Ever After High: History of The Netflix Show
Ever After High is a show that was released by the famous toy line company Mattel in 2013. The cartoon revolves around the offspring of fairy tale characters who attend a boarding school to follow in their parents’ footsteps.
In a video titled 15 Surprising Things You Never Knew About Ever After High made by Clawdeena, the YouTuber reveals its origins. One of the people that worked for Mattel had written in an Instagram post that the doll line began as witches before being switched to fairy tales.
Another source claimed that the show originally focused on the daughters of Snow White and Red Riding Hood. A stop motion was leaked showing the two in centuries old fashions to fit the fairy tale aesthetic. The characters meet in the woods, and a little bit of their personalities were shown through the conversation they have. That idea was scrapped and the version of Ever After High that fans know and love today was produced.
The Mattel product has had many forms of media, from books, the Netflix show, the YouTube series, dolls, and clothes. The show became one of the biggest factors of the brand and was key to its success.
The story follows Apple White, Snow White’s daughter, and Raven Queen, the Evil Queen’s daughter. The two have been fated to be enemies from the moment they existed. Apple White is a Royal, which is a person who’s fairy tale has a Happily Ever After. She is overly excited to sign her name in the famous Storybook of Legends and follow her destiny as the next Snow White. Raven, on the other hand, is a Rebel. Rebels are people who do not have Happily Ever Afters in their fairy tales. She is unsure about signing the book because she does not want to become the next Evil Queen. Ultimately, she decides not to sign and her choice presents the main conflict in the show.
Ever After High became a Netflix Original in December 2013 when the first episode, Legacy Day: A Tale of Two Tales, was released. It consisted of three shorts titled Apple’s Tale: The Story of a Royal, Raven’s Tale: The Story of a Rebel, and The Tale of Legacy Day, all which had premiered earlier that year.
The second episode was released later in 2013. The episode used shorts released from June to December from the official Ever After High YouTube Channel. All eleven shorts from Chapter 1 appeared in the episode.
Raven Stark Mad: Headmaster Grimm presents Raven in front of four people to help her change her mind about refusing to sign the Storybook of Legends.
True Reflections: While trying out Apple’s magic mirror, Raven accidentally casts a spell that breaks it.
Maddie-In-Chief: Raven is tired of Apple running as Student President unopposed, so Maddie decides she will run against her.
Briar’s Study Party: With a big test from Professor Rumplestiltskin, Briar gathers a bunch of her fellow students to study. Everything is fine until she falls asleep and the others struggle to wake her up.
Here Comes Cupid: C.A. Cupid, the daughter of Cupid/Eros, arrives at Ever After High and starts spreading love.
The Show Must Go On: Ashylnn works at the shoe store The Glass Slipper. The store is only a few minutes from opening for a sale and the place is a mess.
The Cat Who Cried Wolf: When Kitty discovers Cerise’s darkest secret, she tries to expose it to everyone.
Cedar Wood Would Love to Lie: After being assigned a project by Professor Jack B. Nimble, Cedar accidentally discovers a secret relationship while in the woods.
Catching Raven: Briar is throwing a party and Dexter attempts to ask Raven to go with him, but his crush on her makes him nervous.
The Day Ever After: It’s the day after Legacy Day. Everything is tense between the Royals and Rebels. Each side has their own versions of how the event played out.
Replacing Raven: Apple is upset with Raven for not signing the Storybook of Legends. To make it up to her, Raven decides she will find somebody else to play her part.
The third episode was released in February of 2014. It was titled True Hearts Day and is a parallel to Valentine’s Day. This was the first special since Legacy Day: The Tale of Two Tales.
Summary: Duchess Swan and Sparrow Hood learn about Ashylnn Ella and Hunter Hunstman. To prevent the two from telling everybody first, Ashlynn reveals her relationship but not everyone is happy about it. Meanwhile, Cupid, Hopper, and Briar are trying to restore a banned holiday by throwing a party behind Headmaster Grimm’s back.
The fourth and final episode of season one was Thronecoming. Thronecoming is a parralell to Homecoming and was released in November of 2014. The previous episodes were all about twenty minutes and episode four was the first episode to be 45 minutes long.
Summary: Thronecoming is just around the corner. Baba Yaga and Headmaster Grimm take the students to Heritage Hall to receive gifts from their parents to assist them in their fairy tales. As Bookball, the Thronecoming Dance, and the Thronecoming Parade commence, Briar questions her destiny and Raven decides she wants to sign. Then they discover the Storybook of Legends is a fake and the real one is missing…
Season One has the most specials (3 in total). All the other seasons only have one special and focuses on that for its duration. This may be why the first season is titled Welcome to Ever After High while other seasons share the same titles as the specials.
