Jammin' In Jamaica

This is the first movie from the MyScene series & thankfully, the last Barbie related movie I'll be reviewing in a while unless I review The Secret Door & Princess Power when they come out. Oh the joy...! Released in about 2003 and like Masquerade Madness, this one came with any My Scene doll you got, and again, I got one (Chelsea I think it was) when on sale & on a whim since I heard about the movie & wanted to watch it. Yeah, I was 8, I liked anything Barbie/Bratz/My Scene at the time! And thankfully, unlike Masquerade Madness which couldn't even scrape 30 minutes, this one has a running time of about 45 minutes! At least then the money can feel like it ws actually spent on something time consuming! Anyway, can sunny Jamaica make this movie feel like a holiday to watch, or will this feel like being on the holiday from hell? Well, let's find out!

Story: In this one, the MyScene girls go to Jamaica while the guys' band Urban Desire are there for a competition with Madison as their manager. Beforehand, Barbie, Chelsea & Nolee had to earn money themselves to get there as only the band got the free trip. This coincides with a subplot of Barbie feeling like her boyfriend River has no time for her due to band rehearsals & spends most of his time with Madison, getting jealous. Then when she catches them hugging after they tell each other their friendship is purely platonic, she runs away causing the band to get disqualified as River turned up late for rehearsals cos he was looking for Barbie. When Barbie realizes the truth, she makes up for it by setting up an afterparty for the competition with the band performing & a guy from a record company gives them a recording contract. It's not bad as it's mostly original with avoiding the cliche of the band winning the competition, but the fact that Barbie spends most of the time whining over it makes it hard to sympathise with her& Madison does tend to be a bit clingy with River. Other than that, the movie just consists of montages of them on the beaches in Jamaica & Ellis wanting to ask the new member of the group Delancey out, which is very quickly resolved by the end. I will say thankfully they don't go the stereotype route with the people of Jamaica or it's portrayal of the island, but besides that, the plot is meh. Not good, but not bad either.

Animation: Yeah, like the other 2 MyScene films, the animation is pretty subpar. The character designs are the same with the realistic/doll-like look, but this time a bit worse as the guys are nowhere near as polished. The character animation is a bit stiff & again, the CGI backgrounds are pretty jarring. The backgrounds of New York & Jamaica are surprisingly generic as New York mostly consits of streets or Jamaica mostly being on beaches or at one point, a small market which is never seen again. Another problem I have is that it's blatantly obvious when they loop or repeat different bits of animation over & over, pretty much showing how low budget it was. Honestly, there's not much to say about the animation. It's cheap quality just like the others except this time a bit worse!

Characters: Like the other MyScene movies, the characters can easily be categorised by their character traits. Barbie this time round is still the same, but she often whines & complains about her boyfriend not spending enough time with her even though he's in the middle of for a very important competition which could GET HIM A RECORD DEAL! If I were her, I'd support him & let him be able to have time to rehearse. Madison also got on my nerves as she was pretty egotistical & clingy with River even if she says she wouldn't be with him. Chelsea & Nolee are oddly barely in it besides it being a My Scene movie & Delancey, Chelsea's cousin & the newest MyScene member is a sporty surfer girl, but that's all there is to her. The guys pretty much have no personality besides being fun loving & River being a loving boyfriend despite having to spend most of his time focusing on the competition or Sutton being a flirty British DJ member of the group. There's not much else to say other than that their personalities are pretty much as plastic as the dolls!

 

Overall, this one is meh with a predictable story, worse animation compared to the others & cliched characters. I'm not really sure I can recommend this to anyone, but I will say that the songs Urban Desire sing are worth listening to as they're actually pretty good. This one feels the most unecessary and is the most evident one with being a cashgrabber for the dolls.
Story: 4/10
Animation: 3/10
Characters: 3/10
Overall: 3/10