Sleeping Beauty comparison

I'm RagingMoon1987 and you're not.  LOL, I just had to do that.  Despite that opener I'm feeling kind of hard up right now.  Nothing is wrong with me personally, but my heart is sad for a number of people who are close to me.  Listen to this!
*One of my best friends lost her brother suddenly over the weekend, to sleep apnea of all things.  Said brother was the father of four young children and was very nice.  I didn't know him well but I knew him enough to like him, and I'm close to his sister so that's bummer #1.
*My sister is defending her thesis today, and she's stressing.  She has to give a forty-five-minute presentation, and her superiors are going to grill her for an additional two hours.  That's not a bad thing necessarily, but I'm still hoping she'll do well.  She stresses a lot over big stuff like that, and she takes it hard if she thinks she's done poorly.
*One of the library's former employees got shot over the weekend and died.  I can't find any news stories, but one of my bosses called and told us on Monday and she's not one to lie.  Plus, I was able to find an obituary.
*Second Uncle is learning the joys of being an adult finally, as his habit of spending Grandma's money appears to be coming back to bite him.  He may have to take a job, and he's acting like that's the end of the world because he's never held a steady job even though he's in his sixties.
*One of my favorite patrons is being treated unkindly at her place of work.  Apparently some of the residents there are racist a-holes (she's African-American), and they're giving her a hard time.
*Still another of my friends has a mother-in-law that's dying of ALS.  Praise God it's not MY mother, but I hate it for my friend and his wife.
*Most of my last paycheck paid for flea medicine for Mama's dogs and my cats, so I'm poor as a church mouse right now.  I hope I'll have enough to pay bills this time around.

So yeah, it's been a rough week emotionally for me, as I've got a lot of sad stuff to pray about.  I'm thankful that my own family is safe and healthy, but that's still a lot of crap to deal with.  I do have two good things to report though:
*It's raining (I love rain)
*Grandma is doing well.  She's not walking yet, and she's getting impatient to try it.

Anywho, I don't know why, but lately every time I go into Wal-Mart I go flitting over to the toy section to see what's new.  I certainly can't afford it at this time, not after all the crap I bought lately, but I still like to look.  Recently I saw the new line of Disney Princesses and I thought "Boy, Mattel has done a great job with this new line."  But then I remembered that Hasbro owns the rights to the Disney Princesses now and I became even more excited.  Wondering what changes Hasbro had made to the line I bought a couple of the dolls and brought them home.  I got Pocahontas because I love her face, and I got Aurora for the sake of this review (and because I like her face).

If I still had my childhood Pocahontas doll I'd do a two-doll comparison and be done with it, but like most of the other dolls that I no longer have I gave her away to a little kid who needed her more than I did.  She was a Sun Colors Pocahontas doll, and I never played with her much so away she went.  However, I can tell you that I like Hasbro's take on Pocahontas much better than Mattel's.  The Mattel doll was more accurate to the movie, but the Hasbro doll has a gorgeous face with full, lovely lips.

I was never a huge fan of Pocahontas, by the way.  The first movie was okay and I enjoyed the second one quite a bit, but I wasn't ga-ga enough to ever want any of the dolls (my old Sun Colors Pocahontas actually belonged to my sister and I stole her).  Sleeping Beauty is another story entirely.  It's not my favorite Disney movie either; that spot goes to the animated 101 Dalmatians (the live-action version failed to make the cut with me).  Sleeping Beauty is a close second though, and when I see a doll representing Aurora I usually want it.  Y'all can probably see where this is going by now.  Yep, I've got a lot more than just Mattel and Hasbro to compare!

From left, these dolls are Mattel, Hasbro, S-K Victory, and WowWee.  There's a lot to talk about, so fasten your seatbelts and let's get this show on the road.

MATTEL

This is the doll I received from a friend during college.  She's special to me for that reason, but I'm going to shed that bias momentarily and take a closer look.  Mattel's take on Aurora is...well, when I compare the doll to the movie, I can't say that I'm too impressed!  Oh, she's alright, but she looks more glammed up than the character in the movie does.

She's got heavily lidded eyes with shimmery shadow and a big, slightly goofy smile with matte pink lips and a solid band of teeth.  She looks sleepy, but it's more of an "I'm high on morphine" sleepy than a natural sleepy.  I'm also nitpicking on this next critique, but Mattel got the eye color wrong.  In the movie Aurora's eyes are brown, but my doll has lilac eyes.  The blonde hair is dead on, though.  The style is pretty accurate as well, as Aurora didn't wear her hair in any particular style in the movie.

