"There's a princess in every girl."
-- Barbie
Barbie: Princess Charm School
Barbie: Princess Charm School DVD cover
Writer:
Elise Allen
Story:
Kati Rocky
Producers:
Shawn McCorkindale and Shelley Tabbut
Music:
BC Smith
Director:
Zeke Norton
Release date:
September 13, 2011 (US); August 28, 2011 (UK)
Running time:
79 min. 43 sec.
Preceded by:
Barbie: A Fairy Secret
Followed by:
Barbie: A Perfect Christmas
Barbie: Princess Charm School is the twentieth computer-animated film in the Barbie film series from Nutcracker. It will be released on September 13th, 2011 in the US, and on August 29th in the UK. The theme song is "You Can Tell She's A Princess".
PlotEdit
Official summaryEdit
Barbie™ stars as Blair Willows, a kind-hearted girl who is chosen to attend Princess Charm School: a magical, modern place that teaches dancing, how to have tea parties, and proper princess manners. Blair™ loves her classes -- as well as the helpful magical sprites and her new friends, Princesses Hadley™ and Isla™. But when royal teacher Dame Devin discovers that Blair™ looks a lot like the kingdom’s missing princess, she turns Blair’s world upside down to stop her from claiming the throne. Now Blair™, Hadley™ and Delancy™ must find an enchanted crown to prove Blair’s true identity in this charming and magical princess story!
Full StoryEdit
Blair comes home from a long day of work at Cafe Gardania. Emily, her younger sister, is watching the annual Princess Procession on TV. It involves princesses from other kingdoms coming the the original Princess Charm School to learn their full potential. A commoner is also allowed in if they win the lottery that wins them a scholarship to be a lady royal, a princess' most trusted advisor. Blair asks if their mom is okay, but Emily tells her the doctors just said she was "comfortable". Blair wishes she were better, and wishes Emily could grow up in a better neighborhood, as the family lives in the poor part of Gardania and has no money. Blair decides she will work hard for her family.
On the TV, Blair, Emily and their mother watch as the lottery winner is picked: Blair. This is because Emily entered her many, many times. Blair doesn't want to leave her responsibilities behind, but her mother sees it as a good opportunity and so Blair leaves to go the school in a carriage with a man named Brock. In the carriage, Blair's arm gets jogged as she tries to put on lipstick, smearing it on her face, and she knocks over a cup.
At the school, she is greeted by Prince, a large dog that recognizes her. The headmistress of the school, Alexandra Privet, sees Blair on the floor with Prince and takes her to her locker, explaining things about the school along the way. Grace meets Blair at the locker by bumping into her with a cupcake. Grace is a sprite that has to be Blair's personal princess assistant. Every student has one. Blair uses her magical locker to change into her school uniform, and Grace takes her to her dorm room to get settled. Blair meets Isla and Hadley, her new room mates, and Caprice and Harmony, their assistants. They have to go to the Starlight Welcome immediately to get their training crowns.
At the welcome ceremony, Miss Privet explains that they will get real crowns one they have completed the semester with high expectations. A teacher named Dame Devin announces she will quit teaching after her daughter Delancy becomes princess of Gardania at the end of the semester. She explains that she has lived at the palace since her sister-in-law, Queen Isabella, and her family died in a car crash. Isla and Hadley discuss the legend that not all of the family died. They have a curtseying class after the welcome ceremony, and Blair gets distracted by Hadley and Isla and bumps into Delancy. Delancy develops a strong dislike for Blair. Hadley and Isla tell Blair they will be her friends, and that Blair can do anything Delancy can do.
Blair becomes pessimistic after she sees Delancy walking with a stack of 21 books on her head without a problem, when she can't even balance one. Many of the girls have problems, but when Dame Devin sees Blair's face, she becomes shocked. She tells Blair to get out of her class and tells her she doesn't belong. Delancy later on makes her assistant, Wickellia, tuck a tablecloth into Blair's skirt and Blair ends up being further embarrassed when she drags it off the table.
Isla and Hadley try to cheer up Blair by telling her that Dame Devin was once a lottery winner like her. However, no princesses picked her to be their lady royal, not even Queen Isabella. Blair receives a package from Emily containing some letters and a drawing of a baby Blair being left on her mother's doorstep. Blair explains to her friends that she is adopted, and so is Emily. Miss Privet comes to tell Blair some bad news, but stops when she hears this.
