Customer Reviews

Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Oh, to go back to the days when Barbie movies were full of imagination, creativity, princesses, dreams come true and REAL fairytales. This is no fairytale. It's a pathetic excuse for a kid's movie that is trying to be hip and modern and introducing little girls to the world of twitter, Juicy Couture and boyfriend breakups. "A Fashion Fairytale" is anything but. The animation was lame, the dialogue was too filled with "hip" phrases and "teen terms" to be good, and the characters leave much to be desired. And the clothes are immodest, over-glitterized pink party outfits that no one in the real world would wear. The themes have more sexual content than a Barbie movie has ever had, and I'm truly sorry I bought this sorry excuse for a movie. Even older viewers and Barbie lovers can't enjoy it, because the bar has been set. Listen up, Mattel!
This movie is nothing but an encouragement to have the latest fashions, the top designs, the coolest new cell phones, the hottest boyfriends, and be uber popular at the same time. Please! Children don't need sexy models and lecherous dogs to look up to. Barbie used to stand for something more. Her standards used to be higher. Now she's too busy shopping for even MORE tight, low-cut, haute clothes. And while she's at it, she COULD use another micro miniskirt, couldn't she? The only decent outfit this chick wears is when she's filming for "the Princess and the Pea." And she gets fired from that!
I want to go back to the days when I saw a barbie movie and bought it knowing it was going to be wholesome, whimsical, sweet, and creative. They got it so right back then-this is madness.

The Barbie movies I've seen up to now have been, although cheap looking and with terrible animation, decent entertainment with some nice messages about girl power. All I can say with this one is: what happened? I've given the movie two stars only because my 5 year old really enjoyed it...but honestly, I would not recommend it to any of my friends. To begin with - the start of the movie is confusing and very unsettling for young viewers. It starts with Barbie as the princess in the Princess and the Pea, getting menaced by the prince's mother...but then the scene shifts to reveal that it is a movie set, and Barbie is an actress. Some scary Zombie men in pea costumes are introduced (making my 3 year old very anxious), Barbie disagrees with the director and is ridiculed for her ideas and then fired for speaking up, she finds herself humiliated online in a gossip blog, and her boyfriend Ken breaks up with her over the phone. This is in the first 15 minutes! Barbie then decides to go to Paris to visit her aunt, a fashion designer. The negative themes continue from there - upon arrival she meets some nasty fashion designer rivals, and learns her aunt's business has failed. Of course, this being a Barbie movie, Barbie helps to turn things around, but even then, it's magical (tarted up) "flairies" (magic fashion fairies-- huh?-- totally out of place in this movie) that get the credit for making the designs truly special. How do the flairies do it? By adding a boatload of glitter, of course!

I find it hard to find a female character to get behind in this movie. Barbie's friends are barely there, and when they are, they act like airheads, her aunt spends the movie taking pratfalls in ridiculous getups, her aunt's design rivals Jacqueline and Delphine are cruel and simpering, respectively, and the young designer Alice is mousy and self-doubting, even with Barbie's constant prodding. Barbie herself spends some time doubting her own abilities as an actress- and although she does enjoy the accomplishment of helping her aunt and Alice out of a bad situation, she only ends up personally validated at the end after Ken and a male (agent? director?) show up and profess their admiration. What the heck? The men fare no better - Ken is a doofus, for lack of a better word, the men in the movie business are obnoxious...there's a little boy who is annoying and then provides a gross-out moment. Oh, and the dogs - there's a lecherous male dog, I suppose to fulfill some stereotype of French male behavior.

Really, I'm tempted to take away a star, but like I said, my 5 year old daughter enjoyed it a lot. She liked the Paris scenes, the fashion show, the glitter. Both the 3 & 5 year old enjoyed the pets. But there are much better Barbie movies out there than this.

