Last night I watched the best movie ever, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. You can tell that a bunch of execs sat in a room and thought, “What do little girls want to see in a movie?” And then, they put everything they could in this one. It was so over the top that I laughed through most of it, but it was also thrilling and delightful in the sincere way it embraced its girliness.
Let’s run through the checklist.
Barbie is a princess who lives in a castle. Um, check. Duh.
Barbie changes her clothes many times, including several party outfits. Definitely, and extra points as the first party outfit comes within the first five minutes.
Barbie has flowing blonde hair that she wears in many different styles. Well, not too many styles, but she does get some fancy party hairdos, and naturally, big check on the flowing blonde locks.
Barbie is a champion ice skater. Definite extra points to the creators for pinpointing this common, but often ignored, young girls’ fantasy.
Barbie has a cute furry friend. In this case, a baby polar bear that has lost its family, named Shiver. Extremely popular with the Turtlehead focus group.
Barbie has a horse. Did you know that there is a whole series of XBox games called “Barbie Horse Adventures”? I dream of collecting the whole set someday. This movie does them one better by providing Barbie with a pink Pegasus called Brietta, who naturally, wears a tiara. She takes Barbie to a castle in the sky where the Sky Queen and baby fairies fly around on pegasi of various pastel colours. Then Brietta turns out to be her long-lost sister, changed into a horse with wings by a bad guy, who Barbie must foil using a pink wand an a lovely diamond that will someday make a very pretty crown.
Barbie meets a guy. Duh again. This time he is literally a knight in shining armour. Although, they did try to make Barbie nice and feisty, and have her save the day without relying on the dude too much.
Everything ends happily with a big, fancy wedding. They did disappoint me here, as we never get to see Barbie in a pouffy white dress. However, they more than made up for it with a closing montage of Barbie and her new man ice skating together in the clouds, like an Olympic pairs team — because most princesses and knights you meet are also ice champions. At least Barbie got to wear yet another cute skating outfit, and the polar bear was nearby.
And as if all this dreamy girly-girl stuff wasn’t enough…I found out that the original movie is in 3D! We are so buying this video and some 3D glasses.
TurtleHead 
Yup, somebody in the marketing group was on the ball that day.
It reminds me of one of my favourite Christmas specials, Jim Henson’s “The Christmas Toy” (basically what Toy Story was based on). It was made mostly with muppets and toys. In it there was a Barbie and every time something happened, she’d peek out of the doll house and say something like “A search party? I’ll put on my camaflauge outfit” or “A birthday party? I have the cutest dress for that”, after which she’d disappear inside again.
Man, I loved that show…
Where did you see the movie? Was it on TV? Did you have to rent the DVD?
Bummer the wedding dress isn’t in the movie, perhaps the DVD has deleted scenes with the dress? 🙂
We saw it on Treehouse (magical channel for kids with no commercials and all-day toddler programming…sweeeeet).
You really have to see the figure skating bits to fully appreciate the beauty. They are the ultimate girly fantasy!
Me too. I think a couple of years ago I saw it on Amazon for sale. Neel had you in the Christmas draw and I was trying to convince him to get it for you.
I think we’ve had this discussion before, but just in case not…I heard that since Disney owns both the rights to Toy Story and The Christmas Toy, they haven’t released it on DVD since they are protecting the Toy Story market. Too bad, it was a great show — although I remember when the cat toy gets hurt and it still brings tears to my eyes, so I don’t know if I could take watching it again.
What was the name of the tough-chick action figure who was this years’ present? Meteora?
Didn’t you see the ending? Of course there was a big pouffy dress. It’s the one that she was wearing when she and “The Guy” were doing their big finale pairs skate. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that pouffy before in my life! It may not have been white, but at most it was off white.
Yup, Meteora. And ya, the death of the cat toy made me bawl like a baby. There’s no shame in that though. 🙂
I wonder what it is about girls and horses. At least 50% of the women I know went through a horse phase somewhere before their 13th birthday.
Lynn.
I *just* had a girl.
This post terrifies me.
pegasi? is that the plural? that is a whole lot of girliness packed into one 90 minutes. glad to hear it went over well with your tartget audience. the captain didn’t happen to get sucked into it did he?
(amy’s comment made me snort!)
(i must look into this christmas toy thing. how have i never hear of it???)
Wow. As a mother of boys I cannot tell you how far from my experience of kid videos this is! Now, “Cool Runnings” and “The Mighty Ducks” I can relate to. Flying ice-dancing princesses? Nope…