It is still showing up, but when you try to add to your cart it says "This item is not available to purchase at this time".
Love it lol! Same here! I'll do that approach for Belle. Eric and Ursula may be a bit difficult. I'll try one more store nearby, otherwise I'll just take my chances online. I'm looking forward to the Frozen stuff!
I completely agree. Part of the problem with a Disney Fairytale is that it should have that happy ending. A dead Mulan would be hard for little girls to understand. I also won't let my girls watch the second Pocahontas because they don't understand falling in love with two different men as the movies suggest. Disney is suppose to keep that wonder, innocence, and sense of good over evil alive. If they created brand new movies with ethnic princesses without historical ties, they would be free to create interesting story lines without limitations. That would really cut down on any backlash from ethnic groups. Maybe they should look into less explored but interesting cultures like Morocco, New Zealand, or the Pacific Islands. I would love cultural diversity without the baggage of all this race related stuff.
Lol I was about to bring up the frog thing about Tiana and Naveen. Imagine froggie designer dolls!
So, Tiana being African American is where we can say that Disney was truly trying to be more inclusive ethnically and racially, because the Grimm's Tale of "The Frog Prince" could very well have easily been set in Europe again, but then again Tiana is not a spoiled princess who loses her golden ball down a well and promises to take the frog into the palace with her if he retrieved it.I just have to say "WOW!" I love you for all of this. Very thorough and makes so much sense.
With the 2011 Designer Princess Dolls, Dollmageddon day was the worst. With the website constantly crashing, the first dolls (Designer Aurora and Designer Rapunzel) sold out within about 1 hour and 30 minutes or less. My order which managed to get both has a time stamp of 10:18:58 am Pacific Time. They were available for purchase starting at 9:00 am Pacific time, which reflects how long it took to get that one order in with the website crashes. They were announced as sold out minutes later. Designer Snow White sold out in about as much time with some website issues as well. The dolls were LE 6000 or LE 4000 on those days, depending on the Designer princess.
For my 2-cents on the ethnic princess issue: it is no secret that most of the princesses are just put where their stories are set, including two of the ethnic princesses: Pocahontas in early 17th century Virginia and Mulan in imperial China. Likewise, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Rapunzel, as well as Anna and Elsa are all set in the European settings where the versions of the stories that the Disney Animation Studios are borrowing the tales originate. Merida was conceived of as a Scottish princess, so there is not much one can say about that.
Jasmine is set in a fantasy sultanate, but based on Les Milles et Une Nuits by translator Antoine Galland who reportedly gathered the tales from Syria (though the tales are even older than that), the events of Aladdin's story take place in China, though there are a lot of Muslim characters in the tale and Aladdin's own name is in Arabic. Also The Thousand and One Nights almost automatically makes one think of the Middle East. So in Jasmine's case, there are enough loopholes to put her in a mythical Arabian land, which is what they did.
Tiana is the only Disney Princess where a very specific agenda was made to provide a Disney African American Princess. I never read the novel The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker, but based on brief book synopses, not only is The Princess and the Frog very, very loosely based on that retelling, but it is not set in New Orleans, Louisiana and I have no idea if ethnicity is actually even addressed (the princess' name is Esmeralda/"Emma" and the prince is Jorge-which are Spanish names). If anyone has actually read this book, please let us know.
As for the backlash in recent times (re: the past 20 or so years), there are always going to be nay-sayers and when it comes down to it, you just can't make everyone happy. I remember reading in the newspapers about the offensive line in 'Arabian Nights' and its consequent removal, about Pocahontas being too Barbie-statuesque and the way Disney glosses over the mistreatment of the Native Americans by the British, about Mulan being too generic-Asian, etc. I think that all of the Disney Princesses (and Disney heroes and heroines for that matter) have great merits that should be celebrated and enjoyed. When it comes to long-term Disney Marketing, however, it is all about who and what they think will sell more. That is why we do not see much new merchandise for Hercules or The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but we also do not see much (or any) new merchandise for Tarzan, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, The Fox and the Hound, among many other Disney films.
Do I think that the ethnic princesses take a back seat to the 'European' princesses? Yes, I do. But the big marketing powerhouses: Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Belle, and as well as Snow White and Aurora, have stories that are very firmly grounded in the American culture as stories that we (and the masterminds behind the scenes at the Disney Store) grew up with. The Disney company is an American company after all. Ariel is a mermaid, and everyone loves mermaids!
and I just wanted to chime in. 
