It’s So Good To Be Bad: What Drives the Disney Villain Fascination?
For years, villains have meant big business for Disney. We’ve seen books, video games, and specials devoted to the bad guys. Naturally, the villains play central roles in the Disney Parks’ Halloween celebrations. Villains in Vogue brought in customers in droves at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as did a companion store at Disneyland. The comic revue Villains Tonight brings down the house on the Disney Magic cruise ship. And now, this fall, comes the Disney Villains Designer Collection:
If bad girls have more fun, then life as a Disney villain must be a nonstop party. And here’s one reason for their fans to celebrate: this September, Disney Stores are releasing six limited-edition collectors’ dolls and coordinating beauty items featuring sultry antagonists from Cruella de Vil to Maleficent. It’s not the first time the baddies have taken on the beauty world; back in 2010, Disney paired with MAC to create the Venemous Villains collection. This forthcoming collection isn’t as wide-ranging, but you’ve never seen the villains like this.
The official Disney Store blog teases the doll collection (and more) this way:
Designed and carefully crafted to capture the essence of evil at its best dressed, the Villains Designer Collection re-imagines the stylish wickedness of classic Disney Villains.
Disney Store has beautifully crafted 13,000 of each of the six dolls, and every glamorous villain doll will come with a Certificate of Authenticity. Beginning in September, the dolls will be available in select stores in North America and Europe. These original “bad girls” of Disney will also be available online on http://disneystore.com, http://disneystore.co.uk, http://disneystore.fr and http://disneystore.de. Each doll will be available for $79.50 US/$87.50 CAN/£50/€65.
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Can’t wait to get your hands on this fashionable villainy? An online-exclusive set including all six dolls will be available for pre-order on Monday, August 20th. This will be the only opportunity to guarantee a purchase of all six dolls. The entire set will be delivered on or shortly after Monday, October 15.
And keep watch for our complete Disney Villains Designer Collection coming soon, featuring delightfully chic beauty, apparel, and home products – everything you need to complete your “good girl gone glam” style.
Lucas discovered long ago that Darth vVder was the most admired caracter in the saga. Nobody want to be the dumb aprentice or the half delinquent loverboy. But Darth Vader, the bada..
Some left winger whose name I dont remenber said the attraction was caused by the fact that the heroe cause the movie or cartoon to end.The heroe takes away the fun
No mystery:
Milton was there first, with his seductive depiction of Satan.
http://tinyurl.com/826vjvt
http://www.compleatheretic.com/pubs/literary/eng450paper.html
At least according to some interpretations…
See also Shakespeare’s Richard III
And actors prefer villians as they find them more interesting, at least until they start ot get typecast.
It’s also interesting that Hollywood often finds it necessary to make people worse than they are (truth is cornier than fiction); a couple of examples are Apollo 13 (all of the negative stuff is false, with one possible exception) and It Can Happen to You (the entire plot; see the disclaimer at the end).
Good point, Kathy. And we see it in other places as well — look at how much fun the James Bond villains are.
Disney is missing out on some dollars. The could edit together the scenes at the Red Queens Court from Alice In Wonderland. And release it as a documentary ‘A Day In The Obama White House’.
Of course, it helps if you like falling off cliffs.
No male villians, huh? No Jafar, no Captain Hook?
Technically, cosmetics with guy villains may not sell so well.
The cosmetics line was the catalyst for the post…
If I might add, whoever came up with the “Princesses” scam was a genius. Some guy realized that every almost every single Disney heroine (even Belle, Ariel, and Mulan – perhaps even the skank in Hunchback) was technically a princess in some way, and they already owned all of the properties!