This Artist Fixed Disney’s Ugly Belle Doll, and Now It Really Looks Like Emma Watson

Disney spent a whole lot of money on its upcoming live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ movie, and they’ll almost certainly get it all back thanks to Disney-hungry children desperate for soundtracks, costumes, and dolls. It doesn’t even seem to matter if the dolls are really ugly, or if they look more like Justin Bieber than Emma Watson.

CGB-Belle-doll-emma-watson-beauty-beast-bieber

(Twitter/@CGBposts)

He’s not wrong, though.

This is Justin Bieber:

(Via Giphy)

This is Emma Watson:

(Via Giphy)

Watson and Bieber are not the most dissimilar-looking people in the world, but that doll’s face is pretty tragic. It looks more like Bieber than Watson, but even Bieber would probably be offended if someone handed him that doll and said it was him. The doll looks more like Justin Bieber if Justin Bieber were awake for three days straight watching sad movies. The doll’s face is so tired and sad looking, it’s downright depressing. So one enterprising doll artist from California decided to fix it.

According to The Daily Mail, California doll artist Noel Cruz saw that poor, sad, weird-faced doll in the store, and decided to turn it into the pretty Belle that Emma Watson deserves. He put the doll up for sale on eBay when he was finished, and frankly, I’m astounded.

emmawatsonbellerepaintdoll2

(eBay/Noel Cruz)

It’s tough to see any semblance of the weird-faced original in this one. At first glance, it looks like an actual photo of Emma Watson. In addition to repainting the face, Cruz cut and restyled the doll’s hair, and painted a more realistic hairline for her. He also put the head on a new body, which he says he thought had a more elegantly sculpted neck and looked more proportionate to the head. The buyer would get final choice as to whether they preferred the head on the original, authentic Belle body or the more elegant replacement.

emmawatsonbellerepaintdoll_beforeafter

(eBay/Noel Cruz)

Seriously, man. How’d you do that? I am damned impressed. Cruz has some real skills here, and it looks like they’re paying off. After a week on eBay and 19 bids, the new Belle doll sold for $3,400. (I will be pointing to this story next time someone says art doesn’t pay.)

Seeing the dolls next to each other like that really points out how sad the original doll looked. Of course Disney can’t mass-produce dolls with faces like Cruz’s. That’s unique work done by hand by a master craftsman. But surely Disney could have done better than that. The dress looks pretty, though. Maybe Disney just assumed its entire market was “people who will throw away the doll because they just want the dress for their Barbies.”

 

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