The next day, at a ballroom class, Blair knocks over Portia, Delancy's friend, and is kept behind after class. Miss Privet tells her that Dame Devin wanted her expelled, but Miss Privet knows about how Blair wants to become a lady royal to help her family, so she wants to personally tutor her. She tells Blair that being a princess is about character and confidence. One without the other is a problem, and she tells Blair that no one can make her feel inferior without her consent. With help from Miss Privet, Blair greatly improves in her balance, grace, dancing and more.
In the winter, the students are joined by young men from the Prince Charming School for a dance class. Blair gets partnered with Nicholas, and they joke with each other before dancing like they're at a party. Everyone else joins in, but Delancy. When they are done, the men leave, but Miss Privet tells them they will come to the graduation ceremony at the end of the semester. This is because they will have to see Delancy, the future princess of Gardania, be crowned.
In spring, two days before the coronation ceremony where the princesses and lady royals will be crowned, Miss Privet announces that the girls will get to go to the palace for a table manners class. Blair, Hadley and Isla go with their sprites to pamper themselves in the school spa, while Dame Devin tells Wickellia to rip up their clothes. Isla and Hadley tell Blair about Gardania's magic crown, which lights up when put on the rightful heir to the throne. The girls go back to their room to find their uniforms in shreds. Without their uniforms, they will not be allowed in the class, and missing classes gives you an automatic fail. Blair refuses to let her or her friends fail, so she and the sprites fashions some new, personalized uniforms using fabric from the old ones. They get to the palace just in time and get to explore the first floor before the class.
When exploring, the girls see a portrait of Blair, but it is actually Queen Isabella when she was a year older than Blair. They see a family portrait with a baby, Prince the dog, and King Reginald. Hadley and Isla think that Blair is the baby in the photo, because Princess Sophia apparently died in the car crash when she was 1 on April 26th. Blair was found on her adoptive mother's doorstep at that age, so they realize Dame Devin and Delancy are unfair to Blair because she is the rightful heir, but Dame Devin wants Delancy to be the princess. Delancy eavesdrops and becomes disturbed because her mother never told her these things.
At the class, Dame Devin explains her idea - which she says is Delancy's - is to bulldoze the poor areas of Gardania and create parks to make the kingdom more beautiful. Blair is shocked and informs her that her family lives there, but Dame Devin tells her she should leave immediately and move her family to a new home, not caring that they have no money. Blair tries to talk to Delancy, but Delancy doesn't say anything even though she is concerned, worried about what her mother will do. Blair runs away crying. She packs her bags back at the school, but decides to stay and find the crown so she can prove she is the rightful heir and stop Dame Devin and Delancy.
Hadley and Isla want to help, so the trio plan to go back to the palace that night before the coronation the next day to find the crown. Before they can leave with a bag packed with tools, a fire alarm goes off. The students all go outside while Dame Devin puts her jewellery in Blair's dorm room. Delancy finds her and becomes suspicious but her mother changes the subject by asking her why she has a customized her uniform like Blair's. She says it's because she likes it. 45 minutes later, the students finally can go back to their rooms, but Blair and her friends are stopped by a guard, Dame Devin, and Miss Privet. They are accused of stealing Dame Devin's jewellery, so the guard searches their room and finds necklaces.
The girls are to be detained until after the coronation ceremony, but while the guard takes them away to be arrested, Delancy stops him. She claims he will have to follow her orders in a few hours when she is the princess, so she orders him to give her his keys. He leaves and she quickly tells Blair and her friends to find the crown because she wants what's right for the kingdom. She tells them she will leave a window open on the third floor and runs off so her mother doesn't find her with them.
Blair, Hadley and Isla go to the palace and Prince distracts a guard for them. They use a rope to climb up to the third floor window and take an elevator to the basement. Hadley notices devices on the walls, and recognizes them as laser alarms. There are invisible beams that will set off an alarm if they are broken, so Blair blows some makeup powder over them and they become visible. Hadley shows some impressive gymnastics skills by flipping to the other side, but Blair and Isla have to slowly make their way across with help from Grace.
There is a keypad that needs a password to unlock a door, so they try the date of the coronation. It is incorrect, and so they use the password hint ("The day it all fell into place") to figure out the real password. They try the date of the car crash and it works. Inside the room are Dame Devin's possessions. Blair and her friends find the magical crown but Dame Devin finds them, and makes Brock, her guard, take the crown. She changes the password, with Isla memorizing the tune of the buttons she presses, and locks them in the room.
