Customer Reviews

Barbie and the Three Musketeers

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mattel's latest gender-reversed classic in the "Barbie" animated series begins on a farm in Gascony where Corinne, daughter of the famous D'Artagnan, is practicing her swordfighting moves. (Her idea of swordfighting seems to owe more to the "Zorro" films than anything you would actually expect to find in 17th century France, but never mind.)

Corinne's life's ambition is to follow in her father's footsteps by becoming a royal musketeer. When she turns 17 she goes to Paris to enlist, carrying as D'Artagnan had before her, a letter of introduction to Monsieur de Treville, who is still Captain of the King's musketeers. (With the silver hair which is the only sign of age in this kind of film.)

Unfortunately for Corinne, the 17th century French authorities are not ready for the idea of a lady musketeer (probably this reluctance is the most plausible part of the film.) So instead she has to accept a job as a maid at the palace.

Just as D'Artagnan fell foul of "the three musketeers" on his first day in Paris and agreed to fight duels with each of them, Corinne has unfortunate meetings with three other girls while attempting to rescue her pet cat from an unpleasant dog belonging to the film's villain, and then finds that they are her new work colleagues.

Despite this unfortunate start, Corinne becomes friends with her new colleagues and it turns out that all four share an ambition to be royal musketeers. So they begin to train in secret.

Meanwhile the handsome Prince Louis, heir to the throne, is about to be crowned King on reaching his majority. His cousin Phillipe, who has been ruling France as Regent while Louis was a child, is less than happy at handing over power. Phillipe's nefarious plans are about to run into a most unexpected obstacle ...

From my adult perspective this was quite the most ridiculous of all the Barbie films - the fact that the music to the climax of the film was the song "unbelievable" seemed only too appropriate. But this isn't aimed at adults, it's aimed at little girls and I have to report that my eight year old daughter loved it, as did her twin brother. And in fact some of the jokes in the film are quite funny: they had my wife as well as our children laughing out loud and raised a few smiles even from me.

It has all the stock Barbie ingredients - a relentlessly positive heroine, a wicked villain, good and bad talking animals, etc. Like all the Barbie films "Barbie and The Three Musketeers" is also beautifully made, charming, and, if my daughter is anything to go by, can hold the attention of a little girl for hours.

Before we first rented any 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 that film and the other Barbie videos we have subsequently bought or rented, was significantly higher than I had originally expected before I saw the first one. They have kept my children engrossed for hours - including my son as well as my daughter - and also introduced them to some beautiful stories. Several of them also introduced my children to some great musical classics: others, of which this is one, had instead enjoyable original or modern music. In all cases Mattel had hired first class international orchestras to provide the instrumental soundtrack.

On more than one occasion I have been listening to a CD of a classic such as Beethoven's pastoral symphony (Beethoven: Symphony No.6), or "The Queen of the Night's aria" from Mozart's opera "Mozart: The Magic Flute", and my daughter, who was then five years old, recognised and expressed appreciation of the music, and correctly remembered which Barbie film had used it. ("Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" and "Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia" respectively.)

The music for "Barbie and the three musketeers" is easy on the ear, though this is not one of those Barbie films - there are some - which you would buy for the music.

For reference, the Barbie films with beautiful musical scores taken largely from the classics include

"Barbie of Swan Lake" (with music from the ballet of that name)
"Barbie in The Nutcracker" (ditto)
"Barbie and the Magic Of Pegasus" (Beethoven)
"Fairytopia II: Mermaidia" (Mozart)
"Barbie in the 12 dancing princesses dvd" (Mendelsohn)
"Barbie in a Christmas Carol" (various traditional carols)

The two best with music which is original rather than taken from the classics, are "Barbie as The Island Princess" and "Barbie As The Princess and the Pauper" the music for which I can particularly recommend.


In terms of production values, the DVD runs smoothly and is fairly easy to navigate around: it is as visually beautiful as any of the Barbie films to date, which is quite a high standard, and contains a few extras such as games.

