She’s the doll who can be anything, and over the years Barbie’s played a lot of different characters. Here’s the 13 best Barbie animated films, ranked.
This article originally appeared in Film Stories issue #43 in July 2023
She’s a busy girl in a Barbie world, and the Mattel queen has racked up a total of 40 movies to date. Even before she takes a turn with Ryan Gosling, Barbie has had enough adventures to earn her a lifetime prescription for Xanax. From singing elephants to fake British accents, here are the best 13 Barbie films to watch before Greta Gerwig’s live-action feature hits cinemas.
13. Barbie In A Fashion Fairytale
By 2010, it seemed as though Barbie was trying to ride the waves of success rival brand Bratz was experiencing, with their multiple styles of animation honing in on a fashion focus. Mattel’s solution? Releasing Barbie In A Fashion Fairytale – a flick where Barbie heads to Paris to help save her aunt’s fledgling fashion brand. It’s one of the first times that Barbie bites back, kicking off her journey by questioning a film director’s creative choices, which gets her fired. It’s not the most ingenious IP, but it doesn’t need to be. There’s nostalgic pop hits, an avant-garde elder on roller skates, and a poodle that takes to the runway in a tutu, which is plenty on its own.
12. Barbie Princess Charm School
Once described as a “fabulous mess” by some of its fans, it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the etiquette-led chaos of Barbie Princess Charm School. It’s Gossip Girl meets the type of novel your mother would have wanted you to read as a kid because that’s what she grew up with. Villain Dame Devlin is accurately terrifying, with artistic shots of her zoomed-in sneer almost making up for the terribly lifeless background figures featured in group scenes. For some reason, there are fairies in this class-based metropolis, with the 2011 release era dating Barbie as a true Serena van der Woodsen (even though her character is called Blair).
11. Barbie & The Diamond Castle
Clocking in as Barbie’s 13th IMDb movie credit, Barbie & The Diamond Castle signifies her indie era. The film centres around Liana and Alexa, who are two sisters that have a love of music. Not only does this mean the wannabe Miley and Noah Cyrus are strapped to their lutes, but their counterpart heartthrobs are also not without a song or two. It’s easy to imagine real-life sisters trying to copy the weirdly flamboyant dance routine set in their garden, with the pair’s strangely agile dogs also on hand to shake a tail(feather). Think fever dream, but throw in plenty of background Easter eggs to dissect – including tavern punters who like throwing fists.
10. Barbie & The Three Musketeers
One for all, and all for Barbie cartwheeling to avoid being stabbed! It’s not much of a surprise that Barbie stars as D’Artagnan – looking to follow in her dad’s footsteps to become a Musketeer. There are no links to anything even vaguely French, but there is a fantastic rendition of EMF’s Unbelievable to help boost the gang’s self-esteem. While she takes on the balls and the bad guys, Barbie’s horse talks back to her – which is probably something Alexandre Dumas never had in his creative vision. Also featured is a sweet running joke about her cat becoming a “Mus-cat-teer” and plenty of gymnastics that defy Newton’s laws of physics.
9. Barbie: Fairytopia
If you’ve ever seen memes of a strange creature that doesn’t look like it resembles any type of living animal, it’s from Barbie: Fairytopia. The first film on our list that arguably capitalises on the core Barbie narrative, she plays Elina, who learns that one of Fairytopia’s guardians has been kidnapped. Though that plot perhaps sets her up for a heist with Broadchurch levels of suspense, the film’s slick 70-minute runtime is more like Vera if she took too much Night Nurse before bed. Aforementioned sidekick Bibble is easily the star of the show, which sadly cannot be said about the animated facial expressions (though the setting is particularly stunning).
8. Barbie In A Christmas Carol
It wouldn’t be a comprehensive Barbie list if there wasn’t a festive spin-off to include! Mightily taking on the famed works of Charles Dickens, Barbie turns Ebenezer Scrooge into singing diva Eden Starling, who’s blissfully hated by the peasants she’s surrounded by. Phoney British accents are as abundant as presents under the tree, with one character from Eden’s past bravely striding toward something resembling Scottish. The ghosts are cheerfully akin to Dame Barbara Windsor in Carry On Camping, and could possibly have been improved even further with an additional appearance from Kenneth Williams. It might be better than the Muppet version for campiness alone.
