This lumps together my views on the three My Scene DVDs. Jamaica, Hollywood and Masquerade Madness.
With care I can experience these as okay.
I started watching Barbie stuff as an aging nth childhood type. I was really preferring things to be soft and gentle, not too gritty and painful, how I was and occasionally still are.
The My Scene stories are about late mid teens girls, with the grit that sometimes comes with stories about this age group. They do have a lot that I find to be okay but the later Barbie stuff that I have is a whole lot gentler.
I was hoping for Barbie a la romance and that is there, just when I was reading women's popular romantic fiction – romantic rather than romance - in the 80's I was noticing that many included gritty personalities among the characters as a matter of routine. I was finding that in these Barbie features too. In a lot of other girl features too. First viewing I found that a problem, but that gradually calmed on later viewings.
The key to me liking these comes from the music. This grew on me and it links the films.
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I catalogue Jamaica, 2003 released 2004, as a Barbie musical and try to disregard chunks of the plot. A way to common need for me with musicals but with Jamaica that works well and is practical for me. It is nice to have a Barbie musical.
Here the boys win a music competition and head to Jamaica, then the girls get hungry and head there too, just that is disaster as their males are there for music and cannot afford the distraction. Grit and disaster are basic elements of the plot.
My Scene Goes Hollywood: A My Scene feature that includes Lindsay, not a Lindsay feature. An important distinction.
The girls notice a film project and gate crash to become extras, plus a bit. Grit and manure that becomes a flower. The songs are fun, I really need My Scene – Hollywood just for its music.
My Scene - Masquerade Madness, 2001 released 2004. While it is only around 23 minutes I find it okay, a very acceptable Barbie. Again, the music is an asset.
They work towards a fashion event and an after event party. Chelsea has a problem with school maths and is lead to solve that by way of applying geometry to the design of her professional level fashion. For me, the only flaw in Masquerade is a technical detail. I accept that school level 2D linear geometry does have a beautiful intuitive simplicity, digital logic at the level of basic hardware logic circuits has the same quality. But would the sort of nonlinear geometry that might be appropriate for the fashion industry, beyond for rule of thumb estimates, have Chelsea musing some very impolite thoughts, not appropriate maths for a fashion designer? It is still nice Barbie.
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I have now searched and found the My Scene Wikipedia, which includes detail re these DVDs, including when and how they were bought out and distributed. Also additional detail, such as there being a Lindsay doll in the My Scene series. I have looked but not been able to find one, suggesting that any for sale might be rather expensive now.
I note that Barbie herself was moved out of My Scene, to The City Of La?, in 2006.
Other Barbie stuff: I experience the best Barbie printed annuals to float and fly, the worst to be just too much at toddler level. They are not my favourite annuals but the best comes close to the best of the old style annuals, pre 1990. Life Size 1999 feature film as a Barbie equivalent, it floats and flies too, in a more solid way. The dance, including Lindsay's at the end, is an inspiration, as are the best of the post 1990 annuals. My Scene DVDs are way different, but big chunks are still at a peak, the music allowing that for me.
I experience the Barbie Advent calendars as mostly real nice and fun pics, the full length red frocked dated 2002 as the exception, their only flaw being the size of the chocolate being geared to bona fide little people. I would prefer the chunks to be ten times bigger. So, the Island Princess had one choc that was a nice size, just its packaging was more like big girl humour.
It was a difficult search to find a Barbie Advent for 2009, though I did find one. I could not find a Barbie Easter Egg in 2010.
On the question of digital copyright: Should customers be allowed to edit their home media to allow it to properly fulfil their needs? Can one get players that do this simply? For me, Barbie has made a useful contribution with My Scene as mostly I like the music a lot, occasionally most of the stories too. Copyright enforcement will not be impressed by that.
