Guilty Pleasure

You might be surprised, but then again... you probably won't be. My guilty pleasure is Barbie movies... at least the old ones. They're like extreme Disney movies. They totally please the hopeless romantic and the five year old girl inside of me. Disney completely does that too, but they also give me intense feels and a fantastic cinematic experience as well. Barbie movies, not so much.

I like the Barbie movies because they totally stick to the traditional fairytale-type of story (what can I say? I'm a bit of a traditionalist). With the magic, the princess, the prince, the castle, the magical creatures, the ball gowns, the adventure, the music, the dancing, and that it's OK for the guy to sometimes save the girl still (not always, just sometimes). They're totally predictable and cheesy and there's even less logic than a Disney movie, but that's why I love them. They're just fun to watch. A lot of the stories are actually pretty good and the songs (in the musical ones) are always just so darn catchy.

They're so over the top with everything. All the sparkles, and the floating, and the lights when there's magic. And they always will randomly put her into a beautiful ball gown because why the heck not? And there's always little cutesy animal sidekicks. And you ALWAYS can tell who the villain's going to be, because everyone looks so normal and then there's this one person who's dressed so over the top and/or who just looks different from everyone else in an evil way, and you're like "gee, I wonder if they're gonna be the bad guy". And the heroine always meets a handsome somebody, often a prince, and of course they fall in love. And OF COURSE if there's two heroines they just happen to meet two handsome somebodies! ...Despite this, there's only ever been two onscreen kisses in all the movies. *shrugs* Too hard to animate? Too graphic for little girls? IDK. Whatever.

Although the animation is definitely not top notch, they do definitely put some time and effort into them. In the dancing films (the ones based off of ballets), they do actually choreograph the dances by watching ballerinas and then animating as such. I think these movies are the first time I've ever gotten a taste of a male doing ballet... it's weird. I mean, not that it's not impressive, but it's just weird seeing a guy move so gracefully.

Anyways, like I said, the stories are actually pretty good even if they are predictable and cheesy. And then some of them are just... not. (Like Three Musketeers with all the pop music, and the totally dweeby prince [and not in a cute way], and too much acrobatics, and the lame villain, and gah! Anyways...) Most of them are either musicals or... dancicals? which I love. Sometimes the animal characters are annoying (like in Island Princess, that darn elephant! D:<), or they give the love interest too much attitude, or the villain is just too ridiculous, or something is annoying, because let's face it... it is made for little kids and they are trying a little bit too hard sometimes. But they aren't trying to make any type of cinematic masterpiece, it's just something to entertain the kids and to come up with new merchandise (I remember when the Swan Lake merch came out. I wanted it so bad... [I still want it. I think that dress is gorgeous! XP]).

My top 5 favorites are Princess and the Pauper, Magic of Pegasus, 12 Dancing Princesses, The Nutcracker, and The Diamond Castle. I always want to say Swan Lake is one of my favorites, but then I watch it and I'm like "meh". I think it's just because of the dress that I always think that. I freakin' love that dress! (I love Island Princess's too, then I watch it and I'm like "meh" with that one too. Plus that elephant! D:<).

I think Princess and the Pauper is the best because the animals aren't annoying, both the romantic interests are likable, the plot's engaging, there's no super annoying voices, the love stories are actually decent, the villain is great, the song's are catchy; so all around great for Barbie movie. The one problem I had was that the villain's sidekicks were a bit too stupid, but other than that, it's probably the best one of the bunch.

So, judge all you want, but I like Barbie movies! They give me my fill when I've watched all my Disney movies.

(OK, I have to put the Swan Lake dress on here XP):

(It looks better in the movie, but still 8D)