Rose Petal Place - Cartoon Retrospective (Part 4)

Rose Petal Place: The Storybooks ("Lily Fair Learns A Lesson")

Welcome back to my theater, my beautiful humans! Oh, that's right! Ha ha! You can’t leave until the show is over. We've held you hostage for the entire time as we made the additional parts of this retrospective. …Hey, this is what you get for entering a fairy’s domain and making a deal with her! You shouldn't have eaten the food I made you if you didn’t want to be trapped forever. Don’t fall for free popcorn next time! Oh, relax. The show will be over soon and you’ll be free. Now where were we? 

If it’s been a while since you saw the first part of this retrospective where we looked over the two animated specials, or haven’t seen this retrospective at all, allow me to catch you up on our troubled tale. Rose Petal Place was an obscure American media franchise that lasted from 1984 to 1985. It had two animated specials made by Ruby-Spears Productions, a corresponding line of dolls made by Kenner, and more merchandise than you could shake a flower steam at. Rose Petal Place was created by David Kirschner, who was most famous for producing the entirety of the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise. (Seriously, how funny would it be if we remade Child’s Play, except Charles Lee Ray possessed a Rose Petal Place doll instead of the Good Guy doll? Come on, that’d be a movie I’d love to see!) If you’re thinking this series is completely unlike his original style, well, Child’s Play is more of an outlier in my opinion. Krischner actually ended up producing a lot of children’s movies, with his first producing credit being for An American Tail, which he also created the original story for (he also produced all the series' sequels and was even involved in that TV series you forgot about). So despite being most famous for his work on a horror franchise, he also did a lot of children’s films, from Hocus Pocus to the Curious George movies. The guy had a wild resume!

Last time, we looked over the animated specials. And as for my opinions? The art direction and music were insanely charming (downright precious in many places), the world-building itself had potential with an interesting origin story for Rose Petal and her friends’ creation, and the BBW lesbian icon Nastina was a pretty campy and cute villain. But aside from that, the first special had incredibly underdeveloped side characters, a forgettable plot, and Rose Petal herself is a politely-put Mary Sue. The second special was a vast improvement over the first one, with more emphasis on the artistic themes and the side characters actually got character development- at least one did. But it also had racism, so still not that great.

Overall, both were very flawed to the point where it’s easy to see why this franchise died off so quickly, but there was a lot of potential there. And we’re here to see if that potential was explored in other mediums besides animation. I may be a movie and cartoon lover, but I am a lover of music and books as well. So we’re picking the flowers beyond the animated garden. Being a series revolving around singing and music, Rose Petal Place was mostly a franchise found on cassette tapes. The company Parker Brothers put out a series of books with accompanying cassette tapes (as well as six books without cassettes) and also released a 1984 record called “A Concert at Carnation Hall”- all having famous singer Marie Osmond reprising her role as Rose Petal herself.

Of course, I wasn’t able to access all of the storybooks or cassettes, but I was as thorough as I could be. And today, I want to share with you my findings and explore this franchise, discovering why it ended so swiftly. We’re going to start with the storybooks, and I found three: Lily Fair Learns a Lesson, Rose Petal’s Big Decision, and A Matter of Music. No more beating around the rose bush, let’s check them out. The story continues here, my fairies!

 

Lily Fair Learns a Lesson was the only one of these books available on the Internet Archive, as the other two are available on YouTube. The books themselves were written by multiple different people, none of whom seem to have written anything else. The author of this specific book is named Vicky Edwards Gehrt. However, the main artist on these books was a fairly well-known children’s illustrator named Pat Paris. She has had her art featured in a decent handful of storybooks, and was probably most famous for many Ewok illustrations in Star Wars children’s books. Though it seems Pat Paris collaborated with other artists for the illustration work for Rose Petal Place. In Lily Fair Learns a Lesson, it’s Debbie Colvin Borgo helping out with the art.

And I think the illustration work in these books is beautiful. The colors are soft and bright, the characters and environments are detailed with a lovely use of painted textures, and they do a perfect job capturing a whimsically Victorian aesthetic. Yes, according to the back of the book, the setting is meant to be Victorian-inspired. While the dresses read a bit more Edwardian to me (not that I’m a fashion expert), the late 19th century style is noticeable and deeply appreciated. It’s nice to have a series that doesn’t have a contemporary setting, embracing this kind of picture book perspective of the past with a fantasy lens: a fairytale world inspired by a specific part of history that isn’t just vague medieval Europe or something. It’s very distinctly American-Victorian with this overly-floral coat of paint, and I think the aesthetics are Rose Petal Place’s strongest trait.

