I adore the Ever After High franchise; I never thought that I would be as interested in it as I am, but that's life for you. EAH is another one of Mattel's many brands, and is one of their newer doll lines. It was launched in 2013 as an alternative to Monster High, in an attempt to appeal to consumers who might be turned off by freaky fabulousness. The brand is promoted the same as Monster High: a webisode series (that is surprisingly charming), a YA book series, upcoming direct-to-the-web movies, and of course, the dolls.
You might have surmised that both series have somewhat similar premises, which is partially correct. Ever After High takes place at a high school of the same name, which is established to train the sons and daughters of fairy tale characters, and get them ready to one day inherit their parents' roles in their stories. One student, Raven Queen, decides to refuse to follow the legacy of her mother, the Evil Queen from Snow White, and instead sets out to discover her own path. Her decision to rebel forms the heart of the storyline, and creates a schism between the student body. The Royals, the princes and princesses who lead lives of comfort and privilege, are scandalized that she would abandon her "duty," "ruin" her story, and jeopardize the ending for herself and others. When you've been promised a Happily Ever After without having to do much to earn it, any chance of having that taken away is...upsetting. But that system is unfair to begin with, argue the Rebels, those of common heritage with much less glamorous roles and stories. Everyone, they argue, should be free to choose their own destiny, be it to accept their parents' legacy or to create a new one. Especially if they are simply not suited for the roles they are set to inherit.
The primary conflict behind this has a lot of parallels to the economic and social class struggles that we see in the modern day and age. The privileged versus those facing adversity, the haves versus the have-nots. It's interesting food for thought, especially from a fashion doll line.
But we're not here for socio-economic commentary, we're here for dolls. Let's get to it!
This doll is of the Rebel character Cerise Hood, the daughter of Red Riding Hood, who is destined to inherit her mother's story, and to carry it on for the next generation. I could blather on and on about her, since she's one of my favorite characters/doll from this line, but I think that would probably detract from the review. So I will force myself to keep on task, sniff.
To put it simply, she is a Signature doll; a.k.a. the first doll released of this character, wearing her signature outfit. She was released in December of 2013, and sold out in stores pretty quickly. I gave up looking in stores in late March and purchased her from Amazon.com, where she is still available. The doll itself is about $20. I chose the standard shipping option, which got her to my house in a little under a week. After taxes and such, my total order came out to about $26. I believe that Mattel has replenished their stock of Cerise dolls, because I now regularly see her in stores for about $22. You can find her at Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and Justice.
I must say that I adore the packaging, which is designed to look like a book from the sides. It's especially nice for collectors who want to keep their dolls in the box; you can display them by turning them sideways. The character name and portrait is displayed on the side, so you can tell which doll it is. The spine is also color-coded for each character or doll line.
Since bright red was already claimed by Apple (one of the main characters), Cerise's packaging spine is a lovely deep burgundy. From the top of the spine going down, you can see the Rebels' symbol, her character art, and her name and title. Flipping it to the front, you can see the beautiful layout. It is so simple and clean and well done. The sketch is very fitting: a picnic in the forest...and a moonlit wolf in the corner. She also gets a blurb: "Cloaked in Mystery."
The back of the box provides her biography, and a few coded secrets. It's made pretty evident on the box and in the cartoons that Cerise is hiding a secret. For those interested in learning about it, I've linked her official Mattel biography and information. I'll be a bit circumspect in revealing my one gripe about the doll; all I will say is that compared to the actual character design in the webisodes, the Cerise doll's head and all of its features are not a 100% match. I was disappointed to see that, given how big a deal her features are in the series. Completely lame.
I loved this box so much that I had to save it, hence why it stuck around for the review. Let's take Cerise outta there and get a good look at her.
The box itself is easy to open--the plastic front has tabs that slide into slots on the cardboard--but getting Cerise out is another story. She is rubber banded and plastic tied in there good, and could probably survive the apocalypse without budging an inch. The rubber bands holding her in her pose tended to slide into her elbow and wrist joints, which was extremely frustrating. There are teeny, very short plastic ties holding her cape to the cardboard backing, and snipping those without cutting her cloak was like performing open heart surgery. Definitely not a feat for the fainthearted.
Once freed and untangled, I noticed that I still had more work to do on Cerise's hood. It's plastic-tied into her head, which is possibly the worst idea anybody could have ever had. Even if you managed to snip it off without damaging the hood, you need to be even more careful digging around in her hair to snip the rest of the ties off. (Protip: you won't be able to get all of them out, and can feel their stubble under her hair. FRUSTRATION.) Cerise also has a piece of plastic under the front of the hood to poof it out and give it shape. The hood still has a good shape even without it, so you can just chuck that away.
She's just as adorable unboxed as she is inside! The instant I held her, I realized that a portion of her hair is pulled forward through her hood and rubber-banded to her arm. I thought that was silly, so I immediately took it out. Her look is very visually interesting, with colors that oppose but mix, and lots of different patterns and textures.