She's got her little crown, made of brass-colored plastic.

It feels flimsy and I have to attach it with rubber bands.  It looks nothing like the simple tiara that Flora conjured for Aurora, but it's better than no crown at all.

Aurora's dress is pink, which appears to be something that Mattel did fairly early on in order to differentiate Aurora from Cinderella.

The bodice is decorated with gold sequins, as is the front portion of the skirt.  In typical Mattel fashion, the back of the dress is plain.

The dress didn't have any of this frippery in the movie, but without said frippery these pink ballgowns would be just a smidge bland so I'll let that go.  The sleeves are also wrong; the movie's gown had full sleeves with sheer tops, while Mattel's Aurora has these iridescent wing-like bits at the shoulders.

The skirt also has a peplum made of this same material (this detail is accurate to the movie dress).

...and there's a strip of it sewn around Aurora's neck.

This is tough, stiff fabric, thus it would've stood up to a fair amount of playtime at the hands of a child.  I can tolerate the lack of proper sleeves, as narrow sleeves would've made this doll difficult to undress.  The only thing that bothers me about this dress is the overabundance of pink.  Firstly, Mattel focuses entirely too much on pink for girls' toys.  I liked green when I was a little kid, my sister was a purple girl, and I'm willing to bet that plenty of other little girls feel the same way about other colors.  But secondly and more importantly, Aurora's princess gown was blue for most of the movie!  It only turned pink when Flora and Merryweather squabbled over the color of the gown (one of my favorite scenes).  As I said above, I assume Mattel was attempting to differentiate Aurora from Cinderella, even though the two are easy to tell apart.  In Mattel's defense there WERE a lot of princesses who wore blue.  Before Mattel finally lost Disney's contract there were four girls that traditionally wore blue:  Cinderella, Aurora, Tiana, and Elsa.  I've also seen Merida and Ariel dolls in blue dresses, even though their default colors are dark green and rose, respectively.  Maybe Mattel wanted to break up the monotony a little bit?  I dunno.  I don't guess it matters much; when one has a doll in a dress one doesn't like, one can always change the doll's clothes, yes?  With Mattel's Aurora that's easy, because she has the same body as Barbie.  Thus she and Barbie can swap duds (outfit shown belongs to Mara, or Barbie Style Teresa).

Tar dar.  It's easy for this doll to be a princess incognito.  As a last little tidbit, I love Aurora's princess shoes.

They have a slight pearly sheen to them with a high heel, a molded and painted ribbon, and a cute rounded toe.  I've always been fond of those pink shoes, but it's sometimes hard to keep them on the doll's feet.  I usually keep them rubber banded to Aurora's feet as I do with many other dolls' shoes.

Before I wrap up this part of the post, let me point out something.  I was very quick to dismiss Aurora's dippy facial expression as out of character, but check this out!

This is a screenshot from Disney Princess Enchanted Tales:  Follow Your Dreams.  Doesn't she look like my doll, with her wide smile and her hooded eyes?  I'm also told that Aurora wears pink for the duration of her part in this movie.  Maybe my doll was a nod towards how Aurora is portrayed in this movie?  I'll never know, but it makes me feel better about my doll's expression.

SUMMING IT UP:  Mattel did okay with this interpretation of Sleeping Beauty.  I can let the pink dress slide since Aurora does wear pink very briefly at the end of the flick.  It's also a cute dress, it's reasonably accurate to the story, and it would stand up to a fair amount of playtime from the child this doll was intended for.  Aurora's trippy face does still bother me some, but now that I know about that second movie I'm willing to accept it.  Still, this doll feels more like Barbie masquerading as Princess Aurora.  She's a nice doll.  She's a cute doll.  But she doesn't have the innocence that I feel a Disney princess should.

HASBRO

Get used to dolls like this, folks!  The word is that Hasbro may buy Mattel out, and if they do, goodness knows what Barbie will look like!  I like these Hasbro Disney Princesses, but Talolili is not a fan (nor is my mother, LOL) so a buyout will likely be highly polarizing.  By the way, I've discussed Hasbro products a lot lately, haven't I?  First My Little Pony, then Jem, then Maxie, then Whimzee, and now this!  This is Hasbro's take on Aurora, and I think her face has Mattel's beat.

