Barbie and her Sisters in a Pony Tale

This would be the second Barbie movie to feature her & all of her three sisters (Skipper, Stacie & Chelsea) doing something together after A Perfect Christmas (like I mentioned, it's going on my Animation Advent Calendar this year) and this time round, it has more girlyness by adding horses and ponies into the mix. This one also features Kelly Sheridan as Barbie rather than Diana Kaarina despite being a different Barbie movie compared to the others & being made by a different animation studio, Arc Productions, compared to the other ones (this also happens to be their first feature length film to animate). Anyway, does this movie show that Barbie, pink & horses go well together, or is it as bad as cleaning out a horse's stable? Well, let's find out!

Story: In this one, Barbie, Skipper, Stacie & Chelsea Roberts (yes, their last name is finally mentioned in a Barbie movie) go to their aunt's ranch/riding academy in the Alps as there is a tournament going on which pretty much means the fate of the ranch is in it's hands as the prize is money & they need it for the academy to remain open as they may have to sell it due to a lack of students going. Yes, it's that kind of plot where they have to save something which means so much to them like every other movie. And it's as cliched as it gets! There's another plot with Barbie discovering a type of horse breed that has been hidden & the villain doesn't want them to be known for no reason whatsoever. They do try & add subplots for Skipper, Stacie & Chelsea, but they're either forgotten, not important, or really annoying. It doesn't really help that there's barely any pacing & it feels like an eternity despite being just over 70 minutes. Even if it's nice to see a movie just about Barbie & her sisters, the plot is cliched & honestly pretty boring.

 

Animation: Since this is technically the first time I'm talking about the animation since this is the same company that did A Perfect Christmas, the animation is pretty different. The character designs are much more plastic-y and cartoony looking & it is very creepy to look at, despite the much improved rendering on the hair models. The character animation is also pretty stiff, even if it fare better on the animals, specifically the horses. One part that particularly impressed me was the use of 2D animation in the flashback sequence about the Majestiques, being very stylized with the animation on the horses. The backgrounds of the Alps do look pretty nice as well as the academy itself looking pretty good, despite the poor rendering. I will also say that the texturing on the grass, trees & water looks much better than before. Even if the animation on the people isn't all that great & sometimes looks more like a PC game, at least the backgrounds do look nice.

 

Characters: In this one, Barbie is the oldest that's a natural at horse riding & is the one that decides to train a rare Majestique. That's about it. Skipper is the technology obsessed teen that doesn't want to ride & would rather post on her blog. Stacie is annoying & has trouble with handling her horse & Chelsea is the youngest and is easily the most annoying one out of them that whines and complains that she has a small pony compared to the others despite being a bit too small for them. Heck, she's the one that causes the conflict near the end by stupidly deciding to try & ride a bigger horse during the party & has no consequences to her despite causing an injury to Etienne. Monsieur Etienne is the over the top riding master with a very stereotypical French design & accent but has a good heart, Max & Marie are brother & sister with the former being very proper & organised while the latter is wild & fun loving. Phillipe, the villain & owner of the rival riding academy, has no reason to be evil & hide the Majestiques at all besides the fact the movie needs a villain. Jonas is Skipper's love interest despite being in the rival academy, Marlene is the aunt that owns the academy & I think that's it for the characters. Overall, they're one dimensional or annoying!

 

Overall, this one is pretty pointless besides having a Barbie movie with horses. Although the animation is OK, the plot is cliched & boring & the characters are either one dimensional or annoying! I'm not really sure I can recommend this to anyone. Equestrian lovers might not like that there's hardly any dressage, but maybe little girls that would like to horse ride might.

Story: 2/10

Animation: 4/10

Characters: 3/10

Overall: 3/10