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The Barbie Diaries
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Wikipedia article
'The Barbie Diaries' is a 2006 computer-animated family film directed by Eric Fogel (the director of My Scene films), featuring Mattel's character Barbie. It first premiered on Nickelodeon on April 30, 2006, and it was later released to DVD on May 9.
It is the eighth entry in the 'Barbie' film series featuring the voice of Kelly Sheridan as Barbie, and Skye Sweetnam as the singing voice of Barbie. Produced by Curious Pictures, this is the last Barbie film distributed by Lionsgate in the United States and Canada. This is the first film in the franchise not to be produced by Rainmaker.
Plot
In "The Barbie Diaries," 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. 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 Todd, 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 that 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
* Kelly Sheridan as Barbie Roberts
* Skye Sweetnam as Barbie Roberts (singing voice)
* Sarah Edmondson as Courtney, a Japanese-American girl and one of Barbie's friends.
* Venus Terzo as Tia, an African-American girl and one of Barbie's friends.
* Matt Hill as Kevin, a nerd and Barbie's boyfriend.
* Chiara Zanni as Raquelle, the mean girl.
* Maryke Hendrikse as Reagan, Raquelle's sidekick.
* Anna Cummer as Dawn, an Asian girl and Raquelle's sidekick.
* Andrew Francis as Todd
* Heather Doerksen as Stephanie
Soundtrack
A soundtrack album for this movie was released on May 9, 2006. It is sold along with the DVD on Walmart. It contains five songs. However, "This Is Me" which is the movie's main theme song is not featured in this album. Versions of "Girl Most Likely To" and "Real Life" that are featured in this album are sung by different artists instead of Skye Sweetnam like the movie version, which makes none of the songs recorded by Sweetnam are included in this album.
Track listing
This Is Me
"This Is Me" is an uptempo pop rock song which is the opening track to 'The Barbie Diaries'. It is played in the beginning of the movie which features the opening credits. It lasts for three minutes and forty-two seconds. It is written by Amy Powers, Michle Vice-Maslin and Dorian Cheah. Its courtesy goes to Capitol Records. It has a music video which is included as a bonus feature in 'The Barbie Diaries' DVD. The music video features different scenes. Some scenes show Barbie, Tia and Courtney from the movie's opening credits. Other scenes feature Skye Sweetnam in her recording sessions for the song and footage of her performing live on stage during her concerts.
Other songs featured in the movie
"This Is Me" (performed by Skye Sweetnam)"Girl Most Likely To" (movie version) (performed by Skye Sweetnam)
"Real Life" (end credits) (performed by Skye Sweetnam)
"Note to Self" (performed by Skye Sweetnam)
"Where You Belong" (performed by Huckapoo) (originally from the Disney Channel original series 'That's So Raven')
"I Don't Wanna Sleep" (performed by Deanna DellaCioppa)
Promotion
'Charmz' were an Australian four-piece girl band put together by Mattel and Shock Records to promote 'The Barbie Diaries',Moreland Leader, 27 November 2006, "Young singer has Charmz-ed start" leveraging on Barbie being in a band, Charmz.The Courier-Mail, 10 June 2006, "Video audition that worked like a charm"
The group were developed through a singing contest for 8 to 14-year-old girls,Herald Sun, 25 April 2006, "Join the Barbie queue" who had to send in a video of themselves singing.The Gold Coast Bulletin, 12 September 2006, "Plucky charmz" by Jennifer Robinson The four winners, out of around 500 entrants,The Southern Star, 25 October 2006, "Girl band uses all their Charmz for fame" by Belinda Barry were 13-year-olds, Gianna Dalla-Vecchia, Paris Maggs and Lauren Stowe, and 14-year-old, Shannon Cordes.
Charmz members were taken to a recording studio in Sydney,Sunday Telegraph, 18 June 2006, "Girls gain sudden taste of stardom" by Andrew Chesterton where they were mentored by Ricki-Lee Coulter, a former 'Australian Idol' contestant.Northern Territory News/Sunday Territorian, 7 May 2006, "Calling all teen pop star wannabes by Paul Jackson Their self-titled album was released on 28 October 2006. It contains cover versions of tracks by Coulter, Robbie Williams, Bananarama,Diamond Valley Leader, 29 November 2006, "First album out" Gwen Stefani, The Mamas and the Papas, and Hilary and Haylie Duff.
The album's single, "This Is Me", is a cover version of the original by Skye Sweetnam (the voice of Barbie in the film) and was written by Dorian Cheah, Amy Powers and Michele Vice. Note: For additional work user may have to select 'Search again' and then 'Enter a title:' &/or 'Performer:' Charmz' rendition was issued ahead of the album on 31 July 2006, which peaked at No. 57 on the ARIA singles chart.
Discography
*'Charmz' (28 October 2006) Shock/MattelMornington Peninsular Leader, 26 December 2006, "Charmz, by Charmz" by Carla Bergmeier*"This Is Me" (31 July 2006) Shock/Mattel (SPIKE010)
See also
*Lists of animated feature films
References
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