Mattel Wins Back Disney Doll License; Will Develop Dolls For Live-Action ‘The Little Mermaid’ and More

I never in a million years thought I would be writing about Mattel or dolls, but this news is too good to pass up. After losing the rights to produce Disney Princess and Frozen dolls to Hasbro in 2014, Mattel has regained the license.

According to The Wall Street Journal, starting in 2023, a wide range of dolls inspired by Disney animated classics Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Brave, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Pocahontas, The Princess and the Frog, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tangled, and Frozen. They will also develop dolls for upcoming Disney projects such as Moana, The Series, Tiana, Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid and Snow White.

Mattel also added the new licensing deal builds on its existing licensing relationship with Disney for Pixar Animation Studio’s Toy Story and Cars franchises, as well as the recently announced global licensing agreement for Lightyear, which hits theaters in June.

Read: Michael Giacchino Potentially Scoring Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’

Winning back Disney “was an important priority, and it’s something we worked hard to win,” Ynon Kreiz told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news on Wednesday.

In 2014, industry rumblings pegged Mattel’s internal focus on its Monster High and Ever After High brands as the reasoning behind Disney’s decision to award the license to the company’s East Coast rival. Under the terms of the agreement, Hasbro began producing Disney Princess and Frozen toys beginning in 2016.

Mattel’s relationship with Disney dates back to the 1950s and has continued in recent years through extensive licensing collaborations across multiple brands and categories.

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