Barbie Diamond Castle follows two best friends, Liana and Alexa, who live in a cottage with barely any money. These friends discover a mirror with a singing girl, Melody, in it, but whenever Melody sings it alerts the villain, Lydia, and her dragon sidekick, Slyder, who ends up burning down Liana and Alexa’s cottage. Lydia was one of the muses of the Diamond Castle- a castle of music, but she ended up turning evil and trying to turn the world into darkness with no music. Melody was an apprentice of the muses and hid in the mirror where she was trapped. With no home to return to, the girls embark on a journey to unlock the Diamond Castle and save the other muses who Lydia turned to stone.

Obviously, this film revolves around music and there is no shortage of it. This movie arguably has the second-best soundtrack of any of the Barbie movies (second to only the #1 Barbie movie that will be revealed in a few weeks), and because they are all duets, they were so perfect to sing with my sister growing up. She always wanted to be Liana, who wears pink, and I wanted to be Alexa, who wears purple. Connected, We’re Gonna Find It, and Two Voices One Song are such core memories for me that genuinely bring tears to my eyes. Plus, as a music-loving kid, seeing this film revolve around music and best friendship really resonated with me and made me love to sing even more.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Now, as a child, I was pretty naive to the fact that these two “best friends” lived alone in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, making money off of their flower business. But let’s be real, these girls were the epitome of cottagecore lesbians. Liana’s dress was literally the color of the lesbian flag and Alexa’s is the color of the bi flag! This movie introduces two male characters, twin brothers Ian and Jeremy (which funnily enough are the names of my old music teacher and his son), to assist the girls on their adventure and simultaneously serve as the love interests. However, I truly feel that forcing male love interests on these characters was just the fear of showing homosexual relationships to kids. But watching it back now, it would have made so much more sense to just exclude the male characters or at least make them fully platonic.

One of the main plot points in this movie is that at the beginning, even before the girls discover the mirror, they find two identical stones in the river that they turn into magic necklaces. Unbeknownst to them, these stones are actually diamonds that fell off the Diamond Castle and floated downstream to them, and when they wear them, they are protected from Lydia’s dark magic. There is a very dramatic scene where Alexa gets mad at Liana and takes off the necklace. She then gets possessed by Lydia to nearly walk off a cliff into a pit of lava if she does not reveal the key of the Diamond Castle, but that’s beside the point (great intense, climactic scene though). A couple of Christmases ago, my sister ordered us matching necklaces that look like the ones in the movie because it’s such a sentimental symbol of love and nostalgia for us. We literally grew up with movies like this and I feel like the fact that we grew up with them together makes it extra special.

This movie is a no brainer to be in the top 5, between the music and the storyline. The only points I am taking off are because of the forced heterosexuality, as well as the fact that Ian and Jeremy were British for no reason and made underhanded sexist comments. But other than that, Diamond Castle is no less than magical.

We are officially in the top 5 Barbie movies! Barbie Magic of Pegasus follows Annika, an ambitious young princess who loves to leave her palace and figure skate, against the strict wishes of her royal parents. Annika doesn’t understand why her parents are so dedicated to keeping her inside, not knowing that years prior, an evil sorcerer, Wenlock, turned her older sister into a pegasus. They were just trying to keep her safe, but when Annika sneaks out again, Wenlock returns, freezing everyone in the kingdom, saying that if Annika does not accept his hand in marriage in three days he will be stuck like that forever. Annika is rescued by a pegasus and has to adventure to unfreeze her parents and kingdom.

As you may have guessed, the pegasus that saves Annika is her older sister in pegasus form, Brietta. For some reason after watching this movie, I loved the name Brietta and would always name my barbies Brietta if I was playing with them. Even though it’s pretty obvious to you since I gave the backstory of why the parents are strict, when you’re watching the movie you don’t find out that that’s why the parents are so strict until later, so it is a plot twist. Brietta takes Annika to the Cloud Kingdom where she has been staying for 16 years since she was turned into a pegasus, and Annika meets the Cloud Queen. The Cloud Queen is literally so iconic. She is so beautiful and her voice is so soothing, I wanted to be her so badly. The visuals in this movie, especially in the Cloud Kingdom, are absolutely stunning. There are little girls that also live in the Cloud Kingdom whos role it is to paint the sunset while riding on their pegasuses (pegasi?). The scene of them painting the clouds various tones of purples, pinks, yellows, and oranges is visually stunning and a very memorable scene of the movie.

