audrey dolls) to budget dolls that weren't worth the money (those last few EAH lines, like the ballerinas, the super-simplified basics; Descendants budget Mal & Evie dolls). Mattel committed the worst of all production sins, though, in my eyes, by denying Daring a doll at the same quality as the other boy dolls. Jeans that were legs, no articulation at the knees or ankles, plastic hair.... The super-budget didn't even have a cloth shirt! The only reason I bought him was to frankendoll him into a better fit for the line. Which... I need to finish doing. I have a spare Alastair I'm going to use for the body, give it Daring's head, and have been working on getting Ken clothing that approximates Daring's signature look.
EAH had my heart first, but I glommed on to Descendants pretty quickly. Unlike with EAH, though, I didn't buy every doll. I've mostly stuck to film-canon characters, and the only reason I have duplicates of Ben and the Core Four are because their D2 Cotillion outfits were amazing, and I found the four pack for a good deal. I still need Lonnie to have one of every live-action character, but she's impossible to find (though not as impossible as CJ and Ally from Wicked World). I think EAH had overall better quality during its lifespan, but Descendants dolls were more consistent in quality (even if they whitewashed so many of the characters, starting with my girl Evie). I will happily tl;dr talk both franchises anytime.
2018 started zombies franchise
2022 started Monster high franchise
Honestly I never noticed these parallels despite having been obsessed with both these shows
loved this - I was wondering if you would do a video in the future about Enchantimals
I'm completely on the side of ever after high yeah disney decendants has great music but EAH had so much more story and plot lines and EAH always had better dolls.
oh my god I had that exact Ariel salon at 5:55 😭 the memories
8:54 Tipical Cats showing up even if no one asked them to come. 🤣
Thronecoming, True Hearts Day and Way to Wonderland are my fave EAH episodes
i think its so funny that these fandoms have beef . "oh no this huge corporation is slightly more corrupt than this other huge corporation !!!!"
I was so fond of EAH when it was in its original state, for a solid year it was like my favorite doll line and I loved all the animation that came out related to it then too. The soft reboot for it killed basically everything I loved about the line.
This person is so likable
Fun fact, Decendants was originally a book series! I read the books before watching the movies and, honestly? I preferred the character designs in my head.