The Barbie Diaries

Last updated
The Barbie Diaries
The Barbie Diaries poster.jpg
DVD cover
Directed by
  • Eric Fogel (film)
  • Kallan Kagan (voice)
Written by Elise Allen
Lauren McCreary
Produced by
  • Kallan Kagan
  • Rob Hudnut (executive)
Starring
Edited byBryan Shelton
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byNorth America
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Overseas
Universal Pictures Video
UK and Ireland
Right Entertainment
Release dates
  • April 30, 2006 (2006-04-30)(Nickelodeon) [1]
  • May 9, 2006 (2006-05-09)(DVD)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Barbie Diaries is a 2006 animated motion capture teen drama film directed by Eric Fogel and written by Elise Allen and Laura McCreary which premiered on Nickelodeon [1] and then on DVD. [2]

Contents

The eighth entry in the Barbie film series, it features Kelly Sheridan as the talking vocal provider for Barbie and Skye Sweetnam as her singing vocals. The only Barbie film produced by Curious Pictures and thus the only film in the first decade of the Barbie film franchise not to be produced by Mainframe Entertainment (currently Mainframe Studios), this is also the last Barbie film to be originally distributed by Lionsgate in the United States and Canada, as Universal Studios (now Universal Pictures), who already released the films overseas with international distributor Entertainment Rights, was set to take over the home video distribution rights from the next film, Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses . [2]

Plot

In this film, Barbie is portrayed as a typical American teenager who is a sophomore in high school who encounters the problems that real-life teens often encounter: making new friends, dating, gossip and getting involved in school activities. She always gets beaten in everything by Raquelle, a snobby girl who used to be her best friend in fifth grade. On the first day of school, she attempts to become anchorwoman for the school TV station but Raquelle beats her to it. Instead, she becomes Raquelle's personal assistant, buying her drinks and doing her work.

When Raquelle dumps her boyfriend Todd, on whom Barbie has a crush, he and Barbie begin hanging out together and soon become a couple. Todd asks Barbie to the Fall Formal. Thrilled, Barbie, as well as her best friends Tia and Courtney, rush to buy a dress when they discover that Raquelle and Todd are together again. The mysterious woman at the counter, whose name is Stephanie, gives them advice and offers them some charm bracelets for free. Barbie's happens to come with a diary which she writes her hopes in.

Soon after, what she wrote starts to mysteriously come true. Someone leaves her love notes and her band, Charmz, gets a gig at the school dance that Barbie was previously invited to. Next, Barbie decides to do a piece on popular kids and "What Makes Them Popular." She soon starts to neglect her friends and the story is quite mean. She even skips Tia's class-president election to hang out with Reagan and Dawn, Raquelle's friends. She starts skipping band practice and spends hours talking to them on the phone and hanging out with them. Barbie realizes that her hopes written in the diary came true and rushes to the mall to ask Stephanie about it. To her shock, it is revealed that the woman never worked there and apparently does not exist.

Tia and Courtney discover that it is Kevin who has been leaving Barbie the love notes, not Todd. They pressure him to tell her, but he refuses. Dawn and Reagan find out that Barbie only befriended them because of her story and stop hanging out with her. They tell Raquelle. Soon, Raquelle steals Barbie's magic bracelet. Tia and Courtney watch footage of the story, and they discover that Barbie has told them a secret about Tia. They confront her and let her know that they no longer want to be friends with her. The night of the story, Barbie apologizes to her friends and chooses to instead showcase Kevin's film clips depicting a paperclip chain attacking his eBook. Out of shame, Barbie refuses to go to the dance. On the night of the dance, her friends arrive and tell her that she has to perform with them, giving her the dress that they put on hold for her at the mall.

Still worried as she has no bracelet, Kevin takes one of his guitar strings and loops it around her wrist. Barbie points out that it is a "stupid piece of bent metal" until she realizes that is what her bracelet was. The girls rock the concert with Courtney finally able to do a drum stick maneuver that she couldn't do before. While dancing with Todd she asks him about the notes in her locker but he denies knowing about any notes. Confused, Barbie thinks back to other people who were in the places the notes had said. Realizing that it was Kevin all along, Barbie leaves in the middle of the dance and goes over to Kevin. Kevin gives her back the charm bracelet that he found on the ground. She apologizes for never realizing, but points out that the bizarre rhyming in the notes was a giveaway. The two dance together and become a couple. At the end, Barbie and Kevin watch a movie while eating ziti as Kevin asked.