Annika’s love interest in the movie is Aidan, and he is a very interesting character to me because he is not a typical Barbie love interest. Most Barbie movies depict their characters as black and white- the good guys are these perfectly moral and kind spirits while the bad guys are completely evil. However, Aidan is more morally grey. Annika and Brietta meet him in the forbidden forest, a dark and scary place that Aidan escaped to after gambling with all the money his parents had left and losing it. Aidan is snarky and sarcastic, with one of my favroite lines being after Annika tells him Brietta is her sister, sarcastically asking if the polar bear sidekick is “let me guess…your cousin?” I think it is very refreshing to have a character who is a good person who has made mistakes in their life but has a redemption arc. Plus, Aidan is able to reunite with his parents by the end of the movie, which is a very heartwarming moment.

Annika’s own relationship with her parents kind of resonated with me as a kid because I always felt like my parents were strict and had a lot of rigid rules. However, watching this movie as a kid kind of made me realize that there is probably a reasoning for it and that they are just doing the best they can to fulfill their roles as responsible parents and keep me safe.

The last thing I will say is that this movie is INCREDIBLY quotable, and my siblings and I will often make references to it. Plus, at the end they have a blooper reel, which I always think is hilarious for animators to do because it’s extra work for them but makes the characters seem more genuine and lifelike.

Between the stunning visuals, loveable characters, and memorable one-liners, Barbie Magic of Pegasus easily deserves its top 5 spot on my list of best Barbie movies.

Barbie does its take on the classic tale of Rapunzel, depicting an art-loving girl with long hair trapped in a tower by an evil mother-figure. However, this version shows Rapunzel discovering a magical paint brush (which derives from a magic hairbrush) that lets anything she draws become real. This allows her to recreate images of the nearby village that she escaped to once and travel there again, meeting new friends and love interests without giving away her secret trips to her captor.

I honestly love this movie and think it stays true to the story while also have some very unique aspects and twists to it. This movie does not incorporate any actual singing in it, but there is one song that plays when her hairbrush turns into a paintbrush that is so whimsical and beautiful. It seriously brings tears to my eyes and I listen to a piano cover of it to sleep at night sometimes. For a movie that barely has any music, it has one of the most nostalgic Barbie songs.

Rapunzel’s art is absolutely stunning throughout this movie and the movie as a whole is very aesthetically pleasing. The pastries at the bakery in the village look so detailed and scrumptious, and there is one scene where Rapunzel’s animal sidekicks mash up berries to make paint for Rapunzel to use after Gothel, Rapunzel’s captor, destroys all her paintings, paints, and brushes. When I was little I always used to rub raspberries on my lips in hope that it would stain them red in the same way that the berries in this movie were pigmented enough for paint. The way Rapunzel so flawlessly paints made me want to be an artist and I had a phase in elementary school where all I asked for for birthdays and Christmas were art supplies. I thought of art as so magical because of this movie, and still think it is such a creative way to incorporate fine arts beyond music in Barbie movies. Not to mention the perfect montage of Rapunzel painting different ball gowns for herself and walking into the wall to try them on.

The sidekicks in this movie, a British bunny named Hoby and a purple dragon named Penelope, are all-time favorites of mine. Penelope strives to impress her father, a large, manly dragon enslaved by Gothel, but feels like a failure. In the end, Penelope’s father helps Rapunzel and is proud of his daughter as she shows how strength can come from kindness and friendship. I enjoyed seeing this father-daughter relationship and related to Penelope on a personal level as she strove to people-please and cares greatly about what others think.

The best part of this entire movie is the plot twist. It is absolutely insane. There are more like two plot twists, one little one and one major one. Basically, when Rapunzel goes to the village, she meets the prince of that kingdom, led by King Frederick, and finds out that Frederick’s kingdom and the nextdoor kingdom, led by King Wilhelm, have been fueding for years. They continuously incite violence on one another and have separated families over the fued, but nobody knows why it started. Rapunzel tells the prince her name, but tells him that she doesn’t want to know his. Later, when Gothel finds out that Rapunzel escaped, she demands to know the name of the man she met but Rapunzel cannot tell her because she does not know. Gothel assumes she is lying and curses the tower to “never release the prisoner with the lying heart”. Since Rapunzel is not lying, though, she ends up being able to escape and the tower later traps Gothel, a liar, indefinitely.

