Customer Reviews

Dance Workout with Barbie [VHS]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bought this for my 5 y/o niece who likes Barbie and loves to dance. Wow! Great songs. Just the right kind and amount of movement for a child as well as adult. Great workout for those long winter months. Wish that more aerobic videos for kids were available. It really is perfect!

Move over Jane Fonda! Now Barbie has her own workout video, and it is COOL!

Brought to life through the magic of stop-motion animation by Academy Award-winning Will Vinton Studios, Barbie (and her friend, Kim) teach a 30-minute dance/aerobics class to a group of real live girls (ages 7-11).

And one of the featured girls just happened to turn out to be TV and film superstar Jennifer Love Hewitt! (You can't miss her -- she's in the front row).

Also, it says on the box that all the songs are sung by Love Hewitt. The songs are upbeat and fun, and the girl can sing!

I highly recommend this tape to anyone (girls of all ages and their moms) looking for a great way to pick up some cool dance steps while they get a much-needed workout.

Barbie: You GO girl!

Recommended for ages 5 and up, I thought this would be a natural for my almost 5 year old. Half way through the fast moving steps, she got frustrated to the point of tears. Problem in that there is no instruction on the dance steps, just fast demonstration. We concluded that the only way to learn is to take one dance step at a time - with mom leading the way. I think it will be great once she gets the moves down.

I ordered this workout video for my two stepdaughters (8 and 11 years old) who needed some extra activities to get healthy. I wasn't sure about it at first but surprise they love it. They do it in the morning while I make breakfast and even want to workout again when they get home from school. It's a great video and they are really wanting to get down all the cool dances. Thanks Barbie and Kim. Claudia

I bought this for my 4 1/2 year old because she loves Barbie and tries to do aerobics with me. I thought this would be her opportunity to have her own workout. The moves are a bit fast and it's hard for her to keep up, she usually does her own thing. There isn't much instruction on how to do the steps, but she loves just moving around to the music and Barbie's wonderful motivation. Barbie often reminds the girls to drink lots of water and take breaks as needed. You do need to be coordinated to keep up, I even had trouble at first. Mom's join in and you'll see you can even work up a sweat.

This video is typical "Barbie" overly perky and filled with good looking and thin girls(they appear to be perfect -unattainable and discouraging to anyone who isn't). They all know the routine perfectly and it is very fast and complex. My 8 year old who takes dance could not get the steps down and was so frustrated that she will not even try it anymore. I would challenge adults to get the steps down.

There is no instruction on the steps and even the warm up is fast paced and complex. I would not recommend this video to anyone.

I honestly don't know what all the negative reviews are about. It seems a lot of people here are saying it's impossible to keep up with the moves and that it's easy even for an adult to get frustrated. Okay, first of all, I think my mom bought this tape for me when I was 9 or 10 years old. The minute I put it into my VCR and started in, I adored it. I got hooked immediately. I have always been overweight, ever since childhood, and even then I had no problem keeping up with it. Now, maybe that's because I just love to dance in general, but if a heavier kid like me could do it, I think anyone can. Of course, I would never give it to a 5-year-old and expect them to do it, but if you're a little older, like maybe 9 or 10, I don't see it as being an unreasonable workout.

That illustrates another point. This video is all about dance. It's about jumping up and down, to the right, to the left, to the back, to the front, all over the place. They don't stop for a break, they keep dancing up a storm for the whole 30 minutes. I would say that 9 is a good age to introduce it--by then most kids are more coordinated and have developed more mobility. Some might have to just sit and watch it a few times at first if they are less experienced with dance, but come on, it's Barbie--you'll be able to pick up the moves after watching a couple times. Most of them involve jumping in the air, jogging sideways, swinging the arms, marching wide....not too tough.