Yeah, she has lavender eyes too, but oh well.  I doubt that many paid attention to Aurora's eyes in that movie anyway.  The expression is great, though.  While Mattel's Aurora looks trippy and slightly vampy, Hasbro's Aurora looks innocent and sweet.  So sweet, in fact, that she almost looks like she might be trying to get out of something!  I love the rose color that Hasbro used for her lips, by the way.  I like her hair too, though it would be a hot mess if a kid got a hold of it.

You don't see play dolls with ringlets like this too often, given the fact that this doll's target audience tends to be hard on hair.  This crown isn't great, though.

Okay, it's not so bad.  It IS a crown, after all, and it's not made of brittle plastic like the Mattel crown.  But like the Mattel crown, this crown bears no resemblance to the tiara in the movie.  Furthermore, it's tacked to the doll's head with plastic ties as opposed to the rubber bands that Mattel used.

No way is it coming off unless I cut those ties, and if I do cut them it'll be hard to get the crown to stay on again.

Like Mattel's doll, Hasbro Aurora is wearing pink.

Having seen Hasbro's whole lineup, I can understand where this pink dress will come in handy.  If Hasbro had stuck to the blue dress then they would've had SIX princesses in blue.  Furthermore, I love the shades of pink used in this dress...or rather, shades.  It starts off light pink in the bodice, while the skirt is a lovely dithered shade.  It is light pink at the top, deepens to a dark rose in the middle, and the bottom part is purple.  Unfortunately it appears that Hasbro is taking a page out of Mattel's book, because the back of Aurora's bodice is plain.  I hope Hasbro doesn't make a habit of this if they do take Mattel over.

The front of the bodice is printed with dark pink vines.

Unlike the bodice, the skirt IS printed all around, so maybe Hasbro ISN'T taking a page out of Mattel's book after all.  The skirt has roses and thorns printed in colors that mirror the dithered effect of the skirt.

The skirt also has some glitter applied, but not nearly as much as the bodice.  I love glitter when it's subtle like this; instead of looking like art class overkill it gives Aurora's dress an ethereal look.  I also like the sleeves.

The Hasbro doll doesn't have full sleeves either, but I love this tulle.  It's soft and has a nice drape, and it has a slight sparkle to it.  The skirt also a tulle layer, done up in a peplum-type skirt.  It wouldn't have been as friendly for child's play as the Mattel doll's tough peplum, though.

Hasbro Aurora's shoes are cute, though I still prefer Mattel's.  The Hasbro shoes are rose pink all over, with unpainted roses on the toes.

To my surprise these Hasbro dolls have big feet, particularly when compared to the Mattel doll's dinky little stubs.  She's also got a minor case of cankles, though not as bad as Jem and Roxy (doll shown is Roxy).

So much for shoe sharing!  These Hasbro feet look big enough to rival Ever After High or Monster High feet!  Dolls used for comparison are Ghoulia Yelps (left) and Justine Dancer (right).

Despite their similar shape Aurora can't wear Monster High or Ever After High shoes perfectly.  Her heel is not high enough, so the shoes fit awkwardly.

Aurora's shoes proved to be oh-so-slightly too short for Ghoulia and Justine.  Notice that their heels are hanging out of these shoes.

But that's not the end of the body differences, oh no!  In fact that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Remember the picture I showed in the beginning, with Pocahontas and Aurora together?  Did any of y'all notice that Pocahontas is taller?

Apparently these Hasbro dolls come in three different sizes.  Elsa, Pocahontas, and Cinderella are tall, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Ariel are short, and all the rest are in between.  Now this, I like.  Yeah, it'll make clothes sharing difficult, but Mama pointed out that now these dolls aren't carbon copies of one another, and that's a good thing.  Mattel inadvertently fell into that rut when they chose to give their dolls Barbie bodies, though it did make clothes sharing easier.

I doubt that the Hasbro doll and the Mattel doll can share clothes, so let's move on to another doll from the Hasbro line, Coronation Lonnie from the Descendants line.

Lonnie is slim and she has sizeable feet, so she and her fellow Hasbro doll might be able to share clothes.  Here's what Aurora looks like in Lonnie's dress.  Notice that her curls are already starting to look unkempt.

Unkempt curls or no, Lonnie's coronation dress fits Aurora like a dream, as do Lonnie's cute gold shoes.

