6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In this magical, musical adventure, Barbie stars as Alexa, a shy princess who would rather read than perform her royal duties. While walking through the royal garden, Alexa discovers a secret door in her kingdom, much like the one in the book she was reading! She steps through the door and enters a whimsical land filled with magical creatures and surprises. Alexa meets Romy and Nori, a mermaid and a fairy, who explain that a spoiled ruler named Malucia is trying to take all the magic in the land. To her surprise, Alexa has magical powers in this world, and her new friends are certain that only she can restore magic to their land. Discover what happens when Alexa finds the courage to stand up for what’s right and learns that the power of friendship is far more precious than magic.
Starring: Kelly Sheridan, Brittany McDonald, Ashleigh Ball, Chanelle Peloso, Tabitha St. GermainFamily | 100% |
Animation | 78% |
Fantasy | 42% |
Adventure | 37% |
Musical | 26% |
Music | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS 2.0
Spanish: DTS 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The world's favorite series featuring perfectly proportioned, prim and proper, and pristinely pictured plastic playthings returns for an all-new movie in Barbie and the Secret Door, a movie in which the title character is nowhere to be found but who is instead replaced by the generic "Princess Alexa" (voiced by Kelly Sheridan) who is whisked away to a fairy tale kingdom where, what else, evil threatens to ruin all that's good in the land. It's basic girl-centric animated stuff, never straying from routine and failing to really capture the imagination of anyone outside the target audience. Yet it makes sense to take a timeless franchise and build around it a timeless sort of story, a basic "outsider saves the day" variety with life lessons, cheery characters, bright colors, and family-safe action and themes dominating the experience.
This movie redefines "Reading Rainbow."
Barbie and the Secret Door opens up on Blu-ray with a good and abundantly colorful 1080p presentation. Universal's presentation is occasionally soft, but it does all it can to capture the available image definition with a robustness befitting the imagery. There are some quality skin and clothing details evident in close-up shots that give a little more texture and life over the somewhat flat and plastic look that dominates. Image clarity allows all of the shapely and lively background objects to enjoy strong definition throughout. Colors are wildly varied and heavy on the shades of pink and purple. They're complex but not so nuanced as to dazzle, many but not so varied as to redefine color output on Blu-ray. It's certainly a cheery presentation that's the equivalent to sugary eye candy. Black levels are of a high enough quality, but the image does suffer through some minor bouts of unsightly aliasing. Overall, however, this is a solid presentation that suits the material well and should dazzle younger viewers, just as intended.
Barbie and the Secret Door features a fairly robust and active DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Musical numbers and score alike play large, with a wide-open soundstage that fills the fronts and emits strongly from the rears. Whether sugary pop or princess pomp and circumstance, there's no shortage of enjoyably robust musical elements everywhere in the movie. The track finds some decent background ambience in places but never creates a sonic environment quite so rich as it does create a detailed visual world. The track enjoys a fair number of hefty, well defined action effects, particularly throughout the third act. Dialogue is delivered in a straightforward, clear manner through the center channel.
Barbie and the Secret Door contains several kid-friendly extras. In the case is a DVD copy of the film and a UV/iTunes digital copy voucher.
Barbie and the Secret Door may not offer novel storytelling or richly developed characters, but it's found its way to a nice middle ground of digital competency where the blend of mid-grade animation, cheery colors galore, and good voice performances (not to mention a number of feel-good, toe-tapping Pop numbers) will please younger audiences and mask the various shortcomings that exist throughout. Parents might slink away when the kiddos are fully engaged, but those young ones should enjoy it well enough. Universal's Blu-ray release of Barbie and the Secret Door features solid 1080p video, active lossless audio, and a few family-friendly supplements. Recommended for the target audience.
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