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imagitory · 1 year

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So I realize I'm late to talking about this, but...

Although I personally find Snow White (2024) to be just as pointless as all of the other recent Disney live action remakes -- even the ones I think have some value like The Little Mermaid (2023) -- I haven't hated everything I've heard about it. I really like Greta Gerwig's work overall -- I mean, heck, she worked on that recent Barbie movie that everyone's gone gaga for, and I also loved her take on Little Women. Gal Gadot is a striking choice for the Evil Queen. Even Rachel Ziegler herself I had no problem with, considering she previously was in the remake of West Side Story playing Maria, which means she has the vocal range to perform the role of Snow, unlike some of the other actors chosen to play the leads in these remakes. *side-eyes the hell out of Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, and Mena Massaud*

That being said...I hope Snow White (2024) does finally spark a real conversation about how to truly embrace a film's legacy. Because here's the thing -- there are issues one can point out with the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that could be addressed in a new adaptation. The Prince is woefully underdeveloped as a character, to the point that the Dwarfs honestly are the real heroes of the story. You could give the Dwarfs more depth and backstory, so as to give the actors playing them more to work with. (As much as Peter Dinklage’s comments about the original Seven Dwarfs were controversial and arguably resulted in other actors with dwarfism being shut out of the parts, I would like to write roles that can really showcase these actors’ abilities outside of comedy, so they like Dinklage can score more roles besides just as fairy tale Dwarfs.) And Snow is a bit young to be thinking about a committed romantic relationship if she's truly 14, let alone a romance with a full-grown man.

Even with these critiques, though, the idea that this film is somehow antiquated and unrelatable to modern audiences because it came out in 1937 is just flat-out not true. This film has been re-released to theaters seven times since its initial release, oftentimes when Disney was in financial trouble. 1944? Used to raise revenue during WWII when Disney was only able to release pro-American propaganda projects. 1952? Three years before Walt's expensive Disneyland project was opened. 1958? One year before one of Walt's most expensive films, Sleeping Beauty, was released. 1967? One year after Walt's death and arguably the beginning of Disney's "Dark Age." 1983? In the midst of Disney's "Dark Age" -- it wouldn't release another animated film until two years later, and that film was The Black Cauldron. 1987? Once again in the midst of Disney's Dark Age -- Disney's hand-drawn animation studio was on its last legs, with its heroic release of The Little Mermaid still two years away. Even Snow White's final release in 1993 made it the very first film to be entirely scanned to digital, restored, and then re-recorded to film. And every single time it came back to theaters, this film made bank. It was profitable every single time, even after over fifty years. And this doesn't even touch the home video/DVD/Blu-Ray or streaming markets.

On a personal note, I recently unearthed an old home movie of myself at age three, on Christmas. I was so excited about one particular present I'd received that I wouldn't let go of it for a good chunk of the home movie. You want to know what that gift was? A VHS copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which had only just been put out on home video two months prior. My mum presumes that I'd known Snow White only as one of our storybooks and/or as a CD, and I was so, so excited to finally get to watch the full movie. The following year at a dance recital, I was asked to talk about myself, and when asked about my favorite movie, I boldly said Snow White, and when I was asked who my favorite dwarf was, without skipping a beat I said, "Grumpy!" This is all -- for the record -- coming from a child who was never as much into romance as magic, music, and adventure and would eventually come out as asexual (though still romantic) as an adult. I certainly never saw the original Snow White as just being about waiting for a Prince or True Love's Kiss. I saw it as being about a girl who has to go through some really scary stuff, but gets through it by being kind and befriending creatures and people who help her, and the wicked woman who takes her jealousy out on her and ultimately pays the price for choosing cruelty over kindness. And I don't think I was the only one who saw the story that way.

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with taking a new angle on a classic story, let alone offering good-faith criticism to an older, classic film. But I think the best way to honor Snow White's legacy is not to just take the original film and rip it apart in order to prop up a "new and improved" version. I look at how Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio doesn't take pot-shots at Disney's Pinocchio, or how the multiple TV movie productions of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Cinderella or the film Ever After don't take cheap shots at Disney's animated film. Sure, I think one would be foolish to act like those filmmakers weren't at least somewhat inspired by Disney's work in places -- the 1997 version of R&H's Cinderella was even produced by Disney -- but they still did their own thing, often taking a completely different direction than Disney's film in places, even despite any possible inspiration. They didn't try to copy Disney's work. They didn't try to "fix" these already beloved films. They just tried to stand on their own merits. They told the original story the way they wanted to tell it, with their own characters, plots, music, themes, and distinctive tone, rather than take someone else’s adaptation of the material and pick and choose what they wanted to copy from it so as to leech off that adaptation’s fanbase. And I truly wish more Disney "remakes" would do that, as opposed to taking these pre-established films and then either ripping them apart and putting them back together Frankenstein-style or adding a whole bunch of insubstantial, fluffy whipped cream to an already perfect sundae. Then maybe we could have two special, unique films to enjoy as two separate entities -- the way we can enjoy films like Disney's Peter Pan and Peter Pan (2003), or Tangled and Barbie as Rapunzel, or (most relevantly of all) Disney's Cinderella and Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Cinderella simultaneously -- rather than having to act like we're "fixing" or even "replacing" old classics that a lot of people still really love and Disney clearly doesn't want to stop marketing.

#snow white (2024)#disney #disney remakes #opinion #analysis #snow white and the seven dwarfs #personal

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everythingsinred · 1 year

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Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Mikan (pt. 33)

Finally!

Mikan has hid behind "we" and "people" for long enough! She has relied on telepathy for too long! It is time to use her words.

Today we'll talk about the Rapunzel Arc, three nice little chapters where miracles occur and dreams come true. This is the fairytale part of our story, but despite common misconceptions, not all fairytales have happy endings.

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Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three

Mikan and her staunch, persisting belief in happy endings.

The fairytale themes of the next couple chapters.

The inevitable destruction of that fairytale, the cold fact that she can’t have her happy ending.

It's all set-up here, through her hopeless romanticism here, the happy miracles soon occurring, and the sad fact that love and sacrifice sometimes leads to unhappy endings.

Anyway, Mikan is at the Christmas Party… in a manner of speaking. She’s watching the festivities on TV while she eats cake with Bear by herself. Poor Mikan goes through all the motions of forcing a happy face, even though she’s only lying to herself and Bear. She pretends she’s not bothered or jealous that she can’t go to the party and spend time with her friends.

She's so cute.

But her resolve wavers and she becomes gloomy, crying about how she wanted to go to the party. For quite a few chapters now, Mikan hasn’t been able to get what she wants, and it was all under the guise of the greater good. There was no way around it. She understands that, even now, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t upset her. She can get why she can’t go to the party and also resent the circumstances that prevented it simultaneously.

She’s cheered up by Bear’s thoughtful present: some acorns he gathered for her. She’s touched and embraces him, because she gets to experience a little bit of Christmas, even if it’s just through Bear’s considerate actions.

The moment gets even better when she receives all her other gifts, storybooks gifted to her by her friends and classmates. All sorts of books drop from midair, surrounding her.

Mikan, the diehard optimist, is gifted with a swarm of fairytales, stories where good triumphs over evil, where princesses are rescued and true love breaks the spell. Stories with happy endings. This is the class’s message to Mikan: Don’t give up hope; your happy ending will come.

The books all come with personalized messages from her friends, little cards telling her not to give up, to be strong. There’s one from Natsume too, and his stands out the most because it’s the most bold. Though the other notes are vague, with general comforting phrases and well-wishes, Natsume’s is a promise to save her. And his gift is a romance book. Lots of fairytales have romance or marriages, but Rapunzel in particular is a love story from top to bottom, a story about persevering love, about waiting and not giving up, even through forced separation.

Rapunzel and her prince! They are The Fairytale Couple...

(I grew up on Barbie’s Rapunzel and have seen Tangled a thousand times, but the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel was one of my favorite fairytales as a kid, even if it didn’t look too similar to the animated movies. Here, if you’re unfamiliar with the story: A couple is desperate to have a child. When the wife finally becomes pregnant, she has strong cravings for the rapunzel vegetable that grows in their neighbor’s yard. The husband fetches it, but is caught by the neighbor, a sorceress who agrees to let him have the vegetable in exchange for their child. Though they try to escape her, eventually, she takes the baby and raises her in the tower, growing out her hair, as we all know, until she has become a maiden with incredibly long hair. A prince hears the girl singing every day and decides to climb up the tower to see Rapunzel. They fall in love and he comes by very often, only in secret. They hatch a plan to have her escape, but eventually Rapunzel becomes pregnant, which complicates things. The sorceress thus discovers the prince has been visiting and cuts Rapunzel’s hair, banishing the pregnant girl to the woods to live by herself. When the prince visits again, he climbs up the hair, only to be pushed from the window when he runs into the sorceress, falling into a thornbush and being blinded by the thorns. He wanders the woods alone and blind, until he hears familiar singing and finds Rapunzel, raising their twin children by herself. They are finally reunited and love has triumphed, despite all odds! Also, sidenote that this story was controversial for years for painting premarital sex as a positive thing, LMAO, and was thusly not considered an appropriate children’s story. The movies, especially Tangled, take a lot of these elements as inspiration, but they do something new with them. The Rapunzel story frequently alluded to here on out is the Grimm story, though. Hence the imagery of Natsume with bandages over his eyes, or Mikan staring out the window with cut hair. Just something to consider…)

This is a reminder to her that Natsume loves her, and a message that he still loves her, and that he won't give up trying to find and rescue her.

Mikan remembers the last Christmas, when she and Natsume danced, when they kissed. These are wonderful memories to her. It’s Christmas again, and he sent her a present. They’ve always been calling out to each other, but she wants to see him now more than ever. Christmas is their night.

