Barbie: La vie dans la Dreamhouse

I was letting my 3 yo cousin be in charge of the Netflix choices one evening and she was pulled, as if by some magnetic force, to "Barbie: LITDH". Believe you me; I tried everything in my power to get her to make another choice, but I eventually gave in and was very happy I did.

This show is very clever, they\ characters live their lives as dolls and it is hilarious to see them build their new sports cars fresh from the box and bake treats by jamming random ingredients into their toy oven. Barbie's house is so ridiculously over-the-top, it really is the 'Dream House' I would have created in my childhood. It is silly and playful, the characters are distinct and interesting (especially Ken, hubba hubba...).

Some people don't like the portrayal of Barbie on this show. I'll say this much: Barbie is perfection. She has everything you could possibly dream of, and yet she remains humble and generous throughout the series. The Barbie brand was always a form of escapism for me; I wouldn't expect her to be living through some real-world struggle, that's simply ridiculous.

Give this show a chance. Even if you're not a fan of Barbie movies, you might be pleasantly surprised!

My 6 yr old started watching the show and it was just on in the background. I caught a snippet of one show and laughed at the jokes Barbie makes at her own expense. Soon I found myself paying more attention than my daughter. I was surprised to find myself laughing during every episode. From Ken's "Barbie Sense" (like Spidey sense, but specifically for Barbie) to the ongoing "Shlond Poofa" joke, this is not your standard kid-cartoon. Frequent jokes include Barbie's many, many career choices, and her seemingly weekly anniversaries with Ken. The series is stylized as a mock reality show featuring confessionals of the characters in between scenes.

This show is funny & very clever. It appeals to young & old alike. We see Barbie deal with the real world like any 11" doll would do. Plus we get to meet new friends and learn more about her old ones. We even get to learn more about her pets and their thoughts and feelings about living with Barbie. We watch as Barbie over comes challenges, helps friends and even turns enemies into friends. It's the life you knew your own doll was living when you weren't around. And questions are answered. For instance: "How big is Barbie's closet?" "Where does Ken live?" "How does Barbie afford all these accessories."

I'm a 48-year old guy and this might be one of the funniest things I've seen. Completely exaggerated characterization of excess and materialism, evident in every single character on the show. My daughter was watching this and I started checking it out for a few minutes.... I recommend it. If you're a parent and are concerned that it might teach negative values to your child, don't worry - it's so over-the-top ridiculous that there's no way they'd miss the joke. Unless they're very young, in which case you might want to skip this. Young kids don't get jokes - they just absorb stuff. But any kid with a sense of humor who is old enough to catch the fact that it's a parody will enjoy this. And unlike many other "kids" shows on TV, there's no gross humor, bad language, etc. here. At least not that I've seen.

Having worked in the computer animation industry, I sometimes check out shows to see how good (or bad) their CGI is. And that's how I stumbled upon this show on Netflix. A lot of shows targeting younger audiences really cut corners, so it was a complete surprise when I checked this out and discovered that the computer animation is very well done, the editing is tight, audio mix is clear and clean, and the writing is brilliant.

Rounding this is off is an excellent set of pop-culture references, including Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Trek.

The characters are all unique from one-another and the writer clearly put a lot of effort in distributing lines to as many characters as possible (not an easy task). The comedic timing is spot on, with plenty of little details to the character's actions and facial expressions.

Now I'm curious to know more about the team that worked on this show.

Nicely done and hopefully something that will set the standard for other programming of this type to live up to.