Now it's Lonnie's turn.

Lonnie's body is a similar size to Aurora's, but it's a different shape so I had a little trouble getting the Velcro to close.  The shoes are a tight squeeze and don't fit the angle of Lonnie's foot, so she can't wear those without bending her knees.

SUMMING IT UP:  Losing the Disney license may have been bad for Mattel, but it looks to be great for Hasbro!  The Hasbro doll's body is oddly proportioned and doesn't have a lot of joints, but that's not saying much because the Mattel body has those problems too!  I like the Hasbro doll's face better than the Mattel doll's, I like her hair better, and I absolutely love that dress!  If Hasbro keeps this up they could make a killing with these.  The new face is up for grabs; I like the redesigned face and my mother doesn't, so that bit is up to the consumer.

And now a word from the Peanut Gallery.  At one point during photography sessions, Allie had to get in on the act.

Allie is the most affectionate of my four cats and being young, she's also a mega snoop and an expert photobomber.  A quick chin scratch and she was good to go.

Digression over, I'm not going to compare the next two dolls to the movie (much), because as far as I know neither of them were licensed by Disney.  With that...

S-K VICTORY

This is Sleeping Beauty?  Could've fooled me!  Like the Mattel doll she looks spacey instead of sleepy or dreamy, but that's not even half of it!  Fairy Tale High's line of dolls was supposed to depict popular fairy tale characters as teenagers attending a performing arts school.  Unoriginal but not a bad idea, except that the dolls don't look much like their inspirations.  They're all dressed a little on the provocative side, complete with garish makeup and in some cases, outlandish hair.  They're not bad dolls really, but they look very little like the princesses they're supposed to be, and my Sleeping Beauty is no exception.  She is a little tamer than the other dolls, though.

Miss Emily reviewed both Teen Rapunzel and Teen Snow White, and she wasn't thrilled with either of them.  Teen Rapunzel had purple lips, purple eyes, purple eye shadow...no, it wasn't a great look for a doll that's supposed to be an adolescent.  Granted, I was the type who would've happily worn purple lipstick, purple eye shadow, and purple mascara, but then again I was one of Malden High School's biggest oddballs, and I doubt that the label of "oddball" was what S-K Victory wanted for Rapunzel.  Teen Sleeping Beauty (simply called "Beauty" in her diary) mercifully has a rather light makeup scheme, one that's a bit more acceptable for her non-oddball teenage self.  Her lips are pink, her eyes are a lovely shade of royal blue, and her eye shadow is a light plum shade.

As for the hair...well, the hair is a silvery shade of blonde with light pink streaks.  I love the streaks!

Miss Emily was unfortunate enough to get two dolls with lousy hair, but my doll has nice hair.  It's thick and wavy so it probably would get unruly if I didn't brush it regularly, but it's also very smooth.  I gave it the same treatment that I give lots of dolls with ample hair and tied it into a ponytail, but it's fine hanging loose too.  She has big bangs that are parted on the left.

These Fairy Tale High dolls are supposed to come with crowns, but my Beauty's crown got nicked.  I found this doll in the discount section of Sikeston, Missouri's Wal-Mart with her package partly destroyed, and I assume that whoever did that was after the crown because it was gone.  The store let me have her for a discount because of the damage and I'm grateful for that, but I can't help thinking that a crown might make her look more princessy?  Good thing I have a spare crown lying around...somewhere.

I think this doll's stock outfit is her weakest point, though she does get one thing dead on:  she's wearing an outfit that is dominantly blue.

That's where the similarities to her princess self end, though.  Beauty is wearing a black gingham vest (which I like)...

...a sparkly silver blouse with a black collar...

...a fuzzy blue skirt with a pleather waistband (which I absolutely adore)...

...and long white socks with pink high-heeled boots.

The skirt is lined with thin, gauzelike fabric...

...while the vest and top are not.  The vest has a lot of thread ends visible, and while these are no threat to the durability of the vest they do occasionally hang out and look sloppy.

Beauty also has two plastic bracelets that are rubber banded to her right wrist, one pink and one translucent silver.  These remind me of how I used to wear my bracelets in high school.  I'd layer them all on one arm and they'd occasionally make a lot of noise!  I wish the details had some paint on them, though; the pink bracelet has what appear to be studs sticking out.

