Barbie has recently experienced some rough times: fired from a movie role she loved and dumped via text message from Ken. To ease her mind, she visits Millicent, her auntie, a fashion designer in Paris.
Barbie arrives to discover that her aunt’s fashion house is losing money and could need to be sold. Alice tells Barbie about a legend of magical creatures who can assist fashion designers.
The Story
Barbie finds herself reeling after she loses her movie career, her boyfriend Ken dumps her, and Millicent’s fashion house is failing. With the help of Sequin – especially as their dog! – and her friends travel to Paris together to save Millicent’s house by staging an outstanding runway show which shows success comes from hard work and believing in yourself.
Patricia Drake plays Millicent, Barbie’s maternal aunt who owns her own fashion house in Paris but struggles to sell her clothes. Millicent decides to close shop and relocate, but Barbie is determined to save it and introduces Marie-Alecia (Alice), an assistant designer with some talent whom Millicent had brought into work during a formal fashion show organized by herself and Millicent together with an alluring fashion show put on by them all to save their business. Together they complete a ritual summoning magical creatures called Flairies, which will help keep Millicent’s business from closing shop or leaving it altogether – saving Millicent’s company from bankruptcy!
In this modern animated film, Barbie discovers she has the power to inspire creativity in others with her inner shine. Together with her friends, she discovers their design talents and comes to understand themselves better – an engaging tale that is sure to enthrall audiences, both young and old alike!
Brandy Kopp stars as Sequin, the French Poodle belonging to Barbie that enjoys wearing anything with lots of glitters and is sometimes fussy and very playful. Charles Fathy voices Jacques, the suave Jack Russell Terrier smitten with Sequin; Annick Obonsawin voices Jilliana (an uppity cat who can’t help smirking at his crush on Sequin), but ultimately supports their relationship once Sequin inspires Jacques to start designing again. Additionally, Bebe Neuwirth performed “Get Your Sparkle On,” which became an international hit; both versions can be found as single tracks on DVD and single versions.
The Fairies
This animated feature finds Barbie rushing to Paris to save Millicent’s struggling fashion designer business, assisted by three enchanting fairies with sparkle-magic powers who refine Millicent’s designs and help her put on an eye-catching runway fashion show. This film illustrates that it is essential to believe in yourself and that dreams truly can come true!
Barbie takes off for Paris after she and Ken break up, hoping that her aunt Millicent – an established fashion designer – needs help but quickly learns of her aunt’s troubles; her work is no longer in fashion, and her fashion house might soon close down! With the assistance of Alice – a timid fashion student – and three magical Flairies named Shimmer, Glim’r, and Shyne from Flairies Inc, Barbie hatches a plan to save Millicent’s house.
Through Barbie and the Flairies’ unique ability to add shimmery shine to clothes, Millicent’s new clothing line becomes an instant hit – and defeats Jacqueline, who seeks the Flairies as part of her fashion design scheme. At a runway fashion show, Barbie and Alice prove it’s all about believing in yourself and spreading some magic!
Voice talent in Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale is quite strong, especially from its star, Barbie. Her character doesn’t utter highbrow remarks like in other films. Instead, she offers some unexpected comments like “wickedly mindblowing” or “beyond ridonkulously,” making the film much more captivating than it might have been.
The Flairies also have enjoyable personalities, with Shyne as the oldest and wisest. Glim’r and Shimmer are more playful. All three women look stunningly sexy; one might say they were even doused in glitter! These three characters always strive to stay current with fashion trends, which makes watching them even more captivating!
The Finale
After being fired from her latest movie and experiencing Ken’s departure, Barbie decides to travel to Paris, where she visits Millicent, her fashion designer aunt whose fashion house may soon close due to lack of income. Unfortunately for Millicent, though, her fashion house may soon close as its financial burden becomes overwhelming.
For her fashion business to survive, Barbie turns to three magical fashionable fairies, Shine, Shimmer, and Glimmer, for help. Together they use their sparkle magic to refine Barbie’s fashion designs while staging an unforgettable fashion show that proves magic can occur when we believe in ourselves.
This movie features entertaining characters like Jilliana, Sequin (her French Poodle), and Jack Russell Terrier Jacques; it also introduces some new ones like shy but talented Alice, who finds confidence through Aunt Millicent; it introduces Flairies (three magical creatures that use sparkle-magic to refine fashion designs); as well as Cat Noir who also belongs to this fashion fairies guild).
This movie marked the first time Kelly Sheridan did not voice Barbie; Diana Kaarina took her place. Released in 2010, this direct-to-video computer-animated movie scored eighth in the Barbie series of direct-to-video computer-animated films.
The movie offers an excellent message for girls, yet it is far from being the best installment in the Barbie franchise. The story lacks pace and plot depth, although some cute moments occur here and there. Most characters remain underdeveloped; particularly irritating are animals that seem out-of-place in this storyline and become distractingly loud throughout it all.
The Ending
Barbie heads to Paris to save her aunt Millicent’s struggling fashion house in this Step 2 reader-based animated fairy tale. But when she discovers that rival designer Jacqueline and assistant Delphine have abducted Shimmer, Glimmer, and Shine from Aunt Millicent’s studio and sold it off to a hot dog company instead, Barbie devises an ingenious plan: holding an impressive runway fashion show. With shy clothing designer Alice as their guide, Barbie and her friends prove success through hard work and believing in themselves.
This film is odd because it seems to take place within the same universe as other movies from this franchise, including A Mermaid Tale and The Three Musketeers (another one of which has also been turned into movies). There is even an A Mermaid Tale poster hanging up in the hallway; Barbie herself references both.
Even after experiencing The Worst Day Ever in her life (“I got dumped by Ken and now have to clean my messy apartment.” and “My director for my movie wants me to act out zombie pea scenes”), Barbie remains determined to find her dream career. So she heads off to Paris, where she discovers that her aunt owns a fashion house there that could soon close down due to a lack of customers buying dresses!
As soon as Barbie arrives at her aunt’s fashion house, she meets Marie-Alecia (known most simply as Alice). They quickly become friends and discover that magical fairy patron, Flairies, embellishes clothing designs by adding sparkly glitter. Together, they summon these magical fairies and use their sparkle magic to add extra glitzy designs to Alecia’s creations – together, creating their fashion line and holding an exclusive runway fashion show to save Alecia’s work and save Alecia’s fashion house from particular liquidators’s financial ruin!
Kelly Sheridan voices Barbie in this movie but was replaced by Diana Kaarina for the next installment, Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2. However, Kelly returned for its 2012 sequel.