Hopeless romantic Mikan and her constant return to that balcony just in case she might catch a glimpse of him...

She rushes to the balcony, like she often does, and looks out over the campus, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, even though she hasn’t in all these months. Maybe, though, that fairytale magic can create another miracle?

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four

It seems miracles are real!

Just when she most wanted to see him, he appears under her balcony, calling for her in the falling snow. He promised he’d come and save her, didn’t he? Is this his attempt to rescue her? Mikan isn’t supposed to escape. If she gets into any kind of trouble, a whole mess of things will follow, but Mikan isn’t thinking about that right now, swept away in the magic of seeing the boy she loves after all this time. All she sees now is the fairytale, the miracle, the happy ending that almost seems too good to be true.

He calls out to her and she calls out to him.

He climbs up the building until he reaches the balcony. They hold hands and Mikan tears up, ecstatic that this isn’t a dream after all. It’s real, he’s really there. Her immediate suspicion that it’s a dream makes me wonder if she had fantasized about a similar event before, of him finding her and climbing up to see her. Hopeless romantic Mikan has perhaps spent these past few months fantasizing about seeing her beloved Natsume again, rescuing her and getting her out of this wretched labyrinth.

There’s an immediate drawback when they reach out to each other, presumably to hug, only to discover there’s a barrier, giving them only a little bit of space to touch. He can’t climb further onto the balcony and she can’t leave with him. Natsume can’t save her right now after all.

While Natsume is distracted by the barrier, Mikan asks him many questions, curious about how he found her and how he got here, since it all seems too good to be true, for something she’d wanted for months to actually happen so easily and out of the blue. He doesn’t answer so she keeps badgering until he presses his hand against her mouth and tells her to shut up.

What a Natsume thing to do.

How wonderful to see Mikan initiating affection again!

While he looks away to see if someone is coming, Mikan takes his hand covering her mouth with both of hers, crying in happiness to really have him there in front of her. We can see just from this just how much she missed him, how dearly she wanted to see him, how hard she took his absence. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have a lot of space, that he can’t take her away from here, that they might get caught. She can see him and touch him, and so even though Mikan has rarely been bold with him, always scared to be vulnerable, she holds his hand, soft and romantic, just eager to really have him with her after all this time.

She says his name and continues to cry, keeping his hand by her mouth, possibly even kissing his hand, which is incredibly soft!

This is not the way she was acting before. She did occasionally cling to him, and they held hands a lot in Mikan’s Really Bad Day Arc, but their touches were usually initiated by him. Her touching him now, like she’d been dreaming of this moment, makes me think that she did! That she, upon finally allowing herself to admit that she loves Natsume, has had lots of romantic, fluffy fantasies about kissing his hand and going on dates. She’s blushing, but she wants to do this, a small little touch that she is bold enough to try because she doesn’t know how long this moment will last for.

“I missed you.” I assume that’s her saying it, but it might have been him too. It doesn’t matter. They both feel it, called out for each other every night in the hopes that they would find each other under the stars.

But she asks again how he managed to find her and he answers simply that it’s because she was calling out to him. She denies it. After all, the calling was purely telepathic. She wasn’t verbally calling out to him. He maintains that she did, though, and that she had missed him so much that cosmic forces decided to give her a break.

Mikan blushes out of embarrassment to be put on the spot so she accuses him of making up stories. He seems disappointed that it wasn’t true, since he found her on the basis that she wanted to see him. It’s only then that Mikan concedes his theory might be onto something.

Some things change but others stay the same.

Even though they’re in love (with their current relationship status being a question mark), their interactions haven’t changed much. Natsume still loves to tease and act cool, though he’s a lot bolder after confessing and finding out his feelings are reciprocated. Likewise, Mikan still gets annoyed with him and his posturing. He hums, all satisfied, and Mikan muses that he was calling for her too, because she hears his voice all the time. They’d been yearning for each other then, desperate to see each other, just as much. It's all reciprocal, and that changes some aspects of the dynamic.

Prior to that bad night, Mikan was always unsure of Natsume's feelings, always confused by him, and that led to her withdrawing from her own feelings for him. But now they both now the truth... so what happens now?

Natsume seems agitated that he can’t save her after all, but Mikan reassures him that she’s content with his presence here. Just being with him for now is enough, and even though he annoys her, seeing him has made her so happy she’s had all her Christmas presents for a lifetime. That’s quite a statement, that he makes her so happy, even when he’s bugging her. But this talk about presents reminds her that he had given her a present and she didn’t have anything prepared for him. So she asks him what he would like from her, eager to give him something too.

So interesting to see Natsume when he's no longer holding back. Even though Mikan has made her feelings known, and has become a little more open as a result, she's definitely still restraining herself. Not him... He's as bold as can be.

When he requests a kiss, Mikan is flabbergasted. The audacity of this boy! And he says it again, just in case she didn’t hear. Kiss. Mikan freaks out, again embarrassed. It’s one thing that they did it before. There was no conversation about it and it wasn’t on her to start it. For all of Mikan fantasizing about kissing his hand and whatever else, she’s still not entirely secure. After all, she still struggles with saying the words, “I love you” out loud to him and all this romantic affection is done with a degree of hesitation because it’s still vulnerable and not something she’s used to.

He doesn’t seem to consider it a big deal. He’s unashamed for asking, his face devoid of embarrassment. That probably just makes her more embarrassed, so she tries to get him to ask for something else, until he trips a little on the balcony and she grabs him to keep him with her. He keeps downplaying it, even after almost “falling,” calling it “just a kiss,” and giving her a ridiculous time limit because he’ll fall in thirty seconds if she doesn’t.

It’s nonsense. She knows it’s nonsense.

But the thing is that she wants to. She wants to kiss him. Just like she struggles with openly verbalizing her feelings for him, she also struggles with physically showing him. She’s embarrassed, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to. It’s just uncomfortable and nerve-wracking. He gives her plenty of excuses to do it--she calls him a pervert for wanting a kiss after all, so maybe she’s a pervert for wanting to kiss him too--so she can say she kissed him because he would have fallen if she didn’t, or because he asked her to, or as gratitude that he came all this way to see her.

And she doesn’t have to be so embarrassed either, because it’s just the two of them, and he’s the one who asked for the kiss so he won’t be making fun of her for it. She gives in, blushing the whole time, and slowly leans in to kiss him.

Last year, Natsume just kinda grabbed her and smooched her.

When Mikan is the one initiating, she’s much slower. This is partially because she’s embarrassed, but I think it’s also because she’s apparently had very romantic little dreams about being with him, and a slow, sweet kiss is what she has in mind.

These chapters contain some of the most magical panels in the whole manga, really amping up that fairytale vibe. It's all for you, Mikan!

Five panels of kissing, this time, if you were curious.

Which means it's another long kiss.

He holds her wrists and she clings to his shirt collar (the Kermit the Frog shirt collar…). When they pull away, she’s blushing and tearing up, overcome with emotion, but she closes her eyes again, almost like she wants to lean in again, or have him lean in. Until he asks her for another kiss and then she gets overwhelmed again. She refuses to do it again for her own health, and though he thinks that’s silly, that a kiss never killed anybody, he lets it go. But he has another request.

He wants her to tell him she loves him, properly, from her own mouth. None of that telepathic nonsense anymore.

But Mikan could barely handle kissing him, let alone saying those words. After all, he already got his present! And he should say it too! But he easily agrees to say it after she does.

I think Mikan agrees here because it’s only fair. She knows that too. Natsume has said it out loud, and even though he hasn’t said it properly to her yet, he still said it. She was too afraid to, even with the threat of never seeing him again. She understands why he’d want to hear it and he deserves to hear it.

There’s no room for lumping herself with others anymore. She can’t hide behind “everyone” or “people.” This isn't about how everyone feels; it's about her and her specific feelings of romantic love for only him. She has to speak for herself, to be honest and tell him how she feels even though she rarely has. She has to confront the fears she has about vulnerability with Natsume and just tell him already. Even though she’s incredibly embarrassed, her whole face red, her eyes shut, she finally says it.

“I love you.”

We finally get words said out loud! 144 chapters in!

The thing is that if Natsume didn’t ask for a kiss or a confession, Mikan probably wouldn’t give either. Not because she doesn’t want to or because she doesn’t love him, but because she’s too scared. I’d said before that Natsume plays an interesting role in her life because he forces her out of her comfort zone while also being her comfort zone. He refuses to coddle her or let her hide in her insecurities, something she’d keep up with no matter how much she wanted otherwise, and encourages her to do scary things. But even when he’s getting her out of her comfort zone, he doesn’t become mean.

She insults him, just to soften the confession for her own sake, to make it easier on herself. He doesn’t insult her back, just disregards her barbs and tells her he loves her too. If she kisses him, he’ll kiss back. If she says she loves him, he’ll say it back. He wants her to do these things because he needs to know she feels the same way. She wants to do these things because she loves him too, but she needs a little help in gathering the courage and will to do it.

She obviously doesn't mind kissing back, but initiating is still a bit scary for her.

He’s very gentle, saying it back, taking her hands, and kissing her again. He’ll go easy on her and initiate again this time. Very nice.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Five

They kiss.

They kiss more.

He kisses her and she kisses back and they hug and hold hands and hold onto each other. When they pull away, they keep holding onto each other.

For all of her embarrassment, she doesn’t seem to mind kissing when she’s not initiating, probably because there’s less pressure involved when you’re just kissing back.

He says he loves her more than anyone, and that he will forever.

She doesn’t say it out loud--because she’s always holding back a little--but she feels the same way. She doesn’t have a gift for him (and how interesting that the kiss didn’t really feel like an adequate gift to her after all), but he has her feelings for him: unstoppable and only for him.

