THE MOVIE

Introduction:

Once again, every girl’s childhood icon Barbie returns for her third feature length DVD, ’Barbie of Swan Lake’. As with its predecessors, ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ takes a well-known fairy tale and adjusts it to coincide with the peculiarities of the Barbie universe and no doubt the Barbie Swan Lake merchandise line. Regardless, this is another competent entry into a market that has traditionally not catered for young girls.

Synopsis:

’Barbie of Swan Lake’ begins with Barbie (Kelly Sheridan), a camp guidance counsellor checking up on her young sleeping campers. During her rounds, Barbie finds Kelly (Chantel Strand) sitting on the camp porch unable to sleep. Barbie then begins to relay a story to Kelly about a reserved young girl named Odette (Kelly Sheridan) who is the daughter of a village baker.

One day a unicorn named Lila (Venus Tcerzo) races through Odette’s village on the run from a group of farmers intent on capturing the mythical animal. Fascinated at the appearance of such an animal, Odette follows Lila into a nearby forest and ends up in an enchanted forest filled with talking animals and fairies.

Odette discovers and removes a magical crystal from what appears to be an ordinary tree. Immediately, the Fairy Queen (Kathleen Barr) visits Odette and informs her that only someone destined to save the enchanted forest from the evil Rothbart (Kelsey Grammar) could have removed the magical crystal from the enchanted tree. Odette learns that Rothbart is an evil wizard that is envious of the Fairy Queen’s rule of the enchanted forest. Odette also learns that Rothbart was responsible for transforming all the forest dwellers into animals as a sign of his frustration with the Fairy Queen’s rule.

Coincidentally, Rothbart enters the story at this point and is furious at Odette for removing the magical crystal from the enchanted tree. As such, Rothbart transforms Odette into a swan and promptly attempts to kill her. Fortunately for Odette, the magical crystal in her possession protects her from the magic of Rothbart. Rothbart departs in a fit of rage but promises to return in the near future.

In the meantime, the Fairy Queen partly-counters Rothbart’s spell by allowing Odette to return to her human form during moonlight, thereby allowing Odette some chance of finding a way to completely reverse the spell. At the same time, Rothbart and his daughter Odile (Maggie Wheeler) concoct a plan to lure the young Prince Daniel (an expert huntsman) into the enchanted forest to kill the beautiful swan. This sets in place a chain of events that ultimately leads to a deadly showdown between Rothbart, Prince Daniel and Odette.

Commentary:

’Barbie of Swan Lake’ is Mattel Entertainment’s third Barbie DVD, hot off the heels of its successful predecessors ’Barbie as Rapunzel’ and ’Barbie in the Nutcracker’. There is also a shameless link here with the latest line of Barbie Swan Lake merchandise, however I won’t go into detail about this issue.

As with previous Barbie DVDs, ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ uses CGI animation to bring Barbie’s world to life. I still believe this to be the most appropriate medium for the Barbie DVD franchise as the second-tier quality CGI animation perfectly captures the stiffness of characters which are essentially based on plastic dolls without compromising on the overall aesthetics of the feature. One only has to examine the attention to detail in the animation to appreciate the care that has gone into the creation of this feature.

’Barbie of Swan Lake’ sees a return of the focus on ballet in the Barbie DVD series. As such, the feature borrows heavily on the story from the traditional ‘Swan Lake’ ballet as well as the original ballet compositions of Tchaikovsky (as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra). As with the ’Barbie in the Nutcracker’ DVD, the ballet sequences in ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ are extremely fluid and realistic thanks to the choreography and use of actual ballerinas from the New York City Ballet that were filmed and translated into the animated medium.

Another excellent cast of voice-actors contribute their talents to ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ which includes the always impressive Kelsey Grammar in the role of Rothbart and Maggie Wheeler (the infuriating Janice from TV’s ’Friends’) as Rothbart’s equally annoying and high-pitched daughter. Kelly Sheridan and Chantel Strand also reprise their roles as Barbie and Kelly for this feature.

The only real disappointment this time round concerns the animation of Rothbart and his daughter Odile. Whilst they are obviously the villains of the piece (evidenced by their actions and voices), was it really necessary to animate them in such a caricature-esque fashion?

THE TRANSFER

Video:

As with most CGI animated features, ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ boasts an impressive video transfer (due to a direct from digital transfer) with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio which is also anamorphically enhanced.

Colour rendering is outstanding on this feature with a liberal use of the colour palette which varies from soft pastels to bright primaries. Blacks and shadow detail (particularly in relation to Rothbart and Odile’s costumes and lair) were also perfectly handled on this transfer.

The only downside to this video transfer was that picture detail varied from occasionally soft to astoundingly detailed (which unintentionally highlights all the flaws of CGI animation e.g. the lack of detail on human expressions and animal fur).

Audio:

’Barbie of Swan Lake’ is presented with an English, French and Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Given the dialogue intensive nature of some sequences, it was pleasing to note that dialogue was clear throughout the entire feature.

As mentioned earlier, the soundtrack to this feature has been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and the 5.1 mix provides excellent depth and dynamic range to the score, mainly due to the presence of ambience and other surround effects (e.g. musical cues and forest sounds).

Audio sync was a little average on this release compared with previous Barbie DVD releases, however it was never a significant problem and did not detract from the overall appeal of this disc.

THE EXTRAS

Thankfully, this time round Universal have decided to include all the key supplemental features of the Region 1 version of this disc on the Region 4 version.

(i) Animated Menus with ‘Help Feature

The menu for ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ is fully animated and like its predecessors, is extremely innovative and aligned to the central themes of the main feature.

There is also a useful ‘Help’ feature on the main menu that is aimed a children who require assistance in using the DVD remote control.

(ii) ’The Music In You’ Featurette

This featurette is presented in an anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

The 25 minute featurette explores the lives of five young girls from New York City and London who each share a passion for playing a particular musical instrument. We are introduced to Brittany and Nicola who both play the violin, Jessica who plays the cello, Rachel who plays the trumpet and Annabelle who plays the harp.

The featurette discusses their childhood dreams and the road they have travelled to get where they are today.

Ok, so you’re wondering how this is related to ’Barbie of Swan Lake’. Well, the link (albeit a minor one) is that Nicola actually performed as part of the London Symphony Orchestra on the score for the movie.

This featurette ends with an upbeat musical performance by the abovementioned girls of an extract of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ score.

(iii) The Ballet Dances of Swan Lake

This was a little disappointing as I was expecting some video clips of the real-life ballerinas who were filmed as part of the creative process of this film. Instead, we are presented with a replay of 4 dance sequences from ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ with Barbie providing a commentary on various dance moves. Nonetheless, the featurette is educational and will no doubt spark interest in ballet as a hobby for many young girls.

(iv) Explore the Stars

This is a DVD game that requires the viewer to identify constellations from the on-screen starfield, based on the hints provided by Barbie. This game appeared to be a little too complex for my liking, however kudos once again for adding some additional educational content on what was already an excellent disc.

(v) Trailers

Trailers are provided for ’Barbie as Rapunzel’ and ’Barbie in the Nutcracker’. Both are presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratios with Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks.

SUMMARY

In summary, ’Barbie of Swan Lake’ is another hit for Mattell Entertainment. The presentation of this DVD release is excellent and continues a pleasing commitment from Mattell and Universal in distributing quality DVD products for younger audiences, and in particular, the young female market.

The video and audio quality is superb and the inclusion of educational content adds significant value for those parents who are still not convinced about this title (and indeed DVD series).

[Rated G for General Exhibition]