Barbie and Her Sisters in A Pony Tale (2013)
On November 14, 2023 by CrescentBarbie, Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea return for Barbie and Her Sisters in A Pony Tale. This movie is very different from their first, and I enjoyed it for what it was. If comedy is what you’re after, you’ve definitely come to the right place.
Story
In Pony Tale, Barbie and her sisters are spending the summer at their aunt’s horse riding academy in Switzerland. Along the way, they have to learn to master their horses while chasing victory over a rival school. Barbie, meanwhile, uncovers a secret about a legendary breed of horses lost to time.
Pony Tale doesn’t entirely take its story secret, and in my eyes, that’s part of the charm. This movie is very clearly meant to be a comedy, and while its story doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it doesn’t have to. You get out of it what you’re willing to put into it. That isn’t to say this simple story is perfect though. In fact, it feels very slow, especially near the middle section. The story works fine for what it is, but there’s nothing too interesting here at the same time. Everyone’s mileage will vary for this movie, and it’s up to the viewer to decide how they feel about the story.
In my eyes, the plot is fine. It’s nothing special, but it works for what it is. Pony Tale feels like it’s trying to be what Perfect Christmas failed at: a simple, character-driven comedy. The characters and stories here are fairly basic, but they don’t need to have much depth. This movie feels like a Hallmark movie, but this time, it’s a compliment. It’s a simple coming of age story, and it doesn’t take itself seriously enough to hamper its ability to tell its tale. Pony Tale is nothing special, but it’s still fun for what it is.
Pony Tale has the potential to be fun, but you need to give it a chance in order to get the most out of it you can.
Story: 5.5/10
Characters
One of the first things any viewer will notice about Pony Tale is that it has a lot of characters. Just out of the protagonists, you have to keep track of Barbie, her three sisters, four others from the riding academy, Skipper’s love interest, and the horses. That doesn’t even factor in the antagonist or his lackeys. There are a lot of characters to keep track of here.
I think this fits the structure of Pony Tale well. This movie isn’t trying to introduce a particularly inventive or deep story. It’s a comedy story, and the characters are all balanced well enough for the comedy story. The downside to this, however, is that no character gets all that much time in the spotlight. There are a few arcs here, but none of them are particularly special. Stacie learns to communicate with her horse. Chelsea does the same, albeit in a different way. Since there are so many characters to keep track of, none of them can hog the spotlight for too long.
Barbie gets the most screen time of the bunch, but her storyline unfortunately isn’t all that interesting. She’s the one in charge of the moral of the movie, and while I appreciate it… She really doesn’t get much to do aside from follow the plot. Barbie doesn’t undergo any major emotional changes, and that makes it a bit hard to relate to her as a character. It’s a problem all characters in this movie have though, so I can’t hold it against her specifically.
Pony Tale is a movie of many characters for better or worse… Though it’s mostly the latter unfortunately.
Characters: 4.5/10
World Building
The world of Pony Tale is a fairly simple one. There are two rival horse riding schools, and both of them want the fame that comes with winning a shared competition. The head of the rival school hates the main riding academy the protagonists are at because his brother left their original school to teach there. There’s not all that much to it, and that makes it very easy to understand… Though the setting confuses me. This is supposedly set in Switzerland, and yet, the characters have accents from France and England but not Switzerland. It’s a strange decision.
The only other note of interesting world building is in the Majestique horses. They’re treated as a legend that secretly holds some realistic truth. I found this point interesting, but it felt a bit out of place compared to the rest of the story. It felt as if the two storylines were competing for attention at times and didn’t fit together as well as they could have. The Majestiques act as the villain’s motivation too, and while it’s fine, it’s nothing special either.
The world building of Pony Tale is fine for what the movie is, but it’s nothing particularly deep or special.
World Building: 4/10
Themes
The theme of Pony Tale is that if you love something, you should let it go. I understand what they were going for with this theme, but it doesn’t fit a strong majority of the movie. In fact, it only feels relevant at the very end. Barbie wants to do what is best for Majesty, and in the end, she decides that letting her go is the right call. Still, this isn’t applicable to anything before the ending, so I can’t give this theme high points with its narrow frame of relevance.
Themes: 4/10
Production
When it comes to animation, Pony Tale is a step down from other movies that came out in its time. This is largely because it takes its models from the Barbie show that was airing at the time, Life in the Dreamhouse. While this movie looks better than your average episode of Life in the Dreamhouse, it’s still a marked step down from Mariposa and the Fairy Princess and Pink Shoes which both came out in the same year.
The music of Pony Tale is largely decent, though I do need to mention the main song of the film, “You’re the One.” For being a song about a horse, it sounds an awful lot like a love song, and that took me out of the story when it played. The song is fine, but it feels out of place in a way too.
There’s one thing I can give Pony Tale undisputed praise for though: the voice acting. After Perfect Christmas, I was a bit nervous to hear voice acting for Stacie and Chelsea. This movie put all my concerns to rest without missing a beat. Both of the sisters sound great here. The accents in this movie are goofy, but they fit the comedic atmosphere and are easy to understand. The voice acting is great, and I had a really fun time with it.
While the animation is a bit of a letdown, Pony Tale hits it out of the park with its voice acting.
Production: 7/10
Overall
Barbie and Her Sisters in A Pony Tale is a perfect movie to share with friends. I find it charming and funny in a way that is best experienced with others. While it doesn’t do anything special or out of the box, it’s still a fun time. You get out of it what you’re willing to put in, and I can see why the film has such dedicated fans.
Overall: 5/10
Silly Superlative: Barbie movie with the widest variety of facial expressions for animals
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