Cast

Soundtrack

The Barbie Diaries (Movie Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedMay 9, 2006
Genre Pop rock
Label Capitol

The film's eponymous soundtrack album was released on the same date as the film itself. Containing 5 songs and excluding the film's theme song, "This Is Me", it is sold along with the DVD on Walmart. The songs "Girl Most Likely To" and "Real Life" were sung by different artists for the album instead of Skye Sweetnam whose versions were featured in the film.

Track list

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Invisible" (performed by Kesha) Martin Briley and Chris Pelcer 3:16
2."Girl Most Likely To" (performed by Dana Calitri)Nina Ossoff, Kathy Sommer and Dana Calitri3:53
3."Feels Like Love" (performed by Tabitha Fair)Martin Briley, Russ DeSalvo and Dana Calitri3:57
4."Real Life" (performed by Lucy Woodward)Martin Briley, Russ DeSalvo and Dana Calitri3:31
5."Fate Finds a Way" (performed by Elanya)Michael Sakolir3:27

This Is Me

"This Is Me"
Song by Skye Sweetnam
Released2006
Genre Pop punk
Length3:42
Label Capitol
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Dorian Cheah

"This Is Me" is a pop punk song and the film's opening track sung by Skye Sweetnam, written by Dorian Cheah, Amy Powers and Michèle Vice-Maslin and distributed by Capitol Records. [3] [lower-alpha 1] . [4] Played during the film's opening credits, its accompanying music video which was included as a bonus feature in film's DVD release features the opening credits scenes depicting Barbie, Tia and Courtney playing their instruments and performing interwoven with footages of Skye Sweetnam during her recording sessions for the song and her live stage concert performances.

Other Songs

Promotion and Charmz

To promote the release of the film, Mattel teamed up with Australian record label, Shock Records, to put together a local 4-piece girl band under the name Charmz [5] in the likeness of Barbie's eponymous in-film band [6] through a singing contest for girls aged 8 to 14. [7]

The aspiring girls of around 500 entrants had to send in a video of themselves singing [8] of which 4 would plucked out from. [9] The 4 plucked out were Gianna Dalla-Vecchia, Paris Maggs, Lauren Stowe (all aged 13 at the time) and 14-year-old Shannon Cordes. [10]

The 4 winners, now under the Charmz name, were taken to a recording studio in Sydney, [11] where they were mentored by former Australian Idol contestant, Ricki-Lee Coulter. [12] Their self-titled album was released on 28 October 2006. [13] It contains cover versions of tracks by Coulter, Robbie Williams, Bananarama, [14] Gwen Stefani, The Mamas and the Papas and Hilary and Haylie Duff. [9] [15]

The rendition of "This Is Me" by Charmz was issued ahead of the album on 31 July 2006, which peaked at No. 57 on the ARIA singles chart. [10] [5] [16]

Discography

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ For additional work user may have to select 'Search again' and then 'Enter a title:' &/or 'Performer:'

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbie</span> Fashion doll brand by Mattel

Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll which Handler had purchased while in Europe. The figurehead of an eponymous brand that includes a range of fashion dolls and accessories, Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. The brand has expanded into a multimedia franchise since 1984, including video games, computer-animated films, television/web series, and a live-action film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skye Sweetnam</span> Canadian singer (born 1988)

Skye Alexandra Sweetnam is a Canadian rock and metal singer. She first entered the music industry in 2003 with the release of her debut single "Billy S." More than a year later, her debut studio album, Noise from the Basement, was released along with the singles "Tangled Up in Me" and "Number One". Sweetnam is also known for her singing work as Barbie in The Barbie Diaries. In 2006, she was nominated for a Juno Award for New Artist of the Year. Her second studio album, Sound Soldier, was released in 2007. She is currently the lead singer of the band Sumo Cyco; upon joining the band, she took the stage name Sever.

