Customer Reviews

Barbie Fairytopia - Magic of the Rainbow

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My 4 year old has loved the Barbie Movies since she was 2 and this one, the third installment in the Fairytopia series did not dissapoint. I personally prefer the ones based on fairytales (Princess and the Pauper, Nutcracker, and Twevle Dancing Princesses) but I thought that this was the best movie of the Fairytopia series. The anamation is awesome. We saw this movie on Nickelodeon and recorded on our DVR. We have watched it at least once everyday since, great movie!

Although I am not a big Barbie fan, my 4 and 6 year old girls love this movie. It is a pretty decent movie-good messages about being nice and doing the right thing. Believe it or not Barbie is actually a strong role model. She solves problems on her own and doesn't wait for her Prince to save her.

This movie is great for someone who is a total Barbie Fan, My 4 yr old daughter loves this movie. Great story line and plot, Its a wonderful Barbie experience!!!! buy it and that someone special will LOVE IT!!!

Compared with some of the other Barbie videos I was slightly disappointed with this, but the target audience certainly were not. In the week we rented this film I have lost count of the number of times my children have watched it.

For reference, this is the third in the "Fairytopia" sequence which currently consists of:

Fairytopia
Mermaidia
Magic of the Rainbow.


Before we first rented one of the Barbie videos for my daughter, I was expecting them to be trite, over-commercialised, and over-sugary. In general, however, I have been pleasantly surprised.

Yes, they do have a lot of commercial spin-offs and a high saccharine count, but the quality of the Barbie films we have subsequently bought or rented, including all three "Fairytopia" films, was significantly higher than I had originally expected. They have not just kept my children engrossed for hours - including my son as well as my daughter - but introduced them to some beautiful stories. Several - but sadly not this one - also introduced my children to some truly wonderful music.

On more than one occasion I have been listening to a CD of a classic such as Beethoven's pastoral symphony, or "The Queen of the Night's aria" from Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute", and my five year old daughter has recognised and expressed appreciation of the music, and correctly remembered which Barbie film had used it. ("Magic of Pegasus" and "Mermaidia" respectively.)

So I was very disappointed that "Fairytopia - the magic of the rainbow" did not continue this tradition: no great classics this time, the musical score is just competently written filler.

The film continues the story of a Barbie as a good fairy, Elina and her "puffball" companion Bibble, who seek to protect the land of the fairies (Fairytopia) from being taken over and ruined by the evil Laverna.

This time Bibble, the "puffball" comic relief character gets a romance of his own.

Those people who enjoy criticising the way Mattel operate the Barbie franchise will not have much difficulty finding things in this production to sneer at. If you, or more importantly your kids, are allergic to an excess of twee sweetness, then this film and the Barbie videos generally may not be for them.

The female characters are all on the thin side of plausibility: I'm not worried that watching this is going to give my own daughter anorexia as she likes food too much and has a good sense of the difference between fantasy and reality. And after all, the characters in this story are fairies, complete with wings! However, if you are worried that your children may be forming an unrealistic idea about how thin a healthy female body shape is, it is not quite impossible that this film may contribute to it.

But on the plus side: it is beautifully made, it will hold the attention of most small children for long enough for the typical exhausted parent to clear the mess they have made in several rooms of the house or collapse for an hour's rest after doing so. And there are still a few more sophisticated jokes thrown in, so you won't be completely bored to death if you decide to watch it with your offspring.

Overall this is not, in my opinion, quite as good as some of the previous Barbie videos, including the first two Fairytopia" titles, but anything which can hold my children's attention as well as this film did clearly has something going for it.

Having rented the title to try it out, I will be buying it for my children, probably as part of the triple DVD set with all three "Fairytopia" titles.

What's a Barbie to do? On one side there are the stuff-struttin' Bratz, on the other there's Cinderella, poppin' out product like she's a slave for, gee, some giant entertainment empire. Lost in the middle is Barbie, who has lately been trying to jump-start her career with these computer-animated "Fairytopia" films.

This one's not bad. More than just sugar-sweet marketing muck, it has bright, colorful visuals and a real story filled with good messages. As for the animation, it's much better than most direct-to-video releases. On the downside, the story is dense and the pace is mighty slow: I fell asleep watching it! But if your little girl already likes this series she'll probably go for it.

My girls loved this dvd, and some of their friends also enjoyed it. I would recommend this to anyone with girls who love barbie in general.

I was surprised with this movie. The animation is still beautiful like all of the Barbie movies and Elena is a good role model, but I was disappointed with the plot and character development. In the past two movies Barbie must make sacrifices to save the land she loves, in this one all she has to do is be on somewhat good/bad terms with the other fairies in the school. I just didn't feel as if there was any growth in her character. Yes, she has many gifts - she is a very talented fairy but what does she do with them? She's also the only one who appears to know what is going on and how to the defeat the bad guy. I prefer the other 2 fairytopia movies.

I saw this movie on Nickelodeon and I must say, this was Barbie's best movie yet. The colors were awesome in the Rainbow Dome scene, and once again, Elina helped save Fairytopia from Laverna. I especially liked the part where Elina's wings changed again. Now she'll be reminded of how together the Apprentices were strong against Laverna.

This is a great movie and collection of stories for those of all ages. The digital work put into this is really quite amazing. I just really wish they would have Elina find a serious love interest soon! While this one focuses on the 'school' experience I feel like Mermaidia was more successful in keeping my attention, but this is still an interesting movie. The characters you really start to feel for, even Laverna. This series is really quite enjoyable and I'm 22, so parents shouldn't find this too dificult to watch over and over. When I have kids I'm going to definetly let them watch this :)

My 5 year old daughter is a fan of all things Barbie and she (as well as I) enjoyed this movie to the max. Great animation and colors. And as always great message of respect and teamwork was learned thru this movie. That along with the cutest storyline of Barbie's Puffball Bibble's tooth falling out (on the same day my daughter lost her first tooth) and falling in love with Dizzle... too too cute!!