Which means that she only has romantic feelings for Natsume.

She doesn’t want to part, but to stay like this forever. His alice is always looming over them, sure, but there’s also the inevitable end of this rendezvous, the knowledge that this miracle will pass and he will be gone again. She won’t have him to kiss or touch or argue with anymore, and that prospect scares her, so she wishes this moment could last forever.

He tells her he will rescue her and asks her to wait for him. She remembers his wish from months ago, that he could be an adult and save her. He always wants to protect her and he always does. He’s reliable and if anyone could save her, it would be Natsume, her prince in this fairytale. He’ll save her and they’ll have their happy ending.

She wants her fairytale. She will wait for him.

So she happily agrees to wait for him, no matter how long it takes. Even so long after the Sports Festival, she never lost her resolve to believe in him. Patient love, what she's been holding onto all this time. But she wants her happy ending, so she tells him not to push himself too much. She doesn’t want to be free at the cost of his life. She wants him to save her so they can be together, and if she can’t have that, then he shouldn’t save her “no matter what it takes.” If he's not there, she can't have her happy ending.

She holds onto him, to cling to him and maybe to remind herself that he’s here--living and breathing--because she doesn’t want to imagine otherwise. She wants to get through to him, but he doesn’t agree to her request, and changes the subject when he spots her flickering alice stone.

This is the stone she made, thinking of all her precious loved ones, including him. All of her wishes of protection and love are in the stone, so she considers it like her heart. Her love for many people went into it, but she wants him to have it. She’s trusting him to take care of it, to take care of her heart.

The fragment she gave him before wasn’t enough. This whole time, ever since she realized that red stone really was his all along, Mikan has wanted to give him a worthier stone, and this is her chance, even if it isn’t Valentine’s Day.

She’s giving him her heart and honestly conveying her feelings. I think Natsume’s pushes to kiss and confess made her feel way more comfortable with saying how she feels, even in one night, to the point where she can now offer him her alice stone (her whole heart) without freaking out about it. And she’s initiating without his prompting!

She takes it a step further when she happily exclaims that the alice stone exchange romantic tradition is now complete! Now they’ll be together forever.

I'll always love girls proposing to boys in love stories like this.

He points out that she just proposed to him and her confidence wavers quite a bit, her face flushing. That is what she meant, so she can’t back out, but his blunt remark took her by surprise. Is she going too far? Was she reading too much into the moment?

Nope. He asserts it was him who first proposed anyway, who first made the alice stone exchange romantic. (I’m not entirely sure that’s true because Mikan made her little pebble thinking of protecting him, thinking of making him happy, and he’s the only one she wanted to give her stone to, whether she admitted her feelings for him were romantic at that point or not. Though he made his stone way before she did, she gave him that stone with secretly romantic wishes. But, on the contrary, he was never in denial about his feelings and gave her his stone fully cognizant of his intentions too… so… hard to say.) Anyway, he doesn’t have to say yes because he basically asked first.

“With this, for eternity, you are mine.” He promises he’ll never give the stone back, even if she comes to hate him. He’s accepting the stone whole-heartedly, and she knows it’s in safe hands now with him, with somebody who treasures it so openly, to the point that he’s holding it to his mouth. They are so lovey-dovey this arc!

Another favorite page of mine. So cute.

Mikan goes back to freaking out, because if he originally attached the meaning, doesn’t that mean that this is a proposal? She struggles with getting the words out, but he waits for her to get the words out until she finally asks if he meant to propose.

Yes.

The moon is their witness.

They kiss again.

Honestly, from Mikan’s point of view, Natsume’s suddenly romantic behavior would be pretty out of left field. It makes sense she’d be so nervous being vulnerable with him. He's been cold and mean in the past, so it will take some getting used to the bold and honest Natsume he feels safe to be now. But even though Natsume does tease her here (he has to; he’s Natsume still), he’s not cruel or mean about it. He’s just silly and pretty gentle all things considered, so she can go from being nervous and freaking out about kisses and “I love you”s until she feels comfortable with giving him her whole heart and getting engaged.

Sadly, their rendezvous ends, as it always had to eventually. The barrier snaps entirely back in place and Natsume doesn’t just fall down, he disappears from view entirely, like he was never there at all. Mikan looks up at the falling snow, watching the moon fade behind the clouds.

The moon, their witness.

Unfortunately this can't be the end. There's evil to be defeated, spells to be broken, tragedies to be faced.

I discussed this during the Natsume edition of this chapter, but the entire balcony scene is purposefully surreal. From Mikan’s point of view it always seemed dreamlike, with Natsume saying such lovely, romantic words that he hadn’t said before, kissing and holding each other the way they never had. He’s wearing an unusual outfit, they’re on a balcony like in a fairytale, like in Romeo and Juliet, her hair is down, it’s snowing… None of it feels real. Then Natsume completely disappears and the moon starts to fade away, and there’s no more proof that anything really happened at all. She doesn’t have Natsume’s warm hands to give her reassurance that he’s real.

She’s alone, cold, on a balcony all by herself, and all of a sudden. There was no time for a good-bye, no time for assurances. Did this happen? Or was it a dream?

Conclusion

Mikan wasn't a romantic person earlier in the manga. She was optimistic, sure, but romance evaded her understanding and made her uncomfortable. But now, despite all the traumatic events she's experienced over the last year, Mikan's romantic love for Natsume has taken her optimism to new heights. Miracles happen, love can be confessed under a snowy moon, marriage can be proposed. Her head is full of the hope of her happy ending, but her fairytale perspective only means her heart will break that much more when everything is ripped away from her.

This is the last part of the essay that I fully enjoyed writing, sadly. I don't really care much for the next parts, since I dislike the narrative and writing choices. I'll post those parts, but if I come off as angry or uninspired, that's because I was for sure.

I love you, GA, but damn do you disappoint me...

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#gakuen alice #alice academy #ga #sakura mikan #mikan sakura #natsume hyuuga #hyuuga natsume #my meta #ga meta #ga meta: nm #ga meta: manga #ga meta: manga nm #let's talk about natsumikan #let's talk about natsumikan: mikan #i LOVE the rapunzel arc #i love the reciprocity i love the sweetness i love the fairytale dream vibes #i love how often mikan thinks back on these moments and how much their promises meant to her #shes so in love with him it hurts (i hate the final chapter with such a passion yall dont even know)#nm: m song of the day is ilomilo by billie eilish #every lyric is a nm flavored suckerpunch #i know its not as much a fairytale vibe but theres a darkness looming even in this dream moment #so i feel justified including the song!#in any case ill probably start using widow! mikan songs for the next parts bc zoe and i have way too many on our playlist #and i wanna share #have a great day yall. <3 mwah

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stargazer-tps · 21 days

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[Crossposts from Amino] Barbie and the Magical Storybook

Original Post Date: 8/10/2017

In her newest musical movie, Barbie stars as Rosabelle, a young girl with a head full of stories and a heart for adventure. One day, she finds a mysterious empty book in the woods behind her house, and her stories start coming to life! Rosabelle becomes great friends with the figments of her imagination, but when an evil villain steals the magical book for their own nefarious purposes, it's up to Rosabelle to combat the villain's evil creations with her own imaginary companions.

~*~

"There's power in imagination." - Not really Barbie, probably, but we can pretend.

~*~

I originally was going to have it be Barbie who finds the book, and all of the stories she'd ever told start coming to life and mixing, but that basically is just an excuse to make a hodgepodge of all my favorite movies and I didn't want that for this. So instead we have this.

I tried to emulate the style from the dvd covers, but I abandoned the references halfway through and it only sort of worked. I don't think I've ever used the blur tool so much, I hope it doesn't look amateurish or something, but it's not like I was trying for a painted look. Enjoy my outdated Barbie logo.

~*~

For the #MovieCoverChallenge, plus progress pics in case I also put this elsewhere, because I've been accused of stealing my own art before on another thing...

Original sketch

Second sketch

Somewhere in the middle of coloring… she has lots of hair.

#my art #crossposting from amino #barbie

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yandere-romanticaa · 3 years

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I'm watching Naruto and I'm in the middle of the Pain arc, and I can't help but to see just how much Hinata and my old friend are alike. But, she never grew like Hinata, after all these years, she stayed the same. I miss her sometimes, I miss the friendship we used to have. It was the kind of friendship you would read about in storybooks, the kind of friendship literally everyone thought was going to last forever and ever, myself included.

But I changed.

And she did not.

When I was younger, I was very quiet, very isolated, very lonely. I was strange to the other kids, I wasn't accepted. She, on the other hand, was also considered strange but it was alright because she was (still is really) a bit of a "yes woman", and everyone liked that. In a way, she was the first person that ever really accepted me, and she was the first person I ever loved outside of my immediate family.

She was my only friend.

And then we got separated when we started going to elementary school.

Those first five years were absolute Hell on Earth for me, because of those five years I have the insecurities and mental scars that I do now, that's how horrible that environment was.

But I found her again.

I waited for her, I waited for her to come back to me, after five years of waiting and we were happier than ever.

I transferred classes almost immediately, just to be with her, just so that I can finally be happy and free. Not a lot of things improved, the people around me were still awful but that didn't matter to me anymore, I had her. Whenever one of us forgot to bring money, we'd buy each other food and we would always share it equally. We were never full after those meals but that didn't matter, because we were just happy to share. We would talk about our favorite cartoons like Winx Club, Bratz, Barbie, we were obsessed. We would take long walks around her building together because her parents are way too protective of where she goes and with who, but I was okay with it, because I just wanted to be with her.