The real plot twist happens at the ball, in which Gothel disguises herself as Rapunzel, and the prince cannot tell that it is a disguise. He chases her all around and she eventually puts him in extreme danger, with the opposing kingdom then raiding the ball. Gothel then removes her disguise and it is revealed that Gothel was once in love with King Wilhelm but Wilhelm did not love her back, marrying someone else and having his daughter- Rapunzel. Gothel stole Rapunzel out of spite, stating that she should have been Rapunzel’s mother and Wilhelm’s wife, and Wilhelm had started the fued against Frederick because he assumed that Frederick stole his daughter. In the end, the kingdoms are reuinted and Rapunzel reconnects with her family.

Overall, the storyline for this movie is very creative and this movie is a very fun watch, which is why it is #6. The story itself is not original, though, and Gothel’s sidekick otter is so annoying that it is difficult to tolerate him, especially when he snitches on Rapunzel. Tangled is still better, but this movie is very close to top 5.

Continuing with the mermaid theme this week, Barbie Mermaidia is the sequel to Fairytopia, where Elina (and her sidekick Bibble), born in the realm of fairytopia is inconveniently the only fairy not born with wings. She must embark on a journey of bravery to earn her wings, meeting new friends like mermaid prince, Nalu, but her journey does not end there. Mermaidia shows Nalu being hostage by fungi goblins, followers of the same villain from Fairytopia, who seek the immunity berry. This berry will give whoever eats it ultimate power, and the fungi threaten Nalu to either lead them to the berry or poison the whole ocean. Elina being enlisted to help save Nalu, and the ocean, with the assistance of frenemy mermaid, Nori.

Despite most sequels lacking in comparison to the original film, Mermaidia is so much more enjoyable to watch than Fairytopia. I always related to the character of Nori because she is so sassy and fresh. She did not like the idea of Elina coming in to play hero, and it is revealed later on that Nori was jealous of Elina’s friendship with Nalu because Nori loves Nalu romantically. This is so iconic of her. Her tail and blue hair is so cute, and her “idgaf” attitude is relatable to audiences who are sick of seeing perfect Barbie as a Mary Sue character. Plus, as a younger sister, I found that Nori’s internal sense of competition but ultimate connection with Elina by the end of the movie resembled a sisterly relationship.

While this has little to do with the films plot, part of the reason I love this movie so much is the FOOD. First of all, the only way Elina and Bibble can breathe underwater is by eating magic seaweed, and this made me want to try seaweed so badly. They made it look so delectable and savory I just wanted to crunch it so badly. There is one scene where Barbie, Nori, and Bibble need information on where to find the Oracle of Delphine (a super cute play on Greek mythology’s Oracle of Delphi) who will tell them where Nalu is, but the only people who know where the Oracle is are above water. Elina, unlike Nori, can reach these merfairies and they quickly befriend little Bibble, feeding him all sorts of pastries and chocolates. When I tell you there was nothing I wanted more in my childhood life than to eat those little snacks, there was NOTHING. They were so fancy and I could just picture the delicacies melting in my mouth, Even the table in their house looked like a delicious cheesy pizza. They give Bibble an entire cake to eat and it looked so moist; I was ready to eat it Matilda-style.

When the crew is in the realm of where the immunity berry lies, they are surrounded by many mystical berries all with different powers. While this both leads to the hilarious scene of Bibble eating various berries and giving him the power to yodel, talk in a very low voice, and even sing Opera (my poor parents had to witness me attempting to hit some high notes), they finally find the immunity berry and it. looks. delectable. Well, they actually find a berry that looks very similar to the immunity berry that they later use as a decoy to trick the fungi, but either way, the crunch when they bite into it is so juicy and crisp. Every time I eat a peach or think about an apricot, I feel like I am eating an immunity berry. Plus, the plot of using a decoy allowed for a more complex twist, and the decoy’s powers are to turn its consumer into their true self. This ends up turning the villain into a frog and Elina back into a fairy after she is almost doomed to be a mermaid forever.