 

It’s hard to notice sometimes when settings like gardens and theaters are so generally timeless, but you do especially notice the vision in the clothing. Iris has what appears to be a regency dress, Sunny Sunflower has these poofy pants that resemble a female Victorian biker, and Daffodil has a very early-Edwardian style of dress (which isn’t Victorian, but fits the vibe). I also love the more gothic-Victorian manner of dress Nastina has, especially with her buckle shoes and thick corset. She really does look like an 19th century queen, whereas Horace looks like a gangster ripped from the early 1900s. It’s really charming, and helps this series stand out more, which it certainly needed. 

And I know I should get on with the story, but I should also point out that the free version of this book available on the Internet Archive is not the most well-preserved. The pages are littered with very noticeable pen scribbles and coffee stains, so while I will be using some stills from this version of the book, I will also be linking to screenshots and footage from a read-along video on YouTube made by a creator called Story Time with Sugah. I think her storytelling voice is strong, and her southern accent adds a lot of charm. Southern accents actually fit a lot of these characters, it just makes them seem dainty or quaint. But enough delay, let’s get this out of the way.

As you can see, this was a clearly well-loved coloring book for some little Brittany or Ashley back in the day (Nice eyepatch, Sunny).

The storybook begins with an introduction to all of the characters, going more in-depth with their personalities than in the specials. Hopefully, those character traits will have a chance to shine on page rather than on stage. And the book says to “please come and join us”, and we don’t want to be rude to the book! The story begins, as we see that Lily Fair is a passionate and dedicated dancer who’s hosting a recital at Carnation Hall, but her friends snarkily comment that this is the third recital this month. Orchid comes across as a real pill in this book, but Rose Petal says that this is Lily’s dream to become a famous dancer and they need to support her interests. At Carnation Hall, Lily Fair performs her lil’ lily heart out, and I do love the writing detail of making similes connecting Lily Fair’s dance moves to things like flowers and trees. But aside from Rose Petal, all of her so-called friends are bored and distracted from her show, ignoring her and even causing her to mess up steps due to Tumbles the Hedgehog (original character do not steal) falling over in absent-mindedness. The dance finishes, with Lily Fair’s supposed friends making rude comments under their breath, ignoring her when she asks for criticism because they weren't paying attention, and Daffodil even essentially tries to rope her “friend” into buying crap at her boutique as Orchid then immediately mocks her tutu after.

 

The main problem with this book is that the ruder characters at the beginning are not only mean to their supposed friends, but they never learn any lessons or apologize by the end of it. Their condescending behavior is brushed-off like it never happened- even though their dismissal is essential to Lily Fair’s own growth within the story- and it makes the flower lesbians (as I have chosen to refer to them) look selfish and inconsiderate. Orchid making fun of her looks, Sunny Sunflower making rude “jokes” about her passions: this is just bullying, and it’s bullying from characters who are meant to be likable. Rose Petal, being the only one with manners, decides to support Lily Fair and surprises her with a special song she wrote just for her. 

See? They feel gay! They make each other feel gay! Rose Petal threw the first bricks at Stonewall.

However, this generous gift leaves Lily Fair noticing how people much prefer and pay more attention to Rose Petal’s singing than they ever did her dance. This causes Lily Fair to cry and run away, which is a very fair reaction. While Rose Petal was well-intentioned, she did take the spotlight from Lily Fair’s special show and mostly brushed-off her friends’ rude comments towards Lily Fair. This would give the overly-perfect Rose Petal a potential flaw of being dismissive of other people’s fears and insecurities… but the book doesn’t acknowledge this as a flaw, so it doesn’t count. Rose Petal does start to notice Lily Fair crying when Iris points it out, but she gets distracted helping Pitterpat Cat and forgets about Lily Fair. Between this and the second animated special, I’m starting to think maybe this ignorance and unintentional insensitivity might genuinely be a part of Rose Petal’s character. Which actually could make for an interesting protagonist where she’s so focused on making others happy that she sometimes pushes any negative emotion away and part of her own growth is learning to be more aware of her friends’ feelings. But no, as you’ll see in this book, not much about Rose Petal changes by the end of it.

Lily Fair encounters our favorite queer queen and her beard, Nastina and Horace. And this was a problem in the animated show as well, but seeing this detailed Nastina and Horace side-by-side makes me realize how they look so visually different from each other to the point where they look like they belong in different books. Nastina’s face is pretty much entirely human, complete with a nose, wrinkly skin, and ears. Meanwhile, Horace is an actual insectoid, looking way more like a fly than Nastina does a spider. Like the second animated special, Nastina says she can make Lily Fair a star- pretty much the exact same strategy she used on Sweet Violet.