Years passed by, I started to become more upbeat, more bubbly, more outgoing, more friendly. My social skills improved significantly by the time I started highschool and I made some very good friends there. My old friend on the other hand, stayed the same. She just wanted to talk about the same things, and wasn't very good at talking, at all. If you had a question for her, she would never share her opinion, she would instead tell you what you said but in different words to make it look original, but she wasn't very successful with that. She never had much of a backbone and I had to do everything for her. Whenever she made some mistake I was somehow at fault, even if I wasn't with her there. I never realized that I was carrying our entire friendship on my back and I was the only one that was trying to make it work. You'd think that after knowing someone for more than 10+ years you would know them like the back of your hand but that just wasn't the case with her. Whenever she was sad I would have to pry out the information out of her, force her to speak up because she never had a voice of her own.

Her parents are at fault for that.

They're massive helicopter parents, but she had so many opportunities to grow and become her own person, it's so frustrating. For years and years, I pushed her to grow, to expand her knowledge, to grow as a person, to just do something with herself and to stop being the shadow of other people but she never did. Instead, she would copy the attitudes of the other people around her, if that makes sense? She was like a sponge, whenever a someone popular had an opinion, that was her opinion too. She started to talk like the popular kids but they wouldn't accept her because they're like that, while myself and her other friends saw that just wasn't her. She was trying so hard to be someone else, and she didn't even know who she was to begin with.

After years of putting up with this, my resentment started to grow and I didn't even realize it.

I became more cold towards her, even mean sometimes. I kept poking and poking at her, just to get some sort of genuine reaction out of her, even if it was anger. There was even a period of time in which I begged God for her to just slap me, to yell at me, to show me how she really feels, to just do SOMETHING, ANYTHING. Other people weren't interested in her, and before we knew it, her only friends were myself and two of my other best friends. We tried to be there for her, to comfort her, to help out, anything. But whenever she opened her mouth she would infuriate us because whenever she said something it just didn't make sense, her timing was poor, or it literally had nothing to do out the subject of our discussion, no matter how serious. Then, out of nowhere, she suddenly grew this very bitchy attitude because being bitchy makes you well liked, obviously, and she tried that act with us and we just weren't having it. I haven't spoken to her since, I have no idea where she is and how she is doing.

I sometimes can't help but wonder if dropping her was good or not.

On one hand, we were her only friends, her only company aside from her sister (but the sister has her own friends, meaning less time for her), but I knew that if I stayed with her I only would have become more cold and mean. Being her friend became a chore, because we knew that no one else wanted her. A part of me still thinks that she could have maybe improved if we stayed, but I just don't know what to think.

I'm sorry about this strange post, but I'm just a little lost when it comes to her. I miss her, and yet I don't. I don't like to remember what kind of person I was becoming when I was around her, she somehow brought out the worst in me. Am I in the wrong, am I being too harsh on her?

#rant? not sure what this is #might delete later #random #ana rambles

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frillylilfairy · 4 years

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About me and my regression

I have been an age regressor since I was 12

I regress to age 1 and below my big age is 24

I regress due to ptsd ,depression,anxiety

I'm an autistic age regressor

I love barbie and sanrio

My favorite storybooks are angelina ballerina

My favorite cartoons are angelina ballerina,kipper ,ever after high,baby looney toons ,care bears, and dragon tales

My favorite colors are pastel pink and pastel purple

My favorite thing to wear in littlespace is my pink onesies and my favorite pacifiers

I love snuggling with my baby blanky and my favorite stuffies

I love disney+

My favorite snack is chocolate milk and chocolate chip teddy grahams

My favorite holiday is halloween

My aesthetic is soft, frilly ,and fairy-like

I love to color

My favorite animals are bunnies and kitties

My favorite ice cream is french vanilla

My favorite candy is strawberry blowpop's and strawberry sour patch

My favorite toys are my stuffies ,my calico critters,my barbies and vintage barbie doll house ,and my sensory squishy toys

I love lullabies during naptime and before bed

I love having tea parties with my stuffies

I love bubble baths

I support all nonsexual age regressor's in the community and non community

All age regressor's even minors are allowed to interact with my blog and me

My blog is a safe place and therefore is sfw interaction only

I support age regressor's of all genders,gender identities, and sexualities

#babyzspace #toddlerzspace #kidzspace #sfw little post #safe space #sfw age regression #sfw caregiver little #sfw littlespace #sfw age regression community #sfw agere community #sfw babyre community #sfw cglre community #nsreg community #about frillylilfairy #frillylilfairy #original content #sfw interaction only

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whaleiumsharkspeare · 3 years

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Fav. TTS character, and why? (Don't say Varian, we already know that XD we live him too)

Well if I can’t say Varian, then it’s Rapunzel. Tangled is my favorite Disney movie and I’ve loved it for 10 years, so I’ve spent a whole decade already loving Rapunzel. I love her spirit and how she wouldn’t let it be broken by Gothel or anyone. I love her optimism and how she shares her cheerful little ray of sunshine wherever she goes. I love art so I love that she’s an artist. I love how creative and intelligent she is. I love all the hobbies she made up in the tower, especially the stargazing and charting said stars. I love that she has flaws and room to grow. I love her freckles on her nose and it makes me wish I had some too lol. I love her kind heart and her desire to help others. She makes the most of her life and she won’t let the circumstances of it crush her spirit or bring her down. She is determined and confident and brave.

Even as a child, I loved the Rapunzel fairytale. I loved the Barbie Rapunzel movie and I had the tower play set and the magic hairbrush that would play music when you pressed it. I also had two Rapunzel storybooks, one of which I still have. I also read a graphic novel called “Rapunzel’s Revenge” that was like an old western take on the story, and I quite liked that too. Even as a kid I remember thinking “I hope one day Disney makes a movie about the Rapunzel fairytale” and I was so glad when they did

#ask whaley #whaley answers #tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure #princess rapunzel #onlysilvy

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authenticcadence18 · 4 years

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30 Questions About Me

THANKS FOR THE TAG @bugaboo-n-bananoir ILY!!!!

(Nick)name: Cadence

gender: cis female

Star sign: Pisces

Height: uhhhhh I am not sure, it’s taller than 5ft at least

Time: night! (Well I wrote most of this last night, but now it’s the evening of the next day!)

Birthday: well I’m a Pisces, so my birthday is between Feb 19th and march 20th!

Fave band/group: Pentatonix! Or For King and Country. Or the piano guys, the vitamin string quartet, Voctave.....also Phineas and the Ferbtones👌

Fave solo artists: I really like Lauren Daigle, and Jackie Evancho used to be my FAVE. Aaand idk if this counts but Michael Giacchino! love his scores, especially the score for Inside Out. There’s also this guy called Clay Kramer on YouTube who makes KK Slider covers of popular music, his stuff gives me so much seratonin😅

Song Stuck in my Head: Well I’m listening to music rn and “I’m Me” from Phineas and Ferb is on so I’ll say that! (I’ll revisit this one when I finish the list and update it with whatever song i’m listening to/is stuck in my head then) (ok the music has since been turned off and now I have “Status Quo” from High School Musical stuck in my head so! There ya go!) (now it is the next day, and I’ve got “when the party’s over” stuck in my head...i think these three songs are an accurate reflection of my taste in music🤣)

Last Movie: uhhhhh oh yeah, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice! It was SO GREAT because Jay Baruchel plays the main character (and the main character is super awkward), so I felt like I was watching Hiccup from the How To Train Your Dragon franchise learn magic and it was GLORIOUS. And also Nicholas Cage is great. And I liked the love interest in the movie as well!! She had a role to play in the story and felt authentic and genuine, which I appreciated!

Last Show: ok well the last show I watched by myself was Phineas and Ferb! Specifically, the episode with the Mardi Gras block party and then the one where Candace and Stacy compete in an obstacle course against Isabella and Ginger (omg wAIT ginger and Stacy are sisters and Isabella and Candace are GOING to be sisters mY HEART I—AH🥺). I hadn’t watched those episodes in forever, so they were really fun to revisit! I think the last actual show I watched was Kids Baking Championship or something, lol. (Those kids are AMAZING. So skilled!)

When i created this blog: November 2019! It was riiiight after the season 3 finale of miraculous aired and absolutely wrecked my emotions. I had some fanfic written that I’d never posted and had been thinking about making a tumblr/ao3 for awhile, and seeing the finale made me finally go, “.....you know what, yeah. The finale is aired, no more spoilers.....it’s time to make a blog.” So I did! And I posted my first fic! And I’m so happy i did :)

What Do I Post: a bunch of multi fandom stuff XD. This blog started off as 90% Miraculous, 10% other fandoms I like...but now it’s just kind of a hodgepoge of my favorite fandoms (with a focus on Phineas and Ferb, lol). I reblog a lot of posts, and then I post original stuff too! I write fanfic, nowadays for Phineas and Ferb but for Miraculous in the past (and probably in the future!), I draw art (mostly Phinabella art because I’ve been drawing them since i was 11 and it feels good to return to my roots), and OCCASIONALLY I will write an analysis post (I’ve got one in the works rn actually 👀), attempt to make a meme, or dip my toe into salt just SLIGHTLY before quickly backing away, lol. If I were to list the fandoms I post about in the order of how frequently I post about them, I’d probably say: Phineas and Ferb, Miraculous....and thennnnn everything else is pretty random and depends on the day, lol.

Last thing i googled: Jay Baruchel 😂. Couldn’t remember how to spell his last name!

Other blogs: this is my only blog! Sometimes I think about making a separate blog for my art and writing, but I am not sure if I should or not....maybe I will someday, but idk. I also have an AO3 for fanfic and an Instagram for art! All are under the name “authenticcadence18.”

