You might be asking yourself at this point, “Is she really trying to argue that a film about a purple pegasus and sky kingdoms actually has some of the strongest gender commentary in children’s entertainment?” Well, yes, I am. Wenlock is cartoonish at times, too, and makes many cringe-worthy puns. Granted, he’s not up against very steep competition – because these films are aimed at children, the villains are often cartoonish and not overly threatening. I love Preminger, but Wenlock might just be the best Barbie villain.

Good heavens, I could talk for pages and pages about Wenlock. Luckily, however, their growing romance is not played for plot convenience, even though there’s a moment – one of the items needed for the Wand of Light is a “ring of love” – that makes you think it’s going in that direction.Īnd then there’s Wenlock. But Annika and Aidan crackle on-screen they have far and away the most sexual tension of any Barbie couple, to the point where it kind of makes me uncomfortable. Their feelings for one another are believable, whether that’s the initial irritation and bickering or the romantic attraction – and that’s not an easy task to pull off, given that the film has about an hour to show you how these two go from grudging allies to lovers. While my favorite Barbie romances are the ones in The Princess and the Pauper, Annika and Aidan have probably the best romance that you see play out on screen (from the point of the “first meeting” to the “we are in love” bit) – at least out of the six films this far.

This is just an action-packed 85-minute journey with excellent visuals, music, and characters, and I think it’s so underrated, even within the Barbie fandom. Where Princess and the Pauper excels as a musical, Magic of Pegasus excels as an adventure film. Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, Mattel’s second 2005 release after Fairytopia, follows in the footsteps of The Princess and the Pauper by having way more brains than you would ever expect from the synopsis.

But making a case for a Barbie film with a flying horse, a cloud kingdom, and a MacGuffin called a “Wand of Light” – not only making a case for it, but calling it one of the top three Barbie films? That’s crazy talk.īut that is exactly what I’m going to do here. Making a case for a Barbie movie is never easy, what with the girly, shallow stereotypes that most people associate with the brand.

Barbie magic of the pegasus characters