The scene of her turning into a mermaid is so dramatic and iconic. In order to swim better and actually save Nalu, Elina needs to get a special necklace to allow her to have a tail. However, the blue beads will eventually turn white and whatever state she is in, fairy or mermaid, when the last bead turns white is what she will be forever. Elina carefully tries to stay as a fairy when she sees the last bead start to turn but hails herself into a waterfall last minute to catch the vial of poison the fungi dropped. This scene is SO dramatic and my sister and I watched in horror as her last bead turned white in the water. We were so shocked that Barbie would even think of removing her from her happily ever after, but luckily she was ultimately able to turn back into a fairy.

This film is very iconic and has some of the most memorable scenes. Elina is not just a dumb blonde, but uses heroism and self-sacrifice to save those around her. Plus, she is for the girls and lets Nori have her man. The complexities and shock factor allow me to rate this movie a solid #7.

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale follows Merliah Summers, a star surfer who discovers that her mother is actually a mermaid from the mystical underwater land of Oceana. After realizing that her mother is being held hostage in a dungeon by her evil sister, Eris, Merliah must travel to Oceana to save her mother from the tyrant and give the ocean its life again.

Even just starting with the name, the word play is genius- tale instead of tail allows for the double meaning and shows exactly what the story is about. This movie depicts such beautiful underwater scenes in Oceana, and includes iconic references to real-world brands, such as a store called “Seaphora”. While I did not understand this as a kid, these subtle references make the movie continuously enjoyable to watch as I have gotten older. Merliah obtains a beautiful fake tail and the montage of her finding the perfect tail for her is so aesthetically pleasing.

The characters in this movie are incredibly likeable, and there is one seal character, Snouts, that always reminded me of my little brother. There is one scene where Merliah has to get a celestial comb from above water with Snouts watching below, when all of a sudden there is an avalanche and Merliah’s swimming capabilities are challenged as she tries to save him. This scene made me want to protect my little brother, who was a toddler at the time, and reminded me how much I care about him. To this day I think of him as my little brother even though he is in high school now, and Snouts the seal reminds me of his adorable toddler self.

Another character that I especially like is Eris’ sidekick seahorse, who is not given a name. Throughout the movie, this seahorse is expected to follow Eris’ orders and plays the horn to signal her entrance, though Eris abuses him and does not appreciate his musical talent. By the end of the movie, however, this seahorse has shyly expressed his compassion for Merliah and her mother, Calissa, and when Merliah compliments his musical playing it is clear to him that he has chosen the right side. I very much sympathize with this little seahorse and I enjoy when characters are given a redemption arc. Even though he started out underappreciated and with evil, he was able to have his happily ever after too.

Merliah’s relationship with her mom also had an impact on me as a child and made me appreciate how kind and caring my mother is, just like Calissa. An entire subplot of the movie is that Calissa is able to spin merilia, the life force of the sea, and Eris cannot. Eris gets jealous and overthrows Calissa but cannot kill her because she needs her merilia, so instead banishes her. This creates a plot twist that adds to the complexity of the movie. Calissa continues to stay positive and be the life force of the sea even as she suffers, and this strength reminds me of my own mom who continues to stay strong and full of life in the face of adversity. She is one of my role models just as Calissa is Merliah’s.

Lastly, this movie contains one of the catchiest songs- Queen of the Waves. This song will just get stuck in my head, as a kid and today. Merliah is truly the queen of the waves and I have always wanted to surf to be just like her, though I have never gotten the chance.

As a kid, I loved this movie so much I even have a Merliah Summers Barbie doll with clothes that are reversible as both a cute outfit and a tail. I even have her pink dolphin sidekick! I still have this doll, pink hair streak and all, and continue to watch this movie with my siblings. There are other movies that do have more music and I am disappointed that they tried making a sequel to this movie because it would have been much better on its own. However, it is still amazing which is why it is #8 on my list of top 9 Barbie movies.

This movie is incredibly interesting because it is unlike any other movie on this list. This film follows Barbie in high school as she navigates her friendships, her crush who just so happens to be her enemy’s on-and-off boyfriend, and her struggle to land the position of anchor on her school news channel. In a twist of fate, Barbie finds that the mystical bracelet she bought unlocks a special diary where anything she writes happens in real life. She struggles to stay true to herself amidst a strong desire for popularity but ultimately learns that friendship is more important than popularity.

