Next in the Barbie movie series is “The Princess and the Pauper.” Anneliese is a princess, used to being pampered and dressed in the finest clothes. Her day is scheduled, she must be perfect at all times, and she is engaged to be married to the king of a nearby kingdom. She longs for her freedom. Every night she dreams about what it would be like to do whatever she wanted to do for just one day, but that chance is never given to her. In the meantime, she has fallen in love with Julian, her tutor, but she knows it can never come to pass.
In the village lives a girl named Erica. She works in a dressmaker’s shop, trying to earn money to pay back a debt her parents incurred. Her boss, Madame Carp, is very cruel to her and keeps her working night and day. But Erica’s dreams are still alive – she wants to be a singer. One afternoon, she sneaks out and begins to sing in the village square, gathering up the coins the passersby throw at her feet. When Madame Carp happens her way, she takes the money Erica has made and demands that she return to the shop.
Meanwhile, Anneliese and Julian have been wandering around the village and see the altercation between Madame Carp and Erica. When Anneliese goes over to investigate, she is startled to see that except for hair color, she and Erica could be twins. They talk about their lives to discover how very different they are, but they have so much in common: they want their freedom, and they are bound by duty to fulfill the fates they have been given.
The Queen’s right hand man, Preminger (voiced by Martin Short) has hit upon a scheme to take over the kingdom. By stealing all the gold from the kingdom’s mines, he can drive the country into bankruptcy, forcing the Queen to take drastic measures to save her people. Those measures include allowing him to marry the Princess. But as he begins to carry out his plans, he is foiled by Julian, who figures out the plot and brings Erica in to impersonate the Princess. As identities get confused and the plot thickens, Erica falls in love with King Dominic, Anneliese’s fiancé.
This movie is probably my favorite in the Barbie series. The plot is complex enough that it keeps an adult’s interest, and there are some beautiful harmonies in the musical numbers. The romance seems more natural than it does in some of the other movies, and all in all, I found it very enjoyable.
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