A musical story about the
power of friendship and believing in oneself, Barbie and the Diamond Castle
opens with Barbie and her friend Teresa singing, playing guitar, and relating a
story about friendship to Stacy who’s just had a disagreement with her best
friend Courtney. In the story, friends Alexa and Liana loose everything but each
other in a terrible storm. A chance meeting with an old woman brings them a new
friend Melody, who shares their love of music, but is locked inside an enchanted
mirror. It turns out that Melody is an apprentice muse who holds the secret key
to the diamond castle and embodies the last chance to defeat the selfish muse
Lydia and preserve music for the entire world. Alexa and Liana help Melody
journey to the diamond castle, overcoming enormous obstacles conjured by Lydia
and her serpent Slider as well as rising above a disagreement between
themselves. This CGI animated program is colorful and bright, if not
particularly realistic, and the pop music is appealing, but oddly out of sink
with the renaissance style costuming. While the Barbie versions of classic
stories like Barbie of Swan Lake or Barbie Prince and the Pauper generally offer
better storylines, young Barbie fans will nonetheless enjoy this quest to save
music while getting a sense of the importance of friendship and believing in
oneself.
