Barbie – Dolphin Magic – Barbie: Dolphin Magic (2017)

Directed by: Michael Douglas, Conrad Helten | 60 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Finn Poncin, Roos van der Waerden, Manou Jue Cardoso, Levi van Kempen, Tara Hetharia, Dilara Horuz, Elaine Hakkaart, Nicoline Pouwer | Original voice cast: Erica Lindbeck, Shannon Chan-Kent, Kazumi Evans, Claire Margaret Colett, Alyssya Swales, Adrian Petriw, Maryke Hendrikse, Paul Dobson, Garry Chalk

Almost all women aged fifty or younger have played with it: Barbie. The plastic doll with combable hair saw the light of day in the late 1950s. American Ruth Handler saw her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls that could be dressed and undressed. There were already baby dolls in those days, but that’s about it. Handler came up with the idea to make a teenage doll, a three-dimensional variant as well. While traveling in Germany she saw the doll Lili, which fulfilled her wishes. She bought the rights from Lili and decided to produce the doll in their toy factory Mattel Toys with her husband, Elliott Handler. That’s how Barbie was created. The name ‘Barbie’ was the pet name for their daughter Barbara. And while the Barbies have undergone a number of metamorphoses over the years and gained a number of family members and friends, the doll is still wildly popular sixty years after its inception.

A popular toy product naturally also includes the necessary merchandise, a television series and several films, including a series of fairytale film adaptations with Barbie in a central role. A ‘live action’ film is even being worked on, starring Anne Hathaway (expected to be released in 2018), but for now it’s only cartoons that fans have to be satisfied with. ‘Barbie: Dolphin Magic’ (2017) is already the 36th animated film in which Barbie plays the leading role. Most movies were released straight to DVD, but every now and then one hits theaters. Such as ‘Dolphin Magic’ (but not after the film had premiered on the American YTV and Netflix). Barbie and her sisters Skipper, Stacey and Chelsea enjoy a luxurious vacation on a tropical island. There they visit Barbie’s friend Ken, who is doing an internship there as a marine biologist at a marine life center.

That his manager Marlo doesn’t exactly want the best for animals and wants to earn a lot of money from them is apparent when a rare emerald dolphin is captured. Marlo believes that the animal is sick and should be examined by a vet, but the dolphin doesn’t look sick at all. In freeing the animal, Barbie and her sisters and Ken get help from the mysterious Isla, who has her own reasons for working to protect the flora and fauna of the island and the sea.

‘Barbie: Dolphin Magic’ lives up to all the expectations that fans of the teenage doll film series have. Barbie and her friends live in a colorful world, full of wealth and happiness. Their holiday home is equipped with every luxury, there are four happy puppies hopping around and no one cares that there is no adult around. As simple and superficial as that world is, so one-dimensional is the story. A general message about being kind to nature and the importance of having good friends around you; we don’t lose sleep over that. The secret of Isla is soon revealed to the viewer, for a villain Marlo is quite good and the songs have a particularly high bubblegum content. But because the film only lasts 63 minutes and the children – for whom ‘Barbie: Dolphin Magic’ is after all made – sympathize with their heroines, we like to turn a blind eye.