EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 220
album: DISNEY PRINCESS (Panini)
stickers: 228 (1-212, B1-B16) + 54 cards (C1-C54)
starter pack: album + 2 packets 2,90€
box: 36 packets (4 stickers + 1 card per packet) 1,00€ each
Will Disney Magic ever end? Will Disney Princess ever go out of style? No, we are ready to bet. From generation to generation the animation of the “mouse house” remains in everyone’s hearts and dreams.
Panini albums dedicated to Disney Princess we have already had many over the years, so it may seem like a mere commercial operation playing on an evergreen of animation. True, in part, in reality we find the work that Panini has done making this latest creation appreciable, we notice a certain care and also some interesting news, unless we are denied by those who perhaps have a better memory than ours on past productions.
The Princesses as if they were footballers have a dedicated space equal to each other, to each four pages, without thinking too much about the favorite or most famous ones, as for the football champions there are no differences. Pages also very rich in stickers, on average 18 per princess, with the presence of some shaped (our favorites, by now you have understood it), silver specials and the others mainly taken from the images of animated films.
Even the text are not trivial but not too invasive, a bit like the legendary albums of the 70s were, many stickers have their own caption, to allow you to know not only the characteristics of the princesses but also the characters of the reference film, so as to rediscover many cartoon icons that we loved and still love today. Small quizzes and games with solutions at the end of the album also fill in.
All the Disney Princess? Actually no. Here is the order of appearance on the album: Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Merida, Cinderella, Mulan, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Tiana, Moana (Vaiana in Italy), Aurora. The lack of Elsa and Anna from Frozen is sensational, but if the reference is the “Disney Princess” commercial line then everything comes back. Even some freedoms that Disney itself takes since in reality Mulan and Pocahontas are not princesses in the classic concept of the term.
At the center of the album we find the poster with the game, a very nice novelty and we also believe it was successful (even though we have not yet tried to play ..), especially for the idea of providing the pieces within the same packets. In fact, the 16 stickers numbered B are actually “pop-up” cards to be used for the game. We can choose between four princesses and their objects: Belle, Cinderella, Merida and Rapunzel. In our opinion, the mistake is to have put the space for stickers 211 and 212 on the first page of the poster, we would have left this insert something completely independent from the rest of the album.
Another aspect of our rather common reviews is the lack of empathy for the album mix between stickers and cards, not in this case. Of course the album could have done without it, but at least we like the quality and even the subjects chosen in a very good part have their own because:
.C1-C12 splendid close-ups of the Princess with their “home” in the background
.C13-C24 the Princess in motion with great success of the horses, present in 9 out of 12 cards
.C25-C30 a couple the princesses (genuinely avoidable)
.C31-C42 the villains!
.C43-C54 more classic portraits of princesses
Honestly, instead of 54 cards, 36 could have been enough (C1-C12, C13-C24, C31-C42), but we don’t pretend that everyone can share our tastes of course.
Album in general that makes you happy, the single stickers make a breach in the hearts because they bring back so many memories and emotions of when we have seen (several times, be honest!) The various films. Disney magic has the advantage that it does not make it necessary to invent cards that are too special, they already are. We are afraid we will not be able to resist the temptation to run to the newsstand to buy more packets, and you?
(EN)