Week Links 41-2013

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It’s hard to believe, but we’re almost at the end of an entire year of week links posts! Clearly I read an awful lot more than I thought I did. Anyway, here’s this week’s selection:

Disney’s ‘It’s A Small World’ Goes on New Ride as Web Series

Variety reports that Disney has plundered yet another park ride in the search for fun and profit. This time It’s a Small World gets an animated treatment for a web series.

Disney’s Doc McStuffins Toys Challenge Dora the Explorer

The Irish-animated hit show has done rather well for itself, but it’s impact has been felt beyond the usual halls of power:

Based on Doc McStuffins, the Disney Junior channel’s animated hit, the dolls are vying with toys inspired by Viacom’s (VIA) Dora the Explorer, long the undisputed queen of the toddler set. For Chandler-Saunders, Doc’s skin color enhances the appeal. “I’m Caucasian, and the doll is black, so it’s kind of cool kids can look up to someone” of another race, says the 35-year-old mother of two, who runs her own insurance agency in Jetersville, Va. The show’s viewers are almost evenly split between boys and girls.

Another Companion To Books From The Simpsons In Alphabetical Order

Books from the Simpsons

The literary chops of Simpsons characters is apparently so great that a second volume of this book has been compiled.

Ask Chris #173: The Trouble With The Joker’s Girlfriend Harley Quinn

BT-HarleyQ

Chris Sims over at Comic Alliance does a [very] thorough breakdown of Harley Quinn’s character and how it has been maligned by various writers in the years since her introduction. It illustrates quite well how a character can become unwieldy and unrecognisable over time thanks to changes in culture and fan expectations.

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