Do I get asks: sometimes, yeah!! Sometimes I reblog ask games/prompts and get some asks for those (I’ve got so many prompts in my inbox I want to write/draw things for...ah it’s fine, I’ll get to it eventually😅), and sometimes lovely people will leave thoughts or nice messages in my inbox🥺💕. I’ve got a specific tag for all those nice messages so I can read back over them whenever I need a boost!

Why this url: it’s a music pun! When a song/section of a piece of music ends with a dominant chord resolving to a tonic chord (if you’ve read a certain fic of mine you should know allll about dominant and tonic chords👀🤣), it’s called an authentic cadence! There are different kinds of cadences, and authentic ones are my favorite. One example of this is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” I also use this blog to be my authentic, fandom-loving self! So I like authentic cadences, and also, I’m Cadence and using this blog to be authentic! Woo! (And 18 is just my favorite number, lol) I’m glad I ended up choosing a name that doesn’t tie to a specific fandom becaaaaaause this ended up being a multi fandom blog!

Following: 232!!

Followers: 292!!! (THANKS SO MUCH Y’ALL ILY 💕)

Average amount of sleep: wellllll for the past week and a half I was sick so I was probably getting 9ish hours a night (because I would sleep in really late, lol). but NOW? In my immediate future? I suspect my average amount of sleep is going to go down because I’m really bad about staying up late even when I have to get up early😅. Hoping to be good about getting at least 7ish hours a night!

Lucky number: 18! But y’all probably already guessed that, lol.

Instruments: my voice, piano, ukulele, viola (but it’s been a HOT minute), aaaand i used to be able to play guitar but then I got a ukulele and forgot all the guitar chords. (I also dabble in songwriting! I primarily use voice and piano when writing music.)

What I’m wearing: my favorite sweatshirt (that was last night, rn I have on a tanktop), some leggings, and socks!

Dream job: I’m currently learning to be a teacher, and I LOVE teaching and working with kids so that is definitely a job I’m really excited about!!! I would also love to portray characters at Disney or something (well, maybe not at Disney because I hear they’re strict, but like....I want to be Rapunzel or Anna or something, that would be so fun). OR, I would LOVE to work in tv animation somehow, be it voice acting, writing scripts/music, and/or story boarding. basically if I could do what Dan and Swampy did for Phineas and Ferb/Milo Murphy’s Law, I would LOVE THAT. (Especially the writing music part. Getting to write music for established characters and get PAID for it would be SO COOL.!.!.!) Also I think it would be so fun to write Disney storybooks! Like, those books that are about Cinderella baking a cake or Ariel befriending a seahorse, stuff like that. Those brought me a ton of joy as a child!

Dream trip: I want to visit alllll the Disney parks someday😅. (Not right now because, ya know, Covid...but someday!)

Fave food: uhhh i really like pizza. And popcorn. Also hummus and guacamole!

nationality: American

Fave songs: “Times” by Tenth Avenue North; “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (I made an entire playlist of just this song when I first started writing my fic of the same name, so I like the original and a ton of covers of it!), “Show Yourself” from Frozen II, “What Might Have Been” from Phineas and Ferb (and lots of other songs from that show, i made a whole post about that once but I can’t find it, oof); “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle; “Thank You” by Pentatonix; “I See the Light” from Tangled; “Your Hands” by JJ Heller; “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran.....i like a loooot of songs so this is just the tip of the iceberg, but I think that’s good for now, LOL! (As soon as I post this I’m going to remember another song I love, lol)

last book: I got the book Unbirthday for Christmas! It’s basically Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, but if she’d never gone to wonderland and things went horribly wrong there. (I think, I’m not that far into it yet, lol)

Top 3 fictional universes I’d love to live in: 1. DANVILLE, PLS. Especially as a kid, I SO would’ve loved to hang out with Isabella and Phineas and the rest of the gang! Danville is so vibrant and unique and people are always randomly breaking into song there, that’s my kind of place! 2. Fairytopia (from the Barbie movies!) because I could be a fairy OR a mermaid OR BOTH and eat seeweed to breathe underwater even if I wasn’t a mermaid. Like, that’s the dream right there. (I’ve always loved mermaids and fairies, lol!) 3. Maybe San Fransokyo from Big Hero 6? All of the technology in that universe is really cool! And I would love to eat a noodle burger, lol .

Oh! That’s the last one! Wow! This was so FUN!!!!!!! Thanks again for the tag, Maddy!!!! :)

I’ll taaaag @sketchy-panda @macaronsforchat @simplynewyorkbound @inkjackets and anyone else who’d like to do this! (And pls don’t feel pressured to play at all, or answer all of the questions! I was definitely vague with a few of my answers, lol)

#long post #cadence rambles #tag game #this was so funnnnn!#i also got your other tag maddy🥺#going to get to that post soon!

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locktobre · 4 years

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I'd love to see a Barbie Movie retelling of The Wizard Of Oz, Cinderella, or Snow White! Just imagine Barbie in Dorothy or Snow's look!!

Wizard of Oz would be really interesting! I’d be really interested to see what they’d do with Dorothy’s companions. I think it would really fit the vibe of the Barbieverse, since the ending is like whoops! You had what you needed inside you all along! (From what I remember, it’s been ages.)

I’ve really liked the few (not Disney) Snow White dolls they’ve done, and I know there’s at least one Barbie storybook with a Snow White retelling in it, so it would be interesting to see what they’d do in a movie. Maybe they never tried it bc Barbie is such an iconic blonde? Or bc the story is actually pretty violent? (At least the threat of violence, even if nothing really happens.) Or maybe it was bc of Disney... I guess we’ll never know. However, if I’m honest I’d prefer a Snow White and Rose Red movie, just bc nobody really does that one. And also we’d get sister protagonists!

For Cinderella... I’m not sure. It’s not one of my favorite stories, and I get enough vibes from Rapunzel that I’m satisfied on that front. I don’t really know what they could do to make the story interesting or different, if they followed the Disney version. If they pulled from a different version, it might turn out okay.

#mel irl #barbie babbles #darkheartrockerr #thanks for asking

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demigodsanswer · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a Pointe - Chapter 3

Story Summery:

“Annabeth, you’re with Percy,’ Chiron said. Annabeth. She looked like the figurine in a little girl’s music box had come to life to dance in City Ballet. Percy felt like every opportunity to dance with her was a privilege. Just don’t forget the choreography, Percy thought as he got into the right starting spot for the wedding pas de deux. Don’t forget the choreography, and don’t drop her.”

Percy, a soloist with the ballet company, and he is offered one chance to dance with Annabeth, one of their star principals. If he nails the choreography, he might just earn a chance to dance with her. And, if he’s really lucky, he might get a date out of it as well.

Chapter Title: Make it Blue

Read on AO3

Start from the beginning

When Percy stepped into his favorite coffee shop before rehearsal, he spotted a familiar shade of blonde hair ordering in front of him. Even with her hair down under a winter hat he was sure it was her (her black dance bag with AEC monogramed on the side also helped him identify her). He stepped up to the counter to stand next to her, as he handed the barista his card.

“Hers is on me,” he said, before adding his own coffee order on.

“Oh no –“ she tried to protest, her cheeks pink from the cold weather.

“I insist,” Percy said, nodding to the cashier to run his card.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Annabeth said as they grabbed their coffees to head towards the studio.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Besides, what kind of Prince Charming would I be if I didn’t buy you coffee?”

Annabeth laughed and sipped her drink. “I’ve never met a dancer so dedicated to method acting,”

To prove his point, Percy jogged up the stairs to the door of the studio and pulled it open for her before she could make it halfway up the stair. “After you, ma’am,” he said, going into a dramatic deep bow.

“Thank you, sir,” she said, curtseying just a little as the walked in.

~*~*~*~

Percy’s finger hovered over the ‘send’ button, trying to decide if sending Annabeth a YouTube video on why the Barbie Sawn Lake movie is the best movie of all time was a good idea. He didn’t even know if she had liked the Barbie movies as a kid.

If he had to guess, she was either the girl who had them all in a pristine Dream House, or the kid who cut their hair and drew on their faces. Either way, though, the video could work. And it wasn’t like he wanted to talk to her about Barbie, he just wanted to talk to her outside of the studio.

He had no idea where he stood with her. He was pretty sure they were becoming friends, or at least work friends. But their work required them to touch all the time, look lovingly into each other’s eyes, and kiss, which really blurred the lines between work-friend, just a friend, and friends who are flirting.

He had been following Beckendorf’s advice and not actively perusing anything with her. Buying her coffee had been a friendly one-time gesture and sending her a funny YouTube video was the kind of harmless thing that friends would do.

And they were friends, at least work friends. She smiled easily around him and laughed at his dumb jokes. She certainly did more than tolerate him. Annabeth didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who would fake being nice to someone she didn’t like; in fact, he had anecdotal proof that she wasn’t like that.

Still, they had never texted each other before, other than to confirm a rehearsal or check choreography.

His resolve crumbled, and he deleted the text.

~*~*~*~

Percy was sore all over. He’d stopped being about to feel his legs somewhere around hour six, but they were coming to the end of hour eight now.

It was a good kind of sore. A kind of sore he only felt after a good, intense day of dancing. It was still the kind of sore that made him want to go home and take an ice bath and fall asleep listening to anything other than classical music. But a good sore.

When the music ended, he and Annabeth parted, both breathing heavily.

“Great job you guys,” Chiron said. Annabeth smiled wide at Percy. “Go home and get some rest. We still have some work to do before we move to dress rehearsals,”

Dress rehearsals. They moved to the theater in a week, which meant the show went up in two weeks. Percy’s heart began to race as he realized how little time there was left to go.

Before Percy got the chance to tell Annabeth how great she had done that day, Piper ran up between the two of them, throwing one arm over either of their shoulders.

