So, I'm not sure what Ariana Grande did to get Mattel all riled up, but recently it seems like they've been trying to ruin the new "Wicked" movie for a lot of fans.
Here's how it all started...
After Cynthia Erivo's version of Elphaba's signature song "Defying Gravity" was already leaked via one of the first trailers, in July, Mattel posted on their Instagram the first look at the Erivo and Grande Barbie dolls in a video taken at CinemaCon where the stars meet their singing dolls for the first time. (You can watch the video here.)
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| Ariana and Cynthia meeting mini Elphie and Glinda. Credit: Instagram: @cynthiaerivo, @mattel, @arianagrande |
However, while Cynthia's rendition "Defying Gravity" played freely throughout the clip, when the Ariana doll played her rendition of "Popular", the camera cut to the next frame, so fans were only able to hear a few seconds of the song.
And in August, Mattel posted test videos for the Elphaba and Glinda dolls to their website, which showed the dolls singing their respective songs. But in the case of the latter's video, the clip for "Popular" was much longer, at roughly 25 seconds!
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| Screenshot of the video. Courtesy: Mattel |
Mattel has since removed the video from their website, but the video would end up circulating on TikTok, X/Twitter (I refuse to say Xitter), and other social media platforms. On one TikTok upload, fans in the comments were outraged over the accidental spoilers.
But just right now, it looks like the "Wicked" dolls have an entirely new problem!
As parents were eagerly wanting to get the dolls based on the family-friendly box office smash for their kids this Christmas, a few took note at a certain URL printed on the back of the dolls' boxes.
But upon looking at that website, instead of Emerald City, flying monkeys, and links to buy tickets and other "Wicked" merchandise, they got some not-so-family friendly content and a warning to confirm if you're 18 years and older.
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| Credit: X/Twitter: @just2goodYT |
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| Do not look up "wicked.com" if you're under 18. |
You see, the link was originally meant to go to the official movie website, "wickedmovie.com". But on the packaging, it says "wicked.com", which links to the website for Wicked Pictures, a studio unaffiliated by Universal Pictures, that specializes in "adult parody films", specifically pornographic parodies of already-existing blockbuster movies. According to a similar Kotaku article, the NSFW Wicked Pictures site is owned by Digigamma, a Dutch company that “specializes in running and managing high risk e-commerce businesses”, and I think I have a feeling the porn site seems to have been registered since at least the 90's, because even since 2003, long before the Barbie doll blunder, it gained so much mistaken traffic from fans of the Broadway musical.
Also it looks like it's happening on ALL the dolls and ONLY on the dolls, as it seems like other Wicked toys and merchandise are not affected by the X-rated website blunder. For example, according to a similar article from Fox 59 Indianapolis, a tie-in Fisher-Price Little People set has a URL that points to the Mattel website.
Oh, and even worse, a comment on a Reddit post by user "iamwomanhearmepour" shows that the naughty website error is even on the enclosed instruction sheet for the singing dolls and on another comment on the same post, the error is even on a (Wayback Machine archived) PDF for the same instruction sheet, where even the link is clickable as well!
Mattel apologized to news publications in a statement:
"Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children."
Following the statement, the dolls have since been pulled from retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Amazon, however they are still on eBay right now, where listings for them go from $100 to a WILD $2,000. So if any Wicked fans want to get your hands on the naughty-linked toys, better cough up your wallets. After all, any toy or item with a simple and small manufacturing error or misprint could be worth a fortune and eventually create a potential market for collectors.
Based on Gregory Maguire's bestselling book of the same name (which is also based on The Wizard of Oz story by L. Frank Baum), "Wicked" is a Broadway musical and upcoming movie that tells the story of the witches of Oz.
Meanwhile, here's me after seeing the news reports and not caring if a simple misprint could make it be worth wild amounts of money:
But seriously, is it that hard for Mattel to point out a mistake before they release something on store shelves?
XO,
Samantha
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