Although I had a couple Barbie dolls as a child, I was never a Barbie fan. However, as a mother of 2 girls (7 yo and 5 yo), the appeal of Barbie and the Barbie world drew me in as my girls enjoyed the dolls, movies, and books. But I never really enjoyed any of the story lines that featured Barbie; they were too cloyingly sweet, lacked imagination and originality, and just cranked out the same plot premise with a different name and different wardrobe.
But "Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse" proved to be completely different! My 5 yo selected this on Netflix and I also tried to persuade her to choose something else, but ended up really enjoying the show. The characters have a greater dimension than all the superficial "friends" on Barbie movies; in the show, they have preferences and personality. I love that Ken is a build-it-fixer-upper, that Skipper has teen angst, that Midge is old-fashioned, and that Raquelle wants to upstage Barbie but ends up feeling the brunt of bad karma. And the humor is in the snappy quips and comebacks and situations, like when Ken attempts to figure out what his job is but eventually discovers his job is to be Barbie's boyfriend; well, duh, all us girls know that! LOL The humor combines both slapstick and satire, making it a show that little kids and "grown up" kids can enjoy. Reminds me really of how Looney Toons were like, except the grown up sarcasm has become more contemporary. And it is apparent that this is a show that is poking fun of itself and not meant to be taken seriously. You have to realize that Barbie is fantasy and they are dolls that use life-size lip glosses and make up applicators. If anything, these episodes would be closer to the slapdash type of madhouse doll playing I did with my friends as a kid; nonsense and a lot of jokes. :-) My daughters get the humor, I found it incredibly funny, and even my husband was caught laughing at the jokes----which says A LOT since he can't stand two minutes of the regular Barbie movies. LOL I ended up recommending this show to my girlfriend who has a 1-yo daughter, and she is hooked now too. :-)
But "Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse" proved to be completely different! My 5 yo selected this on Netflix and I also tried to persuade her to choose something else, but ended up really enjoying the show. The characters have a greater dimension than all the superficial "friends" on Barbie movies; in the show, they have preferences and personality. I love that Ken is a build-it-fixer-upper, that Skipper has teen angst, that Midge is old-fashioned, and that Raquelle wants to upstage Barbie but ends up feeling the brunt of bad karma. And the humor is in the snappy quips and comebacks and situations, like when Ken attempts to figure out what his job is but eventually discovers his job is to be Barbie's boyfriend; well, duh, all us girls know that! LOL The humor combines both slapstick and satire, making it a show that little kids and "grown up" kids can enjoy. Reminds me really of how Looney Toons were like, except the grown up sarcasm has become more contemporary. And it is apparent that this is a show that is poking fun of itself and not meant to be taken seriously. You have to realize that Barbie is fantasy and they are dolls that use life-size lip glosses and make up applicators. If anything, these episodes would be closer to the slapdash type of madhouse doll playing I did with my friends as a kid; nonsense and a lot of jokes. :-) My daughters get the humor, I found it incredibly funny, and even my husband was caught laughing at the jokes----which says A LOT since he can't stand two minutes of the regular Barbie movies. LOL I ended up recommending this show to my girlfriend who has a 1-yo daughter, and she is hooked now too. :-)