With Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling coming out this summer, we, Abby Godsen (copy editor and reporter) and Jackie Bozinovski (reporter and Abby’s roommate), decided it would be a great idea to rewatch and rank (almost) all of the Barbie movies to date in celebration. Because there are so many Barbie movies to date, the reviews and rankings of the movies we watched were divided into three main sections: princess movies, fairy movies and mermaid movies. In the fourth part, there will be a final overall ranking of all the movies watched and reviews for any movies that did not make it into the first three articles.
This third installment features the mermaid movies of the Barbie franchise.
NOTE: This is not ALL of the movies in the Barbie universe, but, it is most of them. We chose to feature these ones, as we felt they best represented the franchise as a whole and also met one of four criteria: it must contain magic, fairies, princesses or mermaids. However, we knew some, like “Thumbelina” and “Barbie and the Pink Shoes,” wouldn’t rank well, and we chose to omit them from our list.
4. "Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2" (2012)
In this sequel to "A Mermaid Tale," Merliah is on track to be the best surfer in the world by competing in The World Championship Surf Invitational in Australia. However, the final heat is to happen at the same time as the Changing of the Tides ceremony, which her mother, Calissa, pushes her to attend so that she is able to spin merillia-the life force of the sea. As a sequel, this movie, again, did not live up to the hype of the first one. While Merliah was a bit of a stuck-up teen in the first movie, she is even worse in this one. Only when put in a dire situation does she assume responsibility in order to prevent her Aunt Eris from stopping the ceremony. The character Kylie was also a bit of an odd addition. Although I don’t hate her as a character, this whole narrative felt unnecessary and boring.
3. "Barbie in A Mermaid Tale" (2010)
Merliah is one of the top surfers in Malibu, but, when her hair starts turning pink, she finds out that she is also the long lost princess of Oceana. In this movie, Merliah and her dolphin friend Zuma go to Oceana to rescue her mother Calissa and stop Eris, Merliah’s aunt, from taking over Oceana. There are so many elements to this movie, and it puts a more modern spin on the typical “save the kingdom” storyline via modern technology (Google to the rescue). It also includes some epic dance scenes. Remo and his conch are incredibly adorable, not to mention The Destinies being absolute icons. If you are not bopping to “Queen of the Waves” then what are you doing?
2. "Barbie: Mermadia" (2006)
In the second movie of the Fairytopia trilogy, Elina is faced with more challenges after finally getting her wings at the end of “Fairytopia.” In this movie, she works with Nori in order to rescue Prince Nalu, but, in order to do so Elina must give up her wings for a tail. In our opinion, this was a great way to continue to develop the story and use the already established narratives from the first movie. Nalu and Nori are amazing, especially with Nalu tricking the Fungi (“Lefting, Leftaroo” anyone?). Overall, a very enjoyable movie.
1. "Barbie: The Pearl Princess" (2014)
This movie far exceeded our expectations, and totally reconfigured our ranking list after watching it. The plot is kind of like if Disney’s “Tangled” and “Cinderella” mixed with Barbie’s “Princess Charm School” and it was mermaid-core. In this movie, Lumina is a mermaid with the power to control pearls. When she finds an invitation to the royal ball, she and her seahorse friend Kuda go on an adventure to attend the ball, only to discover that there is more to her past than she originally thought. The side characters are fantastic in this movie with unique personalities, such as those of our mermaid-from-Jersey Sandrine, our queen-from-New-Orleans Madam Ruckus and the sweetest plant-boy Fergis. We only fell in love with the movie more as we continued to watch. A must-see if you are a fan of mermaids.
Abigail Godsen (she/her) is a sophomore majoring in Applied Information Sciences. She is a reporter and Copy Editor for The Campus Citizen. When she isn’t writing, Abby likes to cook, do crossword puzzles and drink a lot of tea. She can be summoned using tea, cardigans and books (according to her roommate Jackie).
Jackie Bozinovski (she/her) is a sophomore double majoring in Biology and Forensics. She is a sometimes writer for the Campus Citizen, but primarily is the Citizen's mascot. When she isn't doing in-depth research on obscure topics or chugging copious amounts of coffee, you can find her reading, explaining science concepts to her very not sciencey roommate Abby or talking about Drag Queens.
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