Barbie, princesse de l'île merveilleuse

I loved this movie in so many ways. It is very nostalgic for me & the songs are soo good. Rosella has a great story, and one that teaches the audience something!

This movie has marginally above average animation but really excels in the music and positive messages for young girls. My dad didn't want my daughters to watch Barbie movies because of the bimbo image of Barbie but the Barbie movies contain positive role models. The scenery and voices are a nice addition to the overall movie and my daughters really enjoy the characters. Songs are well sung and catchy for the kids and generously added through the movie. The plots in all these movies are basically the same which actually seems to help my girls follow what's going on. The girl seems to always become a princess and marry a prince but very positive messages about fairness and kindness are ingrained with being royalty so I'm happy to let me daughters watch these movie.

I came to this because I had a bad experience watching the Disney "Cinderella," and wondered at what passed for acceptable these days. I chose what I thought would be the gene with the lowest standards. I picked wrong. I should have gone with preteen boy anime, because this is pretty darn good.

The animation is actually good. The rendering isn't naturalistic, but since this is supposed to be a doll, its apt. What struck me was how natural the movements of the princess (played by Barbie) were. I think this must have been a marketing decision, because if I recall the doll itself is stiff. The decision to have the girl play with what could be sold as stuffed animals also clearly influenced the story.

The story itself was pretty standard; one arc but with enough elaboration to qualify as long form.

But what made this stand out was the music. This was actually a very professional assembly, on the order of production values every bit as good as your standard Broadway musical. Naturally, the songs are pulled from that formula book. There's nothing to get excited about in terms of depth; its just that this was not taken lightly. The little girls who watch this, at least get the respect of not being taken for granted.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I do think the Barbie movies deserve more respect than they do. None are among my favourite movies of all time and none are the best movies I've seen, but I find them cute, entertaining and charming with good morals, nice characters and the animation and music are also not bad at all and generally get better. The Island Princess is in my top 5 favourites of the movies, alongside Nutcracker, Diamond Castle, Prince and the Pauper and 12 Dancing Princesses(I also have a soft spot for Rapunzel and Swan Lake as well as they were along with Nutcracker the first ones I watched). In fact all of them are worth watching, even my least favourite Mariposa(and that is still quite good). Here the dialogue is occasionally corny, but on the most part sweet and heart-warming. The vocal performances are spirited, and the story is simple but cute and charming with lots of heart and positive messaging. The characters are not complex, and they don't need to be, instead they get through by their likability, Rosella is an identifiable lead and her animal friends are adorable. The music is catchy and well-sung, and the animation makes Island Princess one of the best-looking Barbie movies to date(the best looking ones are Nutcracker and Diamond Castle in my opinion) with its bright colours and beautiful backgrounds. Overall, a very nice movie that should be given a chance without any prejudice. I do got toddler friends who adore these films, but I have seen numerous examples of adults who have been satisfied with their child's enjoyment and have liked some of them too. Just for the record I happen to be somebody from outside the target audience(20 as of now) and while I can think of better movies I enjoy them too and I am not afraid to admit it. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I am watching all the barbie movies in order. Some of them I've never seen (like this one) since I was a bit older kid/teen when they came out. This one is not as good as Rapunzel or the 12 Dancing Princesses. The story is meh and I found the Princess annoying af. Luciana was better imo.

Both the dress for the ball and wedding dress were horrid and pretty disappointing especially considering Ro basically wears a towel for the whole first half of movie.

But the songs are awesome. I liked the lullaby, Luciana's song, and the mice singing about cheese.

Would recommend for Barbie fans that may want to learn easy songs and sing along.