"There may be miracles awaiting. They may be closer than we know when we have love to guide us as we go."
Barbie as the Island Princess is a Direct to Video Barbie film released in 2007, preceded by Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow and followed by Barbie: Mariposa.
The movie tells the story of a girl lost in a shipwreck and raised by the animals on a tropical island. The girl suffers from amnesia, and the only clue to her past is an item with a fragment of her name, "Ro" (short for "Rosella"). When she's grown up, Prince Antonio finds the island, and after Ro saves his life, he offers to take her to his home, and she comes along to find out about her past.
One the way home, the two start to fall in love, but Antonio's father, Peter, arranged a marriage to Luciana, a princess of another kingdom. Unfortunately, that lady's mother, Ariana, is holding a grudge against Peter and his family, and is planning to murder them at the wedding.
Provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Queen Ariana dismissed Luciana's hopes and dreams for True Love, saying they fill her head with thoughts. That implied she wanted a puppet.
- All There in the Script: The credits list Ro's mother's name as Marissa, and Antonio's mother is named Danielle. The little bird that appears throughout the film is also called Tiny.
- Amnesiac Hero: Rosella lost her memory upon being shipwrecked.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- When Tika the elephant is in danger of drowning, she is fighting to keep her mouth above the water, with her trunk held aloft. Elephants breathe through their trunks, not their mouths. An elephant naturally swims with its mouth underwater and its trunk held above.
- Also, Tika's eyes are not only much larger than a real elephant's eyes, they're also far closer together; in real life, an elephant's eyes are small and shunted off to the sides of its head.
- Big Damn Reunion: Ro realizes the Queen of Paladia is her mother and she is the kingdom's missing princess; the two then proceed to sing the lullaby as Ro's memory returns and they happily reunite.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Rita, Gina, and Sofia, Peter and Danielle's young daughters.
- Broken Aesop: A source of conflict in the movie is that Ro and Antonio fall in love and want to marry but can't because Ro isn't of royal blood. Eventually they just say "screw it" and decide to marry anyway, giving the moral that it doesn't matter if two people are from differing social classes, they should be allowed to be together if they're in love. However, at the very end, it's revealed that Ro is the long-lost Princess Rosella of Paladia, meaning that she was royalty all along, which kind of cancels out the intended aesop.
- The Cameo: Princess Edeline makes a few small appearances. Courtney, Ashlyn, and Fallon can also be seen in the audience at Ro and Antonio's wedding.
- Chekhov's Gun: Ro's lullaby, "Right Here In My Arms". It's what causes the Queen of Paladia to identify her as her daughter.
- Covers Always Lie: Well sort of lie here. Ro's fancy dress is topped with her having long hair and wearing a Cool Crown. In the movie, her head is bare and the hair is up
◊ in a fancier version of a Prim and Proper Bun. She also doesn't wear the crown. - Dance of Romance: Played with, as that is when Antonio tells Ro that he loves her, but she says it can't work out.
- Diegetic Switch: "I Need To Know" starts out with Ro singing to the animals in the first verse; from the second verse on, it's from the internal thoughts of Ro and Antonio.
- Driven by Envy: Tika hides a note Antonio wrote to Ro, although she's not exactly jealous, just worried that Ro will leave her.
- Easily Forgiven: When Tika confesses she hid Antonio’s note to sabotage Ro’s relationship with him, Ro isn’t even mad and is quick to forgive her.
- Easy Amnesia: Falling into the sea during a shipwreck and getting washed ashore causes Ro to lose her memory.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Antonio's kingdom is modeled on Renaissance Italy.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Rosella wears one when she and Antonio marry.
- Faux Affably Evil: Ariana. In spades. Especially prevalent during her interactions with Peter and his family.
- Forced Sleep: The animals of the kingdom end up falling into this thanks to Ariana's rats tampering their food with Sunset Herb.
- Frame-Up: Ariana sends her three rats to put sunset herb in the animals' food which puts them into a deep sleep, and accuses Ro of doing it.
- Friend Versus Lover: One-sided example. Tika is not happy with Ro’s relationship with Antonio, worried she’ll leave her for him. She hides a letter Antonio wrote to Ro asking her to escape with him, remarking “he’s not sailing anywhere with my Ro!” By the end of the movie, she accepts their relationship.
- Generation Xerox: Rosella's mother helps a bird the same way Ro does when she arrives.
- Good Princess, Evil Queen: The heroine is, of course, a princess, and several other nice ladies are princesses as well — Luciana, as well as Antonio's younger sisters. The villain, however, is a scheming queen who tries to maneuver her daughter into becoming a Puppet King so she can rule as Regent for Life.
- Heroic Bystander: Tiny the bird sees Ariana poisoning the cake, letting Ro know about the plan.
- Lady of Adventure: Ro is curious and adventurous, unlike most of the ladies Antonio knew.
- Letting Her Hair Down: While Ro's hair falls loose a bit albeit with braids after the ball, she fully lets it down during her wedding with Antonio.
- Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: The latter plays during Prince Antonio and Princess Luciana's wedding.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Ariana's Villain Song has extremely morbid lyrics with a fast-paced, cheery tune.