I wonder if Beauty's bracelets clank against each other and disturb class like mine sometimes did?  LOL, overall I'm mildly impressed by Beauty's getup.  It's well made, it's moderately conservative, it looks cute, all the pieces are printed all over, and I downright love that fuzzy skirt, but overall it's not the best interpretation I've seen of Sleeping Beauty.  In Beauty's defense this outfit DOES have a rhyme and reason; if you go to the website, you can read the characters' diaries, and in one passage Beauty reveals that she designed this outfit herself.  Not bad, chica!  I've seen a lot worse from teenage designers.  And unlike some of the other Fairy Tale High dolls, this outfit DOES look like something a teenager might wear.  I would've if I'd had the body for it, though that furry skirt would not have looked nice on my big hips. 

Underneath her sparkly blouse and fuzzy skirt Beauty has a slim, spindly body, much slimmer than either Mattel Sleeping Beauty's or Hasbro Sleeping Beauty's.

Clothes sharing may prove interesting with this gawky young lady, but first...Beauty has joints!  In addition to shoulders, hips, and neck, Beauty has elbows, wrists, and knees that bend some.  The jointing isn't fabulous; the wrists feel flimsy and there are a lot of poses that Beauty can't strike.  This as close as she can come to touching her head, for example.

And this is as close as she can come to a full lateral split.

But still, she has joints in places that the other two dolls don't, and she does splits better than I do!

Regarding clothes, I know for a fact that Beauty can wear some of Barbie's dresses, Winx doll clothes, and some of my botched knitting projects.  It's good to have these other options for this doll, but I've not tried a princess dress on her yet.  Mama seems to think that she could be a convincing princess with the right getup, so here we go!  I've dressed Beauty in Barbie dresses before,  so the Mattel dress might be a viable option.

And maybe not.  The Mattel dress looks okay on Beauty, but the bodice is way too big.  If it hadn't been for those wing sleeves this dress would've fallen right off.  And forget shoe sharing, as the Mattel doll's feet are much smaller than Beauty's are.

The Hasbro dress fits better and makes Beauty look more regal.  The shoes even fit!

The bodice is loose on Beauty though, and the off-shoulder straps do nothing to help this.  It may or may not be obvious from the picture above, but this dress is a Tara Reid moment waiting to happen.  Maybe Lonnie's dress will do better.

Lonnie's lovely peachy dress is a little too big for Beauty's slim frame, but the sleeves hide this ill fit somewhat and the small collar makes a nip slip highly unlikely.  Lonnie's gilded shoes also fit, but they're fairly big on Beauty's feet so they slide around a lot.  Still, of the three dresses, I like Lonnie's dress the best.  The sleeves make the bodice look more fitted around Beauty's chest, and the full skirt evens things out even more.
SUMMING IT UP:  Of the four dolls I've got, this one is the weakest Sleeping Beauty interpretation.  As I said earlier, it's impossible at times to tell whether these girls are supposed to be teen princesses or just regular kids.  Don't get me wrong, I like Teen Sleeping Beauty.  She's a perfectly acceptable little plaything, and she's a fun doll to have in my collection.  But is she really princess caliber?  Only if she's in the right clothes.  She made a very convincing princess when wearing a ballgown, but as is she's just a regular gal.  If S-K Victory had marketed these dolls with both street clothes and princess garb it might have been better; I've seen and reviewed dolls like that, dolls that were packaged with two different looks.  The incognito princess theme might have been cute too, something like Princess Protection Program, maybe?  Yes, I'll admit to liking that movie.  But S-K Victory didn't go in that direction, rendering my little Beauty a simple peasant.  That does make her nickname of "Beauty" a little more appropriate, though.  I can live with that.  As a cute little extra, the diary reveals that Beauty is (unsurprisingly) an incorrigible narcoleptic who has to put up with bullying as a result.  Such a story might help some little girls relate better with their plastic friend, as bullying sadly exists among this doll's target audience.

WOWWEE

Sleeping Beauty?  A zombie???  Yep!  WowWee's line of princess dolls is called Once Upon a Zombie, and this is arguably the most original spin on the traditional fairy tale princesses I've ever seen.  Miss Emily has reviewed these dolls as well; she's done both Rapunzel and Belle, and though she thought Rapunzel did a better overall job the whole line impressed her.  Other bloggers seem to be fond of these dolls as well, so now it's my turn.  Like Teen Sleeping Beauty, our undead princess (referred to hereafter as "Princess Zed") is wearing blue.  Once Upon a Zombie does have another version of this doll available for order that's clad in an attractive mix of pink, lavender and blue, but she doesn't appear to come with a cape.  Believe it or not, it was the presence of this cape that made me pick the doll in blue.  I love the added drama of it.

