Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2
Surf’s up for Barbie as she returns as Merliah, the enjoyable and fashionable surfing champion who’s also a magical mermaid princess! In this exciting sea-quel, Merliah makes a splash when she heads to Australia for the ultimate surfing competition. When the evil mermaid Eris escapes from her whirlpool with plans to take over the throne of Oceana, MerliahT and her sea friends dive in to cease her. It’s a fresh new adventure exactly where MerliahT learns that anything at all is possible and she really can have the greatest of both worlds!
List Price tag: $ 19.98
Cost: $ 7.95
Another Great Barbie Tale,
Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 begins where the last one left off – Merliah is now a princess mermaid and her mother continues to rule Oceania.
Merliah wants to continue to be a teen and enjoy surf competitions while being human. But her mother wants her to transition into princess duties. It causes problems between mother and daughter as a big and important mermaid event approaches (Ceremony of the Tides – where the ruler’s ability to make the magic merillia and heal the oceans is renewed). Meanwhile, Merliah’s evil Aunt Eris has found the key to escaping her prison by using Merliah’s human surfing competitor Kylie Morgan’s jealousy against her. A new character, an angelfish named Allister, assists Eris’ escape.
Barbie/Merliah grapples with issues of identity, responsibility, and being a gracious winner and loser in her surf competitions. As with most Barbie movies, she’ll turn Raquelle (Kylie)’s jealousy from a destructive force into a positive friendship. And that friendship will be the key to Merliah accomplishing her goals and saving Oceania. It will also make Kylie a better person and help her reach her aspirations as well. There’s a great message that bullying doesn’t get you anywhere but that friendships transcend what any one person can accomplish alone.
In all, there are a lot of interesting characters this time and a lot of action – my 8 year old was entranced as she rooted for Merliah to arrive in time to prevent Eris from taking over her mother’s kingdom. Especially fun are the band of bad guys – moray eels with a little electricity to boot (fun scene from the movie!). Also nice is that the dolls for the movie are inexpensive and all have speaking parts in the series – it makes play acting fun with so many characters to choose from.
Those who have enjoyed previous Barbie movies will be glad to hear that Kelly Sheridan is back voicing Barbie.
The barbie movies are always a great price and have a lot of replay value for the little ones. The two Mermaid Tales are some of the best stories in the Barbie movie series.
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|Mermaid Tale 2…Pretty Cool,
This sequel to 2010′s Mermaid tale continues to develop the story around the conflict between Merliah’s human and mermaid heritages. As with any such conflict, Merliah’s ultimate happiness depends on her ability to reconcile both in her life.
I personally thought this movie was better than the first one. As a parent, I really liked the messages about working together, forgiveness, overcoming adversity, learning to accept yourself and find joy when your life faces dramatic changes, facing your fears, and especially that there are more important things in life than winning. I especially liked the closing scenes because of the message that some things are more important than beating the competition and that life can honestly feel a lot better if we allow other people to share in our successes. As a fan of the Barbie movies in general, I was thrilled that Kelly Sheridan voiced Merliah. For me the voice artist change wasn’t a deal breaker, but I definitely prefer Ms. Sheridan as the voice of Barbie. And, my daughter also really liked this movie.
There continued to be an emphasis on celebrity that I’m concerned about as a parent, though I was happy to see that while there was some commercialism in this movie, it wasn’t as over the top as it has been in some of the recent Barbie movies. Though, on that note, the preview for Fall’s Barbie movie, Princess and the Popstar, has me thinking that the Barbie line is going to continue it’s emphasis on celebrity, which isn’t thrilling. I also am concerned that this seems to be a reworking of the Princess and the Pauper concept, which I thought they did so well the first time that they ought to just leave it alone. But that is the next movie…For Mermaid Tale 2, I would definitely recommend this movie.
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|Surfers, Skate Boarders and Barbie Fans Will Adore This,
The main characters are strong girls and women who support each other in friendship and in athletic competition. Portrays active girls who are self-assured and comfortable with themselves. Contains many positive messages; life isn’t a competition, true worth isn’t measured in comparison to others, risking everything to do what is right, and that it is really special being a part of something bigger. The characters wrestle with many social and emotional issues, such as: belonging, responsibility, good sportsmanship, friendship and forgiveness. The characters are mostly girls and women, many in leadership roles, such as ruling kingdoms, ambassador positions, marketing executives and athletes. The women are determined, strong willed and loyal, while simultaneously working together to save the ocean and support each other’s personal needs. Very linear, not confusing, simple story line.
Here is what on of our youth critics had to say: This movie is great for surfers, skate boarders and Barbie fans. Malia is half human and half mermaid. She enjoys both her water world and human world. There are times that she has to choose which world is more important to her. She’s very competitive in her human world and sometimes forgets her obligations to her water world. Malia is in surfing competition in her human world and does not want to go to her water world for an important ceremony. Her mom is very sad because she choose the human world over the water world on this important day. Malia has an evil aunt who was put into the wind tunnel because she’s bad. The evil aunt somehow tricks her competitor, “Kylie” to help her out of the wind tunnel. This puts the water world into harm’s way. The aunt then traps Kylie in the wind tunnel. Malia senses that there is something bad happening to the water world. She swims into the ocean to look for her mom. While she’s looking for her mom, she sees that Kylie is trapped in the wind tunnel. Malia helps Kylie out of the wind tunnel and gives up her secret to save Kylie. After this rescue, Malia and Kylie join forces to help the water world from the evil aunt. There is a lot of excitement with all the twists and turns, Malia and Kylie have a hard time fighting her evil aunt and her electric fish. At the end, Malia has to make a decision to be a human or mermaid to save the water world from evil. There are a lot of funny lines from the sea animals and I laughed a lot. This movie shows us how competition is good and bad. If we focus too much on winning, we tend to do the wrong thing to win. This is why we need to look into our skills and what we can do to improve what we have, rather than focus on our competitor and what they have. If you have a good heart and follow what your heart tells you to do, you will do the right thing. The music is very upbeat and the story line is very easy to follow. The surfing tricks are awesome. I give this movie 4 star out of 5 and recommend this for kids ages four to ten. This is Cheyenne Nguyen (age 8) reporting for KIDS FIRST!
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