Star Darlings (Franchise)

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"Our intention with Star Darlings has always been to empower every girl – no matter where she was born or what she looks like – to understand that she has what it takes within, to make her own wishes come true...through the unstoppable energy created by positive thinking, taking action and believing in yourself."
― Shana Muldoon Zappa ^{[[BussinessWire]]}

Star Darlings is a Disney franchise created by Shana Muldoon Zappa and her husband, Ahmet Zappa, first released in September 2015. It consists of books, animated content, songs, and merchandise, including dolls. It tells the story of twelve girls known as the Star Darlings who attend Starling Academy heading to Earth ahead of graduation to grant wishes in order to combat an evil force.

The first two books, Sage and the Journey to Wishworld and Libby and the Class Election, along with A Wisher's Guide to Starland were released on September 15, 2015. The online animated series was first released on October 1, 2015. There were two TV specials that were compilations of the episodes: Becoming Star Darlings on January 29, 2016, and Star Darlings Friendships on March 25, 2016. The final TV special, The Power of Twelve, aired on November 27, 2016. All three specials were broadcast on Disney Channel.

As of 2022, the franchise seems to have been cancelled, as no new content has been released since January 2017 and the three planned books haven’t been produced. In late 2024, the series and site were taken down.

Development[]

In 2009, Shana Muldoon Zappa first filed a trademark for Star Darling. However, on April 11, 2011, it was considered abandoned due to a lack of usage. That same year, Shana, her husband, and Disney Publishing Worldwide began proper development of the franchise. That same year, artists who worked for Disney began drawing concept art, such as John t. Quinn. In 2013, the animated series appears to have begun development at Oddbot, seemingly originally planned to be in 2D as of this animation test of Sage. According to a comment left by someone who worked at the animation studio on a video giving an overview of the Star Darlings series, a full-length series was planned but scrapped due to doll sales falling short of Disney's expectations, thus leaving the studio to make only the online animated shorts and The Power of Twelve, which was going to be the season finale.

"Omg I worked at the animation studio that did the animation for the shorts! I worked on an unrelated project, so this is all second hand knowledge, but there was actually supposed to be a full length series. However the dolls based on the characters did not sell as well as Disney had hoped (and I'm assuming books too, since you mentioned they're not very good?) and the whole project was scrapped. The animation studio ended up doing only the shorts and one "full-length" episode (22 mins) which was originally supposed to be the season finale. No idea if the reason I heard for cancellation was true or not, but stumbling on this was a bit of a blast from the past :)"
― Ochkoshka ^{[[What Happened to Star Darlings]]}

Release[]

On September 15, 2015, Disney Publishing Worldwide announced the release of the franchise. That same day, the books A Wisher's Guide to Starland, Sage and the Journey to Wishworld, and Libby and the Class Election were officially available in stores as well as online to start off the book series. Four days later, Shana and her husband signed books for the series at the Children’s Book World in Los Angeles. Dolls and merchandise were also announced to be sold, being made by Jakks Pacific, with the primary retailer being Justice, a store chain targeted towards girls in their tweens. Disney stores would carry a limited supply of products. Throughout fall of that year, other media was released, including an app, music, and YouTube series.

Media[]

Animated Series[]

Main Article: Star Darlings (cartoon)

The Star Darlings cartoon is a series of webisodes produced by Disney. The episodes are available on their official YouTube channel, while clips were released on the official Star Darlings channel, which was created in September 2015, and the first episode was uploaded on October 1, 2015. The episodes were usually three minutes long and released biweekly, trading off each week with the one-minute short clips. The first episode was Star Charmed, and the latest episode is Paint By Numbers. The animation is done by Snowball Studios and Oddbot Inc., which also did animation for other Disney properties such as Fancy Nancy, Muppet Babies, and Puppy Dog Pals, as well as the Barbie Dreamtopia series from Mattel. As of early October 2024, both the series, music videos, and clips are unable to be watched on both Disney's channel and the Star Darlings channel due to being privated.

Books[]

Main Article: Books

The first two books in the series, Sage and the Journey to Wishworld and Libby and the Class Election, as well as A Wisher's Guide to Starland were released on September 15, 2015. Fourteen books for the main series were released in total, along with a few activity books. The series is published by Disney Publishing Worldwide and has Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa as co-authors. Books for the series have ceased and are no longer in print.