The cape is pale blue and made of a shiny knit fabric.  The hem is ragged.

It ties at Princess Zed's neck with this cute cord...

...and the cord in turn is tipped with these equally cute blue pompoms.

Not very zombielike, those cords, but they're better than nothing.  I do wish Princess Zed had a way to hold this cape like the Bratzillaz do, though.  Can't have everything in life, but it still would've been a cute touch.

Despite not being licensed by Disney, Princess Zed's dress is the closest to Aurora's movie gown.

The whole thing is done up in sparkling shades of blue, and the sleeves are longer than those on the other three outfits.

The bodice and the sleeves are both rendered in this sparkly shade of light blue.

I like this material, but it's the kind of material that loses its shine with repeated handling (like Meredith's top and jacket did) so I'll try not to bother it too much.  

The skirt of the dress is interesting.  There's a lot to talk about here, as there are three types of material cut into three different styles.  The top part looks black at first glance, but when photographed with a flash it's got an obvious fuchsia tone.

This top layer is delightfully distressed, but it isn't as ragged as the other two layers.  When spread out this tulle looks more like a flower than distressed fabric.  Each "petal" has one hole cut in it.

The second layer is the main layer, and the only layer that isn't transparent.  It's royal blue and made out of that aforementioned shiny fabric that shouldn't be touched much.

There are no holes in this layer, but the hem is cut in a jagged manner.

The petticoat underneath is this black cobwebby looking material.

It has no holes cut in it, but it IS cut in a jagged manner like the other two layers.

Embellishing the waist is a sewn-on gold belt with this cute plastic skull.

It adds a nice extra bit of zombie goodness to the dress, but it also brings up a question that Miss Emily presented in her review of Zombie Belle.  Zombie Belle has a skull on her waistband like my doll does, which Miss Emily found odd since these princesses were...well, princesses before becoming zombies!  Most princesses, or at least the ones I'm familiar with, aren't huge fans of skulls.  Miss Emily wonders if these characters are self-aware enough to add little zombie embellishments to their clothes, a legitimate question since zombies are supposed to be both undead and brainless.  Having examined the storyline, I'm led to believe that these zombies are indeed self-aware enough to do such a thing.  If they're not, then how can they Rise, Empower, and Claim their world back, as the story puts it (goofy capitalization included)?

Right then, that's quite enough useless conjecture.  Useless conjecture is fun for figuring out storylines, but it does nothing to get the doll reviewed.  Princess Zed's hair is long and an appropriate shade of blonde.  In stark contrast to my other three dolls, this princess's hair is not the greatest quality.  In fact, the quality is downright lousy.

I knew to expect this from watching Miss Emily deal with her dolls.  Princess Zed's hair came out of the box in a tangled mat, and while brushing it out removed the tangles it also made the hair extra frizzy.  Forget that blue cape!  This doll could use her hair as a cape if she wanted to!

Miss Emily is quick to point out that this extra frizz makes her dolls even more believable as zombies, and as usual I think she's right.  Plus, I love the added drama of that volume.  While this hair is not high quality, it's much MUCH better than poor Meygana Broomstix's unkempt mane in both style and in texture.  And unlike Meygana's hair, Princess Zed's hair does have some order in all that chaos, in the form of two small rope braids snaking down from the top of her head.  These braids are surprisingly fun to play with, by the way.  They can be worn back, or they can be draped over Princess Zed's shoulders like Jaylin's pull chain, or I can do one of each.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but it adds a bit of versatility to this otherwise untameable hair.

Perched on top of Princess Zed's fuzzy locks is this crown.

It's made out of gold vinyl and is very minimalist in design, having only a few painted jewels on the front.  Of the crowns I've got it's the most like Princess Aurora's crown in the movie.  Need I remind you again that this doll was not licensed by Disney?  Rather strange actually, that in a few ways this doll outdoes the actual Disney products in sticking to the movie's portrayal.

Under her crown Princess Zed has one hank of chunky bangs, and underneath those bangs is the face (thank God).