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

One charge which is sometimes made against the Barbie films but which does not hold much water is the idea that they reinforce gender stereotypes, and that criticism does not appear at all applicable to this particular film. It's a gender reversed story, and the heroine and central character is far more interested in foiling plots against the King than in going on a date with him.

To summarise, these films are beautifully made, and 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 enough more sophisticated jokes thrown in that you won't be completely bored to death if you decide to watch "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" with your offspring.

In this re-write of Dumas' "The Three Musketeers", Barbie is a country lass named Corinne. Like her deceased father, who just happens to have been D'Artagnan, it is her dream to serve and protect the royal family. But unlike her father she faces even more difficulties in getting to prove herself worthy of the Musketeer title because she is a girl.

This then is the pivotal point of the plot, that girls can do whatever they want if they are willing to train for it and not let others squash there dreams. And, in fact, this theme is extended to include everyone, even the Prince of France, who feels like he will have to give up his scientific interests once he becomes king.

Corrine is joined in this adventure by 3 other girls, who also happen to want to be Musketeers. They are all athletic and bright, differing though in their interests. One quotes poetry, one plays the violin, and so forth. But because they are girls they end up working as housekeepers in the palace until they discover that there is a plot against the prince's life. Then they are called upon to use all of their skills and inner strength to try to foil the plot.

There is the usual music and dance numbers, as well as the usual avoidance of violence in this film. The talking animals include a mean-spirited dog, Corrine's cat, and a horse named Alexander.

Talking Points:::

I really liked the strong themes in the movie. Like every Barbie film there's a good underlying message and exemplary behavior.

I thought the music was excellent. It's a little more trendy than in previous Barbie movies, and I'm even thinking about seeing if there's a DVD we can purchase.

I thought the animation was not as good as in her other movies. However we saw this at the theater so that may have made small imperfections appear worse than they would at home.

Overall, a very good movie. I give it 4 Stars because some of the plotting was inferior to previous movies, and if you could only purchase one Barbie video for your child, I would suggest that Barbie Barbie in The Nutcracker and Barbie Barbie As The Princess and the Pauper were better choices.

Pam T~

I was nervous to buy this without having viewed it. I bought Thumbelina without seeing it, and after watching it with my girls I quickly gave it to a friend who wanted it. I monitor whtt my girls watch, ages 5 and 3 very closely. I am always on the lookout for snotty attitudes in movies that they could pick up (if you are a mom of girls you probably agree they don't need any additional assistance!) Anyways, that is why I gave Thumbelina away.

I enjoyed this movie for the most part. I think its neat to see the heroines in this movie work some serious moves. My daughters and their friends were cheering throughout the movie. Afterwards, the immediately set to pretending to be musketeers, and my 5 year old was asking me to buy her a real sword.

There are a couple parts in the movie however that I would have done without. Corinne had a few attitudes I would have done without when she felt she was being wronged. The traditional "hmph!" (pictured your 5 year old arms crossed glaring at you) was in there.....As well as some snooty girls at the ball thinking they were better than everybody else and arguing back and forth about it. It is little things like this that my girls will pick up on and I know it will come back to haunt me, so that is why I really did not like these attitudes in the movie. They could have done without them. Overall, it was cute and fun. My favorites are still 12 Dancing Princesses and Island Princess.

My two daughters love the Barbie movies, especially Barbie and the Diamond Castle and Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses. So we could hardly wait to get Barbie and the Three Musketeers.
My girls love the movie and are running around pretending to be musketeers now! However, I am disappointed. The songs don't fit the movie well and are not easy to sing along with like my girls prefer. Also, I am all for girl empowerment, I strongly want my girls to feel they can accomplish anything they want. However; I strongly object to women gaining power by trying to belittle men. The prince was a weak dreamer who cowered as Corrine (Barbie) fought for him! Would it have be so bad for them both to have been fighting the bad guys?
On the positive side, I do like the themes of working hard to gain your goals and teamwork that were portrayed. Also, the cute byplay of the animals from previous movies was there. (A little too much like Princess and the Pauper as it is the good cat and horse vs. the mean bully dog, but it doesn't detract from the movie.)

