Misfit Toys - What's wrong with the doll?

[jaymindrew]

I'm sure she's just misunderstood.

Or she might not have been "real enough", given the fact that the realistic plastic dolls became popular in the mid to late 50's, a few years before Rudolph aired in 1964. Dolly could have been the victim of the "real doll" craze, and when given to one little girl, was rejected and cast away.

 

[jaymindrew]

She does cry during the scene at the end of the show- there are a few toys gathered around a fire, and they are sad that it looks like Santa has forgotten them again. They say that Rudolph promised Santa would come, but they suppose he did his best. Arthur-in-the-Box says they might as well go home to sleep- he would dream of going to a child at Christmas. The Dolly starts crying and says, "I haven't any dreams left!". Of course, just then, they see Santa's sleigh in the sky, Rudolph's red nose shining.

Of course, this doesn't answer the question of why she was on the island, but shows she's probably clinically depressed...

That's true, given that she tearfully blurts, "We'll NEVER get off this Island . . . NEVER!!!"

 

[jaymindrew]

OMG, I just asked dh this last night while we were watching it. I have watched Rudolph every year since I was a kid and it never occurred to me until last night that there really isn't anything wrong with her

Originally, the producers had to add a stereotypical girls doll into the story, and neglected to add a definitive Misfit property to her. But this has been changed (see Wikipedia.com) for further details (put Misfit Dolly in the search field).

 

[jaymindrew]

Why can't they just fill the squirt gun with water instead of jelly?

Santa might have corrected this, given that you see the Choo Choo without his square wheeled caboose, parachuting down from Santa's sleigh at the end of Rudolph, and the "Swimming Bird" fly from the back of the sleigh.

 

[jaymindrew]

I'm watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with my kids for like the 100th time! It's obvious what's wrong with most of the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys. But what's wrong with the doll? Do they say it and I've been missing it all these years? My husband and I have had our theories over the years but we're still just not sure. Any ideas?

This is the NUMBER ONE question asked about Rudolph, according to all the websites I've read.

 

[jaymindrew]

I've always wondered that too!! I mean, what's her defect?

Check out dollyforsue.com and wikipedia.com. There's even some dollmaker trying to make a recreation of Dolly at http://www.notsoraggedyacre.com/misfit.htm.

 

[jaymindrew]

Oh my gosh!! We have always wondered the same thing!!

Check out "Dolly for Sue" at christmas-specials.wikia.com.

 

[rie'smom]

I agree with what Arthur Rankin (Rudolph's producer) said. He said she was abandoned by a little girl and suffered depression from being unloved. But there's more that the Rudolph adds to Dolly's plight. Charley-In-The-Box says that a Misfit toy is one that NO little girl or boy loves. Dolly was likely rejected by every child, and the one who abandoned her was the last draw . . . the one that made her depressed (a.k.a. "noone loves me").

I don't think "crying" was the reason. Hermey the Elf's boss even says "we have dolls that cry, talk, walk, blink, etc . . .", which must have been the type of things that little girls wanted dolls to do. Dolly could do all these things, given the fact that she is shown to be a unique rag doll . . . being alive and sentinent.

There's been many other valid theories I've heard (behind the official psychological one) that could be at play . . . which might have led to Dolly's depression. People have said, "She has no nose", "Her dress is Tacky", "She says HOW DO YOU DO instead of MAMA", "She's a rag-doll instead of a real-looking doll" and many others. I personally believe that these and others might have been the relative "reasons" that each little girl had for not wanting Dolly . . . all leading to Dolly being on the receiving end of CONSTANT rejection. Dolly's depression then was borne out of feeling "I'm not good enough for any little girl" and "I'll never be wanted", no matter what she did or didn't do. The final abandonment from the little girl that Arthur Rankin mentions kind of cruelly "summed up" these notions in Dolly's mind and made her "give up" on ever being loved . . . UNTIL RUDOLPH AND SANTA FINALLY COME THAT FOGGY CHRISTMAS EVE at the end of the Rudolph story, and find her a happy home.

I seem to remember something about her name making her unlovable. Don't know if it was Mildred or Bertha but something like that. In an age of Susies, Kathies,Lizzies,Deeanns,etc those names would not have cut it and yes, she did cry but that's been cut out of the version now shown.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I thought my DH was the only one who quoted this show all year long!!

"I'm off to get my life sustaining supplies - cornmeal and gunpowder, hamhocks and guitar strings."

"This fog is as thick as peanut butter."
"Don't you mean pea soup?"
"You eat what you like. I'll eat what I like." (My DS 9 now says that one all the time.)

 

[jaymindrew]

I seem to remember something about her name making her unlovable. Don't know if it was Mildred or Bertha but something like that. In an age of Susies, Kathies,Lizzies,Deeanns,etc those names would not have cut it and yes, she did cry but that's been cut out of the version now shown.

In the Rudolph special, Dolly didn't have a name, or a little girl to give her one (NOTE: I own the DVD, and watch it on TV yearly). She referred to herself only as "A Dolly for Sue" in the song she and the other Misfits sang for Rudolph on the Island of Misfit Toys. She also cries just before Rudolph and Santa show up, showing how sad, lonely, and depressed she had become. Perhaps the little girl that Santa and Rudolph find to love and want her might name her Sue or Suzie.