Disney Traditions Storybook Figurines: What Makes Them Different?

Within the Disney Traditions range, most figurines follow a familiar format: one or more characters posed on a base, rendered in Jim Shore's signature folk-art style. They're beautiful, characterful, and immediately recognisable as Shore's work. But there's a sub-line within Disney Traditions that does something structurally different - and for many collectors, it's the most impressive format Shore has ever worked in.

The Storybook figurines are built around an open book. Not a book as a decorative element or a base detail, but a full sculptural open book - pages spread wide, spine visible, the whole thing rendered in carved-wood-effect resin - with a complete scene emerging from the pages in three dimensions. Characters, environments, props, and backgrounds all rise out of the book as if the story itself is coming to life as you read it.

It's a format that sounds simple in description and is genuinely arresting in person.

How the Format Works

The open book provides both the structure and the narrative frame for each piece. The pages themselves are decorated - painted with the title of the scene, folk-art scrollwork, and background detail that extends the world of the story. Then the three-dimensional scene builds forward from the page surface, with characters and environmental elements projecting outward at varying depths to create a genuine sense of perspective and space.

The Alice in Wonderland piece - Happy Unbirthday - shows this perfectly. The pages open to reveal the Mad Hatter's tea party in full: Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare around the table, with the Wonderland landscape painted across the open pages behind them, lanterns strung overhead, and "Happy Unbirthday" lettered across the top in Shore's folk-art script. The scene has depth, atmosphere, and a sense of occasion that a standard figurine simply can't achieve.

The Little Mermaid piece - Undersea Dreaming - takes the format in a different direction. "Once Upon a Time" is lettered across the open pages in red, and from those pages Ariel and Eric emerge in a dramatic underwater scene, with Flounder and Sebastian visible in the composition. The scale of the characters relative to the book gives the piece a cinematic quality - it feels like a frame from the film, frozen and made permanent.

The Range in Full

The Storybook format spans a wide range of Disney films and characters, with each piece capturing a defining moment from its source story:

• Alice in Wonderland - Happy Unbirthday - The Mad Hatter's tea party in full, with Alice, the Hatter, and the March Hare
• Beauty and the Beast - Love Endures - Belle and the Beast in the ballroom scene
• A Christmas Carol - Merry Christmas - A festive scene from the Dickens classic
• Nightmare Before Christmas - Once Upon a Nightmare - Jack and Sally in Halloween Town
• Tangled - One Magical Night - Rapunzel and Flynn in the lantern scene
• The Lion King - Remember Who You Are - Simba and Mufasa
• Aladdin - Romance Takes Flight - Aladdin and Jasmine on the magic carpet
• Pinocchio - Someday You Will Be a Real Boy - Pinocchio and Geppetto
• Mulan - The Greatest Honour is You as a Daughter - Mulan and her father
• The Little Mermaid - Undersea Dreaming - Ariel and Eric with Flounder and Sebastian
• The Little Mermaid - Ariel Storybook - A larger, more detailed Ariel scene
• The Aristocats - Long Ago in Paris - Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz in a Parisian setting
• The Princess and the Frog - Tiana and Naveen
• Moana - The Ocean Chose Me - Moana on the ocean
• The Jungle Book - Mowgli and Baloo (pre-order, arriving 2026)

Beyond Disney Traditions, the Storybook format also appears in the Grinch and Beatrix Potter ranges. The Grinch Stealing Presents Storybook and Grinch with Cindy-Lou and Max  apply the open-book format to the Whoville Christmas scene with Shore's characteristic warmth - the Grinch creeping down the chimney with his quilt-patterned sack, the decorated tree and garlands framing the scene. The Peter Rabbit Storybook and Peter, Benjamin and the Scarecrow bring the same format to Beatrix Potter's world.

Why Storybook Pieces Are Different to Collect

Standard Disney Traditions figurines are character pieces - you collect them because you love the character, and the Shore aesthetic is the reason you choose this version over another. Storybook pieces are something more: they're scene pieces, and the format gives them a narrative completeness that a single character pose can't achieve.

When you display a Storybook piece, you're not just displaying a character - you're displaying a moment from a story, with context, environment, and supporting characters all present. The open book format makes that explicit: this is a story, and you're looking at a page of it.

That distinction has practical implications for collecting. Storybook pieces tend to anchor a display rather than populate it - they're the centrepiece around which other pieces are arranged, rather than one of many. Most collectors who own Storybook pieces display them prominently and separately from their standard figurines, giving the format the space it deserves.

Retired Pieces and Availability

Several Storybook pieces in the range are retired - including the Sorcerer Mickey, the Maleficent, the Lilo & Stitch, and the Aladdin pieces. Retired pieces are never reissued, and once stock is gone it's gone. If a retired Storybook piece is in your collection wish list, the time to act is while stock remains available.

The active pieces - Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Tangled, Pinocchio, Mulan, Aristocats, Princess and the Frog, Moana, and the Grinch pieces - are available now. The Jungle Book Storybook is available to pre-order for 2026 delivery.

Browse the full Disney Traditions by Jim Shore collection and filter by Storybook to see everything currently available.