Barbie in Rock ‘N Royals (2015)
On November 18, 2023 by CrescentBarbie in Rock ‘N Royals asks the daring question… What if Barbie crossed over with Camp Rock? The resulting movie is a fun one that captures a classic Disney Channel charm I didn’t know I was searching for.
Story
Rock ‘N Royals details the adventures of Courtney, a princess, and Erika, a rockstar. The two are planning to attend Camp Royalty and Camp Pop respectively, but after a mixup, they end up in each other’s spots. They learn to enjoy the changes brought by the opposite camp and find friends in unlikely places. Meanwhile, the heads of the camps plan to shut the rival down as the latest piece of a years long rivalry.
The story of Rock ‘N Royals reminds me a lot of a Disney Channel original movie. Well, it feels very similar to Camp Rock just in concept, but the general aura maintains the point even without that parallel. The story is simple, but it’s a fun time for what it is. There’s nothing particularly inventive here, but it remains fun from beginning to end.
For the most part, the movie was paced well enough. My one complaint comes right before the finale. The two camps decide to band together very quickly, especially since the characters don’t really know each other. This doesn’t really interfere with how fun the story is, but it’s still something I noticed.
Rock ‘N Royals has a fun story overall. While it’s nothing too new, it remains enjoyable to watch.
Story: 6.5/10
Characters
Rock ‘N Royals has two main characters: Courtney and Erika. They’re both fun protagonists, but much to my surprise, this movie focuses more on Erika than Courtney when the latter is meant to be Barbie. I think they’re both nice characters, but their arcs feel a bit rushed. Because of how much exposition this movie required, their character development had to be rushed for the last bit of the movie. I understand why it’s structured the way it is, but I wish things could have been done differently. The characters aren’t too deep, but they’re still fun.
I loved Anne and Finn as rivals. Their dynamic made this movie a lot of fun, and they felt like suitable antagonists without tipping over into being outright villainous. I wanted to learn more about their past, and it was nice to see them make up in the end. They’re both just very enjoyable. I can’t say the same for Clive, Anne’s assistant, but he does what he needs to as a villain if nothing else.
The other background characters in Rock ‘N Royals are nice too. Genevieve and Aubray from Camp Royalty feel like nice balances to Erika. The same applies to Rayna and Zia with Courtney. My one complaint here is that there are two other named characters from both camps on top of these four. That brings our total of ensemble campers up to eight, and the shoehorned love interests don’t do all that much. I don’t even remember their names. Sloane and Olivia served their purposes as mean girls well enough, but they definitely contributed to cast bloat here. It’s hard to keep all of the campers straight here.
The judges for the final competition only make it worse. It feels like there are a lot of characters to keep track of even though quite a few of them don’t do anything of particular note. I understand who we should be focusing on–Courtney, Erika, Anne, and Finn–but there are a lot of characters to balance. This can be both overwhelming and distracting to the audience.
The cast of Rock ‘N Royals is fun, but it suffers from notable bloat in the ensemble.
Characters: 6.5/10
World Building
The world building of Rock ‘N Royals… Confuses me. The main question I have here is the magic system. The royals all have scepters that can perform magic… But nothing would change if the scepters didn’t exist. In fact, they just feel like an attempt to add magic into a movie that really didn’t need it. I know magic is an easy way to market to little girls, but this feels shallow and unnecessary. I wish we had done without it.
As for the rest of the world building, it’s overall fine. I understood the histories of the two camps quickly, especially with the rivalry lens to view it through. The world outside of the camps isn’t developed all that much, but it doesn’t need to be. Both camps have their traditions to uphold, and their rivalry is one of them. The shared history between Anne and Finn is interesting, and I would have liked to see more of it. Still, what we got works perfectly well. The world building suffers a bit from the cast bloat when the three final judges are introduced, but as a whole, it works.
Rock ‘N Royals has both confusing and satisfactory world building depending on the aspect you focus on.
World Building: 5/10
Themes
The theme of Rock ‘N Royals is to rock your own story. I think the lesson is fine enough, but it’s nothing special. The characters come up with their own ending to the competition in the end, and that certainly helps to reinforce the message… But the rest of the movie doesn’t do much to reinforce it leading up to that point. You could argue that Courtney and Erika switching places and enjoying it follows this idea, but it’s a bit of a stretch since they didn’t want to be there initially. The theme is fine, but it feels underbaked since it only comes in fully at the very end.
Themes: 4/10
Production
Rock ‘N Royals leaned into the new art style proposed by Princess Power, and it took the first major step to truly mastering it. The hair animations and shading have been smoothed out here, and everything moves exactly as it should. The dance moves are a bit clunky, but they’re a definite improvement over Princess and the Popstar. The animation is doing something new while not forgetting what came before it, and I definitely appreciate it for that… Though the mouth animations in particular can look very off putting at times.
The voice acting of Rock ‘N Royals is just as dramatic as the movie itself. Every character is expressive and over the top, and it works perfectly with the vibe the story is going for. I found the dramatics to be charming, though they could verge into obnoxious some of the time. It all comes down to how you’re willing to view it, I suppose.
Rock ‘N Royals sounds like it should have a lot of music just based on the title, but it’s surprisingly short on songs. The movie goes very long stretches without any vocal tracks, and the few lyrical pieces there are in the film feel very generic. The movie is fine, but the songs don’t feel like they do much to stand out for each other. The songs are all performances rather than musical theatre style numbers to push the story forward, and it makes sense in the story, but seeing a lot of songs back to back can disturb the pacing a bit.
We can’t really talk about the production of Rock ‘N Royals without mentioning the massive discrepancy between the cover and movie itself. On the cover, Erika is very clearly Black… But her skin has lost almost all of its color in the film. I don’t know what happened for this to be the case, but I don’t like it. If they were going to make a Black protagonist, then they should have stuck to it. If not, then they should have remained true to the story itself. I don’t know if the cover and movie were made by different teams, but… Wow. This is bad.
The production of Rock ‘N Royals is overall fine. It does its job well, but disappointing music holds it back.
Production: 5.5/10
Overall
Barbie in Rock ‘N Royals is a fun story with a lot more charm than you would expect. The characters and world are a bit underdeveloped, but the story is enjoyable even so. If you want a movie that accurately captures the vibe of a Disney Channel original movie, look no further. You’ve found something perfect here.
Overall: 5.5/10
Silly Superlative: Barbie movie with the most hair dye
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