Barbie: Princess Charm School

There is hope!
After increasingly disappointing installments in the Barbie movies line (they had been going down since Mermaid Tale) Barbie has given us a glimmer of light. Princess Charm School (originally dubbed "Princess Prep School" but later changed to the more toddler-friendly "Charm") brings back so many of the wonderful, whimsical elements we've grown to love about Barbie. Blair is not a movie star, uber trendy and loaded with cash & fashion. She is not an overly preppy teen whose biggest flaw is that her dress isn't up-to-date. She is a very down-to-earth girl who works hard to keep her family afloat. She has problems that, with the help of a very likeable character, she works through.

Friendship, forgiveness, kindness, family bond, never giving up, discovering your own talents, and overcoming your own obstacles are all celebrated. The animation (Barbie's face in particular) shows great improvement. For the first time since the Three Musketeers, our heroine doesn't look like an...

Barbie Movies are getting better
After a rough patch of less than stellar animation and storytelling (diamond castle, fairy secret), Princess Charm School looks to have been given better production values. My 8 year old says this is definitely her favorite of the Barbie movies so far (though she misses the movies with songs a lot).

The story theme is simple: every girl has the potential to be a princess. Blair, an ordinary waitress at a pastry shop in a thinly disguised inner city NY type of location, wins a yearly lottery to attend a prestigious "Princess Academy". There, she deals with rivalry and class difficulties while befriending fellow 'outcasts' in her dorm. Her main rival, Delancy, and Delancy's mother provide the strife and adversity for Blair as she tries to fit in. The girls learn that there is a long lost princess and Blair fits the description - but she can claim the title only if she can beat Delancy and her avaricious mother to the throne on coronation day.

Unlike previous...

Not for the sensitive child
My five year old daughter is particular about what she watches. Of the previous Barbie movies, she only liked the Mermaid movie and Fashion Fairy Tale. The last Barbie movie, the one where there were fairies did not appeal to her, but it had nothing to scare her. This new movie, Charm School, starts out pleasant, but when Blair gets home from work, and we discover her mother is sickly, and needs care, my daughter got concerned. And then when Blair actually leaves her sick mother and her younger sister to go to a school where she must live, she got upset. My daughter is dealing with going to kindergarten and being separated from me for the first time, so I think this hit too close to her current personal experiences. Then when Blair gets to the charm school, she isn't treated kindly by most of the other girls, and again, this upset my daughter. The "villain" of the show is a mother who wants her daughter to become the princess, and she is very unkind to Blair, says and does mean...

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