Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

The movie felt rushed at times. We've been binge-watching Barbie movies. The latest, Barbie and Chelsea The Lost Birthday lacked substance and didn't really bring anything new to the brand. This was an incredible movie, in the Barbie lineup. Very strong characters even in the beginning of the movie, I wasn't sure if the characters would change much. I was pleasantly surprised to see each character grow as a person. Loved it! Now how do I watch this in 3D?

My 5 year old daughter is very into the Barbie series of movies. I've had mixed feelings about that - not wanting her to buy into the whole Barbie-doll image of things, and recognizing that the movies are a marketing ploy to convince young girls to buy more dolls and make more money for Mattel. This morning though she asked me to watch this movie with her, and - it being a lazy Saturday morning and with not much else to do - I agreed. I don't know if the movies have been made to help market the dolls, which seem to be losing their appeal a bit from what I've heard or if the dolls are there to market the movies (or, more likely, a bit of both) but whichever is the case, I have to admit - somewhat to my surprise, this wasn't half bad.

It's a fun and imaginative story full of magical places and people and memorable characters (both good and evil.) Essentially, Annika ("played" by Barbie) has to find a way to build a "wand of light" to reverse the evil spells of the wizard Wenlock, who among other things has turned her sister into a flying horse and her parents into stone. The animation here was pretty good - not Disney-calibre (if one thinks of Disney as the standard to aspire to) but generally pretty good, and while the movie is obviously tailored to young girls rather than middle-aged men, I still found there were enough twists and turns to make me wonder how it was all going to turn out. It's true that there were some holes in the story, or at least some logical inconsistencies, but again one must remember the target audience, who wouldn't really think of such things. This is an all around decent family movie. 7/10

This films is literally my childhood and I loved rewatching it , such a good plot and great fun ! When I was kid I lost the 3D glasses though .

Normally I try to avoid Barbie films, but this one was unmistakably awesome. Kudos to the graphics and character voice overs. It all flowed well. This enchanting tale is a great spin off of others, but is well worth buying! I don't have kids, but the kids I babysit, (including boys) find it intriguing and love the extra features on the DVD. I honestly don't know why this is rated so low, but for kids, especially your Barbie lovin' 8 year old will love this. Its not straight forward and predictive like most movies are. This "childrens" film has excellent morals and shows teamwork. It has no swearing, bits of romance (if your old enough to figure it out) and beautifully written storyline. Thats why I am giving it a ten out of ten!

I do get pleasure of the Barbie movies, they are not masterpieces but they are not movies to be scorned at either, at least in my view. And I really enjoyed Magic of Pegasus, just as much as Nutcracker, Diamond Castle and Prince and the Pauper. The dialogue is at times corny, and I did feel some scenes like Wenlock at the beginning felt rushed. However, the story itself is very imaginative and cute with an excellent moral, the characters(though Aidan may take some getting used to) are engaging with Annika a likable heroine, Pegasus adorable and Wenlock one of the better Barbie movie villains and the music is great, classical music enthusiasts will love snippets of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. The voice work is solid, and the animation is really beautiful especially in the ice-skating sequences. All in all, one of the better Barbie movies. 8/10 Bethany Cox