They are stuck in the room for hours as the coronation begins and Delancy becomes moments away from being crowned. She tries to make time while Blair and her friends figure out how to escape. Isla keeps humming the tune of the keypad buttons, and when Hadley accidentally knocks a cover off a box of electrical wires, they wire up Blair's phone to the keypad to use Blair's phone buttons to enter the password from inside the room. Isla does the tune on the phone and they escape. They arrive at the graduation ceremony just in time and Blair makes a claim to the throne, saying she is Princess Sophia. Emily and her mother watch at home, shocked.
The royal judge, who crowns the princesses and lady royals, takes her seriously, but Dame Devin tries to stop her. They fight over the crown before Delancy catches it and has to decide whether to give it to her mother of Blair. She gives it to Blair and when she puts it on, it lights up and she transforms to look like a proper princess. Dame Devin exclaims that she killed Queen Isabella just so Delancy could be the princess, so she is arrested, while a disappointed Delancy watches her get dragged away. Blair makes a quick speech, telling he people of Gardania she is honored to be their princess. Miss Privet tells her she can have time to pick a lady royal, but she quickly picks Delancy, and she is crowned.
In the evening, at the graduation party, everyone dances to Isla's song "We Rule This School" which she DJs for. Even Miss Privet dances, and Nicholas comes to Blair again. He is unsure of whether to call her Princess Sophia or not, but she wants to continue going by the name Blair. Emily and her mother also come and Blair tells them she wants to introduce them to everybody. Before she does, she tells Emily that she is a princess too and that their family now can live in the palace with a better life.
Cast and CharactersEdit
Diana Kaarina as Blair Willows, the main protagonist of the movie.
Morwenna Banks as Headmistress Alexandra Privet.
Nicole Oliver as Dame Devin, the main antagonist of the film and the sister-in-law of the deceased Queen Isabella.
Brittney Wilson as Delancy Devin, the daughter of the film's main antagonist and a student at the school.
Cathy Weseluck as Andrea, a female announcer for the movie's Princess Procession.
Lee Tockar as Phil, the male announcer for the Princess Procession,
Madeline Peters (credited as Madeleine Peters) as Emily Willows, Blair's younger adopted sister.
Derek Waters as Brock, one of Dame Devin's guards.
Ellen Kennedy as Blair's Mom.
(Note: Special guest star) Miranda Ram-Nolte as Princess Miranda, a student at the school.
Brian Drummond as Prince, the deceased royal family's loyal dog/a Guard/Royal Judge, who crowns the princesses and lady royals at the coronation ceremony.
Tabitha St. Germain as Lorraine, a student at the school and Josette's best friend/Grace, Blair's personal princess assistant sprite.
Bethany Brown as Josette, a student at the school and Lorraine's best friend and roomate.
Ali Liebert as Princess Portia, Delancy's slow minded friend/Hadley, one of Blair's best friends who loves sports.
Shannon Chan-Kent as Isla, one of Blair's best friends who loves music.
Kelly Metzger as Wickellia, Delancy's assistant sprite.
Kazumi Evans as Harmony, Isla's assistant sprite.
Anna Cummer as Caprice, Hadley's assistant sprite.
Rachel Franco as the "pawdicurist" sprite.
Vincent Tong as Prince Nicholas, a student at the Prince Charming School/a Guard.
Princess Isabella, King Reginald and Princess Sophia, the royal family who all supposedly died in a car crash.
MusicEdit
"You Can Tell She's A Princess" by Reann.
"On Top Of The World" by Rachel Bearer.
"We Rule This School" by Simon Wilcox.
TriviaEdit
The first trailer for Barbie: Princess Charm School was on the Barbie: A Fairy Secret DVD.
The title of the film in Greece is "Barbie Σχολείο για Πριγκίηισσες", which translates to "Barbie School for Princesses".
The first title for the film was Barbie: Princess Prep School.
References to other moviesEdit
Many character names have been taken from "Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses" such as Blair, Hadley and Isla.
Character models from Barbie in A Mermaid Tale, Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale, and Barbie: A Fairy Secret have been reused, such as Spencer from A Fashion Fairytale and the fairy shop assistant from A Fairy Secret.
The Nutcracker appears in the palace basement.
Isla hums a bit of "Can You Keep A Secret".
There is a reference to The Wizard of Oz when Grace clicks the heels of Blair's pumps.:)
Maryium Rizwan
Special thanks to OlIVIA oF wiki and of fan-pop
