Brit Canuck
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'Barbie & The Three Musketeers' (Holy passata-sotto! It doesn't suck!)
Since I had a coupon from my local video store, I decided to give this a try. I expected something fairly childish, cheesy and silly - but I was pleasantly surprised by how much work went into this animated toy franchise-booster.
The title doll's animated alter ego plays Corrine, yet another Musketeer's daughter who sets out for Paris to seek membership in that swashbuckling boys-only club. Along the way, she meets three female friends who share the same dream. Trained in secret by a female royal janitor, they hone their skills (including, but not limited to, fencing) to perfection, infiltrate a Royal masquarade ball and save the Prince from a dastardly plot to take the throne.
This is one of those animated movies that made extensive use of live motion capture, in which human actors go through the same moves as the animated characters, to help animators capture the various moves down to a tee. (Think Gollum from the 'Lord of the Rings' series without the attitude.) In fact, 'Highlander: The Series' swordmaster F. Braun MacAsh is listed in the credits as a fencing/motion consultant.
And splurging a little bit on the budget and getting veteran Musketeer bad-guy Tim Curry (Disney's pick for Cardinal Richelieu in 1993) to voice the villain also helped. On the subject of voices, Mark Hildreth ('Young Blades') plays the prince.
There's also no denying the fact that this is a family movie. After the blood-soaked 'Doomsday' and 'Underworld: Rise of the Lycans', this viewer-friendly remake makes a nice change. And since this will probably be the only new Musketeer movie on the shelf until the rumored new live-action 3D remake hopefully gets off the ground in 2011, you might as well check it out, just for laughs.
This new 'Musketeers' is a bit cheesy in places, with a couple of cherry songs added in, and it is a bit modernized, too (who says 'Ditto!' in 18th Century France?). And the movie is marketed with your wallet in mind (there's an interactive plush cat sold seperately, based on Barbie's furry sidekick Miette, who can interact with the DVD at times - depending on your budget, try not to let the kids find out). But this swashbuckling Barbie and her friends are definately worth checking out at least once. And the kids will love this movie, too.
Recommended.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_and_the_Three_Musketeers
Official Website
http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/activities/fantasy/princess/musketeers
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9/21/2009, 1:50 am
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drace68
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Registered: 07-2006
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Re: 'Barbie & The Three Musketeers' (Holy passata-sotto! It doesn't suck!)
H'mmm.
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9/21/2009, 8:19 am
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