Barbie - A Mermaid Tale 720p - (2010 Lang: English)

Lovely Vivid Barbie Story as we know them

Barbie stars as Merliah, a surfing champion from Malibu. One minute she's a normal teenager and the next she learns a shocking family secret: she's a mermaid! Merliah and her dolphin friend Zuma set off on an undersea adventure to rescue her mother, the queen of Oceana. With help from her new mermaid friends, Merliah saves the ocean kingdom. In the end, she discovers what makes you different can also be your greatest strength.

Barbie in A Mermaid Tale is a 2010 computer animated direct-to-video movie and part of the Barbie film series. This is the first modern Barbie movie. It was released on March 9, 2010. This film is followed by a 2012 sequel, Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2.

I have made no secret of liking the Barbie movies, they are not perfect and none of among my favourite movies, but they are cute and have a sense of fun. A Mermaid Tale is no exception. The animation is really lovely, beautiful colours and gorgeous underwater sequences, and the music is catchy. The dialogue has its corny parts but is generally sweet and has its heart in the right place, the story is on the clichéd and rushed side but again it means well and is charmingly told and the characters while not much different from characters in other Barbie movies are still likable, especially Merliah's cute little friends. The voice work is still going strong, with Kelly Sheridan continuing to grow and very engaging throughout. All in all, not one of my favourite Barbie movies, but very nice all the same.

Merliah Summers is an avid surfer in Malibu. While participating in a surfing competition, Merliah loses concentration when her hair spontaneously streaks pink, and wipes out. While underwater, she discovers that she can breathe in water, and is approached by pink-purple dolphin named Zuma, who wants to talk to her.

Merliah tells Break, her grandfather, of the incident. Break explains that Merliah's mother is a mermaid, and that Merliah was given to Break as a baby to raise because she was born with legs. Merliah doesn't believe him and goes to her friends Fallon and Hadley, telling them the story.

Zuma appears to the girls, confirming that Merliah is half-mermaid. Zuma explains to Merliah that her mother is Calissa, previous queen of the underwater kingdom of Oceana. Oceana's current queen is Eris, Calissa's sister, who is a tyrant and took the throne when Calissa went missing years earlier. Zuma hopes that Merliah will claim her birthright and usurp Eris. Merliah refuses, and in her anger throws the necklace she'd been wearing since she was an infant. The smashed pendant reveals a magical image of Calissa, confirming that she is alive. Merliah agrees to go to Oceana in the hopes that Calissa can make Merliah normal again.

With Zuma as her guide, Merliah arrives in Oceana and meets Zuma's mermaid friends, Kayla and Xylie. Kayla and Xylie give Merliah an outfit to hide her legs, and together they visit the Destinies, three mermaids with prophetic powers. The Destinies tell Merliah that she needs to collect three items in order to succeed in overthrowing Eris: the Celestial Comb, a Dreamfish and Eris' protective necklace. The group search for the items, occasionally calling Fallon and Hadley for help with research. They find the Celestial Comb in an underwater cave and the Dreamfish in the Adenato currents.

In order to obtain Eris' necklace, Merliah, Kayla and Xylie approach Eris, performing a song and dance to distract her long enough for Merliah to grab Eris' necklace, but soon has her mermaid tail pulled off, revealing her legs. In a rage, Eris creates a whirlpool to banish Merliah to the deepest depths of the ocean. While inside the whirlpool, Merliah calls the Dreamfish for help. The Dreamfish offers to grant Merliah's deepest wish and send her back to Malibu and erase her mermaid half for good. Merliah rejects the wish and accepts her responsibility as princess of Oceana. Due to this, Merliah is given a real mermaid tail, which she uses to escape the whirlpool herself. Merliah reveals her identity to the people of Oceana, proving her identity by brandishing the Celestial Comb. Eris rushes Merliah, and after a chase Merliah is able to lure Eris into the whirlpool. Eris is trapped and sent into the deepest depths of the ocean.

Merliah finds and sets Calissa free. Calissa is queen again, and makes Oceana healthy once more. In the aftermath, Merliah confesses that she misses her life as a human, and Calissa gives her a magical necklace that enables her to be a human or mermaid whenever she wishes. Merliah then returns to land, where she is reunited with her grandfather and wins the surfing competition.

So we meet Barbie here in a new design or at least..her looks changed a bit..In some ways an improvement, in others (like the part she looks a bit like she's crossed-eyed or something) there are some parts to become better..Though... we were prepared, already in Barbie thumbelina you can see a change of graphics, and in Barbie and the three musketeers they're nicely preparing you for Barbie's changes. The graphics and animations overall were outstanding. The colors are really vivid and underwater are used all different kinds of blue.

*There is a tiny possibility that one may find the following information a spoiler, though personally I see it more as objective nothing revealing about the storyline review*

Of Course Kelly Sheridan has provided her voice to Barbie, here Merliah. The story is a bit cliché, but hey, its Barbie, it would be interesting when the story is Not a cliché. Barbie movies always are in some ways inspired by other already existing stories, here you could find some Disneys Second Movie about The Little Mermaid parts. Nevertheless I really enjoyed watching the movie, the music is nice with the catchy 'Queen of the Waves'song. Of course also this time Barbie is accompanied with some cute talking friends, a pink dolphin and a little seal.

I loved how the mermaid world is worked out with the malls, the mermaids and the high level of fashion you may not expect under water with something so in-practical as a long tail.

I thought the movie was really nice, also for older people...I'm 17..the story contains nice parts, I watched with my little girl-next-door of 6 years old and she totally loved it.

At last I have to say that I liked the little pun in the title choosing for Barbie in Mermaid tale instead of Story because one pronounces tale in the same way as tail ..and let the whole thing be that Barbie goes Mermaid here :)