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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Computer Animation > Toys > Barbie in “The 12 Dancing Princesses” (Mattel/Universal)

Barbie in “The 12 Dancing Princesses”

(Mattel/Universal)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: D     Main Program: C-

 

 

The Barbie Computer Animated DVD titles continue with The 12 Dancing Princesses, casting her as the legendary Princess Genevieve in a fantasy trip that runs about 80 minutes.  Mattel has been trying to do a successful series of CG Barbie titles for a while and though they have been marginally successful, nothing has been breakaway and even diehard fans I have talked to at general toy shows seem unimpressed.

 

I previously reviewed The Barbie Diaries and thought it was not so impressive, but I was curious just to see if the animation and storylines got better. They did not.  Though this is harmless and some young ladies might enjoy this, it seems more like status quo or just plain stale.  For the price of the disc, you could get one of the actual doll as cheap and you would think Mattel would try to be more innovative with the color and graphics.

 

With the female doll market, Bratz has not been so hot either, but the model they should consider is Hello Kitty.  They had a hand-drawn animated programs all over on DVD, but instead of going CG, they did new shows in the Claymation style.  Even if they made Barbie in CG imitating Claymation, it would still be better than the color-poor, computer memory poor production here.  Being “feminine” and “sparkly” is just not sufficient enough to carry this flat work.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has conservative color and the computer animation sometimes looks like bad rotoscoping, but is better than past Barbie efforts and an improvement over the declining quality of the Bratz animated releases on DVD, reviewed elsewhere on this site.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is purposely child friendly, with a light soundfield, but much softer, lower in volume and lighter than Barbie Diaries.  What was Mattel thinking?

 

The only extras are a music video (lame) and some overly-simple game.  That shows the passive attitude with which this was handled.  Even as a non-Barbie fan who is clueless about the franchise, this is not good.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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