“You guys looked so good up there!” She said. “Have you gotten to try on your costumes yet? Because I tried mine on yesterday and it is gawdy, and borderline camp, and everything I’d want in a fairy,"

Annabeth snuck her way out from under Piper’s arm. “I tried on my act one costume yesterday. It’s the big pink tutu with roses on it. I look like a storybook ballerina,”

As opposed to all the other days, Percy thought, when you’re just a regular beautiful woman in a tutu.

~*~*~*~

Percy took the risk of looking creepy as hell and waited for Annabeth to change before heading home. It had gotten dark hours ago, and he didn’t want her to walk to the subway alone if she didn’t have to.

“Hey,” she said when she saw him waiting, “what’s up?”

“It’s, uh, pretty dark out, and I wanted to see if you’d like me to walk you to the subway?” His face felt hot.

Annabeth just smiled and nodded. “Sure. I take the 1 train,”

“No shit, so do I,” Percy said as they walked out the door and into the cold New York City street. That was kind of a dumb thing to say, he realized. The closest subway station only ran the 1 and the 2. It wasn’t completely surprising that she’d take that train. But maybe she found absolute idiocy charming. He could hope so, at least. “Uptown or downtown?”

“Way down,” Annabeth said. “West fourth. You?”

He shrugged and smiled, “Uptown, west one-hundred and fourth,” he said. “How’d you end up so far downtown?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I liked the area, and … well Luke really wanted to get out of midtown,” she smiled. “I hope Portland is far enough for him,” she said that softly, like she was pretending that Percy wasn’t supposed to hear her.

“So, you’re there alone now?” He hoped that didn’t sound creepy.

“Yup. It’s actually been pretty nice,” she paused before adding, “besides if I get lonely, I can just put on a podcast and pretend there are other people around,”

Percy began to smile as an idea formed in his head. “Well, if you want someone to hang out with or if you want a nice home cooked meal, you can come over to my place on Sunday. My mom and I are excellent chefs.” He bragged humbly, hoping she’d agree to the invite.

“You live with you mom?” Annabeth asked.

Percy blushed, “Yeah, but not in like a weird Greek tragedy way or a sad way,” he clarified. “My mom and stepdad way undercharge for rent, and they are saving the rent money I give them to help save for my little sister’s college, and since my mom is one hell of a cook, … it works out for everyone,” Percy said a little too quickly. “Plus, my mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the entire world, so you need to come just for those.”

“I don’t think you want me eating too many cookies before we have to do all of these lifts,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” Percy promised, “all the food my mom makes has no calories.”

Annabeth laughed as they made their way down the subway stairs. “Well, how could I pass up a good meal with no calories?” She turned to face him. “That would be great though. I can’t cook for shit. Well, I mean, I could cook if I wanted to, I’m not an idiot. I just hate doing it.”

Percy’s heart did little flips in his chest as they pushed through the turnstiles, about to go in opposite directions. Annabeth was coming over for dinner, and he felt like he was walking on air.

Percy was hoping for a slow goodbye where he promised to text her, and then wished her goodnight. But as soon as they were through the gate, the downtown 1 train pulled in.

“Shit!” Annabeth yelled, taking off towards the stairs. “See you tomorrow!” she yelled, already out of sight.

See you tomorrow, Percy though, smiling, as he made his way down the stairs to the uptown side.

~*~*~*~

“So for your date tonight –“ his mom started.

“It’s not a date,” Percy protested. “It’s just Annabeth.”

“She’s coming all the way from downtown to meet you.”

“Well, yeah.”

“She’s staying for dinner.”

“Yeah.”

“You two are dancing together.”

“Mom!”

She held up her hands in surrender, before she asked him to pass him some spices.

“Seriously, though,” he said, “it’s not a date. If I had asked her out, our first date wouldn’t be in our apartment with you, Paul, and Stella around.” He stood at the counter, his back to her as he chopped the vegetables. “Besides, I don’t think she wants to be dating.”

“Well, I’ll still try not to embarrass you just in case,” she said.

“You know, it’d be great if you tried not to embarrass me at all ever,” he said.

She walked over and ruffled his hair. “I gave birth to you; I can embarrass you when and how I want. That’s the arrangement.”

“To be clear,” Percy said, “I did not ask to be born.”

~*~*~*~

Annabeth arrived about half an hour before dinner was ready. Percy buzzed her into the building, and then opened the door to his apartment for her.

“Hi,” she said, looking a little frazzled from the cold. She handed him a bottle of wine in a paper bag. “I brought a bottle of wine,” she said quickly, “because I didn’t know what else to bring, but, I don’t know about you, I don’t drink this close to shows, so I’m sorry if this is totally useless.”

Percy smiled at her nervousness and let her inside. “It’s fine. My parents will enjoy it, or we can save it until after the run of the show.” That seemed to relax her a bit. She slipped off her jacket and hat, which Percy quickly took from her, hanging them on the hook near the door. She was wearing a simple cream-colored sweater and a pair of jeans with her long blonde hair down around her shoulders. It was a simple look, but Percy so rarely saw her in street clothes or with her hair down that he almost forgot why she was in his apartment at all.

“Let me introduce you,” he said, ushering her into the kitchen and living room.

After introductions, which were thankfully free of embarrassment for Percy, the two sat on the couch. Annabeth fiddled with her hands and started straight forward. Percy had seen her dance in front of a crowd of thousands, balanced on two toes, without a single sign of nerves or anxiety, but something about Percy’s small family had made her uneasy.

“Are you okay?” Percy asked.

Annabeth nodded a little too quickly. “I just haven’t met new people or had dinner at someone’s house in, like, a year. And other people’s parents tend not to like me.”

“Don’t worry, I think my mom will like you just fine.” Annabeth sighed and shook her head, not saying anything. “Hey,” Percy took her hands, steadying them, “there’s nothing to worry about,” he assured her. “My mom is probably going to ask you polite questions about where you trained before New York and how you like the company, and all of that. My sister will probably ask you ask the costumes and the hair and the shoes. And my stepdad will probably make a bad pun and pretend to know what any of us are talking about.”

Annabeth smiled and nodded as her shoulders relaxed. Percy pulled his hands away when he realized he was still holding hers, trying not to blush.

~*~*~*~

They shared small talk, talking about company drama and recalling old stories, until Sally called them into the kitchen for dinner.

“Thank you, again, for having me,” Annabeth said as they sat down.

“It’s my pleasure, dear,” Sally told her. “Please, enjoy,” she said, handing her a bowl of food to scoop from.

“So,” Sally started once they were all served, “Annabeth, where are you from?”

Annabeth cleared her throat. “Well, my whole family is from Boston, but I grew up in Virginia, until I moved to New York for the ballet school when I was fourteen. I’ve lived here ever since.”

“And they took you into the company very early, didn’t they?” Sally asked.

Annabeth nodded. “I was sixteen. It was grueling,” she said. “I’m glad that dancers are being taken in later that I was, because it was hard. I still don’t think I was prepared for it, and I have no idea how I got through it.”

“What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on stage?” Estelle asked. Sally frowned at her, but Annabeth laughed.

“I was dropped once.” Estelle’s eyes went wide, and Sally gasped. Percy laughed, remembering the story she was about to tell.

“When I was twenty,” Annabeth said, “I was Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and there is a scene at the end where Juliet has taken potion to make it look like she’s dead.” Annabeth explained to Estelle, who was looking at her with an extreme intensity. “And Romeo comes on stage, and he sees me laying on this tombstone, which was just this wooden slab on a platform three steps up. And Romeo has to pick up Juliet’s lifeless body and carry her down the stairs and do a pas de deux. But, of course, I’m dead, so I can’t help the guy. So, he’s just swinging me around like deadweight.” Percy and Paul laughed at this, but Sally kept on looking horrified. Percy wasn’t sure if his mom was still hung up on the fact that Annabeth had been dropped, or if she was uncomfortable with the choreography being described. Estelle, though, just looked fascinated with the story.

“One night, Charles Beckendorf, who’s one of the best partners in the business, is my Romeo, and climbs up the stairs, picks me up, and then, all the sudden, I am falling down the stairs.” Percy heard his mom whisper “oh my god,” as Annabeth continued. “And I have no idea what happened, because I’m dead, so my eyes are closed. Turns out, he had slipped at the top of the stairs, and we had both fallen down onto the stage. Thankfully, neither of us were hurt, but the orchestra was still going, so we had to keep dancing. But I’m still dead. So, he had to lift me, dead weight, off the stage and finish the dance.

“The worst part was that, at that point in the ballet, Romeo and Juliet don’t leave the stage until the show is over. So, for the next twenty minutes, we are both panicking thinking we’re going to get pulled from the ballet for the rest of the run or that we’re going to be fired.

“Curtain falls, ballet is over, we meet Chiron backstage who just nodded and said, ‘I liked it, leave it in.’” Percy laughed at Annabeth’s Chiron impression – a stiff nod, a frown, and a gruff voice offering compliments when you expected nothing but critique.

“Apparently,” Annabeth continued, “from the audience, it had looked planned, as if Romeo was so overcome with grief, he just couldn’t stay standing. Of course, one of the ballet mistresses heard about Chiron’s plan and told him it was too dangerous for me to be dropped down the stairs every night, so we never did end up doing it again.”

“Well,” Paul said, “hopefully Percy won’t drop you like that.”

“No,” Percy said, “this ballet is thankfully free of carrying her down stairs. Although,” he looked at Annabeth, “you are in a death-like sleep again.”

Annabeth smiled. “As long as I never have to be a snowflake again, I’ll take all of the only-mostly-dead roles.”

