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(More customer reviews)I should have known when I saw this was a follow on from Fairytopia that I would be disappointed. This is the story of Elina, who in the movie Fairytopia saved her country of Fairytopia and gained her wings. In this she is sent an urgent message from the Prince of Mermaidia (who briefly appeared in Fairytopia) who asks for her to help him. The movie is full of the trials and tribulations she goes through for him, along with his girlfriend Nori. I expect it is deliberate they have named the Mermaid heroine after Japanese Edible seaweed but it seems ill-considered.
Anyway - the good things about the movie, it is brightly coloured, and the costumes for the characters are gorgeous, when Elina becomes a mermaid she looks just stunning. There are really nice messages in this - about overcoming jealousy, selflessness, sharing and the power of team work. Some of these messages are laid on with a trowel, but on the other hand it is for young children and I think the message needs to be strong. And lets get real here, the movies aren't aimed at adults. However I thinksome of hte best movies are those that can easily be watched by Adults and children together - and the best Barbie movie (I think) was Princess and the Pauper where I still find it easy to sit down with my kids and watch it. I wish Barbie movies would get back to that sort of good, singing fun.
the things I found difficult is that although there was a strong basic story (getting the immunity berry) the whole thing was quite confusing for my under 5 year olds. There is so much going on that they quickly lost track of what was happening and who was who. There were too many characters and they all seemed to have marketing tie-ins - lots of mer-ferry's, snails, mermaids, turtles, dolphins - the list went on and on. The overall story which seemed to start it all seemed a weak concept from the start. Some of the characters faces were too animated. In the early Barbie movies there still seemed to be a semblance of reality, but the merferries and so on did seem oddly characterised, almost like Japanese Anime. Perhaps it is something children like, but I prefer the traditional animation, certainly the mix of the two was unsettling at times. Lastly, there is a moment when Elina and Nori get marks of courage which look like tatoos - call me conservative, but I don't want my under 5 year old even thinking a tatoo is cool - no matter what form it takes.
There were some genuinely good moments in this film and despite its faults my children have watched it a couple of times, but it doesn't really interest them in the way that the early dancing ones (swan lake for instance or Princess and the Pauper) I really hope the next movie planned is one of these sort.
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