This is the worst Barbie movie ever! I have bought all the movies for my now 4 year old daughter. We are big Barbie Fans and have enjoyed the past movies. However,this one is just so bad in so many ways. The content is very adult and not meant for young children. It deals with adult issues with heavy burdens. Ex: Getting fired, breakups, Closing business, hateful people who want nothing but to see you suffer and get hurt.
It all starts off very badly from the beginning scene where Barbie is filming the classic 'The Princess and the Pea' and it turns into a horror movie, per this very obnoxious, hateful yelling director. He fires Barbie in the worst way possible. Then she gets hate mail on her computer as well as her boyfriend Ken dumping her over the phone. Yeah, but don't hold your breath yet. It gets even worse as the story progresses.
I could not even watch it through the first 20 mins. The characters are so unintelligent. Theresa is just so dumb. Who says stuff like she does anyway? Aliens... Really? Come on even my 4 year old is brighter than her. The Dippy Aunt Millicent is just too unbelievable trying to find herself at her age. The Catty and unethical Jaquline is something I hope my daughter never tries to imitate as well as Delphine, a mindless twit who lets Jaquline boss her around disrespectfully and control her every move. Even the pets act up in this one with meaness, cattiness and just plain hateful behavior. The kid on the plane with Ken who is just over the top bad is just unappealing in so many ways. I found it difficult to watch this movie and felt embarrassed by the fictional characters behaving so badly. Stealing, lying, cheating and disrespect are not things I want to instill in my child. Do yourself a favor and skip this one if you are a Barbie fan and enjoyed the ones in the past. I wish I had!

My 3 year old owns almost all of the Barbie movies. She did not like this one at all. It was boring and there was no singing. Most of the Barbie movies are incredibly corny but they had some catchy songs (e.g. Diamond Castle, Mermaid Tale, Princess and the Pauper, Island Princess, Musketeers). This movie was just....blah. That's the only way to describe it. It was boring and unremarkable. Save your money and rent it for a night, or buy a better Barbie movie.

My daughters and I have watched and purchased every Barbie movie they have made, and vowed that we would always watch them together even as they get older. Not sure we'll be doing that now after watching this movie. Why did they change the Barbie movies, when they were so good before? In this one, Barbie looks really weird, her voice is different (no more Kelly Sheridan), and the magic is gone. The previews for the next Barbie movie do not look good either (for Spring 2011). My girls and I are so sad at the end of the special Barbie movies that we have enjoyed all of these years. :(

This is definitely the worst of the movies in the Barbie series. It started off with wonderful adaptations of classics like the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and the Princess and the Pauper but has really just deteriorated with each new one. I really didn't care for Barbie in a Mermaid Tale, but this one is so much worse than that.

Barbie is no longer voiced by Kelly Sheridan, which is a shame and a big loss in itself. The music and songs are not very fun or catchy like previous Barbie movies. They have changed Barbie's look too, given her these huge unnatural eyes and a pointy little face. But in this movie, Barbie is a young adult having to deal with a job loss, a break-up with her boyfriend, and struggling to save a business. Barbie actually sits and reads hate postings on a blog about her on the internet....they put this in a kids' movie??

My daughters enjoy the sparkly clothes and the scenes with the little magical fashion "flairies", which are completely out of place in a movie trying to be so "realistic". It seems to me they are saying that no matter how wonderful the things you create are, they will be so much better if you add some glitter. Hmmm, like nothing you'll do is good enough. The main message to "believe in yourself" comes off as just lame in this movie, if you even notice it at all.

All in all, there is not much to recommend this movie. You're not missing out if you skip it and wait and hope for something better with the next Barbie movie.

This movie is not for young girls. It is too realistic and the words used are poorly chosen. The characters get angry and yell at eachother and the content is more for adults. Not wholesome or fun at all!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I gave it the benefit of the doubt because of all the hype built up for it and the cover art is gorgeous. I thought the idea of fashion design would be a fun plot, especially since my daughters love to dress up. In fact, I was even planning to build the theme of my daughter's next birthday around a Barbie Fashion show theme. Still want to do that, but, here's my take on the film:

1. I really thought the animation was improving right up to the Mermaid Tale movie. It was really getting fantastic. This being the latest film, I expected the animation to actually have improved. It looks worse! In fact, I felt like the characters moved like bad video game characters. The only difference being that the detail and rendering is better. But, the animation was very stiff.

