Barbie screening 2

Ooo yeah, mo-cap ballet dancers. A must for Barbie. Not bad at all! Argh I forgot to ask if the story is original. (It sure seems so.... unfortunately that means... lame.) The dresses move naturally. Good job on the rigging! The pajamas can be better, though. When perspective is compressed with long lens, it makes you feel like you're looking at a tapestry. In a few places, I had trouble telling what's actually 3D and what's cardboard cut-out.

However, it bugs me a lot when the sub-characters look way better then the main characters!! The best looking one is the villain aunt. She steals the show! The cheeks of the youngest princess... Laicie? (Lazy? ) look really stiff and swollen. (Yup, that's the way Matel wants it.) I guess the princesses and the guy have to look like the dolls, so they're really plastic. With the improvement on dress rigging, it doesn't make sense not to ditch the lumpy plastic hair. (Yup, Matel is the one to blame again.) Are they afraid of the CG version looking better than the real dolls?

Facial expressions are at the usual MFE level. The corners of some characters' mouths are too pointy, though. Don't like the overly emphasized glassy eyes of the cat and monkey. (Why do they always HAVE to have mascots like that? I hate annoying talking animals!) The movements of hands and wrists still have a lot of room for improvement.

Last but not least, the story. There are many signs that this is original.

• The princesses act like contemporary girls.
• Single-parent family.
  
• There's no prince. The main princess marries a commoner at the end.
• The villain is a stereotypical wicked stepmother. However, the king never marries her. He only signs a document to give her queen status near the end.

Then it never explains the relationship between the late queen and the magic garden. How did she predict the number and order of birth of her children? That's the key to opening the magic gate! Her own garden in the real world resembles the magic garden too. And the floor tiles also have to be in place before all of that.

Haha... I shouldn't be picking on it too much. After all it's made for kids so young, they don't care. But now, they'll want 12 dolls...