Good concept, poorly executed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Turned on this show for some mindless background noise but soon found myself actually paying attention- the jokes are surprisingly clever for a kids show! Most of the episodes kind of make fun of the Barbie doll stereotypes, so because of that I can see this show as something adults genuinely getting a kick out of it while watching it with their kids! It's not just another Barbie animation about "dreams and friendship and magical butterflies"- so if you're used to that being the general (and serious) theme of most Barbie movies, this show might catch you off guard at first (which I think has been the case with the negative reviewers on here.)

Although I had a couple Barbie dolls as a child, I was never a Barbie fan. However, as a mother of 2 girls (7 yo and 5 yo), the appeal of Barbie and the Barbie world drew me in as my girls enjoyed the dolls, movies, and books. But I never really enjoyed any of the story lines that featured Barbie; they were too cloyingly sweet, lacked imagination and originality, and just cranked out the same plot premise with a different name and different wardrobe.But "Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse" proved to be completely different! My 5 yo selected this on Netflix and I also tried to persuade her to choose something else, but ended up really enjoying the show. The characters have a greater dimension than all the superficial "friends" on Barbie movies; in the show, they have preferences and personality. I love that Ken is a build-it-fixer-upper, that Skipper has teen angst, that Midge is old-fashioned, and that Raquelle wants to upstage Barbie but ends up feeling the brunt of bad karma. And the humor is in the snappy quips and comebacks and situations, like when Ken attempts to figure out what his job is but eventually discovers his job is to be Barbie's boyfriend; well, duh, all us girls know that! LOL The humor combines both slapstick and satire, making it a show that little kids and "grown up" kids can enjoy. Reminds me really of how Looney Toons were like, except the grown up sarcasm has become more contemporary. And it is apparent that this is a show that is poking fun of itself and not meant to be taken seriously. You have to realize that Barbie is fantasy and they are dolls that use life-size lip glosses and make up applicators. If anything, these episodes would be closer to the slapdash type of madhouse doll playing I did with my friends as a kid; nonsense and a lot of jokes. :-) My daughters get the humor, I found it incredibly funny, and even my husband was caught laughing at the jokes----which says A LOT since he can't stand two minutes of the regular Barbie movies. LOL I ended up recommending this show to my girlfriend who has a 1-yo daughter, and she is hooked now too. :-)

After watching a few episodes with my much younger sister, I was stunned. The script is oriented towards teenagers as opposed to young children! I think the attempt for this show to be a parody of the stereotypical Barbie is too extreme. For one the romanticism involving the characters leads to childish plots to win the other's affection. Apparently a makeover will lead a guy to like you...who knew? This is sending the message to younger girls that they should change themselves to look like an idealized character that does not exist! This version of Barbie portrays her in the most superficial context compared to her other movies. Barbie is idolized by her friends for having every material possession imaginable. This idea is evident through various episodes; the characters constantly desire more artificial items than they already have. Furthermore, their vocabulary is horrendous; the characters demonstrate the need to abbreviate every single word in the dictionary. I would suggest to stay away from this series to prevent from losing any IQ points.

I have always been a Barbie fan, practically from birth. Now, as a mother of 3 daughters who LOVE Barbie everything, and who has seen every single Barbie movie at least once with those girls, I am disgusted by this Barbie television show.I sat through one episode with my daughters, and was appalled that every character was portrayed as a superficial caricature that perpetuates every reason why feminists hate Barbie. The characters are extremely shallow, and even though some of them are "smart" and can use scientific words in a vaguely applicable context, somehow the writers have made even "intelligent" characters seem like air-heads. Barbie and her multitude of friends and sisters are placed in plots completely focused on superficial things like fashion shows, being in the spotlight, looking pretty--even her male friends.I am so disappointed that after I had a dialogue with my girls (ages 5, 7, and 9, the Mattel demographic) about why this version of Barbie doesn't send the right message or portray the values we hold dear for girls even they agreed that it's a stupid show. The Barbie movies (back when Kelly Sheridan voiced them, before the new, young, shallow Mattel makeover in 2011) used to portray a better image for Barbie--even if the movies themselves were a little cheesy. We enjoyed those movies, and purchased every one of them. But after the ridiculous Fashion Fairytale, we have rented and rejected every movie since. Judging what I have seen of these recent Mattel productions and especially since seeing two episodes of this awful show, I'm *this* close to jumping on the anti-Barbie bandwagon.