TOTAL LICENSING
LICENSING
THE DARK SIDE
There has been a recent and rather properties incorporates a wide array the dark side! “Everyone likes cute,
steep growth in the number of li- of characters from around the world. but as kids enter their teenage years
censed char- Whether it’s Scary Fairies, Skelanimals and develop a sense of irony the ap-
acters that are or Bad Alice, the dark side is definitely peal of cute in it’s purest form is lost
dark and edgy. very much part of tweens lives today to anyone who has to deal with real
This shift to the and is starting to grow at retail. life. Cute survives by adapting: It ei-
dark side does A recent shift to more punk and ther enters the domain of uber cute
not, however, gothic fashion trends is currently oc- or gets a twisted edge. One way cute
mean that all curring in the UK which is something manifests itself to survive is by form-
the properties that a lot of companies are tuning in ing and alliance with its polar oppo-
are melancholy, to, touching on this edgy mix sites - darkness, sadness, suffering
some very pos- of music and fashion as a and violence. You would think
itive and uplift- key to what tweens find that this kind of team up
ing characters credible in a brand. would be doomed to
are rising out of Even modern lan- failiure, but instead
the depths! guage seems to it’s doomed to suc-
The rise of the be involved in cess. With a sugar
dark is not nec- this switch from coating of cute
essarily a re- nice to dark, you can get away
bellion against in a negative/ with murder, quite
all things cute and cuddly - although positive coun- literally.”
some brands clearly are. Many of ter-balance, Phil explains that
these ‘dark’ properties encorporate where wick- it works by taking
cute, cuddly, and even girly, but with ed means a style designed
a sharper edge to them. What these good and- to appeal to the
brands have in common is the ele- sick means very young and
ment of sweetness, friendship and in- cool. then tackling
dividuality and that they are using this “Tweens a common or
trendy darker element alongside hu- have al- telling a story
mour to produce properties that are ways had and getting away
enjoying enormous success. The list of this moody dark side, driven mainly by with a lot more than you could by us-
their hormones, but also tied in to the ing another style. The kind of stuff that
music they listen to and the fashion is seen on the t-shirts, posters and
they wear. The Goth scene is grow- merchandise have their roots in video
ing here in the UK, personified by games, comics and grafitti where they
black makeup and even blacker outfits. are much more brutal than the more
While street fashion, which includes acceptable images and messages that
the skateboarding scene, holds Punk see the light of day as licenses.
close to it’s heart.” – Rob Wijeratna, Phil has a couple of properties in
Rocket Licensing. this genre, both are cute yet twisted.
Phil Corbett, a designer of charac- Kitten Parasites is his most popular
ters for video games, cartoon series, creation. He wrote and illustrated the
adverts and magazines has recently book and suprisingly couldn’t find a
launched his own range of ‘dark’ char- publisher wanting to endorse poems
acters. Amongst his designs are Kit- based on cat diseases! His only option
ten Parasites, Scary Tails, and a flock was to self publish and the book has
of zombie sheep known as the Shock now sold all 1000 of the original run,
Flock. He comments on the shift to worldwide. He is currently looking for
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