Over here in the LJ MM community, sleepall_day took a screencap that shows a Valentine doll in Helena’s room [when she’s playing with the sock puppets].

I didn’t even notice that doll! In fact, I left him out of my essay about sex and dolls in L and MM, where I mainly focused on the sexualizing music box dolls that attack Helena in the Dark Queen’s castle.

Currently tossing around the notion that Valentine’s appearance as a doll relates to the movie’s exploration of Helena’s sexuality. Dolls are vehicles for sexual expression, as I demo in the aforementioned essay. So perhaps the Valentine doll represents Helena’s wish for a boyfriend who’s a magical hero and a charmer [as opposed to the punky smoker guy who’s Anti-Helena’s make-out partner]. Somehow this ties in to Valentine’s status as imaginary figure inside Helena’s dream and real guy [in the Future Fruit vision of him as a waiter, also at the end of the movie]. Could he be one of the most balanced and desireable characters of the movie [mischievous yet responsible, fantastical yet real]? Definitely need to chew on this some more…