#childhoodobsessions | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

adultwithoutsupervision · 3 years

Text

Barbie Princess and the Pauper

I want to talk about what might be the greatest movie ever created: Barbie the Princess and the Pauper. I’ve been in love with this movie since I was three years old, aka when it came out, as you can propably tell. Beware that spoilers are below.

Barbie movies tend to get a lot of shit in the media, mostly for not being inclusive seeing as the characters generally are white and thin, and I don’t mean to invalidate those issues because I do see them. However, in this ’essay’ I want to tell the story of why they, especially the princess and the pauper, are still such amazing and nurturing stories. I’ll focus on what parts I think makes it such a story and perhaps you’ll find ways to incorporate them into your own stories, or at the very least be inspired by them.

In case there is anyone who hasn’t seen the movie I’ll summarize it;

Barbie is Princess Anneliese, only child of the Queen to a kingdom who is running out of money. Their main income has always been there gold mines but they have secretly been emptied by the Queen’s advisor, Preminger, as he wants to force the Queen to marry him (so that he will be king) to gain access to his immense wealth (the gold from the mines). The Queen choses to arrange a marriage between Anneliese and a neighbouring rich King, Dominick, instead. Erika on the other hand is a poor seamstress who dreams of being a singer but is stuck paying of a loan that her parents took from an evil dressshop owner. Both her and Anneliese are driven by their sense of duty and when they by chance meet and realize that they’re identical except for their haircolours and a birthmark they instantly become friends. Before Anneliese and Dominick can meet, Preminger kidnaps Anneliese and makes it look as if she has run away to avoid the marriage. Erika pretends to be Anneliese in order to keep the proposal available and thus save the kingdom while Julian, the man Anneliese actually wants to marry, tries to find her. As you’ve probably figured it eventually ends well with Preminger imprisoned and the arranged marriage called off. During her capture, Anneliese is held in the mines for sometime and realize that the stones in it are actaully jewels so they don’t need Dominick’s money anymore and she can marry Julian instead.

Now, as for why this is an amazing story:

• The friendship between Anneliese and Erika. When they first meet Erika is singing in the street as she tries to earn money to pay off her debt, Anneliese gives her a bit off money and they start talking. They are both shocked when they see that they’re practically identical and start talking about their lives. It quickly becomes apparent that neither is satisfied with their current lives, Erika doesnt want to work as a seamstress and Anneliese doesn’t want to marry King Dominick. What I personally love the most about this scene is that it’s Erika who points out their similarities, despite how obvious it is that Anneliese lives a much more privileged life. I think that it shows what a caring and emphatic character Erika is that she is able to see through that and still see their similarities. Later on in the movie, it is ultimately their friendship and the lenghts they go for each other as well as their senses of duty that saves the kingdom.

•The pets. While the humans fight against Preminger, Anneliese’s cat Serafina and Erika’s cat Wolfie both go above and beyond to help them as well as get their own character arcs. The most obvious of them being how Wolfie comes to terms with the fact that he barks instead of meowing like normal cats. Serafina’s arc is more subtle, she is very strong and confident throughout the entire movie but if you pay attention it becomes apparent that she becomes less vain throughout due to the rough situations she goes through to save Anneliese. The two of them even get their own enemy in the shape of Preminger’s arrogant dog. Oh, and Wolfie and Serafina also fall in love and have a litter with super cute kittens!

•King Dominick. When he is first introduced, he has disguised himself as a servant because he wants to see what it’s like when they don’t know that he is king. This speaks to the fact that he doesn’t want to marry just anyone, he actually cares about the person and not the title. His first meeting with ’Anneliese’ is actually Erika and it is clear that be becomes smitten. Shortly after he hears her sing to Wolfie in her quarters when she thinks that she’s alone and that only strenghtens his feelings for her. Later on in the movie when it is revelead by Preminger that Erika is an imposter, Dominick refuses to believe the lies he spews about her and Julian and even goes so far as to assist Erika when she flees from the dungeon. Even after he knows that Erika isn’t the princess he thought that she was he still wants to marry her regardless, showing again that it isn’t the crown or power he loves. That creates a powerful opposition to Preminger btw who does everything out of deisre for power and status. Erika originally turns down his proposal as she wishes to travel the world and try her chance at singing now that she is finally free from her debt to the shopowner, still Dominick continues to love and support her. He waits patiently for months until she returns and only then do they live happily ever after together.

•Now that I’ve talked about Dominick I simply have to gush about Julian as well. He’s the servant who fell maddly in love with the princess despite knowing that they couldn’t be together. He knows Anneliese so well that he realizes she is kidnapped based on the SCENT of the letter ’Anneliese’ aka Preminger left claiming that she had run away. I mean, anyone who recognizes the fricking scent of your letters is instantly marriage material. He then goes out of his way to bring Erika to the castle and teach her how to act like Anneliese so that the marriage arrangement doesn’t fall through, a marriage that would have no doubt broken his heart but he still fights for it because he knows that Anneliese would never want to see their kingdom fall apart even if it means that she will have to sacrifice herself. He is selfless and supports Anneliese constantly, his love for her is complete and incredibly beautiful. When Anneliese confeses her love to him in the mines he still can’t believe it despite that he is such a wonderful person and that makes him very human to me.

•Preminger. I hate the man, but I love the character. His only motivation is power and that is something I find incredibly realistic now that I’ve grown up. He doesn’t care for either Anneliese or the Queen despite trying to get them both to marry him, which becomes extremly clear when he tries to murder Anneliese and Julian out of his own convinience. Preminger is actually quite smart and strategical and if not for the fact that his two goons are complete morons [Noun: loving] he might have actually succeeded. Don’t get me started on those two, they are so ridicolously comedic that I can’t handle it.

•The soundtrack. I’m a sucker for music in general, especially in children’s movies but the songs in this one are my favorite. They’re emotional and raw and play in extremly well with Erika’s ambitions to become a singer once she is free to live her life as she wishes. She, for example, uses a song to lull her prisonguard to sleep in order to escape which is not only clever but also teaches kids that words are powerful.

•I could continue ranting about this movie forever but I’m going to conclude by talking about how strong both Anneliese and Erika are. I’ve mentioned previously how responsible they are because of their duties but I want to evolve further on why they are such amazing role models. Anneliese doesn’t just do the right thing when she thinks that she has to, when mistaken for Erika and locked in by the shopowner Erika works for she helps the other seamstress with the dresses because Anneliese simply refuses to let her do them all by herself. And Erika, she shows that you can follow your dreams even if you fall in love and that sometimes taking risks is worth it. Erika stepped in as Anneliese despite knowing that if caught she would be tried for treason and possibly executed, but she did it for her friend and for her kingdom. Back to Anneliese, when she was stuck and left to die in a mine she kept calm, found a way to save her kingdom, confessed her love to her best friend (Julian) and came up with a genius idea that saved their lives. If those things don’t scream bad ass female role models to you I don’t know what to tell you.

Thanks for reading! I’m @youraveragebooknerd on IG

44 notes · View notes