~*~*~*~

Annabeth opened up after that, charming Sally and Estelle with her dance stories and compliments about Percy’s skills as a partner (which Percy didn’t mind either.) She tried to help Sally clear the table, but Sally refused to let her help, insisting that she and Percy relax in the living room. After a few minutes, she brought in a tray of blue cookies for them.

Annabeth’s eyes went wide when she saw them; she picked a big one off the top and held it in front of her face. “Blue?” she asked.

“It’s an inside joke between my mom and me,” Percy said, picking up a cookie of his own.

Annabeth eyes went wide and she smiled, “Oh! That’s why everything you own is blue!” She said, like she had solved some grand mystery. “Your bag, your foam roller, your water bottle.” Percy smiled and nodded, confirming her conclusions. “And see, I just thought you were super into that ‘blue for boys, pink for girls’ thing.”

Percy laughed, breaking off a piece of his cookie. “No, I think that’s kind of bogus.”

Before Annabeth could respond, Sally poked her head in. “We’re going to be in our room, but it was so nice to meet you Annabeth. Please, feel free to stay as long as you’d like. And take some of the cookies home with you!”

Annabeth waved them goodnight. “Goodnight and thank you again for having me. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime, honey,” Sally said, disappearing around the corner.

“See,” Percy said, “I told you they’d like you.”

Annabeth smiled. “Yeah, must just be my family that doesn’t like me, then.”

She said that nonchalantly like it was a joke, but it caught Percy off guard. “You’re not close with your family?” He asked her.

She shrugged. “No, not really.”

“That must have been hard,” Percy said.

She nodded. “I mean, I should be grateful for them,” she added. “They’ve supported me my entire career and paid for everything, you know? But mostly I think they were glad I found ballet. It kept me out of the house most of the time.” Annabeth laughed sadly as she nibbled on her cookie. “It was funny. There was this one time, right when I was about to turn seventeen and find out if I got my company contract, and I got a text from my step-mom that just said: ‘Your dad got a new job in San Francisco. We’re moving in a week.” She forced a laugh again, but when she saw that Percy didn’t find that funny, she let her guard down. “They’d all known for months, but none of them thought to tell me.” She finished in a voice much sadder than the one she had started with.

Percy rested a hand on her knee, which she took willingly. “I’m so sorry, that’s awful. Can I ask why they didn’t –”

She cut him off. “My mom left me and my dad in the middle of the night when I was a few weeks old, and we never heard from her again. I guess things were fine with just me and my dad for the first few years, but he got remarried when I was three. They started their ‘real’ family, and I was just wrench in the machine.” She shrugged. “But anyway,” she said, forcing herself to perk up, “it all worked out. I mean, I got this amazing dance career and an absolutely awful taste in men,” she joked, “and you didn’t invite me here just to talk about my problems. Tell me about you. We’ve been dancing together for years, and I feel like I barely know you.”

“Can I give you a hug?” Percy asked her.

She was taken aback. “What?”

“Can I give you a hug? You just seem kind of sad.”

Annabeth dropped her plucky attitude and nodded, opening her arms to him. He held her tightly, rubbing her back gently to let her know that he was there.

When she pulled away, there were some tears on her cheeks that she quickly blotted off with a napkin. “Jesus, look at me, I’m so sorry.”

“You’re fine,” Percy assured her. “And, seriously, if you ever need to talk, I’m here. I would really like to be your friend.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you, that really means a lot to me.”

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, before Annabeth said: “But, really, tell me about yourself. How did you get started in ballet?”

“Kind of like you did, I guess. I needed something to do after school to get me out of the house and away from my stepdad,” he said. “Not Paul,” he added, “the guy my mom was married to before him.” He ran his hand through his hair and relaxed back on the couch. “I didn’t start dancing until I was ten,” he told her.

Her eyes went wide. “Really?”

He nodded. “I started at the Y, really basic classes because I needed something to do.” He didn’t tell her it was because he’d gotten kicked off the rec basketball team for punching a kid who’d made fun of Tyson, Percy friend and teammate, for having down syndrome. Percy’s reasons for decking the kid didn’t matter to his coach, though, who’d just hung his head, exhausted constantly by Percy’s troublemaking. “Just go home, Percy,” his coach had told him. “Just go home.” When he’d gotten kicked off the team, he had known he’d have to find something else to do after school as soon as he could. He couldn’t stand the idea of spending hours alone with Gabe before his mom got home from the candy shop.

“Why’d you pick dance?” She asked.

“I wanted to play basketball,” he said, “but the season had already started. The only thing I could still sign up for was ballet.” Percy smiled. “It was funny, the week I had my first class was the week before my mom got paid, so I didn’t have ballet shoes yet. I tried to do the barre in my socks, but the instructor saw, and she came back with these girls ballet slippers. They were extras they had. They were too big and for girls, but they were better than nothing. I ended up wearing them for four months. My mom had to sew the canvas where my big toe had popped through.” Annabeth smiled at the detail, but Percy figured she’d never had to wear second-hand shoes.

“Why’d you stick with it?” She asked.

Percy took a deep breath and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “It was a control thing, I think,” he said. “I …” he hesitated, but he decided to be honest with her, the way she had been with him. “I was a troubled kid. I have ADHD and dyslexia, so my grades were bad. I got into fights, my stepdad …” he decided to leave those details out. “Well, he’s not around anymore and that’s for the best.” Annabeth nodded, looking at him even as he kept his gaze forward.

“I understand that,” she mused as he continued.

“But when I got to ballet … well, it was this quiet room with piano music, and no one was talking to each other. We all just plie’d in peace, and it was just so nice,” he smiled, “and I felt in control there. I realized that if I put a lot into ballet, I’d get a lot out of it. So, I started to practice every night, and after six months, my teacher told my mom that I had to be in a better program if I wanted to be a better dancer, because she really believed that I could go the distance.”

He paused, smiling at the memory, but his eyes felt a little misty. He took a sip of water to avoid crying in front of her. “It was the first time a teacher had really believed in me,” he said. “She helped me find a school and scholarship money, and … that was all she wrote. I started dancing pretty much every day until I got into the academy at fifteen.” He smiled and looked back at her.

She was listening to him intently and had leaned closer to him. When he sat up straight, she had to readjust so that their bodies didn’t collide. He smiled when he saw that she was still listening to him. “You know, the year I started at the school was the year you got into the company?”

She didn’t answer his question. Instead, she placed her hands on his, the same way he had for her earlier. “You must have worked really hard.” She said.

Percy nodded. “So many people in the school and the company had done all of these summer intensives and had been in youth companies and all of that. And there I was, this ragamuffin kid who got his start as a pre-teen at the YMCA,”

Annabeth smiled uncomfortably. “I was in a youth company,”

Percy forced himself to laugh and assure her that he didn’t hate people who had been in youth companies or had been dancing since they were very young. He knew it wasn’t her fault that she had gotten lucky, he just always hated that sense of what-if: what if he had more money growing up? What if he had gotten started earlier? How much further in his career could he be if he had half the opportunities Annabeth had?

“Besides, you haven’t had it easy either,” he said.

She nodded. “I actually spent the last few months back in Virginia at the youth company. I did some choreography, led some classes, and kept up with my own training. It was nice to get out of the city for a while.”

“I bet,” he said. He wanted to ask her what happened, but he figured she would have already told him, so he dodged it. “I’m lucky, my get-away is a lot closer than yours.”

“Oh yeah? Where do you escape to?”

“Montauk beach, out on Long Island.” He pointed vaguely towards the east.

“You know, I’ve lived in New York for twelve years, and I’ve never been to Long Island.”

Percy’s eyes went wide. “What do you do in the summer? Suffer here? Or do you jet off to Disney World or Hawaii?”

She bumped her shoulder into his. “Please, I don’t have that much money.” She said. “I go …” She paused, and the put her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Oh my god, I don’t even want to tell you. I feel like you’ll stop being my friend forever.”

Percy smiled when she called him her friend. “Nothing you could say could change that. Come on, just tell me.”

She took a deep breath. “I go to Jersey,” she admitted.

Percy groaned and leaned back against the couch. “Oh my god!”

“It’s nice! They have nice beaches, good pizza –“

“Get out of my apartment!” Percy said while laughing and pointing at the door. Annabeth grabbed his hand and pulled it out of its pointing pose.

“It’s nice, I promise!”

“Please!” Percy said. “Long Island might not be the Bahamas, but it’s better than Jersey.”

“Have you ever been to New Jersey?” She asked.

“No,” he admitted, “but that’s by design.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she said.

“Alright, tell you what,” Percy said. “This summer, I’ll take you to Long Island and you can take me to Jersey,” he couldn’t believe what he was saying, “and we’ll decide which was better.”

Annabeth held out her hand. Percy took it and they shook on it. “Deal.” She said.

~*~*~*~

They stayed up talking and enjoying a few too many cookies but not worrying about it, for two more hours. When Annabeth caught a flash of the time: 10:15p.m. She gasped.

“I had no idea how late it was getting,” she said, standing up. “I should head home and let you get some rest.”

“Do you want me to come with you on the subway?” Percy offered. “It’s getting late and you’ve got a long train ride.”

Annabeth shook her head. “No, thank you though, that’s sweet. I’ll just call an Uber,” she said, taking out her phone.

Percy nodded, picking up the tray of cookies. “Sounds good. I’m sending you home with at least half of these, though, or else my mom will kill me.”

Annabeth smiled. “If I don’t fit into my costume, I’m telling Silena that it’s your fault.”

Percy placed a few cookies in a zip-lock bag and handed it to her. “They have no calories remember,” he said.

She zipped up her coat and forced her hat onto her head. Before she could say goodbye, Percy slipped on his jacket and shoes. “Let me walk you out,” he said.