But Nastina’s plan is a lot lamer than her animated counterpart’s, as she convinces Lily Fair that it’s Rose Petal’s dress that makes people pay attention to her. But while this is shallow, I do like that the story takes time and explains Lily Fair’s rationalizing of Nastina’s words. She doesn’t instantly believe her, and we see Lily Fair genuinely think about the idea. We see that Lily Fair does a lot of strict routine and exercise. Whereas Rose Petal, having a magical voice, never has to practice. So we see Lily Fair justifying that it must be Rose Petal’s beauty that makes her so popular, since she doesn’t work as hard as Lily Fair. It's a small detail, but actually having the characters rationalize something gives them more motivation and depth as people- especially those words around the end of the page that say that Lily Fair was ready to believe anything due to being so upset, but still choosing to detail her thoughts. But big shock, this dress-stealing idea is a way for Nastina to make the girls angry with each other so she can take over the garden in their bickering.

 

Lily Fair “borrows” Rose Petal’s special concert dress that looks exactly like all her other dresses. (Seriously, you couldn’t make this look like one of the additional outfits you could buy for the dolls?) Lily Fair does dance for Nastina and Horace, but Lily Fair’s guilt starts to weigh on her. Either that or she realized a fancy concert gown is not as practical for dancing as a leotard and tutu. Nastina takes the dress away and scurries off, and that was her entire evil plan. …Yeah. that’s it. Lamest. Plan. Ever. 

This is the dorkiest Nastina has ever been, and is easily her worst scheme. Which is surprising because in the cartoons, she was surprisingly ruthless and ambitious. She tries to kill the heroines at least five times over the course of the specials: trying to crush them with a birdbath, flooding the garden by breaking a fountain, locking Rose Petal in a room with no light to die, catapulting rocks onto everyone, and running everyone over with a lawn mower. I’ll admit that for a cheesy Saturday-morning villain, Nastina’s kinda fun and adds a nice dash of both sinister and silly spice to a cartoon that's in desperate need of characterization. But this scheme is so dull and non-consequential that I’m half-convinced that Nastina had Lily Fair steal Rose Petal’s dress just because Nastina wanted to have something that looked and smelled like Rose Petal to fuel her obsession. Either that or she’s going to force Horace to cosplay and roleplay her self-insert romance fan fictions again. Lily Fair decides to tell Rose Petal the truth, in a line I really like: "She thought of a hundred things she could do to get out of the mess she was in, but only one thing seemed right."

The girls again communicate as friends rather than make assumptions and bicker, affirming their friendship. And I like how they take attention away from Rose Petal for a while to focus on Seymour, who tells Lily Fair that the secret to Rose Petal’s lovely voice isn’t her beauty, but her passion and love for the art of singing and how she uses singing to express joy and appreciation for her friends the same way Lily Fair does with her dancing. 

"Rose Petal’s singing comes from her heart," Seymour told her. "Her singing is beautiful because she loves to sing. When we listen, we hear her joy and warmth, and it makes us happy too." "How can I feel that joy, Seymour?" Lily Fair asked. "Ah, that’s the easy part. Do your very best. It doesn’t matter whether your dancing makes you a star, it should only make you happy. But if it doesn’t come from your heart, then it doesn’t mean anything." 

And honestly, for a book called “Lily Fair Learns a Lesson”, the lesson she learns is very good. And it also ties in with my criticisms that the series should primarily be focused on artistic themes in the storytelling. The moral of doing something because you’re passionate about it rather than trying to be popular is an extremely important one for any artist to learn, especially when you see other people getting more love and admiration for less effort. The rise of artificially-generated “art” and auto-tuned singing certainly makes it feel like the world doesn’t like or want artists, but the world does. And your passions may not always be noticed, but what matters is that they matter to you and the people who love you. 

 

And that’s the end of Lily Fair Learns a Lesson, and it was an enjoyable little children’s book with a decent heart behind it and a frankly great message for children, adults, and artists in general. The moral being tied to art itself, such as envy towards other artists and insecurity in one’s talent due to unpopularity or lack of support, is genuinely clever and fits in with the themes of Rose Petal Place perfectly. Lily Fair is a very sympathetic and relatable character here, and you genuinely feel bad for her but also want her to do the right thing by the end of it. I love the message, it’s simple but powerful: do what you love because you love it. My only problem with the story is the ruder characters at the beginning never learn a lesson in humility or respect, and it makes them seem like awful friends who never regret their actions as they never apologize or show concern for Lily Fair at all. Nastina also had a downgrade compared to the cartoon, where she has gone from truly dangerous and manipulative to just a mischievous pest (granted, that was the angle they were going for in the toyline, rather than the absolute deranged spider queen she was in the cartoon). It also makes me wonder why a spider is a villain in this series, since spiders in real life help gardens by eating more gluttonous bugs, unless making Nastina the spider the villain is a kind of subversion of a spider’s typical garden role. Overall, this was actually a good story. Cute and wholesome, without being too vapid or substanceless. It’s got a good lesson and a likable lead, albeit a silly villain and unlikable side characters. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised with how nice this first book was. 

Now let’s check out the other two books, next time with Your Clairy Godmother.