 

To my delight, Once Upon a Zombie dolls have inset plastic eyes of varying colors.  Belle's are green and yellow, while Sleeping Beauty got a shade darker than sky blue.  She has two sets of eyelashes, painted and inset.

Princess Zed's eyebrows don't match her hair OR her eyelashes, being dark brown.  Most likely they would not have shown up as well had they been a similar color to her hair; pale eyebrows are very bad to look washed out in photographs.  Her eye shadow is gray and lilac, dark enough to be noticeable, but still fairly light.  Her lips are cranberry-colored and have a slightly shiny cast...and unfortunately they're a little ragged around the edges.  Since this doll IS supposed to be a zombie, I can let that paint job slide a little.

Lastly, leading from Princess Zed's lower eyelids are these...well, I'm not sure if they're scars or stitched wounds.

Once again this suggests a degree of self-awareness, as if these girls are sewing themselves back together as they "age."  Each of the zombie princesses have different stitch lines, by the way; Rapunzel has a Glasgow smile, while my doll has two lines of stitches that look like tear tracks.  Maybe my poor zombie girl is a little sadder than the other zombified princesses and has been weeping over her transformation?  I know I would if I suddenly found myself a zombie...if I was aware of it, anyway!  Princess Zed has two more lines of these stitches around her right wrist...

...plus an accessory that I find particularly cute: a bandage on the left arm.  This is made out of vinyl and has a tail hanging off of it, like it's starting to come unwrapped.

This too insinuates self-awareness, as Princess Zed clearly has the ability to bandage herself when she spontaneously tears open.

Princess Zed's body is a unique shape so the oncoming round of Dolly Dress Shuffle should be interesting.

This body is a lot different from the other princess bodies!  Princess Zed has more meat on her than Hasbro Aurora and Teen Sleeping Beauty, but she's still not the same measurements as the Mattel doll.  She's got a sway back and a little bit of a tummy sticking out.

Her legs are long and skinny, though not as skinny as those of Beauty.

Her feet are large and turn outwards slightly, not unlike my own feet.

Despite having sizeable feet, Zed can't wear Hasbro Aurora's shoes or Beauty's shoes, as the arch of her foot is not high enough for their elevated heels.

None of the shoes I have work, in fact!

Like Teen Sleeping Beauty, Princess Zed is highly articulated, having jointed knees, elbows, and wrists in addition to the prerequisite hips, shoulders, and neck.  Due to her splayed feet Princess Zed isn't a very graceful sitter, but she CAN sit in a few ways.  She can sit with her feet off to one side...

...or with her ankles crossed...

...or knock-kneed, though this position looks awkward.

Princess Zed's arms are a little stiff, though posing is not as stilted here as it is in the legs.  She can hold her hair in front of her in sort of a Lady Godiva pose...

...and she can adjust her crown in a convincing manner.

She cannot touch her face, though.  This is as close as she can get to doing that.

These hands can detach at the wrist, not unlike another creepy line of dolls!

SUMMING IT UP:  I never would've thought to mix zombies with fairy tale princesses.  Mixing the two had to have been a risky venture, but WowWee managed to pull it off pretty well.  The hair could be better, but since these ARE zombie dolls the wild hair can be forgiven.  What stands out to me though is this:  even though these dolls are obviously undead, they make convincing princesses, much more so than the Fairy Tale High dolls.  At the same time these dolls also make convincing zombies with their shaggy hair, tattered clothes, gray plastic, and stitched body parts.  So I applaud WowWee for taking such a big risk by fusing two popular items, and for doing it so seamlessly.  HOWEVER...I do advise caution when buying one of these dolls.  They are NOT for small children, but rather for older kids and collectors.

As a last little tidbit, here's how Princess Zed compares to my other zombie doll, Ghoulia Yelps.  They have a surprising amount of similarities, and they make a cute pair.

Time to sum it up!  Instead of good stuff and bad stuff there will be some other assorted categories.

ACCURACY TO THE MOVIE
This category is for the Mattel doll and the Hasbro doll only, as Teen Beauty and Princess Zed are not licensed by Disney.  Both Hasbro and Mattel got a lot of things right, but both dolls have a lot of hiccups as well.  The Mattel doll has an accurate hairstyle, and her simple dress is mostly the same as Aurora's is in the flick.  However, Hasbro Aurora has a more innocent and dreamy face.  With princess dolls, that face tends to mean a lot.  It's a tough call, but I'm giving this one to the Mattel doll.  Her face is more Barbie-ish, but that simple dress is almost a dead ringer for the few scenes where Aurora wears pink.