~*~*~*~

They stood on the curb waiting for her car as snow started to fall. Percy looked up at the sky and smiled, watching the flurries fall in the light of the streetlamps.

“Thank you, again, Percy, for such a great night,” she said.

“Anytime, seriously. My door is always open.” He was suddenly very aware of how close they were standing and how beautiful he thought she was. There were times where he thought his crush on her was maybe just the result of admiration for her dancing. He thought that, maybe if he got to know her, he wouldn’t like her as much outside of the studio. Tonight had disproven that theory.

Her Uber pulled up. “Annabeth?” the driver asked. Annabeth double checked the license plate number before confirming. She turned back to Percy to say a final goodbye.

That would have been the perfect moment to kiss her, as she stood under the snow, looking up at him, the yellow light of the streetlamp bouncing off her blonde hair. Sure, they had kissed before, but rehearsal kisses were different. They didn’t count. This would be an “I like you” kiss, a “let me take you out to dinner” kiss, it could be a wonderful, earth-shattering, life changing kiss.

But that kiss would ruin everything. Instead, he tried to memorize the way her eyes looked, and the way snow stuck to her eyelashes, and the way she waved goodbye to him from the window of her Uber.

#this chapter is 5000 words long oh my god #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #once upon a pointe

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jana-hallford · 5 years

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Baby Boomer Memories: Liddle Kiddle Dolls

I was a girly little girl, and loved dolls. (I still do.) Most of my favorite dolls were by Mattel, including Barbie, my beloved Sister Belle, and my last childhood doll, Dancerina. Mattel was a major, major toy maker for the Baby Boomer generation.

Elliot Handler, founder of Mattel (and husband of Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll!) wanted a line of dolls representing small children in neighborhoods across America. Famed doll sculptor Martha Armstrong Hand, who sculpted other popular dolls including Drowsy (1965) and Cheerful Tearful (1966), made the first ten Kiddles in 1965. They were soft vinyl, with bendable wired legs, painted facial features, and rooted hair that could be brushed and combed. Each came with accessories and a little illustrated “komic” or story booklet.

Florence Niddle (1966 - 1967), one of the first 24 Liddle Kiddle dolls.

Bunson Burnie (1966 - 1967), one of the original 24 Liddle Kiddles.

Rolly Twiddle (1967) the only African American doll of the first 24 Liddle Kiddles released. She is highly sought after, especially with her original clothes, wagon, pail and shovel, and Komic booklet.

Freezy Sliddle (1967), one of the first 24 Liddle Kiddle dolls.

Liddle Kiddles were introduced at the New York Toy Fair in 1966. The Toy Fair is a buying show, not open to the public, so the dolls hit the market a little later.

I was the fourth grade and turned nine years old in 1967, the perfect age to discover Liddle Kiddle dolls. They were about three inches tall -- much smaller than most dolls of the day -- with playful accessories and outfits. I had so much fun with them!

I had the Storybook Kiddle Liddle Biddle Peep doll (1968), and two Lucky Locket Kiddles. Liddle Biddle Peep was, of course, Little Bo Peep, complete with a chenille sheep and a little shepherd’s crook, a pink dress with paniers, and a matching bonnet. Like all the Storybook Kiddles, Liddle Biddle Peep came with a storybook. She was played with until wires started poking out from her limbs.

Liddle Biddle Peep from the Storybook Kiddles collection. I loved her.

Sleeping Biddle Storybook Kiddle. I wanted this one so much!

Lucky Locket Kiddles were about two inches tall, and came in wearable plastic lockets with “jeweled” frames and clear plastic bubble fronts. There was a stand on the back that could be pulled out, allowing the locket to be displayed like a picture frame. Unlike their larger siblings, Lucky Locket dolls were not wired, and their clothes were sewn on.

This excellent collection of Lucky Locket Kiddles includes some from the original “Gold Series,” plus some later issues.

My first Lucky Locket Kiddle was Lois Locket, the sole black doll in the Lucky Locket series. I loved her. The summer between fourth and fifth grade, when I was ten, my family drove to San Francisco for a rare vacation. Lois went with me. While we were in San Francisco, we visited a Russian family we had befriended in Japan. When we arrived, we met the newest addition to the family, a darling little girl named Lana but called Kinka. She was five and spoke only Russian, but language was not a barrier. Kinka saw me and immediately pulled me away to play with her. The first thing she did was show me her big sister Tanya’s room. I could tell she attached special importance to Tanya’s make-up and View-Master. I gave Kinka a coin purse from a set I had shaped like dolls. (I was in my “It’s a Small World” phase, and the coin purse dolls represented various nations.) Kinka liked my Lois Locket, and my mother encouraged me to give it to her when we were leaving, so I did. I was not able to replace Lois.

Larky Locket.

My next and last Kiddle was Larky Locket, a sweet blonde baby. I still have her, sans locket, in an ornate, Rococo-inspired little doll cradle. Lois and Larky were both in the first set of seven Lucky Locket Kiddles (1967), known as the “Gold Set,” since the frames were gold. Lois was the only doll repeated in the second set of seven Lockets called the “Pastel” set, (1968) due to the difference in frame colors. I’m almost certain my Lois was from the second set, as I recall her locket frame as pastel green, but I could be wrong. Her clothing was the same in both.

The cover of a Lucky Locket Kiddles set of paper dolls shows photos of the actual dolls inside illustrated frames. Larky Locket, in the center, was the baby of the bunch. I still have her. Lois Locket, just to her right, was the only African-American Lucky Locket Kiddle.

Carrying cases were sold for the dolls. Some of my friends had them. There were also tie-in coloring books and paper dolls.

Liddle Kiddles Klub carrying case, exterior.

Liddle Kiddles Klub case, interior.

Pink train case-style Liddle Kiddle carrier.

Liddle Kiddle and hat-box style case. Sailor doll Lola Liddle (1966-1967) came with a sailboat. (She is not missing her shoes -- her feet were bare.) The picture on the case shows her with Howard "Biff" Boodle (1966). Lola Liddle and Biff Boodle were among the original 24 Kiddles released. Each was sold with a Komic book that featured them both together.

Mattel released many additional Kiddles, including Kola Kiddles and Kiddle Kolognes. These were two-inch dolls, much like their Locket sisters, but in clear plastic bottles that looked like soft drink bottles and perfume bottles. The tiniest Kiddles were Jewelry Kiddles, from just under to just over one inch high. The largest, four-inch Skedaddle Kiddles, were able to walk, ride vehicles or wave thanks to an internal mechanism. Five Holiday Kiddles (1968 - 1969) representing Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day, had soft bodies and vinyl faces. They could be worn as pins, and the Christmas dolls could also serve as tree ornaments. Four Kiddles n’ Kars dolls (1969 - 1970) wore old-fashioned dresses and drove cars based on early automobiles.

Rosebud (1968 - 1969) from the Kiddle Kolognes collection. The Kologne Kiddles were scented.

Apple Blossom (1968 - 1969) from the Kiddle Kolognes series, shown outside of her bottle.

Some of the other later releases were four tiny (two inch) dolls in animal costumes with yarn hair, the Animiddle Kiddles (1969-1970) that could be worn as pins, and four Zoolery Kiddles (1969-1970). Zoolery Kiddles were four plastic animals (panther, lion, chimpanzee, and bear) rather than children, in plastic circus cages, each attached to a bracelet. The cages could be combined to form a circus train.

Robin Hood and Maid Marion from the Storybook Kiddles Sweethearts Collection.

Never opened Lady Crimson from the Tea Party Kiddles series (1969).

From 1968 to 1970 the Storybook Kiddles Sweethearts, tiny but well-detailed pairs of Kiddles portraying star-crossed lovers, such as Romeo and Juliet, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian, were released, along with the Tea Party line in 1969, featuring girls in beautiful gowns, each with a teacup and saucer large enough for human use. This was also the year of the wonderful, whimsical Kozmic Kiddles -- glow-in-the-dark space aliens in flying saucers. I remember Kozmic Kiddles from the Sears Christmas Catalog. How I wanted one of those!

Kozmic Kiddle Greenie Meanie (1969). The Kozmic Kiddles fetch some of the highest prices.

Six Sweet Treat Kiddles with ice cream and lollipop motiifs came out 1969 - 1970. Three Playhouse Kiddles, one set in a kitchen, one in a parlor, and one in a bedroom, were sold only in 1970. Four Liddle Baby Kiddles were also released in 1970. (I was glad to see one of the Liddle Baby Kiddles was African American. For the time, the representation was significant.) I was aware of the Sweet Treats, but otherwise don’t remember most of the later Liddle Kiddles.

A story I read as a child compared growing up to going through a magic door. It closes behind you, but a new door opens. When I was 12, I gradually stopped playing with dolls the way I had before, even though I still liked them. I felt profound sadness for leaving my childhood, but understood it was inevitable, and looked forward to what was ahead. I vowed not to forget what it was like to be a child, and like many creative people, I do remember.

Coincidentally, as my childhood and the 1960s came to a close, so did the heyday of Liddle Kiddles. The rising price of petroleum was bad news for makers of vinyl and plastic products, including toys. Mattel made drastic cuts, and the last Kiddles were released in 1970. ln 1971 production discontinued. (The iconic and perennial best-seller Barbie endured.)

There were a few postscripts in the late 1970s. Lucky Locket Kiddles were reissued 1976 - 1978 with bright color frames, then some final ice cream theme Sweet Treat Kiddles were released in 1979, but otherwise the Liddle Kiddle series was no more. Their influence remains. Liddle Kiddles paved the way for other small dolls, including a Kiddles-like series by Uneeda in the 1980s.

Liddle Kiddles remain very popular with collectors, and there are many on-line resources and collector groups. For quite of few of us, these dolls are a treasured memory.

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