I'm serious--I have always been overweight, and I never had difficulty with this video. It really is a lot of fun. The sets are very bright and it gets you pumped up. I am so glad I hung onto this tape. I brought it back to college with me, and now that I am nearly 21 years old, I plan to do it daily, especially with these long winter months coming up. I mean, yeah, I feel a little silly closing my dorm room door and turning on this video with about twelve little kids dancing in a fluorescent pink background, but I say that if you're working up a sweat and moving around, there's no shame in that. It is by no means inappropriate for adults. It's a hot ticket and if you are looking for something different to work out to, I recommend you rent this or buy it. It will help you get in shape and lose some weight just as much as Tae-Bo would--and it will most likely give you something interesting that you will enjoy

this video rocks! i used to rent it like every week at blockbuster when i was 6 or so. my mom tried to copy it for me since it was at our house all the time but it didnt work. i just did the workout like a week a go and its fun! im almost 13 now and i love it! while watching the credits, i noticed that love hewitt is in it and performed all of the songs! she was the girl i always watched when i was 6 or so. buy it for your kids, or even yourself! it should be on DVD!

My daughter worked out everyday, sometimes twice a day, solving my winter exercise program dilemma for her.--a great product! END

Looking back on the many times I would pop in this tape and dance through it in my basement, the only thing that I can't stand is the sound of Barbie's voice and the animation with her bopping on her own little platform throughout the duration of the video. However, this tape is otherwise an excellent thing to get kids standing up and moving, and it isn't a bad choice for adults, either. That might sound corny, especially with the "Barbie" label, but this is by no means a little "kiddie" workout. It is intense, fast-paced, and lots of fun. The music is great, too, with all of the singing coming from Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is actually one of the kids dancing on the video. You might be surprised that this voice is coming out of her-- for a kid that young, she really can sing!!
Yes, the dance steps are very quickly presented and performed. There really isn't much instruction for them; the dancers on the floor in the video just demonstrate it for you, but each move is repeated quite a few times before they move on to the next one, so you should have enough time to jump in. I don't know; I never seemed to think much about the intensity of it when I danced to this video as a kid, and I know I just always danced to it and did my thing and enjoyed all of it. However, I just pulled the tape off my shelf for the first time in about 5 years and watched it again because the reviews here that commented on the unreasonable difficulty of the workout interested me, and I wanted to see exactly what I had worked out to so many times as a 9-year-old kid. I remember when my sister and I found Jennifer Love Hewitt's energy on this video quite humorous. You absolutely cannot miss her; she's right there in the front row, putting her entire body into every move, whether it's as simple as marching in place or as elaborate as the "Bunny Flop." Her ability to keep that energy up throughout the entire workout is pretty admirable, and you might be able to spot some good funny facial expressions from her if you look closely, but I think she appears a little unrealistic here for a 10-year-old girl. This might be a part of what some young girls who have tried this tape have been frustrated by. Just watch Hewitt's performance from start to finish, and you'll get what I mean. She really is something else.

The dance steps might take a little practice for some, but I feel that this is something that kids can definitely do with enjoyment. There are 10 people dancing on this video--nine kids and one adult instructor. The only two out there who perform each move almost flawlessly are Jennifer Love Hewitt and the instructor Kim. The other two girls in the front row with Hewitt are pretty good too, but if you watch the younger ones in the back, they're certainly not performing the moves exactly the same. They're following along, yes, but they are also kind of just doing their thing, dancing with smiles on their faces and not caring about doing it perfectly. This is exactly how young kids should approach this video; just do what you can, have FUN, and keep doing it, because like anything else, you get better and better every time you do it. If that's the attitude that you go in with, there's no kid that can't have a ball with this video. It gets them up and going, and that's what's important. This is why I recommend the Barbie Workout; there are people here who say it's too much to keep up with, but it kept me moving when I used it, and I honestly had a good time with it. And parents and teens--don't be ashamed to join the kids on this one. As far as good workouts go, even Barbie knows how to kick it. Break a sweat, feel good about getting a nice exercise, and have fun. That's what the video was made for! =)