7. Barbie As The Island Princess
For fans who like the chaos in their Barbie films with a capital C, Barbie As The Island Princess proudly scratches the itch. The 2007 film follows Barbie as Ro, an orphan who’s taken under the wing of two animals, much like The Jungle Book. What Walt Disney’s hit didn’t include is an elephant with incredibly human eyes, who can somehow sing as well as ride on a boat without it sinking. Of course, Barbie’s American accent never changes, while animal sidekicks range from red pandas to domestic mice, never making us sure where we actually are in the world. Even so, it’s all annoyingly good fun – last one to watch is a rotten papaya!
6. Barbie & The Magic Of Pegasus
Barbie has likely never had a more trustworthy – and potentially profitable – sidekick than her purple, magical horse Pegasus. It’s the first original princess story that Mattel decided to use and, although it’s no Cinderella, Barbie & The Magic Of Pegasus isn’t all that bad. For one, it gives us the adorable polar bear Shiver, whose adoring eyes are enough to make any frazzled mother spend big bucks on merchandise. The villain looks strangely like Anatasia’s Rasputin, which possibly explains why Barbie’s Princess Annika is the sassiest hero she’s ever been.
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5. Barbie In The 12 Dancing Princesses
Barbie has never really had to share the limelight, but fighting off eleven physically capable sisters is no threat for her film character Genevieve. The supporting cast and love interests are actually funny, doubling down on their entertainment value with slick moves that rival any Bridgerton banquet. Derek’s (seriously?) talking parrot Felix is the British sidekick with quick quips that every narrative needs, while the banter between footman Desmond and Duchess Rowena is guffaw-worthy enough to rival a panto sketch. The monkey doesn’t make too much sense here, but we’ll allow it.
4. Barbie As Rapunzel
Kicking off the four film horsemen of the Barbie apocalypse, Barbie As Rapunzel is the reason why adult women still want to wear her costumes. As expected, it follows the classic fairytale, except the prologue includes an extremely grating little sister who’s ripe for being locked in a tower. The animal sidekicks are downright ugly and once again bear human features, but each is the perfect accoutrement for villain Gothel, who looks as though she’s stepped out of a rotary steam iron. How Mattel convinced Anjelica Huston to voice her we don’t know, but her level of kitsch overacting is ideal for the film’s unnecessarily heightened drama.
3. Barbie Of Swan Lake
Though it’s not her best balletic outing, Barbie Of Swan Lake is a walking meme of a movie. Barbie’s chase with a unicorn is a particular highlight – not only showcasing her terrible run but highlighting a four-legged sidekick with a Sven-like personality. The 2003 animation makes the film’s mythical figures the stuff of nightmares, though Barbie is of course never phased, being much too preoccupied with nailing her bombastic side-eye. It’s a film you want to lovingly ridicule and will have glorious amounts of fun doing so. The noses featured are particularly dazzling here.
2. Barbie As The Princess And The Pauper
As far as Barbie films go, this 2004 release is almost as good as it gets. You’ll possibly recognise the I Am A Girl Like You musical number from its recent revival on TikTok, and in a cinematic context, it’s just as catchy as you’d hope. Barbie as Princess Anneliese is hitting her ultimate stride of heroine glamour, whilst her dual role as brunette pauper Erika weirdly gives her some sort of acting gravitas. The rest of the cast is voiced by actual celebrities like Martin Short, tapping into their fantastical roles like they are more than purely paying the bills. It can’t even be laughed at – it’s just genuinely very good.
1. Barbie In The Nutcracker
Unlike Barbie’s outing as a princess and a pauper, her time with The Nutcracker is so terrible, it becomes a veritable masterpiece. The dancing – 2001-quality – pixels are highly entertaining in their own physics-warping way, with the toy soldier’s cossack moves guaranteed to be emblazoned into your eyeballs for years. There’s a rat king who talks, plenty of nightmarish characters who resemble something left in an Adobe Creative Cloud trash can, and Barbie gives it all the seriousness of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Frankly, it’s a mystery that there was never any Oscar buzz.
