Barbie and the Secret Door (2014) Reviews

• Out of ideas?

  darren77342014-09-03

  Just finished watching this movie with my 11 year old daughter. She commented that this is the worst Barbie movie she has ever watched and we have watched them all. This movie seems to cater to 5 year old's with it's excessive color schemes and tired plot formula. How many times can Barbie movies center around fairies, mermaids and princesses? How many times do we have to watch Barbie (or her character) have a problem, visit a magic world and then have everything turn out fine in the end? How about dealing with some reality? There are so many real life scenarios that kids could learn from, instead of always relying on make believe, magic and fantasy lands. But then again what do I know? Maybe my daughter is just growing up. After all, she loved the 'Book Thief' movie.

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• Good fun!

  ninjathesecond2014-09-14

  A good movie. I purchased this from Amazon.com and was first in the e-queue but also was a little puzzled, as when I showed the movie off most people had already seen it. Apparently there are a whole load of websites where you can watch this movie for free on-line. However the kids really did enjoy it and as soon as the movie finished they pressed play and watched it again, which they have not done since Tinkerbell a good sign of money well spent. The scenes were bright and colourful, the story engaging, a little more thrills and fun. The dopey mermaid was funny and the grandmother was kinda cool as well. For a movie advertised as a musical, regretfully, the songs were weak. The kids hummed away on the old Barbie tunes, but not so here. Although she does play the part of the reluctant hero, which is good, no explanation is given why she is so reluctant. What happened to the brave and inspiring Barbie of old who fought against all kinds of monsters, wizards, witches etc. "Fighting an evil princess, I don't think I can do that." She plays a cowardly role and wanders around far too much. Barbie was uninspiring. There was such little characterisation built up, the entire cast seemed one dimensional and we could not make ourselves care about any of them. No matter how much trouble they got into we were so distant from the movie we could not have cared less. This was the movies biggest flaw zero empathy. When the characters had their magic drained they should have fallen deathly ill, grey skin, feverish, then there could have been a sense of urgency to the plot, that these friends had to push their fears aside, band together and rescue their fellows, quickly, but there was no clock ticking away in the background to add anything so was the usual slow paced offering. We watched Malucia steal powers, attack people, and we were all very disappointed when she was given such a trivial punishment at the end, there was a real sense of injustice. Would be keen to see a love story next, something like beauty and the beast(-ish) maybe. All in all a good movie, well worth a watch or rent.

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• A secret door that one doesn't properly care as to whether it's open or not

