Masquerade Madness

This is the second one in the MyScene franchise (yeah, I'm kind of doing this backwards) & came free with a MyScene doll in the Masquerade Madness line. I did get a Barbie one for Christmas which came with the DVD & I loved it when I was younger! And I'm guessing my parents had to pay a lot of money if it came with a DVD since everything with dolls are overpriced these days! Anyway, can this movie show that the price was worth it or was it too extortionate for the additional cost? Let's find out! And by the way, there are little to no stills I could find online so I had to get creative!

Story: The main plot involves the girls doing a fashion show as part of a fundraising project for their school while the main conflict comes from Chelsea having to hide the fact that she's failing maths & Hudson is tutoring her while having to make the costumes for the show. And there's another subplot which connects to the conflict as the girls are hiding the fact they're doing a surprise party for Chelsea at Madison's & Delancey has to do her best to not tell her despite being terrible at keeping secrets. I will give them credit that it does deal with realistic problems with teenagers like studying with Chelsea's subplot about Hudson tutoring her with maths & having to lie that she's secretly going out with him. But then half the time, it's mostly the secrets being hidden & them organising Chelsea's birthday party & the fashion show which the movie is leading up to. You could argue there's no plot as there's no antagonist or proper goal or 3 act structure, but at least there's conflict. Overall, it's just OK. Not awful but not all that great either.

Animation: Yeah, like in MyScene goes Hollywood, the animation is pretty subpar. The movie in a whole feels like it was made on Flash with the 2D characters, even if the character animation itself is pretty good. But I will say that sometimes, they tend to just freeze the animation & have them blink from time to time, in particular during the phone call scene, and it is a bit weird to watch. Another problem I had was the CGI backgrounds, which were very jarring with the 2D characters. even if the backgrounds themselves actually looked good from a production design point of view. Also,the costume designs look good for the fashion show. There's not much else to say about the animation other than that it's OK.

Characters: Even if they kind of have their own arcs, all the girls feel like the same character. Barbie is, Madison is the token sassy black friend (and is more toelrable than she was in MyScene Goes Hollywood), Nolee is the token Asian friend that's smart & meditates, Chelsea is the rehead fashion loving friend & Delancey is the sports loving girl that has to lie that she has a crush on Hudson as she's terrible at keeping secrets. OK, yes they're cliched, but at least their dynamic as friends is good. If anything, the boys are more entertaining than the girls, like Hudson being forced into the situation with Chelsea while tutoring her in maths & actually having a crush on her. Ellis is the surfer dude type and is Delancey's boyfriend, Sutton is the British friend & River is nothing more than Barbie's boyfriend that likes rock music. There's not much to say, they can all easily be defined by the stereotype rather than being given any development! Well, at least they're not hateable or intolerable.

 

 

Overall, Masquerade Madness is pointless. The plot isn't anything new or does anything exciting, the animation is direct to DVD quality & the characters are all stereotypes of stereotypes. I'm not really sure I can recommend this to anyone cos honestly, I found it boring & almost instantly forgot everything about it. Maybe MyScene fans will, but there's no doubt that this was made to get a quick buck for the dolls as it's not even 30 minutes long.
Story: 4/10
Animation: 4/10
Characters: 3/10
Overall: 4/10