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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"Are the animators taking as much time to make these videos as they should...? Well, let's put it this way: Swan Lake is another finely crafted Barbie video, but it's no Nutcracker." --from the review
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Barbie of Swan Lake
Click link to order this DVD A Techtite ReviewAs Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)! The Film: Ever since Barbie starred in the surprisingly well done Barbie in: The Nutcracker, the demand for additional Barbie video tales is rampant. However, that was a Computer-Animated video tale, a la feature films like Toy Story. Such computer animation, in order to do it properly, takes a lot of time. Yet Barbie has now been in a new video, once a year. Are the animators taking as much time to make these videos as they should...? Well, let's put it this way: Swan Lake is another finely crafted Barbie video, but it's no Nutcracker. This complaint means little or nothing for Barbie fans, who are only interested in the basics: Barbie is in a new video, she dances, her friends dance, Barbie wins the heart of her Prince (played, of course, by "Ken"), the bad guy is defeated, and...the end. Little girls will love how their favorite dolls in the Barbie toy line have "come to life," dancing and talking like real people. The animation studio wisely makes Barbie look not unlike a Toy Story character, so she is very animated, yet still looks not unlike a toy. The approach should appeal to any young Barbie fan. What's the story this time...? Well, based loosely on the classic fairy tale, there is Barbie as the heroine, who is seen as a threat by the villain, Rothbart (Kelsey Grammar, who also voiced the classic Bart Simpson nemesis, Sideshow Bob). Rothbart turns her into a Swan in order to stop her from falling in love with the Prince; a move which would keep Rothbart's caustic, nasally-voiced daughter from becoming his bride, instead. A woodland fairy is able to thwart the Swan-curse, though only by daylight; Barbie must slowly fall in love with the prince by day, without him finding out her secret, at nighttime. As in any Disney-type story, Barbie has a lot of small friends. The forest is in fact filled with little kids that have been cursed similarly by Rothbart, into being a skunk, a racoon, or something similar. They too become human by day, animals at night, leading to some intriguing ways her friends come to help her. Mind you, Swan Lake is at its best as a ballet, so there are well-choreographed dance numbers as well, by both Barbie and her friends. The overall story is a cute one, and should appeal to anyone who'd admire a reverse-gender spin on the classic tales like The Frog Prince and Beauty & the Beast. After all: the prince must still fall in love with Barbie, even if she turns into a swan at nighttime. This leads to a nice "love conquers all" finale, although parents should be forewarned: the final battle may frighten very young kids, since (spoilers notwithstanding) it does look like the villain wins, if just briefly. The actual ending is both happy and humorous however so it should still appeal to any Barbie fan. Regardless, it clear that this video was not done with the same painstaking care to detail as Nutcracker. There's just something in the intricacy of all the Barbie characters in Nutcracker that seems lacking here. After all; they had a very liberal deadline with Nutcracker, as the first-ever- CGI Barbie video; by comparison, this video seems done during a quickly-paced, one-Barbie-video-every-year sort of deal. It's still a well made video for littler kids, and yet there are a lot of scenes that, from an animation perspective, could've been far better done. Will this mean anything to young Barbie fans? No. Barbie is in a new computer-animated tale, after all, with fairies and a unicorn and cute little kids/animals to help her and a villain who is not as scary as he is funny. All the makings of another top-selling Barbie video are there. Worry not when parents scuffle off to the next room, discussing all the places they think Nutcracker was far better made. Their kids will be too busy staying put in front of the TV, firmly in their seats, without a care in the world.
The DVD: The DVDs of these Barbie videos are never much in the way of extras. The only noteworthy extra that caught my eye, in fact, was the demo for the next Barbie game based on this DVD, Barbie of Swan Lake (the game). Other than that, there is a featurette about the ballet dances in the film, an "Explore the stars" sort of mini-game, a documentary called "The Music in You," and both English and Spanish, and full and widescreen versions of the movie. Is this enough? Well, again; for the young Barbie fan, yes. For the older set, I don't know; how about an audio commentary from the computer animators next time, or the voice of Barbie's audio commentary, or a sort of "trivia bubble" option that would have little trivia about the original ballet pop up on occasion...you know; the stuff us older DVD fanatics are used to. Maybe next time, Barbie fans...
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