Customer Reviews

Barbie in A Mermaid Tale (Spanish)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Our three and a half year old daughter wanted to see this movie after seeing a preview on the Nick Jr website. The only other Barbie movie we have watched was the Nutcracker, and while it was a cute movie with beautiful ballet sequences, it had too many scary parts for her. We watched A Mermaid's Tale tonight as a special treat after a particularly traumatic day involving blood testing for allergies. I was pleasantly surprised in this movie. The animation is fantastic, beautiful and lifelike. The characters are sweet. And the story line (you must realize we are talking it's for small children who love Barbie and fantasy) is easy to follow and fun. My daughter loved it. The "scary" parts weren't too scary, some sharks, a few jelly fish, and the mean Queen. And while she is mean, it's nothing like the Queen in Sleeping Beauty that can give very young children nightmares for weeks. The movie's message is that it is okay to be different. We are very particular about what we let our daughter watch. She watches Max and Ruby, the Wonder Pets, The Berenstain Bears, Little Bear, Olivia and occasionally Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. She has seen the Tinkerbell movies, but didn't enjoy the other Disney movies, as the bad guys are always too scary. She doesn't see any network TV or commercials in general. She saw the commercial for this on the Nick Jr website, and only after we had watched it first. My husband and I especially appreciated the fact that there weren't references to things she wouldn't understand, there weren't jokes thrown in for the adults only, and that is was sweet and simple with no violence, no name calling and nothing offensive. I would gladly watch it again with her, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a parent who was looking for a sweet, fun movie for little girls who love pretend and make-believe and believe it's possible Mermaids are really out there in the ocean somewhere.

Okay, everybody knows we're not dealing with Pixar here. I suspect Barbie movies are churned out of some nondescript factory in New Jersey (though I have yet to confirm those suspicions). But be that as it may, we accept Barbie movies for what they are: pleasant and relatively wholesome vehicles for selling products and offering parents a 1 and a 1/2 hour reprieve from the bedlam created by young girls. With that intro, here is my eight year old's review (as dictated to me):

"This movie is an enjoyable, unforgettable adventure. It is one of the best movies with fantasy. It has a great story and animation. This movie is a delightful film to watch."

I bought this the day it came out, and watched it with some of my younger little friends, ages 5-8. If I went by them, it'd be a 'Fish-A-Licious' 5 stars. However, I don't completely agree.
The storyline is a bit of a twist on the same old Kingdom-owning-craze that Barbie movies have become infamous for. This time, evil in the form of Eris, the good queen's sister, reigns. Eris stole the throne from Calissa, and it's the good guys (er, girls) trying to restore peace and happiness. Merliah Summers is ex-Queen Calissa's daughter, and a champion surfer. When she 'comes of age' and discovers she's part mermaid, she dives into the sea to try and find the mother she's never known, help Calissa, and hopefully get back her 'normal' self.
This one is decidedly more modern, the conversations are a little more mature, and yet some parts are even more juvenile. There is talk of Merliah's dad, who died in an accident, and Calissa's pregnacy and the oddity of mermaids marrying humans. None of it is overt or uncomfortable, but it's little changes like this that help balance out the more childish elements. Merliah acts like a brat, smarting off to her grandfather, being rude to Zuma and her friends, and talking a little too much about herself. However, in the the end, it turns out she's acting like this because she feels like a misfit and a freak. Her mother proceeds to tell her, "You're unique. These differences don't make you bad, but special in your own way." The animation isn't nearly as high quality as the others, but as far as I've seen, there haven't been any huge flaws. The underwater motions were well animated, and the surfing scenes were excellent. The music is modern and really fun. There are tons of cute mer-oriented words and catch phrases thrown in, such as "Bloomingtail's" "Seaphora" as well as songs like "Swimmin' on Sunshine." My biggest problem was the phsycic Destinies, whose faces go blank, eyes facant, and bodies glowing when they forsee the future. That, and the gleeful exclamtion of, "You're Merliah's Spirit Guide!" from Hadley left a bitter taste in my mouth, thinking, "How am I gonna explain to these little girls that dabbling in spirit-fortune telling and phsycadelic glowing mermaids are wrong????"

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie. It was lots of fun, sweet, and bright colors. Cute, but not great. Enjoyable, but not one of the ones I'd watch over and over again. I would say "Barbie's Worst!" but that's a little too drastic. It's not too mature for girls to swallow, and yet it's got a little more 'salt' thrown in for older viewers. I wish, though, that Barbie would return to the more classic princess style of movies. The Three Musketeers was great, with a good storyline and plain, girl-power wholesome fun, where all the girls shone-not just Barbie. The upcoming movie, Barbie in a Fashion Fairytale, looks to be utterly ridiculous. Barbie looks awful, and the plot seems bland. "Will Barbie and her dog Sequin find their inner Sparkle?!?" Whoopee. Tell me this isn't the direction Barbie's moving in! Go back to classical music and princesses if that's what it takes, Barbie!

This was a major disappointment. It was extremely shallow and materialistic and that is the last kind of influence young girls need. Shopping, makeup, and clothes or should I say tails? Come on!

