Everyone and I mean everyone has done a take on A Christmas Carol. It’s perhaps the most adapted Christmas story and why not, it’s an easy setup. Take a character that is popular and plop them in the Scrooge role. And that is kinda what we get with the Barbie take. You see until some of the more recent Barbie movies, Barbie was not playing herself but a stand-in for a character in a story and sometimes that’d be a story she was telling one of her younger sisters such as the case with the Barbie Christmas Carol as this is a story she told her then youngest sister, Kelly.
Note, even though this is a novelization of a Barbie movie, I have not yet watched it and this book was my introduction to Barbie’s take on A Christmas Carol and it was fine. It follows the formula that one would expect while having a Barbie flair. Also, I must point out that this ad at the end of the book is a lie.
It claims Barbie is starring in her first ever holiday movie yet the very first CGI Barbie movie was Barbie in the Nutcracker
I find that a little annoying as kids aren’t that dumb to not realize that there had already been a Barbie holiday movie even if there was no wraparound.
Cover
The cover feels a bit basic with Barbie/Eden Starling standing in a circle with Christmassy designs behind her. I think they’d have been better off just using the art from the DVD cover.
That’s pretty and actually screams Christmas and I love the touch of the ornaments featuring the characters.
The Plot
I have read many various takes on A Christmas Carol and while this one isn’t bad it is one of the most that feels the most childish. And yes I know this is a children’s franchise but the message here is restructured to teach Kelly a lesson about selflness. This isn’t a bad idea per se considering how Scrooge has been described as stingy after all there is a musical adaption called The Stingiest Man in Town.
Still, there is so much more to Scrooge and how tragic he is considering how hard his life was. We do get an idea of that here as the Scrooge stand-in, Eden Starling is a big opera star that has so many people working underneath her and she has a big show coming up and it seems as though she’s willing to fire everyone if they don’t show up for her show on Christmas day and spend time with their families. Yeah, we see during the stint with Christmas Present that Starling isn’t exactly well-liked as we see her troupe throwing tomatoes at posters of her.
Oh and perhaps not important but Starling has a cat which is common in Barbie movies to give the character an animal sidekick. There are a couple of interesting ideas in this take of the Dickens classic including making the Marley character the aunt of the Scrooge character who wanted her niece to learn from her mistakes.
I actually like this idea and it reminds me of the moment when Scrooge’s sister tells him that father is so much kinder these days. The way the ghosts are handled is fine and overall okay except for what they did with The Ghost of Christmas Future, she talks. This is often a mistake, this final ghost should be silent as a way to further instill fear within the Scrooge character as Present is often the first person to provide comfort to the Scrooge character, and Yet to Come/Future not talking should be a way of showing what it is like when that comfort is taken away. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is the only time I’ve seen this idea of the Ghost of Christmas Future talking work because of how chilling it is here though, it feels more like the ghost nudging Starling in that she must face her fears. I don’t know I just don’t think that works as this ghost should instill fear.
The Bob Crachit character here is instead a childhood friend of Starling’s and Tiny Tim is replaced by an orphanage. This change felt kinda cliche and I get the idea of what they’re going for as it does the same effect somewhat but with Tiny Tim, the audience is able to get more engaged in him and feel sad when see his grave whereas with the orphans we are told they’ll most likely become urchins, that just doesn’t have the same effect.
Oh and one other weird change that caught me off guard is that Nephew Fred is reimagined as a magician working at the same theater as Starling and has a crush on the Cratchit character, Catherine. It’s cute but took me until writing this review to realize that.
My Final Thoughts
This was okay and perhaps the movie would be better as I know I’m missing some aspects from having only read the novelization as music is often a big part of Barbie movies and not having heard the songs I know I’m not getting the full picture. Overall, this was an okay take on my favorite Christmas story. We aren’t done with Barbie or book versions of Barbie Christmas movies yet as we look at the picture book…
Barbie: A Perfect Christmas
About Author
I was more aware of the other two Barbie Christmas movies since my Sister watched them but I’m not surprised they would do A Christmas Carol. From the sounds of this one though, they probably could have been more creative with it.
They certainly could have. It’s not bad but it feels lacking in areas. I’ll be covering the other two Barbie Christmas movies as well.
I like the idea of making Fred’s equivalent a magician, but that’s personal bias.
Sounds like they took the easy approach with this adaptation, which is kind of disappointing. Yes, A Christmas Carol is such a popular story to adapt to new media and franchises because of the template, but you still have to put some effort into it to make your telling somewhat unique. You can’t just do a basic cut and replace of characters and setting and expect it to resonate with an audience.
I ended up watching the movie while on Thanksgiving break and it’s honestly the weakest of the three Barbie Christmas movies. They make some interesting choices like how Catherine acts similarly to Eden in the future segment as the latter to the former and for some unknown reason the Ghost of Christmas Past is a fan girl of Eden and it got really annoying really fast. It’s not bad but the other Christmas movies are better.