Saturday, September 10, 2016

Barbie Star Light adventure Movie Review



Barbie; Starlight adventure

 

The Pros 

  • I love the original non overly pink fashion diversity in this movie. The designers really went wild with freedom of creativity while essentially maintaining and respecting coherency and fluidity and harmony throughout the design schemes. Very happy to see greys and blacks and very space palette in the uniforms - finally allowing Barbie to also wear something else than her trademark pink which was incredibly refreshing, mature, appreciated and overall gave a sense of credibility to the overall story, visuals and seriousness of the story.
  • finally new hairdos (love Barbie rocking the braid) - though! - it could pass for a cheap rip-off from Elsa's trademark braid from Frozen. Though - who can blame the creative team? It's been everywhere since Frozen came out - everyone been rocking the side braid! Elsa doesn't own it - she made it popular. 
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  • the second lead (in the story she's the faster racer though) is a Black* girl with some major funky hairdo (I bet her colorist is Guy Tang! )

  • (I am especially referencing This video of Guy Tang on YouTube - this photo is not a perfect accurate sample - i was refering to Sal-Lee's hairdo while passing a hoverboard test with barbie and the Gravity Sisters Sheena and Kareena)
  • Barbie wears interesting space fashion which doesn't end up in stupid girly girl frizzy layers of sparkles godbles. Matter of fact, she quite rocks the coral red and aqua turquoise accents quite ravishingly !
  • Sal-Lee is not by default Barbie's enemy or designated arch nemesis - Very very very refreshing and welcomed! I love the fact that Sal-Lee's character is better in technical skills in the story, yet it's not a useless confrontation to Barbie who plays the simple next-door almost poor neighborhood country girl (She does come from a "Reserve" planet, surrounded in greens, and wild animals (a visual fiest! trust me on that! James Cameron's Pandora has NOTHING on Peredin (i hope to spell that correctly)
  • The Prince looks pretty decent of a Barbie movie Prince- he's in fact quite charming and adorable with a typical modern and stylish haircut and color being the casual goofy good guy who doesn't especially take his ranking to the next level like lesser self full of themselves people. Very refreshing and adorable character who's your typical guy deep down inside who likes life's good things; good food, the smell of a new car (or a new spaceship ;)), friends and is blessed with integrity (dares speak up to his father the king about Barbie's misconduct) while not being an arrogant hot tempered brat either
  • Visuals are AMAZING at all levels. Peredin as the reserve planet with it's luscious greens is breathtaking - very interesting animal designs (one bit made me think of Jurassic park's "vegetarian" dinosaurs mixed with giraffes - very clever and nicely designed alien animals. Bird fans will fall in love with the locals ;) Barbie's own pet "PupCorn" is the most adorable little thing! The king's castle is amazing in the royalty x technological x space design feature having the universe's elliptic map carved in the court room floor and you have to appreciate the Mayan like staircase leading up to the King's throne - a soft hint that - you might be a king, but it's deserved, and you still have to put in some effort to sit on your glory. I love this touch!
  • Very very interesting character design for the "fill in the space" characters especially at the court-room during the first evening party gathering. The intricate mix between classic European Medieval and fantasy science-fiction was amazing! You have to see the movie to enjoy the intricate details! The makers really didn't go sloppy on this and it's greatly appreciated - especially coming from a Barbie movie.
  • The king is an interesting neutral figure and I loved how he's not your typical evident super typical super villain archetype who dreams of conquering the world. He is actually and factually your typical adult figure (I think the only real adult figure in this movie). He keeps his true motives secret, not to test Barbie, but because, in his mind, that knowledge is not needed be known by Barbie. I also love how Barbie becomes real, human, and weak by assuming what basically everyone would assume based on the knowledge of one fact, that the king has the biggest zoological park. (The team is sent to capture a wild animal) while in fact, it wasn't what the King had planned - This duality here was absolutely refreshingly beautiful !
  • The dance at the royal court - accurate representation of classic Medieval dance was a nice touch to clash with Barbie's modern style based off another sense of rhythm
  • The fact that the Prince (Leo) is not your typical stud saving the day is also gloriously welcome - I love a simple goofy down to earth guy but i have already mentioned this

Cons;

  • Barbie's father could have been aged a bit more; he looks about 2 years older than his daughter - at best, he'd pass for a big brother. I am a bit disappointed here! Even if Barbie is a merely a mid-teen, the father figure could have been aged a bit to look more adult-ish. He's just not credible at all. There is no sense of sorrow or sadness or weakness at the evocation of the memory of his passed-away wife, Barbie's mother which also cuts away from his depth. I know this is a Barbie movie for children but just a notch more feeling would have been appreciated, to show real grief even with such a long time having passed by. Also at the end of the movie, he's just casually totally okay for her daughter to be a princess and already revers her as such. I would have loved a bit more of depth and perhaps having a bit of "so proud of you honey" or "you did amazing" or "see what happens when you follow your heart" and just a slightly longer extended father-daughter moment. For once Barbie has an actual first-degree parent (not an aunt or a distant relative), a bit more digging in deep in the bond between parent-child.
  • One detail in the script which annoyed me with Barbie was how she starts off by having fun on her own with the hoverboard, comes home late and apparently doesn't have time to play with her pet, Pupcorn. I found her attitude a bit - disappointing. But i guess it's a representation of real life situations so I won't make a fuss over this detail
  • The designs of the butterflies on Peredin look a bit thick and stiff - that disappointed me. I know this is CG-animation but the could have put a tiny effort into replicating butterfly frail delicate wing texture - the lightness of it - these look thick and fake and plastic-y 
  • The songs also disappointed me. I absolutely loved the songs from Fashion Fairytale  and The Crystal Castle (have it in my iPod in a playlist). The songs had nothing overly extra-ordinaire and catchy. The end soundtrack - Firefly - is quite nice but not exactly out of this world - but i could grow on me after a few listens. 
IMBD gives this movie a solid 5.5 !! I'm giving it a solid 7.5 - oh heck - let's be honest - 7.9! For what it is - it's a pretty good movie! It breaks many boring things the Barbie movies have and the innovation is a breath of fresh air that is obviously underappreciated by the critics.

Go watch it ! it's super cute movie!

Barbie Star Light Adventure Wiki Page

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So adorable

Racing Games Top Free Games said...

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diego78 said...

Ooh! This seems to be a nice one. I am about to finish watching shows by Andy Yeatman and then I am going to watch this with my daughters. Also, it is my daughter’s birthday next month. I am planning to invite all her friends to the party.