Movie Review: Barbie: Video Game Hero

Movie Trailer

Release date: February 1, 2017

Cast: Erica Lindbeck, Siena Bohn, Shannon Chan-Kent

Barbie is a video game designer and she’s making her own game called “Cupcake Cavern” with her friends and her sister Chelsea helping her in testing out the game. While playing Cupcake Cavern with her friends, they find that there’s a glitch and they can’t finish the game. 

Taking a break from the game and trying to figure out how to fix it, Barbie’s tablet keeps on beeping until she picks it up. When the screen tuned on, Cutie - the tutorial or video game narrator - came up and asked if Barbie would like to play the game. When Barbie pressed “Yes”, she was instantly sucked into the game. Cutie tells her that there’s a virus spreading and they’re taking over the game. Barbie must win all levels of the game to save everyone and fix the game.

Review:

If all the other characters and the design of the virus weren’t cute, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie. But that’s a Barbie film for you, there’s always that cute character. The story line isn’t that good, but then again this is a kids movie so it shouldn’t be complicated. It was pretty basic, there were no plot twists, there was only one point of view. Reading other people’s comments, they agreed about the decrease in the story lines and animation/design of the Barbie films because we always compare them to the Second Generation of films (Rapunzel, Swan Lake, Nutcracker). I myself also compare the new films to that generation but I really cannot expect much for the new films since the old films were based on classic stories and not originals.

The Barbie film franchise needs to release 2 to 3 Barbie films in a year and there isn’t much time they have to write a killer story. When writing a story they also need to consider about a lot of aspects where they can’t make it too complicated and kids the age below 10 need to understand them. They also cannot add characters that aren’t common knowledge to kids or professions that they don’t see everyday.

The animation was okay, I liked the idea where the game designs per level was different. In the first part it was a bit glitchy like a lag in the game, then came the simple looking designs, followed by the super high effects, and now to the hip game design like tiny pixels looking like Minecraft. Barbie’s main in-game character design was very cute and it felt kind of nostalgic. Her long pigtails and the shape of her eyes, there was really something about the animation and design.

I am a super huge fan of Barbie and I swore to myself that I will watch all Barbie films to my last breath. I will grow up with Barbie and I will die with Barbie too. I just hope they’ll be able to make better story lines. Does anyone know where I can send out suggestions to Barbie stories or if they ever accept any?