Barbie and Stacie to the Rescue (2024)
On August 15, 2024 by CrescentBarbie and Stacie to the Rescue is the final of the three films revolving around Barbie’s sisters. Unfortunately, this series does not end on a high note. Why can’t they just step out of the tree? The branches are big enough to support their weight. What kind of climax is this?
Story
In Barbie and Stacie to the Rescue, the Roberts family goes to Wisconsin so Barbie can participate in her aunt’s hot air balloon race. She wants to have Stacie as her co-pilot, but Stacie is ultimately turned down because she is too young to compete in the race. She feels too young to do anything fun with teenagers but too old to play with younger kids. Stacie ultimately proves herself by rescuing Barbie and Skipper from a dangerous situation, and she is given the chance to join the hot air balloon race as Barbie’s partner.
This story sounds fine enough, but it has a few massive problems that drive me up the wall.
The story already feels lackluster because Stacie doesn’t really mind not being in the race. She’s fine to sit it out, and she goes on other adventures with her new friend Ligaya instead. Barbie, however, has a massive miscommunication plot line by trying to keep Stacie from getting upset. This only makes the finale feel worse when Stacie is forgotten near the end.
Everyone in the Roberts family is horrible for forgetting about Stacie on the day of the race. Barbie is worried about hurting her feelings, but that shouldn’t lead to Stacie being left behind. This doesn’t get properly addressed, and it paints everyone in a horrible light. Everyone is horrible for the way they treat her, and they never truly make up for it.
This movie also has bad pacing, taking ages to get going and then having an agonizingly long climax that could be resolved in half the time. The characters are overwhelmingly foolish in this final stretch. Barbie and Skipper could have easily stepped out of the balloon and onto the branches of the nearby tree. They were more than large enough to hold their weight. Throwing the rope overboard is stupid and ridiculous, and it makes the climax even harder to sit through. The movie is pushing to make the hour mark, and it doesn’t really feel worth it at all. The songs only make the pacing feel weaker. I was constantly checking the time to see how much movie I had left.
The story in Stacie to the Rescue paints a lot of the characters in a horrible light and is incredibly slow to boot.
Story: 2/10
Characters
It’s hard to think about the characters in this movie without addressing the massive elephant in the room. Everyone is horrible for forgetting about Stacie and leaving her behind on the day of the race. Any points I could give these characters immediately get taken away from that. It feels unnecessary and paints the bulk of the Roberts family in a very cruel life.
The only ones I can really forgive are Stacie and Ligaya since they’re not involved with this. Even so, they don’t really go through a character arc. Stacie struggles to cope with being twelve years old, but she doesn’t go through an arc to reach a conclusion. She helps Barbie, and she is given the chance to compete in the hot air balloon race. Stacie’s character doesn’t change, and Ligaya is static too. They’re both nice, but there’s nothing else to say about them. They’re nice.
Stacie’s character point here is honestly one of the biggest problems I have with the movie. She’s struggling with being too old for little kid activities but too young to be around teenagers. You would expect the movie to be targeted at tweens struggling with something similar… But the writing is so juvenile and underbaked that it feels like it can’t actually target them. This writing feels fitting for a children’s program, but it won’t gel well with tweens at all as long as it’s going on about the dramatics of monkey bars. This movie fails to reach its intended audience, and the writing fails to resonate with the age demographic its writing feels intended for. The movie doesn’t know how to find an audience, and it’s an issue that drags it down massively.
The character writing is poor, failing to reach the audience it seeks. Two decent characters cannot make up for the rest of the cast being irredeemably frustrating.
Characters: 2.5/10
World Building
This movie returns the Roberts sisters to Willows, Wisconsin, a location previously used in Great Puppy Adventure. Unfortunately, this movie does nothing to expand upon the world established in that movie. In fact, none of the characters from Great Puppy Adventure make a return here. The sisters’ grandmother who lives in town is absent. So are the mayor and Barbie’s other friend in town.
This wouldn’t necessarily be an issue if there was something else interesting done with this setting. There’s really not much to the town here, and it feels like they’re deliberately trying to steer our attention away from everything mentioned in Great Puppy Adventure. The setting is boring and doesn’t do much. Having a hot air balloon race is interesting, but that’s about all we know here. You could put this movie anywhere else, and it would end up the same.
The world building is very lacking, especially given that this location is from a previous movie.
World Building: 2.5/10
Themes
It’s hard to put a finger on a theme for this movie. One could argue for it being about making the most of any situation… But that feels a bit strange given the climax. Is it being courageous even in the face of something terrifying? Maybe, but there are other movies that actually commit to this idea. Here, it just feels lackluster. I don’t know if there’s a theme or central idea at all. Stacie doesn’t really learn to cope with not fitting in the way she wants to. She just gets her hope handed to her at the end. I don’t know what the lesson is here, but it doesn’t hit well no matter what it is.
Themes: 2.5/10
Production
The first thing I noticed when watching Stacie to the Rescue was how stilted the animation is. I don’t like the art style much because of how skinny it makes all of the characters’ limbs. I like it even less when the characters don’t move naturally at all. The character designs aren’t great either, and that only draws more attention to the poor animation.
The voice acting is similarly stiff. I think the voice actors were giving their best to the script they were given, but it’s hard for them to really make something meaningful out of this. It makes the deliveries come off as strange…
But I still prefer it to the music. The singing is auto tuned to the point of being obnoxious, and none of the songs are interesting or memorable. They feel like padding to make this simple movie last longer, and I’ve already discussed why that’s a problem of pacing in the plot section.
The production of Stacie to the Rescue is stilted and only makes the other issues with the movie more prominent.
Production: 2/10
Overall
Barbie and Stacie to the Rescue is an unfortunate conclusion to the trilogy of movies about Barbie’s sisters. Between character assassination and poor songs, this movie fails to resonate with any audience and falls painfully flat. There are many better movies out there that don’t drag their finales out for so long, and I highly recommend you watch those instead.
Overall: 2.3/10
Silly Superlative: Barbie movie with the most dramatic narration
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