Ever After High dolls have very similar-looking faces, I have noticed. Their faces are very round but flat. Cerise is different from the others, primarily because of her nose. Looking at her straight on, it looks almost feline or lupine in appearance. (But don't worry, she looks normal in profile view.) She has a warm skin tone that appears to be a very light tan with some peachy tones. This is paired with her long dark brown hair (with an adorable silver streak at the front) and grey eyes. Cerise's makeup is neutral, with nude lips and silvery eyeshadow that matches her eyes. She has a very soft but pleasant expression; I think it's something to do with the tilt of the eyebrows and lips.
Cerise's hair is rather long (more so than I remember from the webisodes) and has a sort of medium texture. Not silky like Monster High hair, but not coarse. The left side of her hair has a wave in it from being tied to her arm, which is annoying. Her bangs and the top of her head are saturated in product, and very stiff. The rest of the hair is fine, though.
Her hood is both adorable and disappointing. The hood's color is a very bright cherry-red. Notice that there's a slit in the back for her hair to go through, which is very clever. The cape is amazing and very well-designed. It's patterned with tree branches and leaves, and is sewn with a bubble hem and lined with red tulle. The fabric looks very silky but feels coarse and (dare I say?) kind of cheap. The plastic ties left holes in the fabric.
If you look closely at the hood, you can see a dark splotch. This is not the hair product! If your Cerise doll was made in Indonesia (like mine was), then there is glue inside of your doll's head helping to secure the hair. This glue can seep out and stain the hood. I have only read about this issue affecting Cerise dolls, and am not sure if it affects any of the other EAH dolls. If you're thinking about getting Cerise and are concerned about this, check the bottom of your box. It will list where the doll was made. If it's China, you're fine; if it's Indonesia, be cautious.
Cerise's clothes continue the hood and cape's black-and-red theme. Her...dress? Long shirt? Whatever. Her whatever is made from a surprisingly stiff plaid fabric, with some black lacy sleeves. The whatever has an asymmetrical hem with layers of black tulle. It is all very stiff and slightly scratchy. It looks like it should be softer than it actually is. Her hood clasp actually opens and closes, as does her molded plastic belt.
You can see how it clasps in the back. The whatever is removable with velcro. Everything is hidden by her cape, so it sort of preserves the illusion of these as real clothes.
Under the whatever are dark grey patterned tights and very tall brown boots. I love all the molded details, like the fringe in the front. They are slit up the back for easy removal.
Here are the rest of Cerise's accessories: an unassembled stand (hidden in the "spine" of the book/box), a key-shaped brush, a picnic basket, and a tiiiiiiiiny red flower-shaped ring. Said ring goes on the two molded-together fingers of her right hand, and slides off at. Every. Single. Chance. It was rubber-banded onto her hand when I opened the box, which was probably a hint. The picnic basket is very cute, but doesn't open. It is one solid chunk of plastic, and Cerise could probably use it as a deadly weapon. The stand, when assembled, is your average stand. The base feels sturdier than Monster High stands, and appears to be larger. Not pictured: the bookmark on the box conceals a mini diary. I've left it go since I don't want to cut the box.
I was curious to see how Mattel's two doll franchises compared to each other, so I invited Frankie Stein over to greet Cerise. Looking at the two, they are roughly the same height, with similar torso builds. Cerise's torso is a little wider than Frankie's, so I'm thinking that MH clothes might not fit very well on her. Arms are similar, with hand positioning being different. Legs and feet are identical.
See, they're friends already! Swapping shoes and everything. (I really like those platform-heeled pumps on Cerise. See how nicely they match her leggings?)
The one bone of contention here is articulation. As you can see, Frankie is very well articulated, and can sit naturally. Cerise...can't. She matches Frankie very well on neck, arm, and knee articulation, but her hip joints just don't want to work. I've tried taking her leggings off, thinking that this was the culprit, but no. Poor Cerise, needing hip replacements at only 16. (I've seen pictures of EAH sitting down normally, so I can't figure what's going on. Maybe this only affects certain types of dolls? Or ones from certain factories?) The elbow joints are also incredibly stiff, but will move with a bit of strength. The wrist articulation is very loose and floppy, but not to the points of hands falling out.
Considering all of this doll's points and features, I think that Cerise--and Ever After High dolls in general--is a very good doll choice, whether in addition to or as an alternative for Monster High. The price points are similar, and the accessory count is decent, although the Signature Monster High dolls came with more. If you're bummed about EAH not being more fashion-oriented, you can try slipping some MH clothes or fashion packs on them and experiment. Given the amount of tiny accessories and lack of articulation in some areas, this might not be as good of a "play doll" as some other choices. I'd consider this for ages 10 and up.
I do like what I've seen of Ever After High so far, but most of the merchandising leads me to believe it's geared for a slightly older audience, and definitely towards collectors, given how fancy some of them tend to be. Those who favor a more fairy tale/princess aesthetic would probably like these, and I think Monster High fans would appreciate the detail and quality.
Miss Scarlett Suggests: Fashion-doll-anistas need to definitely hex these out, as do fans of fairy tale products in general.