<i>Noise from the Basement</i> 2004 studio album by Skye Sweetnam

Noise from the Basement is the debut album by Canadian singer-songwriter Skye Sweetnam, released on September 21, 2004 by Capitol Records. It debuted and peaked at number 124 on the Billboard 200 and number 15 on the Oricon Album Charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skipper (Barbie)</span> Doll manufactured by Mattel

Skipper Roberts is a doll created by Mattel in 1964 to be Barbie's young sister. Since 2009, she has a purple streak in her hair and is shown to have a tech-savvy personality. According to her fictional biography, Skipper calls herself a gadget girl who likes computers and trying out the latest technology. In the Barbie films, she likes to work on her photo blog. She had a starring role in the 2023 television film, Barbie: Skipper and the Big Babysitting Adventure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Scene</span> Fashion doll series

My Scene was an American series of fashion dolls that Mattel released in 2002. They were discontinued in the US in 2008, and worldwide in 2011. Mattel's Barbie character was one of the dolls in the toy line. The My Scene dolls' bodies were slim, similar to earlier Barbie dolls, but their heads were larger. The New York Times described their features as "exaggerated lips and bulging, makeup-caked eyes." My Scene were designed to appeal to the tween market and compete with the Bratz dolls from MGA Entertainment.

<i>Barbie: Fairytopia</i> 2005 Barbie fantasy film

Barbie: Fairytopia is a 2005 computer-animated fantasy film directed by Walter P. Martishius and William Lau and written by Elise Allen and Diane Duane. The film premiered on Nickelodeon on March 6, 2005, and was released on VHS and DVD two days later. It was distributed internationally through Universal Pictures Video and Entertainment Rights.

Diva Starz was a series of talking fashion dolls created and released by Mattel in October 2000. They are similar in design to MGA's Bratz and Tiger Electronics' Furby. Alexa, Nikki, Summer—later replaced by Miranda—and Tia were offered in the original debut. Originally produced as robotic dolls, Mattel would also release miniature and fashion doll versions in response to their initial success. The line was discontinued in 2004.

<i>Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses</i> 2006 film by Greg Richardson

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses is a 2006 animated dance film. It premiered on Nickelodeon on September 10, 2006, and it was later released to DVD on September 19.

<i>Barbie & the Diamond Castle</i> 2008 Canadian film

Barbie & the Diamond Castle is a 2008 direct-to-video animated musical film directed by Gino Nichele and produced by Mattel Entertainment with Rainmaker Entertainment. It first premiered on Nickelodeon on September 7, 2008, and it was later released to DVD on September 9, 2008.

<i>Barbie</i> (media franchise) Multimedia franchise featuring Barbie

Beginning with the release of an eponymous video game in 1984, Barbie, a fashion doll manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and debuted on March 9, 1959, has been featured in a media franchise predominantly consisting of a film series and media formats across technologies like television and the Internet. Since then, it has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time and has been referred to among fans as the "Barbie Cinematic Universe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbie Girl</span> 1997 single by Aqua

"Barbie Girl" is a song by Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua. It was released in April 1997 by Universal and MCA as the third single from the group's debut studio album, Aquarium (1997). The song was written by band members Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif, and Lene Nystrøm, and was produced by the former two alongside Johnny Jam and Delgado. It was written after Rasted saw an exhibit on kitsch culture in Denmark that featured Barbie dolls. The accompanying music video was directed by Danish directors Peder Pedersen and Peter Stenbæk.

Teresa is a Mattel fashion doll who is marketed as one of Barbie's fictional friends. Teresa debuted in the "California Dream Teresa" doll in 1988 and since then, she has been Barbie's most frequently featured female companion in the toy line. As of 2006, Teresa has been one of Barbie's core friends in the Barbie brand along with Summer, Nikki and Raquelle.