Season Two was released in February of 2015. The season and the special were both titled Spring Unsprung. This was the second episode to have a 40 some minute duration. The plot focused around the Spring Fair and explored fairy tale world’s Wonderland Lore while still tying back to the previous season. This season is the only season to only have one episode.
Summary: Ever After High’s Spring Fair has just begun. Wonderlandians arrive claiming they have the Storybook, Kitty is trying to impress her mother, the Cheshire Cat has cast a curse, people are acting the opposite of themselves, and magic is disappearing.
Season Three, Way Too Wonderland, followed season two in August 2015. This season is the first special that spreads across four episodes. All the previous specials only had a duration of one episode. This story was set within Wonderland.
Summary: Lizzie Hearts, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts, receives a birthday invitation from her mother. Unable to return to Wonderland because of the Evil Queen’s curse, she is upset when she discovers there is a plot to dethrone her mother. Then Raven accidentally bypasses the curse and they wound up in Wonderland. The girls must navigate through Wonderland High, unmask their new foe, and warn The Queen of Hearts before it’s too late.
Season Four, Dragon Games, was released in January 2016. It is the second to last season on Netflix.
Summary: Raven has unlocked her full powers and have been using them for good deeds. Still unable to convince Raven to follow her destiny, Apple’s story is incomplete. Feeling pressured by her mother, Apple feels distraught. The Evil Queen uses this to her advantage to manipulate Apple. By accident, she releases the Evil Queen from Mirror Prison. Now stuck in a new partnership, Apple must assist the Evil Queen in world dominance if she wants her Happily Ever After. Meanwhile, an old sport that Snow White and The Evil Queen rivaled each other in is reinstated at the school. Suspicious of her mother, Raven tries to figure out what she’s up to and send her back to the Mirror Realm.
Season Five released in August 2016. It was titled Epic Winter and is the first special/Netflix episode to not revolve around the two main characters. Instead, this season focuses on a new character named Crystal Winter, the daughter of the Snow King and Queen.
Summary: Shards from the mirror Apple broke were stolen. The magic within the shards cast a curse on the Snow King and Queen, causing their personalities to change. Unsure what to do, Crystal journeys to Ever After High to seek help from Ashlynn and Briar. As the Snow King casts an eternal winter on the land, Crystal discovers the key to breaking the curse. She must travel to four kingdoms and track down their roses, but that’s not her only problem. New foes are determined to stop her.
The End of Ever After High
After the release of Epic Winter, Ever After High was declining due to lack of interest and declining sales. No new seasons were announced and the show ended abruptly. One of the reasons may have been that Disney had released the Descendants franchise in 2015. As Disney was more popular, more people knew about it and liked it, ultimately leaving Ever After High to disappear. A lot of people believe Disney is to blame and resent the Descendants franchise for it.
Apparently, these claims may not be too far off. Recently, Ainsley from the TikTok account _fairytale_vibes_, revealed some very interesting information. In one of her tiktoks, she explained how Mattel was contracted by Disney to make the Disney Princess doll line. At the time, Mattel had released Ever After High, and Disney did not approve of the company’s choice. So, when the contract with Mattel was expired, Disney then gave the Disney Princess doll line production to Hasbro. Along with pulling the contract with Mattel, Disney also created Descendants.
Mattel was facing a lot of issues financially. The Disney Princess doll line’s success brought in most of their income. Without it, they began to struggle. Epic Winter was released around the time of the franchise’s decline. The last season didn’t sit right with a lot of fans, due to the main characters of the show no longer have some part in the main storyline, but now on the sidelines instead. The special also raised some confusion as new things were established that didn’t make much sense with other previous details in the show.
After Epic Winter, Mattel had been working on a crossover movie between Ever After High and Monster High. The MH films and the EAH show had both been dropping hints that alluded to the other universe. Unfortunately, Ever After High ended up dropping off the map and Monster High’s Generation 1 got rebooted to a Generation 2, resulting in the movie to be cancelled. Many development leaks of this movie have surfaced on Youtube and other platforms.
The show is now ten years old and has been gone since 2016 or 2017. Unlike it’s predecessor, Monster High, who has had two reboots already, Ever After High has yet to see one. Fans hope that in the future the show will finally get a reboot. Either that, or have a version of the show that picks up where the original left off.
A reboot for Ever After High is now very unlikely. After Ever After High died down, Disney offered Mattel the Disney Princess Doll Contract again. Not only has Mattel been producing the Disney Princesses again, but they also produced the dolls for Disney’s 2024 Film, Descendants 4: The Rise of Red. Fans may see this arrangement as ironic, seeing Mattel making dolls for the franchise that was made around the time the contract was pulled due to the creation of Ever After High. Mattel may back off some ever attempting anything with Ever After High to prevent upsetting Disney and losing the contract again.
As of right now, the beloved franchise’s 2013–2016 run may be it’s only one.