This movie is very modeled after early 2000s teen dramas, and is most likely named after the popular “The Princess Diaries”, a classic favorite of mine that I used to watch with my grandmother. I really liked this aspect of introducing new genres of movies past the classic Barbie magic themes, though this movie does include some form of magic. I would always watch this movie thinking that Barbie was so cool and grown up; while all Barbie movies depict Barbie and her friends as young adults, none of them show her in a setting like high school or college as this movie does. I distinctly remember thinking high school looked so fun with the lockers, the lawn for people to study on, and the clubs the characters were involved in. Barbie’s friend, Tia, runs for class president in this movie and I thought it was so cool; by the time I graduated high school I was class treasurer for four years!

The drama in this movie was also more mature than other Barbie animated films, centering around friendship drama as Barbie betrays her friends and abandons them in order to hang out with the popular crowd. This type of drama is very relatable to me and my experiences in middle school and watching this as a kid introduced me to the idea of what it means to be a loyal friend. There is also plenty of drama surrounding Raquel, Barbie’s enemy, who lands the anchor position Barbie wanted and then torments Barbie, who became her assistant, by forcing her to do pointless tasks. Raquel, as previously mentioned, also dated Barbie’s crush, Todd, and would rub it in at every opportunity. Honestly, as a kid, the infatuation Barbie had with Todd made me uncomfortable because that is my cousin’s name. Nonetheless, the aspects of teen dramas with football players, friendship drama, and school dances was a perfect transition from more childish movies to the types of movies I enjoy now (though I do love to rewatch childhood movies).

There are also many creative aspects to this movie that really stuck with me as a child. For instance, when Barbie loses her magic bracelet and her friends try to make her feel better, they make her a bracelet out of a broken guitar string, as they are all in a band together. For some reason I always wanted to have a guitar string bracelet after this movie. Barbie, being the innovator she is, also creates a lip gloss highlighter- a lip gloss that is disguised as a classroom tool so she could touch up her looks without it getting confiscated. While Raquel ends up getting Barbie in trouble for this scheme, I always thought Barbie was so creative for this and would try to recreate her looks.

This film being ranked #9 in no way means it’s bad. it’s a very enjoyable watch but does lack some of the childhood magic of the other movies on this list. I enjoy rewatching it from time to time but the animation is different from the other Barbie movies and is less aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. The storyline is also fairly simple, with no real plot twists other than finding out that the secret admirer notes Barbie received throughout the movie were not from Todd- they were actually from her best friend Kevin. For these reasons, I place this movie at a solid #9 spot on my list of Top 9 Animated Barbie movies.

There are a lot of things that I’m passionate about and that I’d like to share with the world, and yet this is a bit difficult for me to come up with. I have some ideas:

Idea 1:  Taylor Swift Albums: Since there are about 10-12 passion blog posts (I’m not actually sure the number) and there are ten Taylor Swift albums (not including re-records), this would be a good option for me as a Swiftie. I could go through each album and highlight the best and worst songs on the album, the overall vibe, the context of the album, and the impact on her career and the music industry. This could help go through all of the stages of her career as she has risen to become one of the most successful musicians of all time. This is also something I feel I could write a lot about since I have been listening to her music since her debut.

Idea 2: Women’s Reproductive Rights: This one is a bit more serious than my first idea but still something I’m passionate about. I have done a lot of research in the past about reproductive rights, especially following the overturn of Roe v Wade, and could use this space as a platform to share my knowledge on these topics- including abortion access, bans, restrictions, birth control, and more. I am also enrolled in a Women and Gender Studies class this semester so I could use information from that class as well to enhance my understanding. While this is a more controversial topic depending on who you’re talking to, it is still something I feel I could talk a lot about and create a lot of valuable content on, which is the purpose of these assignments.

Idea 3: Barbie Movie Reviews: This one is also very unserious, but growing up I loved animated Barbie films and continue to watch them as comfort movies to this day. A lot of them still contain important messages, funny one-liners, and some of the best music. My sister and I reference these movies all the time and this is actually a very widespread experience among Gen Z. I think these posts would be very relatable and nostalgic and would allow me to delve into my childhood experiences. I think as a college freshman this would be refreshing and could be a good opportunity for me to use my knowledge on this topic for something actually useful!