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02 February 2012 @ 08:25 pm
Comments about "A Perfect Christmas"--spoilers  
I've got a number of comments and a brief review of A Perfect Christmas.
It was released on DVD on Nov. 8, 2011, and is 74 minutes long. The stars are Diana Kaarina as Barbie; Rachel Harrison, Skipper; Lauren Lavoie, Stacie; and Ashlyn Drummond as Chelsie. The story was written by Elise Allen.
The plot is this: The four girls live by themselves in a huge home overlooking a California beach. (I sure wish I knew where George and Margaret, not to mention Todd or Krissy, are in all these Barbie movies!) On Dec. 23, they are flying from LA to New York City to meet up with their Aunt Millie, who is coming in from Paris. The girls' plane makes an emergency landing in Rochester, Minn., due to a heavy snowstorm. Barbie rents a van to drive her and her sisters to Minneapolis where there is a better chance of getting another flight. They take a back road (don't know why) and heavy snow forces them to stop at an inn for the night.
The Tannenbaum Inn is owned by Christie Klauson (not to be confused with African-American Christie or Chris or Krissy). The inn is always decorated for Christmas.
Although it is sunny the next day, all planes are grounded and so the Roberts girls are stuck there on Christmas Eve. Christie introduces the girls both to the shelter dogs that she and her neighbors are training, and to the local reindeer herd.  The girls discover Christie's barn full of wrapped gifts to be delivered that night.
Sibling rivalry gets the best of the girls. Stacie doesn't like Chelsea copying everything she does, and so Chelsea runs away for the first time. Christie suggests Skipper put on a Christmas Eve concert with a local boy band, with an outside concert that night. Barbie offers to help, but Skipper wants to do it herself, because she is tired of Barbie getting credit for everything. Barbie is relegated to stringing popcorn. Later, the stage collapses, and Chelsea and her dog friend Rudy run off for the second time.
The Roberts girls find Chelsea in the barn where the gifts had been stored.  Now the gifts are gone, having been distributed. After that, while the girls were hunting for Chelsea, Christie set up an indoor stage for the concert . The show goes on as scheduled, and Aunt Millie, who had been secretly summoned by Christie, shows up too.
There are some inside jokes that only Barbie collectors would know:  The friend named Christie.  Skipper has a music blog and she writes under the name PJ Sherwood. Barbie makes a comment about "we girls can do anything!" Millie's given name is Millicent.
The movie is beautifully colored and the songs are very catchy.  I'm happy that Skipper's story is the main plot of the movie!  She's a little annoying at the beginning but she settles down.
The other features on the DVD are a number of Barbie movie trailers, plus a brief cartoon about the girls' camping trip when a thunderstorm comes up.  They've got a very deluxe pink camper, of course!
These are the technical details:  The animation is by motion capture, although I don't know what the difference is between motion capture and regular computer animation.  It was distributed by Universal Studios.  I'm assuming the film was made in India, with the recording done in British Columbia.  The little theme message at the end is "Being together is what makes a perfect Christmas."
There are three books adapted from the movie:  a beginning reader, level two; a story called Christmas Dreamland; and a paint-by-number book.
One final note:  Stacie isn't as goody-two-shoes as her sisters.  She teases Chelsea about having to use the bathroom, and later she makes a raspberry at Chelsea.  It's Stacie's grumpiness that causes Chelsea to run away.
 
 
( 3 comments — Leave a comment )
princessidril[info]princessidril on February 3rd, 2012 11:29 pm (UTC)
Motion capture is when you use footage of actual human movement as the basis of your animation. Regular animation is drawn completely from scratch.

Motion capture is used in many films, including the creation of Gollum in Lord of the Rings and for the dancing sequences in Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie of Swan Lake and Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. If you go to the 12 dancing princesses game on the website and click on Hadley, you can see a video about making the dance sequences which shows motion capture being recorded.
Wow i'm so nerdy...
skippercollecto[info]skippercollecto on February 4th, 2012 01:29 pm (UTC)
skipper doing it herself
When Skipper complained that Barbie always does everything, I laughed out loud. Yes, that is the world's perception of Barbie!
Selenia: 6teen[info]velle on February 4th, 2012 05:01 pm (UTC)
I love this review! Thank you!
Also I had not realized that it's true, there is a snowstorm forecast but the next day is beautiful.
( 3 comments — Leave a comment )