Even aside from the fact that the idea of animated outtakes has been borrowed outright from Pixar and is a hackneyed joke by now, for these to come after having sat through the film seem almost entirely designed to shatter what reality we have been prepared to extend to the story.First of all, the musical numbers are incredible.
#Barbie princess and the pauper voice actors series#
William Lau also does one thing that crucially kills the slender suspension of disbelief we are prepared to give the film – he gives a series of animated outtakes at the end where we see the characters’ stunt doubles, the princess’s cellphone ringing during a romantic scene and the prince suddenly breaking into a rap number. Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper is a competently made film – one has to give it that – but far too formulaic to be involving. There are far too many songs, all of which are bland and forgettable. In fact, one suspects that Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper might have worked better in live-action rather than animation where actors would give the characters some life, subtlety of expression and been able to fill out the humour much more. There is little in the way of expression to the characters. Barbie’s name has become synonymous with an airheaded blonde beach bunny William Lau’s failing is that he allows the character on screen to be barely more than that either. Unfortunately, the film is formulaic and director William Lau never invests it with enough vitality to make it stand out in any way. The Princess and the Pauper is made in the same bland, plastic style that Mainframe used for the other early Barbie films. (The Barbie series later reissued The Prince and the Pauper in Barbie: The Princess & The Popstar). Alas, while The Prince and the Pauper works perfectly acceptably reinvented as a fairytale, Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper fails to work successfully as a film. The Prince and the Pauper is in itself not a fantasy story, although it has a setting of 16th Century England and it takes little stretch of the imagination to fit the story out as a pseudo-fairytale here, replete with talking animals.
Barbie as Princess Elise and servant girl Eliseīarbie as The Princess and the Pauper turns to Mark Twain’s novel The Prince and the Pauper (1881). Subsequent films include Barbie Fairytopia (2004), Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus in 3D (2005), Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses (2006), Barbie Mermaidia (2006), Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow (2007), Barbie as The Island Princess (2007), Barbie & the Diamond Castle (2008), Barbie in A Christmas Carol (2008), Barbie Mariposa (2008), Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009), Barbie Presents Thumbelina (2009), Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale (2010), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010), Barbie: A Perfect Christmas (2011), Barbie: A Fairy Secret (2011), Barbie: Princess Charm School (2011), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 (2012), Barbie: The Princess & The Popstar (2012), Barbie and Her Sisters in a Pony Tale (2013), Barbie in The Pink Shoes (2013), Barbie Mariposa and the Fairy Princess (2013), Barbie and the Secret Door (2014), Barbie: The Pearl Princess (2014), Barbie and Her Sisters in the Great Puppy Adventure (2015), Barbie in Princess Power (2015), Barbie in Rock’n’Royals (2015), Barbie and Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase (2016), Barbie Spy Squad (2016), Barbie Star Light Adventures (2016), Barbie: Dolphin Magic (2017) and Barbie: Video Game Hero (2017). The Princess and the Pauper had been preceded by Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001), Barbie as Rapunzel (2002) and Barbie of Swan Lake (2003), wherein Barbie was cast as the heroine in various re-enactments of fairytales and/or adaptations of classical ballets.
Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper was the fourth film made by Canadian computer animation company Mainframe featuring Mattel’s famous girl’s doll Barbie.