LOS ANGELES, Nov 10 — Movie merchandise can be a big moneymaker for IP owners so it’s a little surprising that the people behind the upcoming Wicked movie didn’t take more care with the packaging for Wicked dolls.
Wicked the film is very much targeted towards a more family-friendy demographic so it wasn’t surprising a Redditor was shocked to find on the Wicked Singing Elphaba doll she purchased, the packaging mentioned the URL to an unlisted adult website.
The Redditor @Iamwomanhearme pour wrote: “I purchased the Singing Elphaba doll and upon inspection, the website printed on the back side Mattel box, right above the barcode is listed as WWW.WICKED.COM – which is actually and unaffiliated “adult” NSFW 18+ website. Not sure if this is a mistake on Mattel’s part or Universal’s?
Anyone else seeing this!?!?”
Social media users on X/Twitter have also spotted the mistake and posted pics.
Malaysians who might be “curious” about the content of the URL (wicked.com) will be disappointed as of course it’s blocked by Malaysian ISPs.
The Wicked film’s actual website is www.wickedmovie.com, and the dolls in question were produced by Mattel though made in China.
As the dolls are already on the market and available all over the world, a recall for such a mistake would probably be prohibitive cost-wise.
At press time neither Universal City Studios nor Mattel have commented on the boo-boo.
The film is already showing in theatres with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo playing the leads with Jon M Chu directing with Malaysia’s very own Michelle Yeoh in a supporting role.
