Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase Blu-ray Movie Review

Barking up a less-pink tree.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 23, 2016

Apparently the combination of Barbie and puppies is a winning formula for Mattel. Last year, the studio released Barbie & Her Sisters in the Great Puppy Rescue, which also came alongside a companion video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems that "challenged" players to rescue puppies around town, bring them back to health by removing fleas, brushing teeth, and other menial tasks and thereafter preparing them for a new home by training them to traverse obstacle courses or perform various tricks. The girls, and the puppies, are back in Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase, a film that once again features the four-legged cuddly cuties on an amazing island full of wonder, a little bit of peril, and a few life lessons along the way.

Barbie (voiced by Erica Lindbeck), Skipper (voiced by Kazumi Evans), Chelsea (voiced by Alyssya Swales), and Stacie (voiced by Claire Corlett) are joined by their puppies DJ (voiced by Taylor Dianne Robinson), Honey (voiced by Amelia Shoichet-Stoll), Taffy (voiced by Chelsea Miller), and Rookie (voiced by Bronwen Holmes). They have flown into a tropical island where Chelsea is set to partake in a dance competition. She's a bit worried. She needs to get back to the hotel to practice, but things keep interfering, like the girls' inability to cram all their luggage on their rental golf cart and a stop at a horse dancing show. But things get turned upside down when the puppies go missing and it's up to the girls to find their favorite furry friends and still make sure Chelsea get to her dance competition on time and ready to go.

The movie is Barbie through and through, well, mostly, anyway. The movie's island jungle setting doesn't allow for the hardcore onslaught of pink and purple that usually define these films. It's instead forced to settle for pink accents...everywhere. Pink stripes on an airplane, pink luggage, pink saddles, pink couch cushions, a pink mystery substance in a blender, pink vests and clothing lines, pink headphones...the list goes on and on. It's a nice change of pace in a movie that's otherwise essentially the same basic formula as all the others: the girls adventure, come across new and exciting people, learn a bit about themselves and the world around them, and so on and so forth, all to the beat of a sugary-pop soundtrack. It's essentially the same movie as most any of the others, just with some of the details reworked to fit this particular narrative string that's supported by all of the basic thematic currents that run through the series.

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase arrives on Blu-ray with a transfer that's very reminiscent of pretty much every other Barbie movie released to the format in the past few years, with the exception of, as noted above, the overflow of pink. Colors are still fairly loud, not very rich or nuanced but broader splashes of pink, natural green, shades of puppy brown, and other assorted hues present with a nice bit of punch and vigor. Details are fine, limited by the source's fairly pedestrian horsepower. Basic roadway textures, tree trunks, leaves, puppy fur, clothes, and support details leave much to the imagination, but basic shape, lines, and raw textures are fine. Hints of aliasing and touches of banding are evident throughout, but never to a distracting, and certainly not debilitating, extent.

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's appropriately spunky in all the right places. Music presents with quality width across the front and wrap into the back. Balance is impressive as the back channels carry enough information to catch the listeners' attention but not overwhelm the senses. The low end is never throaty or deep but there's enough of a hint of support to give the music a nice kick in the pants and ensure a rich and full-bodied presentation. Some environmental atmospherics are nicely immersive as well. A nighttime camping trip around the 22-minute mark features a healthy dollop of light environmental din, while pouring rain and booming thunder minutes later are carried through the stage with a nicely natural sense of place and realism. A few heavier action-oriented effects enjoy proper balance and positioning. Dialogue is clear and focused in the front-center, and unbalanced prioritization is never a concern.

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase contains two Chelsea shorts, bloopers, and a music video. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy are included with purchase.

• Music Video (1080p, 2:57): "Live in the Moment." This is the same song that plays on loop over the main menu.
• Bloopers (1080p, 2:01): Less a traditional blooper reel and more collection of "funny moments."
• Barbie Dreamtopia: "Wispy Forest" (1080p, 6:21): Chelsea has a bad hair day in the Wispy Forest.
• Barbie Dreamtopia: "Rainbow Cove" (1080p, 6:14): Chelsea helps find a magic stone that brings color to Rainbow Cove.

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Barbie & Her Sisters in a Puppy Chase certainly doesn't reinvent the Barbie movie wheel, which is, at this point, a well-oiled and highly efficient machine churning out the same movie with different superficialities. It's casual fun and should satisfy its younger demographic. Universal's Blu-ray release is likewise fairly standard for the series, delivering good video and audio along with a few brief extras.