To begin, I am a Barbie lover, I collect barbies, I have all the movies and am just a huge fan. However, since Barbie in Thumbelina, the films have lacked their original element of magic. The characters are no longer dynamic, and every film with the exception of the Three Muskateers has been set in the present with no real magical otherworldly elements except for going under the sea for tacky underwater cities or into fairy lands that lack any kind of creativity in landscape and visual design. The exceptions since Thumbelina have been Muskateers, Princess Charm School and a Fashion Fairytale.
There have been seven movies since Charm School, and they have finally made another decent one. It still doesn't come close to Swan Lake/Rapunzel/Fairytopia/Pegasus etc, but it is on an equal level with Charm School. The colours are bright and the land beyond the door has more detail than the ones in Fairy Secret, which I really appreciate, because whoever designed the fairy world in that was absolutely useless.
The first two songs sung by Barbie 'Alexa' (I swear they're running out of names, haven't they used Alexa before?) are very catchy, despite they lyrics being lazy. However, the songs sung by her mermaid and fairy friends are really boring and the dancing is so awkward you want to block your eyes.
The villain is awesome though! I found her really funny, she's a little brat who is totally spoilt and her song gives us a good look at her character and develops our love/hate relationship with her. I was really happy with her, considering the last few villains which have been really boring and haven't had any musical numbers in a while.
Another plus is that Barbie doesn't look like such an alien in this one! I remember seeing her in 'A Mermaid Tale' and almost died from how giant her eyes were and how rounded and large her head was. Well it's still huge and her eyes are still giant, but she looks less crazy. She's definitely a bit more human looking than she was. Hopefully returning to her original movie looks.
My niece who is 9 really loved this film and she agrees with me about the last few being disappointments. She found this one really entertaining and funny, and loved the colours in the film! I personally felt the extreme lolly colouring to be a bit much, and almost got a headache from the overkill, but she loved it so I guess that's something the kids must like.
It has good messages in it as well, about being who you are and learning that you can shine even if you are shy and that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. It has all the typical barbie movie motivational messages in it, so that's always good.
Definitely worth watching, it gives hope that Barbie movies might be getting better again.