  TheLittleSongbird2017-08-06

  It is very easy to meet the 'Barbie' films with a lot of dislike and scorn and they are all very lowly rated here (despite some favourable reviews). It is understandable to take issue with the dialogue (a fair few are ropy in this regard), the predictability of the stories, the odd annoying character, the animation in a few (not all are well animated) and whether there is enough for adults to keep interest. Despite not being the main target audience, to me they are mostly better than given credit for, easy to take them for what they are and don't deserve to be dismissed as baby-ish and for little girls only (a very narrow minded generalisation). Are they animation masterpieces? No. Are they among the best films ever made? Again no. Are they worth watching if taken for what they are? Absolutely for most of them. Most of them look good if not having the polish of studios specialising in computer animation (Pixar for one), often great music, good lessons and messages, a good deal of charm, have their heart in the right place and have entertaining characters well voiced (some had actors of considerable calibre like Tim Curry, Anjelica Huston, Martin Short and Kelsey Grammar, all of them terrific in their respective outings Curry especially) and a likable title character that particularly young girls can relate to. 'Barbie and the Secret Door' regrettably didn't much for me. Certainly it is much better than 'A Fairy Secret', 'A Fashion Fairytale' and 'The Princess and the Popstar', it would take a lot for a 'Barbie' film to be worse than those three. However, it is no 'Nutcracker', 'Diamond Castle', 'Island Princess', 'Pink Shoes', 'Prince and the Pauper' and '12 Dancing Princesses'. Despite leaving me indifferent, 'Barbie and the Secret Door' doesn't offend anybody really and passes the time if you have little better to do. Starting with the faults, the story is too much of a Hodge podge of ideas tried, tested and already worn to the ground, giving a real sense that the 'Barbie' franchise has run out of ideas. It means that the story-telling lacks any kind of surprises, which does take away from properly enjoying it, and that some of it is dull too makes it less forgivable. Also don't think the mix of traditional and modern works, the traditional aspects have moments of colourful magic and a nostalgic quality but the modern aspects are clumsy and juxtaposes far too much with the traditional, can understand what they were trying to do but it was a case of trying too hard to do too much and benefiting more from either or and less is more. The dialogue has rarely been a strong suit in a 'Barbie' film, even in the films in the better half of the series but not quite among the very best of it. That's an understatement in the case of the dialogue here, which really doesn't flow and the worst of it makes the toes curl. Although the characters are nice enough, the lack of character development makes them bland and archetypal too. The only character that has hints of it and where something relatively different is tried is with the villain. Was underwhelmed mostly by the soundtrack. There has always been a preference for the more classical music-oriented soundtracks (which is a large part of why the first three 'Barbie' films are in the better half of the series) but having a more modern approach has rarely bothered me. The first couple of songs were upbeat and the villain's song was quite good and the only one to drive the story forward or do anything to the character, the rest despite some surprisingly good visual choreography are ear-bleeding terrible. Again, most of the animation is a long way from bad, but there were a few instances where the bright colours got a little excessive. Despite how negative this all sounds, 'Barbie and the Secret Door' does have enough to make it watchable. The animation mostly really isn't bad, trust me anything from Video Brinquedo and Spark Plug Entertainment and all the (computer-animated) 'Swan Princess' sequels and those for 'Alpha and Omega' are far worse looking than any 'Barbie' film put together, have never felt physically ill watching a 'Barbie' film, even the ones that are not good. There are bright colours, handsome and imaginative backgrounds and the character designs and movements have natural freedom rather than being stiff. Oh and those dresses are gorgeous and any pre-schooler girl who loves princesses will want to wear them. Although the story is less than perfect, it does have cute and charming moments and has its heart in the right place. Appreciated the positive messaging, hardly new the messages taught but done in a way that's heartfelt and not like the film is talking at you. The character interactions have their appealing charm and make up for the lack of depth. The villain is a lot of fun, though her trivial punishment was indeed a slap in the face. Along with likable and resourceful Alexa, the grandmother's role was very enjoyable. Voice acting is pretty good and done with a lot of spirit. Cannot imagine Barbie without Kelly Sheridan (the 'Barbie' films without her did suffer from her absence on top of even bigger problems) and she continues to grow. Ashleigh Ball is another standout. In summation, not bad but not particularly good. 5/10 Bethany Cox

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• Great wee movie :)

  kirstyprue2015-03-24

  Great little movie for any Barbie Lover!!! My four and two year old absolutely adore this movie! It has songs and dances that they love to copy. As a parent, i think this movie is quite cool because she seems like a smart character, who reads a lot of books and doesn't need a guy to save her. The little bratty princess character does my head in and is VERY annoying. Luckily my kids haven't imitated her! We went from this to Barbie and the rock star and then the mermaid tale's. All very cool in my opinion. I like that they haven't made Barbie a tragic mess, ha ha. Would Definitely recommend this movie. I'm very surprised they have such low rating on here!

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• It could have been great...

  saraheknuckles2014-10-07

  I personally love Barbie movies; I grew up with them and still like to watch my favorites today as well as see the newer ones. So many modern Barbie movies have been so disappointing, but the concept of this movie seemed really interesting. Within the first 3 minutes (at the start of the first song) I knew it would be off-putting. The concept and idea was there, the characters were good and I loved the twist with the villain being a spoiled little girl. What truly destroyed it though was the modernization. Maybe it's just because I'm used to the older movies having song lyrics containing "LOL," but if they could have stuck to the original style of Barbie fantasy movies, it could have been great! The songs were too "pop-y" which completely distracted from the fantasy atmosphere. I adore the concept, the characters are good, and the animation looks beautiful... but as they tried to cater too much to the typical modern stereotype, they took away from the overall enjoyment of the movie.

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