MATTEL’S figurehead, Barbie the fashion toy, has been popular for more than 50 years.
One of the first toys to have a marketing campaign based on TV adverts, Barbie has an extremely large range of toy accessories, books, video games, clothing and her very own series of animated films.
The straight-to-dvd films feature the dress-up doll starring as various characters.
Back in the late ’80s she was a computer- animated virtual actress starring in several films. Now she is a computer-animated and motion captured actress starring in her own princess and fairy theme stories. Which all still tie into the franchise of dolls and accessories.
Like, in Barbie in The Princess and the Pauper she is a princess who secretly switches identities with a look-alike poor girl. Or how about Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus? Again she is a princess, this time assisting Pegasus in stopping a wizard from turning a family into stone.
Barbie in Fairytopia, Barbie as Rapunzel, Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses, the list goes on and the money keeps on rolling in.
About five years ago the scriptwriters were supposed to move away from the ballet storylines, though fairies and fashion were to remain mainstay. So more recently we got Barbie in a Mermaid Tale and its sequel. However, turns out the dancing is still big, hence Barbie in The Pink Shoes and more Mariposa tales.
Just to add to the confusion of parents who can’t understand why their little girls love the shoddily animated stories, we get Barbie in Princess Power.
In Barbie in Princess Power she is a modern fairy who is kissed by a magical butterfly and imbued with super powers which transform her into Super Sparkle. Crime-fighting Super Sparkle flies around the kingdom, ready to save the day, but when her jealous cousin catches the butterfly she is transformed into Dark Sparkle. Their rivalry takes to the sky, so when they discover the kingdom’s true enemy, can they put their differences aside to form a superteam?
The PG rating is due to low impact, fantastical violence. – Film Writer