Barbie Fairytopia

Barbie Fairytopia

Somewhere beyond the rainbow, there is the land of fairies, known as fairytopia. Here there are beings both good and bad. Ruled by the beloved Enchantress and cared for by her 12 rainbow coloured guardians, the fairies live in peace, unafraid and carefree. Except for when the Enchantress’ evil sister Laverna decides to set a plan in action to rob the fairies of their ability to fly, it’s up to a young fairy named Elina who was born without wings and, more specifically the ability to fly, leaving her immune to the poison, to traverse the land and discover what was happened before the kidnapped Guardian’s can fall prey to Laverna’s schemes.

This was one of the films that I watched more as an adult than a child as I was far out of my Barbie phase when this came out, though I was still aware of the films as they were coming up. Still, I would rewatch the trailers over and over again when I was in the DVD section of Tescos, back when they had screens with that feature. When I found the movies playing online, this was one of the films that I started watching in earnest and I was honestly enchanted by the world it created. Rather than employ the framing device of Barbie telling her younger sibling a fairy tale to boost them, this takes you straight into the story.

Elina as a character is quite interesting as she’s basically disabled. Being born without wings makes her very different to just about everyone around her, including her friend Dandelion and constant companion, Bibble the puffball. I understand that this was just so she wouldn’t become sick and be able to make it as far as she does, but I still appreciate the representation, inadvertent as it may have been. Elina is never shown to be jealous of others for having what she doesn’t and her comfort in herself is nice, but I think it leaves her as a bit flat, almost too much of a paragon. It’s far from a bad thing to have a completely selfless hero, but I think that having her show some negative traits would have fleshed her out some.

Laverna isn’t too far off from the scenery chewing villains of previous villains, though she’s considerably more subdued. She’s downright polite when she’s not gloating and her scheme is actually incredibly brilliant. It’s by sheer luck that Elina was immune to her poisons, and had the throwing arm to destroy her spell. Kathleen Barr puts in a seductive, confident tone that fits a character who covers all of her bases and even tempts Elina to her side by promising her that which she has always wanted. I can honestly say that I would be taken in by her offer, given that I know what it feels like to be different in a world that demands conformity.

As for the other characters and the world, not much of it fleshed out beyond a few characters who will continue to appear through the other films. First, Dandelion is a stalwart friend only forced to turn back when the sickness becomes too much, Bibble, as a sidekick character, should be annoying with his constant stream of high pitched nonsense but it’s not so bad upon rewatches. The Guardians aren’t fleshed out beyond their names and you never see any of them being captured, apart from one. Specifically the blue guardian Azura who Elina meets and is entrusted with keeping the key to Laverna’s plan safe in a manner not dissimilar to Frodo watching over the One Ring. Given that the film is only an hour and fifteen minutes long, I think that the narrative could have benefited from showing a few scenes of the guardians and their power, showing them trying to evade capture. It feels like a small thing to complain about but these are supposed to be the fairies keeping the other inhabitants safe, seeing them being rounded up with seemingly little difficulty makes them feel less like characters and more like a check list.

The only other characters I’ll mention are Hue the butterfly and Nalu the mermaid prince. I say this because Hue plays an important role through an impressive chase scene, and Nalu appears in a prominent role in the next movie in the fairytopia trilogy. The moments when Elina flies are pretty impressive, given the somewhat stunted, jerky animation of the previous films and the world around her has some considerable scale to it. The characters are living in a place that could be confused for someone’s garden if they weren’t all tiny, moving around giant flowers and plants that tower over them. Nalu isn’t in the film for long but helps out the group by providing an escape from Laverna’s minions.

One big gripe about this film that I honestly don’t want to have, but must be mentioned is, unfortunately, the way the story is told. As mentioned before, there is a lot of telling, rather than showing. You are told rather than shown that the guardians are kidnapped, that the Enchantress is out of commission, that Laverna is behind it. There’s very little mystery to it and I know this is a weird thing to be annoyed about, but I genuinely think that animation for kids, especially girls, deserves better storytelling. It doesn’t have to be Citizen Kane but would it be so bad to leave in some of the mystery and let them work things out for themselves? What’s more, a fuss is made about Elina having ‘the rainbow in her eye’ but this isn’t explained beyond ‘you are destined for great things’. I don’t know if was a planned trilogy, but I have to say that leaving things so vague is vexing to me. Of course, all of this is just my opinion and I could very well be in the minority there.

All in all, this film is a pretty straightforward, entertaining ride that unfortunately falls short of what it could have been. Of course, this doesn’t make it bad, just disappointing and only when you think about it for too long. Other than the minor problems in story and character, I genuinely enjoy this film each time I’ve watched it.