Rating: 
Summary: 5 Star Movie
Review: My 3 yr old received this as a gift for her birthday, and it's been her favorite so far. We've seen it around 20 times in the past month and neither one of us are tired of it yet. It's a simply delightful movie.
Kelsey Grammar is the voice of Rothbar, the villian. He does a few scary things, like turn the heroine Odette into a swan, but for the most part, I wouldn't describe it as a scary movie at all. We now own the other Barbie movies as well (Rapunzel and Nutcracker) and this is the least scary of the three.
In the dvd version, you can select "More Fun" from the menu, and then select dancing scenes. Barbie narrates as it shows clips from the movie where there's featured ballet dancing. My 3 yr old loves to dance along, and even tries to incorporate the head movements. It's really cute, and has gotten her excited about dancing lessons.
Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: The Ugly Sister of the Barbie Trilogy
Review: My daughter gets excited every year when another of these Barbie movies comes out, and until now she had good reason. I thought the Nutcracker was excellent, and we all enjoyed Rapunzel as a worthy sequel. However, Swan Lake is certainly the ugly sister of this trio. Kelsey Grammer's performance is so bad, I think he may have tried to disguise his voice; I wasn't sure it was him until I read the credits at the end. Maybe he changed his mind but they wouldn't let him out of his contract, I don't know. But its not just him that drags this film down. The other movies were able to avoid what I call the "California meets the Classics" linguistic disorder by filling in supporting roles with commonwealth-accented players. Swan Lake discarded this important precedent, and it sounds like the cast was all chosen from the San Fernando Valley. I guess it doesn't matter, as this will be amongst my daughter's Christmas presents in any event. But this movie is definitely a stinker; one that this parent will allow his daughter to watch alone.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: My two girls ages 7 and 2 both adore this movie. My two year old has been putting this movie in the VCR every single day for a week now (that is also how long we've had it) and I'm not even tired of watching it. We also have Barbie Nutcracker, and they have seen Rapunzel, but this is their favorite of all 3 movies. The costumes are stunning, special effects, all the pink glitter magic and the luminous fairy queen are absolute eye candy! Which is in part what makes the movie so wonderful. The computer graphics and animation are very well done. The story line - was well executed. Odette, Barbie, the heroine, finds bravery within herself which ultimately defeats Rothbart, the evil sorcerer and saves the Enchanted Forest. How many girls dream of discovering such a magical fairy world which lies hidden behind a waterfall ... We all love the ballet in the movie, such beautiful coreography, we wish there was a little more of it, but it was all balanced out with everything else going on in the story. The music is so wonderful too, consequently, I'll also be looking for an instrumental CD of swan lake. The little animal friends turn into elves/fairies at sunset (just as Odette turns into a swan) and the porcupine (Ivan - Tommy) and the skunk ("the lovely Carlita" - Kelley with Black Hair) are just a hoot and their dance numbers are an absolute joy to watch, we just want to join them in the fun! I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to all young girls (even grownup ones!) who love Barbie, fairies and magic.
Rating:
Summary: STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: People are fighting each other in the streets. Terrorists are all over the globe. And the craziness is caused by: Barbie of Swan Lake. I was practically gagging when I saw this mess of a movie. NOT WORTH YOUR TIME!!! BARBIE MUST ...!!
Rating:
Summary: animated introduction to the classics
Review: There are times, in a series of films, that the third movie proves to be a better sequel than the second. "Barbie of Swan Lake" is one such movie. It picks up where the first movie, "Barbie in the Nutcracker" left off, in that it introduces young children to the timeless beauty of classical music married to classical ballet. All that, in a story they can easily understand. The movie found fans, not only in my ballet-crazy four year old daughter and me (I love animated features!), but in my almost eight year old son as well, who enjoyed the buildup and the suspense that came at the climax of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely adaptation of the Tchaikovsky classic ballet...
Review: This film is not just for young Barbie fans. It is also for their moms - particularly moms like me who grew up admiring Tchaikovsky's beautiful "Swan Lake" ballet. I saw it performed by the Royal Ballet in London as a teenager and have been enraptured with the story eversince. I purchased this DVD for my 3 year old daughter for us to watch and enjoy together. My daughter loves it because of the sweet story, playful characters, the dances and, of course, for Barbie! What I enjoyed about this movie is how it captures the spirit of the ballet. Any decent adaptation of "Swan Lake" needs to incorporate Tchaikovsky's music into the story and this movie does just that. Add to this the lovely ballet that the characters perform and a plot that stays fairly true to the original (albeit minor changes to make it more G or PG-ish). In this case, Odette becomes lost in the Enchanted Forest and is captured and transformed into a swan by the evil Rothbart. The fairy queen helps her by changing the spell so that she becomes a swan by day but transforms back to her old self at night. While wandering the forest the Prince Daniel meets and falls in love with Odette but only through courage and strength can Odette find a way to defeat Rothbart and break the spell. This is a lovely story that any young girl (and her mother) would enjoy. The CGI is splendid and the movie is filled with beautiful scenes and landscapes. The dance sequences are lovely and are lifted almost directly from Tchaikovsky's ballet and the music, of course, is wonderfully incorporated into the film. Highly recommended for Barbie, Swan Lake or young ballet fans, their sisters and their moms!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good
Review: This movie was much better then I expected it to be! I was quite surprised. I thought that the Barbie movies were meant to appeal to smaller children, but I guess that's because I'd never actually sat down and watched one. I found the characters to be very entertaining! Lila was a bit humorous with her smart aleck attitude, and the sorcerer's daughter was quite annoying! I mean my last comment in a good way, since you're supposed to hate the bad guys. The animation was beautiful, to say the least. The enchanted forest resembled a land that one could only imagine with its colorfulness, and magic. The story wasn't completely action-packed, but was enough to inspire me. My sudden liking of magic thanks to this movie was the reason I started reading Zenda, a fantastic book series about a pre-teen girl with unique powers. The original story Swan Lake was altered in this movie, but that just makes it more original.
Overall, I would say that if you like Barbie, or slightly simpler forms of magic, you will enjoy this movie. I would not recommend this movie to those looking for mature, or slightly complicated fantasy movies more on the PG-but-almost-PG13 level.
Rating:
Summary: Great for animation lovers, too...
Review: Yes, I will admit, despite being in my 20s, I still enjoy and collect animation. I have for years, and Barbie is a fairly recent discovery for me (beyond her cameos in Toy Story). While at first I was reluctant to give any of the Barbie movies a chance, a friend of mine watched Rapunzel with her niece and insisted they were pretty good. So, renting the first two movies with a few other friends including her, we prepared ourselves for an evening of amusement. Yes, we found some things funny and still carry inside jokes based on the movies even many months after, however overall I liked them. And Swan Lake is certainly no exception. In fact, I loved this one. The animation is very well done, and the music is just enchanting. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over. It was like I was a kid again, watching my favorite film and going back to relive the feelings years later. It even made me regret I didn't stick to those ballet lessons my mother sent me to years ago, as the dance scenes were adorable and magical. Barbie was in my life once again, only this time, I wasn't playing with dolls. The only thing that really, truly bothered me about Swan Lake was that of Rothbart's daughter. Her laughter was incredibly irritating and distracted me from any scene in which she chose to do so. Thankfully Ivan and the other enchanted forest dwellers are a delight and make up for it. In closing, I highly recommend this to any parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or whoever looking for a great gift (holiday or otherwise) for a child. And perhaps even for an animation fan such as myself, if you aren't too afraid.
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