Mary Shelley Reincarnated for Disney as Shelley Marie
Mary Shelley continues to make her mark since being rediscovered a couple of years ago now. She has made it as the lead in a movie, a book about her life, an audiobook, a comic book character alongside Elvira, as the star of an off-broadway musical, a teenage PBS science detective and now reincarnated under a slightly flipped name of Shelley Marie, as a showhost character for Disneyland.
As the majorette domo for a new holiday themed show at the Disney California Adventure park, Shelley Marie stars in “Villainous!” a new light and water “World of Color” show for this Halloween season.
Disney has long been known for the “princess” in various forms, but the powergirl phenomenon continues with the rise of the Disney “anti-princess” a character with a shade of the dark side, and the idea that no one is ever all good and that evil doesn’t have to be “bad”. The young character of Shelley Marie, acknowledged as a play on the name of the author of Frankenstein, is described as a celebration of the individual and that normal doesn’t mean one size fits all.
As the star of the theme park show, Shelley Marie is a regular kid, a preteen who admires some of the fantasy land’s other larger than life characters, the form-shifting of Maleficent, the spellbinding prowess of the Evil Queen from “Snow White”, and the charismatic drama of the Shadow Man from “The Princess and the Frog.”
Shelley Marie’s fashion style is rather a mash of Lydia from “Beetlejuice” meets Wednesday from “The Addams Family”, but less Goth and more vivid colors, created by Disney animator Eric Goldberg, who is best known for his work on the Genie of Disney’s “Aladdin” and “Moana”.
The 20 minute long light show premieres at the Anaheim based park on Sept. 17 leading up to Halloween. Though, unlike her most verbally expressive namesake, Shelley Marie doesn’t speak, yet. Disney might add some vocal tones to her exaggerated facial expressions of rolling her eyes when confronted by a spooky villain, but no deliberations on life and death.
The question remains if this is a one-off appearance for the dark-toned preteen, or will she find her way into a show or movie of her own. Time will tell.
Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – E-Book
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