I'll start off with the good things I liked, so it doesn't sound like I completely un-enjoyed the film. The animation continues to get prettier and prettier (though the hair, as always, could use some fluidity, as it still mostly moves in one large clump.), and as ever, I loved the voice acting; Tabitha St Germain's Bratty Half-Pint voice was perfectly Nails On A Chalkboard grating. Oh, and special mention goes to one of Romi's "You've gotta be kidding me" faces; I laughed. The scenery is pretty and appropriately mystical, and I laughed again at the "No, I'm goal-oriented" reply Malucia gave when she was called mean.
However, pretty much everything else left something to be desired. The 7 original songs in particular are outright dreadful; easily some of the worst music, if not the worst, in any Barbie film. The Villain Song did remind me of the villain song from Cats Don't Dance, except "Big and Loud" is actually awesome and "I Want It All" is kinda not, possibly because Malucia isn't as interesting as Darla Dimple, despite the similarities in the two. I kept wanting the songs to be over before they even started, and the choreography was, like the music, pretty bad by Barbie standards. Usually the choreography is pretty fun. The only part of any song I actually liked was the slow opening of one of the something like three reprises of "If I had Magic". Swear that song showed up four times at least... The choreography in the musical numbers wasn't exactly captivating, either. Nor was the cast; pretty much everyone was on the "forgettable" side. It never once came off to me until she said she was too shy that Alexa wasn't just refusing to go to royal events because she didn't want to; made worse because it never really comes up again that she's shy, so it just sounds like an excuse. A minor nitpick, but there was no point in giving Nori a bow as it's largely forgotten about after her intro. Most of the movie was forgettable, which is pretty sad because it certainly looked interesting when the promos played. It felt dumbed down compared to most of the other Barbie films, too. In a "disresepctful to intelligencechildren's learning programme" kinda way.
WesternAnimation A bit of a disappointment
I'll start off with the good things I liked, so it doesn't sound like I completely un-enjoyed the film. The animation continues to get prettier and prettier (though the hair, as always, could use some fluidity, as it still mostly moves in one large clump.), and as ever, I loved the voice acting; Tabitha St Germain's Bratty Half-Pint voice was perfectly Nails On A Chalkboard grating. Oh, and special mention goes to one of Romi's "You've gotta be kidding me" faces; I laughed. The scenery is pretty and appropriately mystical, and I laughed again at the "No, I'm goal-oriented" reply Malucia gave when she was called mean.
However, pretty much everything else left something to be desired. The 7 original songs in particular are outright dreadful; easily some of the worst music, if not the worst, in any Barbie film. The Villain Song did remind me of the villain song from Cats Don't Dance, except "Big and Loud" is actually awesome and "I Want It All" is kinda not, possibly because Malucia isn't as interesting as Darla Dimple, despite the similarities in the two. I kept wanting the songs to be over before they even started, and the choreography was, like the music, pretty bad by Barbie standards. Usually the choreography is pretty fun. The only part of any song I actually liked was the slow opening of one of the something like three reprises of "If I had Magic". Swear that song showed up four times at least... The choreography in the musical numbers wasn't exactly captivating, either. Nor was the cast; pretty much everyone was on the "forgettable" side. It never once came off to me until she said she was too shy that Alexa wasn't just refusing to go to royal events because she didn't want to; made worse because it never really comes up again that she's shy, so it just sounds like an excuse. A minor nitpick, but there was no point in giving Nori a bow as it's largely forgotten about after her intro. Most of the movie was forgettable, which is pretty sad because it certainly looked interesting when the promos played. It felt dumbed down compared to most of the other Barbie films, too. In a "disresepctful to intelligence children's learning programme" kinda way.
I'd give it like a half star out of five stars.