Barbie Attempts to Bring Back The Nutcracker

It's been 25 years since Barbie's first CGI movie masterpiece, The Nutcracker in 2001. To celebrate, Netflix released a 40-minute special featuring the modern incarnation of Barbie traveling to the world of "The Nutcracker" in a dream sequence. Unfortunately, most classic Barbie fans don't like the modern Barbie specials much, leaving many wishing that they had left it alone. Having suffered through it seen the new one myself, I am inclined to agree with this. The new Barbie Nutcracker special lacks all the magic and charm of the original and instills it with tired modern tropes that were introduced in the live-action Barbie movie.

The special begins with Barbie "Malibu" and Barbie "Brooklyn" hosting a Christmas party. After Malibu presents Brooklyn with a gift of friendship necklaces that look like lockets (a throwback to the magic locket from the original film), the two Barbies get into a fight over what to do next at the party. Ken is caught in the middle and continues to be completely useless, following commands from both Barbies without even attempting to mediate the rather immature argument. Finally, Brooklyn goes home, and Chelsea plays too rough with a very pink nutcracker that initiates a dream sequence in which Malibu wakes up as Clara and meets with Brooklyn, who has become the Sugar Plum Fairy in the enchanted Nutcracker world.

At a 40-minute runtime, there's hardly enough time to tell one story, let alone two between the "real life" and "dream" sequences. Despite how fast-paced it was, I couldn't wait for this special to be over. It felt so empty compared to the original, especially when it came to the Nutcracker himself. The Nutcracker's uniform is based on soldiers from that era, and it is pretty ridiculous to imagine a soldier going to battle in such a bright shade of pink. The only thing the Nutcracker does in this version is get kidnapped by the Rat King (whose role is reprised by Tim Curry), so the two Barbies can bond over rescuing him. I know there was a rescue scene in the original movie, but the Nutcracker also had a tragic backstory and romance in that, none of which carried over to this version.

Then there's the music and dancing. The original Barbie movies used motion capture to recreate actual ballet performances and sync them up with Barbie. In this special, Barbie turns ballet moves into action stunts and mixes them in with weird modern dances that feel out of place in this setting. There are a couple of songs that use the modern autotune sound and are rather unpleasant to listen to as someone who prefers the musical theater stylings of The Princess and the Pauper. The songs are about friendship and misunderstandings, but the argument that the two Barbies have at the beginning of the movie was so trivial that the whole dream sequence built around it feels contrived.

While I'd like to think there's someone out there who might enjoy this new special, Barbie fans are united in their feelings that it's a shallow attempt to bring back the magic of the early 2000s movies. Although the men always played a smaller role in older Barbie films, they were at least more respected than how Ken and the Nutcracker were treated as sentient pawns to serve the will of the Barbies. The friendship theme is also weak because it's based around a petty argument that should have been resolved within minutes, as soon as the partygoers agreed on what to do next. The references to the original movie are nice, but they just made me want to go back and watch that version.

What are your thoughts on the new Barbie Nutcracker special? Did you enjoy it more than I did? Let me know in the comments!