No. As you might have guessed from the above photo, the Annabelle doll that inspired the movies is actually a vintage 1970s Raggedy Ann Doll manufactured by the Knickerbocker Toy Co., not a doll maker. Specifically, the original doll measures 32 inches long and is adorned in a calico dress and white apron. It's readily available on eBay. This debunks part of Annabelle 2's premise. Annabelle was not created by a doll maker years before the events of the first film. Now let's get to the rest.
Not necessarily, but it does help us to understand the events in the original better. If you recall from the first movie, a female member of a satanic cult named Annabelle Higgins died while holding the doll (it was not explained that Higgins had a previous connection to the doll). Her blood dripped into the doll's eye, triggering it to become possessed by either her or a demon her cult had worshiped, or both. In that story, Annabelle dies during a break-in when she is an adult. For that reason, the original Annabelle movie didn't seem to line up with the alleged true story, which has Annabelle dying when she is a child and in an automobile accident. The prequel Annabelle 2 (officially titled Annabelle: Creation) helps to clarify things.
In Annabelle: Creation, following the tragic death of a doll maker's daughter, Annabelle Mullins, he and his wife pray to see their beloved little girl again. Her spirit (or what they think is her spirit) appears to them and asks permission to move into a doll so that it can be with them forever. They grant the request but quickly discover it is not their daughter's spirit in the doll, prompting them to lock it away in a closet wallpapered with pages from the Bible. Twelve years later, after they decide to take in children from a sheltered orphanage, the "spirit" is freed. The demon attached to the doll targets and possesses an orphan named Janice (Talitha Bateman).
We learn at the end of the movie that after Janice disappears, she ends up at an orphanage in Santa Monica and changes her name to "Annabelle" when she is adopted by the Higgins family. She grows up and forms a cult called the Disciples of the Ram with her boyfriend. This is where the first movie begins. Annabelle and her boyfriend murder her parents, who live next door to John and Mia Form. Mia hears the disturbance and calls the police, but Annabelle and her boyfriend have already made their way over to the Forms' home. John and the police arrive and Annabelle Higgins slits her throat while holding the doll, her blood dripping into the doll's eye.
As far as what's in line with the supposed facts, the Mullins' daughter's death in an automobile-related accident is at least somewhat true to the alleged real story, but that's where the similarities end. There was never an orphan named Janice who became possessed by the demon in the doll and she never later changed her name to Annabelle Higgins.
Yes. Mezco Toyz released two versions of the doll, one via their Living Dead Series and one that looks closer to the doll in the movie (the more accurate version is pictured below). As of the writing of this article, the replica Annabelle doll is still available. Now you'll just need a creepy rocking chair to make your nightmares come true.
Watch the Annabelle: Creation preview for the horror movie.