We saw this in the theater and then had to buy it! Best Barbie movie yet.

This is amazingly enough a great movie to teach girls about being whatever they want to be. It's surprising how many movies are now addressing this theme, but here's the same theme again done in a cute way. It follows the action adventure romance line, but with twists that are a bit unexpected. There are unexpected heroines. No, I don't mean Barbie as the sole heroine either. My daughter loved it especially the extra bonus features. My daughter is seven. My son who is 11 won't admit it but he enjoyed it too. He'll watch these movies but won't admit to it to his friends. The fact that my entire family was able to watch and enjoy the movie makes it a success.

Hello I'm an autistic 21 year old adult women & YES I'm a big Barbie fan!

This is my review on Barbie and The Three Musketeer's - DVD.

I rented this from my local library as soon as they had this DVD neatless to say there was 50 holds on it before I rented it me 51st person to rent it so far. Anyway's I love this movie. It has everything in it. Sword fighting, action, castles, & a Reinassance time era & theme. One of the best storylines ever too for the movie. I love barbie & I love anything to do with the Reinassance era (Mideval Times). It has to be one of the best Barbie Movies I've seen so far yet. I love the music video "Unbelievable" with the cats dancing & singing awesome! Girls can do anything! & This movie proves it! If you believe in your dreams then you will succeed. I'm so getting Barbie & the three musketeers nintendo ds game. I wanted to see this movie first before I get the game but now I'm positive of getting the ds game. Oh & after you watch this movie watch the blooper's too I was laughing my butt off at the bloopers. If you like this Barbie movie then watch:

Barbie as Repunzel - DVD
Barbie Swanlake - DVD
Barbie NutCracker - DVD
Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses - DVD
Barbie in the Diamond Castle - DVD
Barbie and The Three Musketeers - DVD
Barbie Diaries - High School Mystery - DVD

Those are my six favorite movies of all time & yes I've seen all the barbie movies.

Happy Movie Hunting!

We own EVERY Barbie movie, but this is in my top 3. I would say Diamond Castle is number one, Pegasus is number two, and then this one. ANY and ALL Barbie movies are awesome for young girls because "Barbie" goes through trials and hardships and overcomes them by the end of the movie. GREAT way for girls to learn the importance of being kind and powering through their problems.

what I thought was a re-write of a the classic tale is more of a sequal as Barbie plays Corinne the daughter of famous Musketeer Dartanion. After 17 years of practice her dreams of going to Paris and becoming a musketeer like her dad isn't all it crack up to be as girls aren't musketeers. Getting a job as a servant girl she and the other girls that she had anything but a good first impression upon come across a plot against the prince. She and her soon to be friends who also dreams of being a musketeers themselves becomes the secret mask heroines of the kingdom. Treating Barbie like a real actress in a movie and not some cartoon character the DVD includes behind the scenes bloopers and a great New York Barbie fashion show where women of different ages get to be Barbie from different era's of her existence.

My ten-year-old daughter wrote this:

After seeing this movie, Barbie and the Three Musketeers, I began to have second thoughts about it. It was an okay movie, but here are some pro's and con's.
Pros:
1. The music was trendier than other movies.
2. The bond between the four girls was quite believable.
3. Kelly Sheridan was the main role in the movie, and lately, she hasn't, so this was definitely a perk.
4. The movie had some serious girl power!
5. The kitten was adorable, and I think it's cute how she wanted to be a "Musk-cat-eer."
Cons:
1. I enjoy the more "princess-y" movies, and this one, in our opinion, had too much fighting.
2. It didn't exactly have that "Barbie Charm" to it, and it's a bit too hard to explain what it is.
3. It just really didn't make me feel good after viewing it.

So overall, I didn't really like the movie, but maybe it just wasn't my taste.