- Misplaced Wildlife: While elephants, peacocks and red pandas can all be found in Asia there are no known islands in the pacific, based on the island where Ro became shipwrecked being somewhere in the south seas, where all these animals live. Realistically the island would be located somewhere close to mainland Asia to justify how all three of these species could have possibly ended up on the same island.
- The Musical: There are 8 original songs in the movie.
- Nubile Savage: Ro is quite well groomed for someone who grew up on an island.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Throughout the movie, Rosella is only referred to as "Ro" upon her memory loss. She learns her full name by the time of the wedding day, which is what reunites her with her mother and reveals she's a princess.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Luciana's accent often shirts from British to the natural Canadian accent of her voice actress.
- Opposites Attract: Averted with Antonio and Luciana. While the two try to find common ground to bond over, it's clear by their interactions that the adventurous Antonio and the book-shy Luciana just aren't a good match romantically.
- Parental Love Song: The lullaby "Right Here in My Arms" has this vibe, but it becomes a full-fledged example when Ro reunites with her mother, her mother singing about her love for her daughter despite their years-long separation.
- Peacock Girl: The peacock tail on Ro's dress is from Azul's own tail feathers.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Loads, given much of the film takes place at a royal court. The standout dress is Ro's blue dress with the peacock tail.
- Platonic Co-Parenting: Sagi and Azul raised Ro as their own, and later took in Tika, as well.
- Princess Classic: Ro, even when she just lives among her animal friends.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Ro's standout dress is mainly blue, but has a pink overskirt, and the peacock tail is mostly pink. Merchandise also adds a pink Cool Crown.
- Proper Lady: Princess Luciana. Ariana specifically raised her to make her ideal marriage material, but Antonio prefers an Action Girl.
- Puppet Queen: Ariana's grand scheme includes turning her daughter into this once she ascends the throne.
- Raised by Wolves: Ro was raised by a red panda and a peacock on an island for a decade.
- Really Royalty Reveal: The moment Ro reveals her full name as "Rosella", she meets her mother, who is a queen, revealing she's a princess.
- Regent for Life: A passing line from Ariana when she's poisoning the wedding cake with Sunset Herb directly implies that she intends to seize control of the kingdom once Luciana is crowned queen.
- Revenge: Queen Ariana wants to get back at Antonio's parents for banishing her and her family to a pig farm as punishment for apparently attempting to kill them.
- Riding into the Sunset: The movie ends with Ro, Antonio and the animals sailing away from the kingdom on a ship for their honeymoon.
- Robinsonade: Ro grows up in this setting, but it's a much lighter form of the trope than typical.
- Rule of Glamorous: No reason is given that the green part of Azul's tail feathers turn pink after Ro puts them on her dress (other than parts of the dress are pink). Or how Tika's trunk spray turns into sparkles on the dress.
- Shout-Out: While helping Ro get ready for the ball, Talulah holds up Genevieve's gown during "At The Ball".
- Sigh of Love: While describing Ro's adventurous nature to his parents, Antonio smiles and lets out a smitten sigh.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Ro can speak with any animal. Ariana takes advantage of this in her scheme.
- Species Subversives: Subverted for the monkey. At first, she's quite the opposite of a Silly Simian, being very civilised and eating everything with a knife and fork. Once she relearns how to climb, however, she begins acting more like a typical monkey.
- The Speechless: Ariana's rat Mat does not say a single word and looks and acts like a mime. Nat and Pat do all the talking.
- Spoiler Title: The title makes it easy to guess Ro is a long-lost princess, which is confirmed near the end of the film.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Ariana's rats Nat, Pat, and Mat add Sunset Herb to the animals' food, causing them to fall into a deep sleep which can only be broken by Ro's rose tonic.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Most trailers and the DVD description give away Ro's real name as Rosella, which she does not learn until the middle of the movie.
- Triumphant Reprise: "Right Here In My Arms - Reunion", a reprise of Ro's lullaby sung by her and her mother, the queen, as they reunite.
- True Blue Femininity: Danielle's dress is blue on the overdress (with a pink petticoat), and Ro's standout dress is mostly light blue.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Queen Ariana plans to murder Antonio and his family, poisons the animals so they'll starve to death in endless sleep, only had a daughter to serve her own ends, bribes a guard to kill Ro and her friends by knocking them into the ocean, and gained her title through marrying and killing an elderly king with a heart condition. It's also directly implied that she intends to rule the kingdom through her weak-willed daughter once she's crowned queen.
- Villain Song: Ariana's song "Love is for Peasants", is about the scheming and murdering she did to eventually get revenge on the royal family.
- Wham Line:
- When Rosella learns her full name, a woman approaches her.
Your name is Rosella? I...I had a daughter named Rosella..."- That is eventually followed by this conversation:
Tika: Ro found her mother.Sagi: And her mother is a queen, which means Ro is...Tika: [gasps] A princess! - Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ariana's parents were banished to a pig farm after a failed attempt to kill the royal family, making pigs a touchy subject for her. Ironically she's sent there again at the end of the movie.
There may be miracles awaiting
They may be closer than we know
When we have love to guide us as we go
They may be closer than we know
When we have love to guide us as we go
— Barbie