Charmz were an Australian four-piece girl band. They were put together by Mattel and Shock Records to promote a motion capture film, The Barbie Diaries, which features Barbie in a band, Charmz. The group were developed through a singing contest for 8- to 14-year-old girls, who had to send in a video of themselves singing. The four winners, out of around 500 entrants, were 13-year-olds, Gianna Dalla-Vecchia, Paris Maggs and Lauren Stowe, and 14-year-old, Shannon Cordes.

<i>Barbie: A Fairy Secret</i> 2011 American film

Barbie: A Fairy Secret is a 2011 computer-animated fantasy film directed by William Lau. Produced by Mattel Entertainment and Litton Entertainment in association with Rainmaker Entertainment. It was first released on DVD on March 15, 2011, and made its television premiere on Nickelodeon on April 17, 2011. The nineteenth entry in the Barbie film series, it features the voices of Diana Kaarina, who reprised her role as Barbie, and Adrian Petriw as Ken. The plot has a shared universe with Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale, where Barbie must team up with her frenemy Raquelle to save Ken from marrying a fairy princess and being trapped in a fairy world forever. This is the first Barbie film to be created by Litton Entertainment.

Nicole "Nikki" Watkins is a Mattel fashion doll, marketed as one of Barbie's best friends in 2006. debuted in 1996 as part of the "Teen Skipper" line. Nikki was originally released as Skipper's first African American friend in 1996 as part of the "Teen Skipper" line and as the younger sister of Christie, one of Barbie's best friends. Since 2006, Nikki Watkins has replaced Christie as one of Barbie's friends. Nikki Watkins debuted as one of Barbie's best friends in the Glam Beach Line and later in Fashion Fever Line. Since then, Nikki has been featured in several Barbie doll series.

<i>Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse</i> Computer-animated shorts series

Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is an American web series of CGI-animated shorts produced by Arc Productions and Mattel. The series was released on YouTube and the official Barbie website from May 11, 2012 to November 27, 2015.

<i>Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams</i> 2021 Barbie television film

Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams is a 2021 animated musical adventure buddy film directed by Scott Pleydell-Pearce, produced by Emory Ronald "Ron" Myrick and written by Christopher Keenan and Catherine "Kate" Splaine.

References

  1. 1 2 "TV listings". Albuquerque Journal . Nwespapers.com by Ancestry.com. 29 April 2006. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 Netherby, Jennifer (13 April 2006). "U enters the Barbie biz". Variety . Penske Media Corporation . Retrieved 25 April 2022. The studio is taking over distributing Barbie DVDs from Lionsgate Entertainment, which ended its five-year partnership with Mattel last month.
  3. ↑ "'This Is Me' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "ACE Repertory – ISWC T0729434234". ASCAP . Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  5. 1 2 Moreland Leader, 27 November 2006, "Young singer has Charmz-ed start"
  6. ↑ The Courier-Mail, 10 June 2006, "Video audition that worked like a charm"
  7. ↑ Herald Sun, 25 April 2006, "Join the Barbie queue"
  8. ↑ The Gold Coast Bulletin, 12 September 2006, "Plucky charmz" by Jennifer Robinson
  9. 1 2 The Southern Star, 25 October 2006, "Girl band uses all their Charmz for fame" by Belinda Barry
  10. 1 2 Wallace, Ian (9 October 2006). "Week Commencing ~ 7th August 2006 ~ Issue #857" (PDF). The ARIA Report. ARIA (857): 2–3, 8, 12, 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  11. ↑ Sunday Telegraph, 18 June 2006, "Girls gain sudden taste of stardom" by Andrew Chesterton
  12. ↑ Northern Territory News/Sunday Territorian, 7 May 2006, "Calling all teen pop star wannabes by Paul Jackson
  13. ↑ "New Australasian Releases". ARIA. 1 October 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  14. ↑ Diamond Valley Leader, 29 November 2006, "First album out"
  15. ↑ Charmz (2006). "Charmz". Mattel, Shock Records . Shock Records . Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  16. ↑ Wallace, Ian (9 October 2006). "Week Commencing ~ 9th October 2006 ~ Issue #866" (PDF). The ARIA Report . ARIA (866): 4, 13, 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  17. ↑ Mornington Peninsular Leader, 26 December 2006, "Charmz, by Charmz" by Carla Bergmeier
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.