The Barbie Movies

Thanks again! This time it's for recommending to me.

Well, until then, good riddance from this thread! I may be coming back here for a few occasions, though.

Wish me luck!

Have fun! I also really like the Island Princess, Princess Charm School, The Three Musketeers, and Princess Power.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Oct 23rd 2019 at 7:24:18 AM

I don't know if this is the right thread for this question, but is there anything on the live-action Barbie movie?. Shouldn't there be a teaser for it around now?

This is the latest we've heard of it so far, as well as this IMDB summary.

I only saw Barbie in the Nutcracker as a kid. I watched Barbie in The Princess and the Pauper for the first time last month since it seems like the most popular film. "I'm A Girl Like You" is one heck of an earworm.

On a related note, Barbie Vlog is quite nice. I'm surprised Barbie hasn't had a televised cartoon yet. Life in the Dreamhouse was the closest example.

Edited by Pichu-kun on Feb 2nd 2020 at 3:47:36 AM

I love Barbie as Rapunzel more than I do Tangled!

A new Barbie movie was announced for Netflix. It looks like the fourth time's the charm for yet another Princess and the Pauper movie XD

They really need do some more original stories. How about some Shakespeare?

Wait.. Barbie did three Princess and the Pauper movies? I thought they only did one?

There was The Princess and the Pauper, then Princess and the Popstar, then Rock'n Royals where Camp Royalty and Camp Pop got switched by mistake.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Jul 13th 2020 at 6:37:31 AM

According to the Barbie movies wiki, Princess Adventures is set in the same continuity as Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures, which I just found out is a Netflix original series, and also not to be confused with Life in the Dreamhouse which is also on Netflix. Are either of the shows worth watching?

Life in the Dreamhouse is hilarious. XD I never saw Dreamhouse Adventures so I can't say. (Or Dreamtopia.)

I'm quite surprised Dreamhouse Adventures or Dreamtopia don't have their own pages yet.

New Barbie movies were announced for Netflix, focusing on slice-of-life stuff: Barbie and Chelsea: The Lost Birthday, and Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams.

https://www.animationmagazine.net/streaming/mattels-barbie-big-city-big-dreams-takes-the-stage-in-september/

We have some another Barbie movie coming to Netflix in September.

So I'd divide the movies into three major eras:

The Classic era is the fairytale stuff with occasional outliers, running from Barbie in the Nutcracker to Barbie and the Three Musketeers.

The Modern era is more contemporary stories with occasional fantasies and sci-fi stuff, from Barbie in a Mermaid Tale to Barbie: Video Game Hero.

The Dreamhouse era focuses on slice-of-life stuff with Barbie, her family, and her friends and has its own continuing continuity, from Barbie Dolphin Magic to the upcoming Barbie And Stacie To The Rescue.

(The Dreamhouse era includes side projects like Dreamhouse Adventures, Dreamtopia, It Takes Two, and A Touch of Magic.)

Totally Reprised covers another movie that is basically a Totally Spies episode: Western Animation Barbie Spy Squad.

The quality was definitely better than I expected from movie no. 32 in a franchise that clearly loves to pump these things out to sell toys. And yes, this is basically a Totally Spies origin episode from start to end.

And I say episode, because there really is only enough plot for maybe a two parter here (so 44 minutes), stretched out to 75 minutes. The main problem is the pacing, which could be a bit snappier, especially in action scenes, and the dialogue, which similarly could be a bit snappier and better paced. The first half hour is especially slow paced, taking its time with introducing the girls to the secret headquarters, putting them through training, and giving them gadgets, something Totally Spies routinely does much faster.

There are also some elements that seem redundant to the movie, most notably Barbie's brother and sister. The sister gets a subplot about feeling insecure about her athletics performance, which seems redundant since Barbie herself is going through exactly the same story arc. They also discover Barbie and her friends are spies now, but then... don't really do anything with that. If the movie had been paced better, there could have been more room for a subplot with them.

There is also a lengthy dress up sequence, which I guess is par for the course for this franchise.

The robo-kitty is rather superfluous as well. There clearly was only room for one robo-sidekick in this movie, and it's not like there weren't plenty of characters already.

The thief is a rather one dimensional character who switches sides on a dime. I think they could have gotten more out of that betrayal by the main villain. I did like her interactions with the girls, but they could have done more with it. She was still great fun though.

Speaking of the girls, they do a poor job of distinguishing who is who. They feel like stock characters, but apparently they are not?

It is also a bit ironic that this movie wants to be all about teamwork, because if anything, Barbie's teammates are not up for the job and keeping her back, especially early on. I think for that message to work, rather than foxussing on Barbie performing perfectly, they should have gone for showing how a team effort makes them perform better than any one individually.

Edited by Redmess on Dec 29th 2023 at 10:41:34 AM

Is the newest Barbie movie suitable for very young kids (like 5 years)? I noticed it had a "9 and up" recommendation for the local cinema, which suggests it isn't entirely child friendly (which is honestly pretty wild for this franchise).