“barbie as the princess and the pauper” has the most solid storyline, as well as being the most well-remembered and well-loved of the barbie movies of the 2000s. the characters are engaging, and the romances are surprisingly solid. (even if annelise and erika were clearly gay for each other, their love interests still had likable personalities and good dynamics with the girls.) the music has also held up incredibly well, albeit with a lot of cheese.
“barbie as the island princess” has a cliche but entertaining storyline, but has the strongest music overall. the side characters are also remarkably well-done, and it avoids falling into the trap of the boyfriend’s intial fiancee being evil – luciana and ro become friends instead. it also has some genuinely emotional moments.
“barbie in the nutcracker” has probably the strongest script overall, as well as tim curry. the cgi is shit nowadays but it was good for the time, and the ballet sequences are still very fun.
“barbie in swan lake,” although not as well-remembered, is a solid family movie, with beautiful music and ballet sequences, as well as a really cool villain. its storyline isn’t the best, but it’s a solid 90 minutes of fun.
“the barbie diaries” was a huge oddball in the canon, but in my opinion, it’s underrated. yes it’s probably the stupidest and the most predictable, but it has songs written by kesha (no, seriously, look it up), and it’s an admirable attempt at something different.
“barbie as rapunzel” ABSOLUTELY INFLUENCED “TANGLED” AND YOU CAN’T CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE. features a surprisingly clever twist at the climax, as well as a creepy villain, and it’s a different take than most rapunzel stories.
“barbie and the magic of pegasus” is the first original barbie movie, which warrants applause on its own. the story is fun, and it’s nice to have a love interest with a proper Tragic Backstory
“barbie and the diamond castle” features some of the most fun side characters, as well as some pretty good music. should’ve been gay, though.
“barbie in the christmas carol” deserves credit just for casting BARBIE as SCROOGE. did not see that coming at ALL.
“barbie and the 12 dancing princess” is kind of underappreciated. admittedly it’s not as memorable, but it does a good job adapting a lesser-known fairytale.
the fairytopia/mariposa movies are their own thing and need their own post, which i’m not gonna do because i barely remember them. i do remember i really liked the first mariposa movie as a kid, tho.
…these are thoughts i actually dwell on and type out, apparently