HAIR
Everyone plays in this category.  Believe it or not, I'm giving this to the S-K Victory doll.  Mattel Aurora's hair is boring and feels sticky, Hasbro Aurora's hair can be easily messed up, and Princess Zed's hair is uncontrollable.  Though Teen Sleeping Beauty's hair is probably least accurate to the movie, it's also smooth, soft, easy to manage, and it has cute pink streaks in it!  Beauty's nice hair makes me wonder why Miss Emily had such lousy luck with her two.

FACE
To me the Hasbro doll looks most like the Princess Aurora that I know.  Her eyes are dreamy but not dopey, and her smile is warmly engaging.  Compare that to the overly glamorous Mattel face, the spacey, generically cute S-K Victory face, and the zombified gaze of the WowWee face.

CLOTHES
If I were going solely on movie accuracy then the Mattel doll would win this category, but this time I'm also looking at aesthetic and princess vibe.  As I said, the Mattel doll's dress is (in my opinion) the closest to the movie and it makes any doll who wears it look like royalty, but it's also the wrong color and it doesn't drape very well.  The Hasbro doll's dress is the wrong color as well, but it's a gorgeous color with lots of nifty little details, and it screams "princess."  The S-K Victory outfit is the right color and has lots of pieces for mixing and matching, but it is NOT princess garb.  It does put the "teen" in Teen Sleeping Beauty, but it's not princessy.  As for the WowWee dress, it's definitely princessy and full of cute little details that make Princess Zed look like both a believable zombie and a believable princess.  Plus, it's blue.  This is a tough call, but I like the WowWee dress the best, with its unique combination of fabrics and its successful portrayal of a zombie princess dress.

DECENT PLAYTHING?
In this category I'd eliminate Princess Zed right away, since she's not a toy...not a toy for small children, anyway.  I'd also be leery of the Hasbro doll with her easily tangled curls and the possible fragility of the tulle on her dress.  If the child were a hardcore Sleeping Beauty fan my choice would be the Mattel doll, since S-K Victory's doll has nothing about her that screams "Sleeping Beauty."  If the child is less picky, then either one is a safe call.

GOOD FOR COLLECTORS?
This one is easier, though I can only speak for myself.  For me, the best doll for collecting purposes is Princess Zed, hands down.  She comes with a stand and is made of materials that make her feel...well, nicer than the other dolls.  She also appeals to a wide array of adults who DON'T like dolls, with shows like The Walking Dead still being popular some years after this zombie trend began.  The other three dolls are okay for a fan of Sleeping Beauty like myself, but for me the best choice is WowWee's zombie doll.

That should be where I end this, but something else came up that I feel is worthy of notice.  I have several other Disney Princesses in my mix besides Aurora, and among the royal lot are two Cinderella dolls.  One is Mattel...

...and the other is apparently from the Disney Store.  I think she's the 2014 doll, but I'm not 100% on that.

Why a Disney Store doll was in a flea market I'll never know, but here she is!  This Cinderella-related digression is intended to how a Disney Store doll looks in comparison to a Mattel doll.  If I had an Aurora from the Disney Store I would've included her and called it a day, but I don't have one and don't need one, so that's that.  Here's what the two Cinderellas look like together.

When Miss Emily compared her Mattel Cinderella to a foreign doll she said one was obviously Cinderella and the other was a clear-cut impostor.  That appears to be true here as well.  Mattel Cinderella is far from ugly, but like Mattel Aurora she looks more like one of Barbie's buddies than a beautiful young commoner who overcame a heap of adversity to become a princess.  The Disney Store doll does look like the character from the movie, and being a product licensed by Disney I'd expect nothing less.  I know this post is supposed to be about Sleeping Beauty and not Cinderella, but that quick little tidbit should give you an idea of how the Disney Store dolls would compare to the rest of the crew.  If Miss Hannah's photographs are any indication the Disney Store faces can vary widely, but for the most part they stay faithful to the character being depicted.  Unfortunately, even Disney appears to be taking liberties with Aurora's dress; there ARE some that wear blue, but most of them wear...PINK.  Furthermore, the one picture I did find of a Disney Store doll in blue looks like she's been redressed.  At least redressing is a possibility!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987