Merchandise[]

Main Articles: Star Darlings (Doll Line), Star Darlings (Merchandise)

The Star Darlings doll line was first released in November 2015, upon the launch of the franchise, and was manufactured by Jakks Pacific. The first deluxe dolls were initially available for purchase at the Disney Store. Since 2017, the line has been discontinued and is no longer in stores. There was other merchandise, such as a musical journal and jewelry that was also packaged with dolls.

App[]

Main Article: Star Darlings App

Along with the series, an app was released for iOS and Android where people could play as the Star Darlings, dress them up, and interact with other characters in quests called ‘stories’. It included in-app purchases and is no longer available in the App Store to download.

Songs[]

Main Article: Star Darlings Band

On October 2, 2015, the music video for the theme song of the franchise Wish Now was released. The music videos for the songs Up and Starlight were released on February 26 and October 7, both in 2017. These three songs are the only ones with music videos to date.

Trivia[]

The original name of Starland was Star Planet.
Every character was going to have Starling as a last name. The dolls' boxes and ID cards have the name printed after their first name. Astra also uses Starling as her surname in Astra's Mixed Up Mission.
Lady Stella was to be named Cassiopeia. This was likely changed to avoid confusion with the Star Darling Cassie.
Scarlet was originally going to be the main antagonist of the series as well as an unnamed character who was described as having acid yellow hair. This later became Vivica.
Sage and the Journey to Wishworld was originally named Sage's Story.
Starling Academy was almost going to be called Star Academy. This was changed late in development to avoid trademark infringement with the Star Academy franchise.
Astra was going to be named Arly.
Vega was going to be named Virginia. The name is later used for Vega's mother in Vega and the Fashion Disaster.
A Star Darling named Prudence was removed upon the finalized version and was replaced by Scarlet.
Adora was almost named Aquamarine.
The Wish Blossom looked entirely different compared to the final version.
The book Star Darlings: Stellar Style had the working title Star Darlings: Hairstyles & Looks and was meant to be released on April 1, 2016.
Gemma and the Ultimate Standoff was first titled Gemma and the Worst Wish Ever.
Leona's Unlucky Mission used to be called Leona's Last Chance.
Star Darlings; Stealing Starlight used to be called Star Darlings: When We Shine.
Disney Star Darlings Cinestory Comic: Volume 1 was planned to be released on November 29, 2016.
Books 15-17 were scheduled to be released on April 7, 2017, July 11, 2017 and October 17, 2017, but all have were cancelled for currently unknown reasons.
A Star Darlings comic story was exclusively published in a Disney Stars magazine in the U.K. and Poland.
Each of the Star Darlings are named after a sign in the Zodiac:
- Astra - Aries
- Tessa - Taurus
- Gemma - Gemini
- Cassie - Cancer
- Leona - Leo
- Vega - Virgo
- Libby - Libra
- Scarlet - Scorpio
- Sage - Sagittarius
- Clover - Capricorn
- Adora - Aquarius
- Piper - Pisces

Inconsistencies[]

In the book Scarlet Discovers True Strength, it was mentioned that there were no doctors in Starland, although in the previous book it was mentioned that Vega's mother worked as a nurse in a hospital.
In the above book as well, while on a wish mission Scarlet and Ophelia did not know what a circus was, although Clover's family was a famous stellar circus group.
In the book Tessa's Lost and Found, it’s said that animals on Starland weren’t really abandoned or lost and Tessa didn’t know what an animal shelter is, despite it being revealed in Libby and the Class Election that animal shelters exist on Starland.
In Scarlet Discovers True Strength it’s established that Starlings cannot get sick, yet in Adora Finds a Friend the term ‘starpox’ is mentioned along with feeling sick.
In Sage and the Journey to Wishworld the titular character sees Tessa in her Starling form and vice versa, regardless of her disguise as a Wishling. However in the very next book, Libby and the Class Election, Libby recognizes Sage in her Wishling disguise. Scarlet Discovers True Strength has Scarlet able to see Ophelia as a Wishling, and in Tessa's Lost and Found Adora is also described as being ‘muted’ when she appears to help Tessa.

Star Darlings (Franchise)

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