My 6 year old has enjoyed most of the Barbie movies, including this newest offering. This is very much like all the rest, except as my 9 year old (who sat through it semi-interested several times) pointed out...there are no "boys." Wow! That's huge...every other Barbie movie has at least partially centered around a male character helping to solve the problem/save the kingdom. Besides a brief appearance by her kindly/wacky surfer dude grandfather, it's all girl power in this one. Pretty refreshing really!

Ny niece love the movie..and every day after school..here it goes to the movie.....
Great product and quality
Thanks

I bought this for a pajama party for my daughter's 6th bday. Eleven little girls (and one 4yo little brother)absolutely loved it. Granted, since it was a bday party, after about 50 mins they were ready to move on to cake, but it still held their attention longer than I'd expected. We've watched it a few times since, and both my 6yo daughter and 4yo son are mesmerized from start to finish. And I can actually say, I enjoy it too. There is more humor than I've seen in many younger kids' movies, and even though my kids didn't get some of it, I had a few good chuckles. I don't think I could watch it as many times as I've watched CARS, but it's alot easier on adults than any other Barbie movie and most of the other little girl movies we've seen.

As far as the "occult" stuff...give me a break. The destinies were funny little characters and the whole thing is completely harmless. Kids movies, especially girls' ones, are SUPPOSED to be magical. There's no need to take the *magic* and turn it into something treacherous, especially when the movie presents so many positive messages like this one does.

One of the things that I love about the Barbie movies is the music - there are a number of great Barbie movies with lots of amazing songs, like the songs in Barbie and the 3 Musketeers and Barbie as the Island Princess. And that's one thing that I've come to enjoy from Barbie movies. But unfortunately this movie doesn't have the same amount of new high quality songs that the previous ones have had. There is one main new song, and it's catchy, but that's about it. So I do miss the songs.

The story, however, is a good one. It's not a tale that hasn't been told - the Barbie writers tend to stick with classics - but it is a great story with great messages, about fitting in and figuring out what your heart truly desires. I think that the message in Thumbelina was a bit better, but this one wasn't bad!

I am a bit shocked, however, at the people here who have reviewed it and who are upset over the oracles in the movie. They're saying that the writers included the "occult" into the movie. Oracles are not the occult! It's not like the Barbie writers included demons or voodoo - oh wait, isn't there a Disney movie released lately that DID include voodoo? Why aren't the people on here complaining about the "occult" for that movie?

All in all it's a great Barbie movie, and while I wish there were more new songs, I loved the story and will definitely enjoy watching it again with my daughter.

We are a family of Barbie movie lovers. Any given day will find at least one of the movies on. My daughters loves all of them, especially Diamond Castle for my 2 year old and 3 Musketeers for my 4 year old. My son (yes SON) loves them as well. I caught my husband humming "3 voices yesterday". I adore all of the Fairytopia movies. Up to this point I have argued with people who said negative things about the movies without ever watching them. They are almost always great, creative stories. The lead female character is strong but not full of herself. She's polite, and usually ends up saving everyone without a guy's help, and in a lot of the movies is actually saving the guy.
My daughter has been looking forward to this movie coming out since we saw the previews for it last year. We bought it the day it came out, as well as the Merliah doll and two others. Up the the point of Merliah arriving at Oceanna, it was fun. It was cheesy yes, but fun. The surfing scenes were great, and I could overlook the fact that Merliah has a waterproof video cell phone watch. Arriving at Oceanna, all the mystique, all the grandeur that was in my children's imagination about Mermaids from the Fairytopia movies was instantly gone. Merliah arrives to a place that is supposedly under the rule of the evil Eris. But we see Merliah arrive to a world that seems to be nothing but shopping, makeup and 'pufferazzi'. The Destinies were the worst. Their voices were like nails on a chalkboard, and why on earth are these supposedly mystical psychic mermaids running a hair salon, worrying more about the evil Eris's split ends than the fact that they have an evil ruler who sends people to the dungeon for nothing.
Overall, the entire moving was lacking in the usual story quality you find with a Barbie movie. Oceanna was a land of shallow materialistic mermaids who didn't really seem to mind being under Eris's rule as long as they got to go shopping. Merliah was a good character, but there was a definite lack of the usual character development I've gotten used to with Barbie lead roles.
So far, my least favorite Barbie movie by far. I am hoping they go back to the good music and stories they had with movies like Princess and the Pauper, Island Princess and Diamond Castle. Our girls are smarter than this, and they don't need to be pandered to with shallow materialistic story lines.

I admit, endless churning out of Barbie movies every 6-8 months is a bit much. I could take them or leave them; the animation is cute, the story is harmless and of course there's lots of Barbie and her friends movie tie-in merchandise for your Barbie lover. That being said, my 7 year old daughter loves this movie. She enjoys dancing to the songs and has asked to watch it over and over. The good guys win in the end and the evil queen is scary, but not *too* scary. The story has a nice message about how it's ok to be different and unlike many other movies, the title character isn't waiting around for a prince to rescue her and save the day. As I'm not the target audience, I'll give it the five stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up my daughter emphatically states that it deserves.