2. I HATE Barbie's new face! What is up with the abnormally large eyes, big head and tiny mouth? She looks like an alien with make-up, blond hair and blue eyes! Bring the old Barbie look back, please. That Barbie was gorgeous and looked more like the dolls.

3. I agree with others who have said the storyline was very shallow. I wanted to add, too, that the characters are exaggerrated to the point that it wasn't even comical. The little boy in the airplane was annoying. He appeared to be 6 years old but behaved like a toddler (in reference to bursting into tears when Ken made a face back at him). The zombie peas were ridiculous (I know, that was the point), and I didn't feel the need to see them anymore beyond the first scene. As for the guy in the hotdog suit toward the end. Ugh, need I say more?

If I loved anything about the movie, it was the "flairies", they were adorable and I loved the acting and animation for them. It just seems like they didn't do much more than glitterize all of the clothing. Hello, that is WHY you don't "see anything like that", because not everyone wants to wear glitter-tastic party dresses! Although the third fairy who found her talent toward the end, I liked that. That was a nice touch.

I do have to say that I also really like the music. Can't wait till the soundtrack is available because I would love to play it at my daughter's birthday party. I will say, she did love the movie. But, she loves Barbie and she REALLY loves sparkles and pink, so that kind of bought her bigtime.

I'm just disappointed in this Barbie film. We have all of the others. I wish it was just another one where Barbie is at the beginning and ending of the film, telling a story to a youngster that teaches them a good life lesson.Barbie used to be about believing in yourself and girl power and just being a good a likeable person. Not about boy drama or what the latest styles and trends are. Girls have enough of that surrounding their everyday lives. Come on, Mattel, fix this before you lose a lot of adoring fans.

We own every Barbie movie made up to this point, and Barbie's looks and the story quality have been changing over time. In this video, she looks like a mutated, egg-headed Brats doll (and Brats dolls look terrible). Horrendous to look at; not at all human. The voice of Barbie has changed and is also awful. All of the characters speak in fake voices and the characterizations - attitudes exhibited, vocabulary used, physical actions - are very shallow, and again, fake. The plot is ridiculous, and you know what? My daughters couldn't STAND to watch beyond the first 20-30 minutes - we forced ourselves to watch that long, either to see if it would get better, or because it was such a disgusting train wreck that we couldn't look away. I felt grossed out from the very beginning and so did my daughters. None of the characters in this movie remotely resemble, in any way, people of this planet. There would be no enjoyment, no lessons learned, no caring about these humanoids at all. Is this really what we want our kids to watch? We are telling them that this is how they're supposed to look and act when they grow up! Therefore, I believe that a large organization of plastic surgeons and psychiatrists paid for the making of this movie. BAD. VERY BAD. RUN AWAY.

There were some good moments in it, like the fashion show, Barbie being herself in a story and the flairies. But when you stop to compare it to the other Barbie movies even, A Mermaid's tale (one of the weakest up to this point) this one just doesn't measure up. I found it boring at points, and wasn't too impressed with it. Has Mattel ran out of ideas for Barbie movies, here are some suggestions:

The Princess and The Pea: Instead of using it as a parody in a movie like this actually make the fairy tale.

Cinderella: Hey everyone else has done it isn't it time Barbie took on the role

Sleeping Beauty: Once again done in many mediums and would like to see Barbie tackle it.

The Little Mermaid: Instead of Mermaidia or whatever, take the actual story on.

Beauty and The Beast: Also done countless times, but would like to see how it would be interpreted in a Barbie film.

Little Women: A timeless story, and would love to see Barbie take on the role of Jo.

These are just some ideas, and there are sure many others. Also, I know that the writers of these movies can come up with better ideas then a fashion fairy tale, they prove it with Island Princess and The Crystal Castle, that were original stories. I just think they could of come up with something far more creative then this.