Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper

Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper
Directed by	William Lau
Written by	Cliff Ruby Elana Lesser
Produced by	Jesyca C. Durchin Jennifer Twiner McCarron
Starring	Kelly Sheridan Mark Hildreth Alessandro Juliani Ian James Corlett Kathleen Barr Martin Short
Narrated by	Kelly Sheridan
Edited by	Greg Richardson
Music by	Arnie Roth
Production companies	Mainframe Entertainment Mattel Entertainment
Distributed by	Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release date	September 28, 2004 (2004-09-28)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English

Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper is a 2004 direct-to-video computer animated Barbie film, and the first musical in the Barbie film series. It is directed by William Lau and stars the voice of Kelly Sheridan, who has been voicing Barbie in all the CGI films to date, as both Anneliese and Erika. The story is loosely inspired by the Mark Twain novel The Prince and the Pauper, but it is unrelated to the 1939 film The Princess and the Pauper. It is the first movie not to be told by Barbie, but narrated by her.

Songs for the film are written by Amy Powers, Megan Cavallari and Rob Hudnut, who also executive produced the film.

Plot

In an unnamed kingdom, a blonde princess and a brunette pauper are born simultaneously and grow up unaware that their facial features are identical to each other. The princess, Anneliese, craves freedom from her royal duties, especially when she is informed by her widowed mother, Queen Genevieve, that she must marry the wealthy king of a nearby kingdom because their own royal treasury is nearly bankrupt. The Pauper, Erika, craves a different sort of freedom as she is an indentured servant at the Madam Carp's Dress Emporium to work off her parents' debt, but dreams of becoming a singer.

Unbeknownst to the royal family, the royal advisor Preminger is responsible for their near-bankruptcy. His minions Nick and Nack have been stealing gold from the royal mines for some time, which is what led Queen Genevieve to believe she is nearly bankrupt. Preminger plans to announce his newfound wealth to Queen Genevieve, which he believes will allow him to marry Princess Anneliese. When Preminger learns that Queen Genevieve has approached King Dominick of Dulcenia to marry Anneliese, he decides a change of plan is in order. Preminger orders Nick and Nack to kidnap Anneliese, so that Preminger can stage his "rescuing" her, hoping that Queen Genevieve will be so happy that she will give him Anneliese's hand in marriage.

Though she agrees to marry Dominick out of duty, Anneliese and her tutor, Julian, are in love with one another, though they are unaware of each other's feelings. To cheer her up, Julian decides to take Anneliese into town for a last taste of freedom. The princess crosses paths with Erika and the girls are shocked to see how identical they are, the only differences between them being their hair colour and the crown-shaped birthmark on Anneliese's right shoulder. The girls quickly become friends as do their cats, Serafina and Wolfie.

On the same night, Anneliese is kidnapped and a fake letter is left on her desk stating Anneliese "ran away" to avoid marrying King Dominick. Julian suspects she was kidnapped by Preminger, so he asks Erika to impersonate as the princess until he can rescue the real Anneliese. Erika agrees to the temporary ruse to help her friends, and surprises Preminger when she arrives to welcome King Dominick. Dominick and Erika fall in love, despite Erika's fear of being thrown into prison when revealed that she is an imposter.

Anneliese manages to escape from Nick and Nack, but is turned away from the palace by a guard who believes "Anneliese" is in the palace with King Dominick and the Queen. Madam Carp mistakes Anneliese for Erika and locks the princess up in the Dress Emporium. Suspicious of Erika's impersonation, Preminger finds that Anneliese has escaped from the cabin where she was held captive. Julian, who had followed Preminger, is captured and imprisoned in a mine. When Preminger learns that Anneliese is at the Dress Emporium, he traps her in the gold mines with Julian.

Upon returning to the castle, Preminger exposes Erika as a fraud and claims that she had conspired with Julian to kill and replace the real princess. Erika, unable to prove her good intentions,is locked away in a small cell by the queen. After convincing everyone that the princess is dead, Preminger persuades Queen Genevieve to marry him to save the kingdom, who agrees only because she cannot see any other option. Erika manages to escape from her cell and bumps into Dominick, who reveals that he doesn't believe that Preminger is telling the truth. Elsewhere, Anneliese and Julian confess their love for each other and work together to escape the mines.

At the queen's wedding, Anneliese arrives in time to stop the marriage and reveals Preminger's deceit. When he tries to flee on horseback, his horse sends him flying into the wedding food and he is arrested. After confessing to her mother that she loves Julian and does not wish to marry King Dominick, Anneliese presents to the queen a solution to the kingdom's gold shortage: the rocks discarded by the miners actually hold amethysts and the mine is full of them.

Dominick confesses to loving Erika for who she is and if she should choose to, he would be willing to marry her. Erika, freed from her debt to Madam Carp thanks to Anneliese, chooses not to accept marriage just yet and achieves her dream of being able to sing around the world. After several months, she realizes that the place she would really like to sing is among her friends. She returns marries Dominick while Anneliese marries Julian in a double wedding, along with Wolfie and Serafina.

Soundtrack

This film is the first musical in the series of Barbie CGI films. The entire soundtrack (including popular duets and the opening orchestral theme) can be found on the "Barbie Sings! The Princess Movie Song Collection" CD, released by Mattel in 2004.

The songs in the film are, in chronological order, as follows.

1. Free - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika) & Melissa Lyons (Anneliese)
2. How Can I Refuse? - Performed by Martin Short (Preminger)
3. Written in Your Heart (opening) - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika)
4. I am a Girl Like You - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika) & Melissa Lyons (Anneliese)
5. To be a Princess - Performed by Alessandro Juliani (Julian) & Julie Stevens (Erika)
6. The Cat's Meow - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika)
7. If You Love Me for Me - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika) & Mark Luna (Dominick)
8. Written in Your Heart - Performed by Julie Stevens (Erika) & Melissa Lyons (Anneliese)
9. I'm on My Way - Performed by Sara Niemietz

Video game

For Gameboy Advance exists a jump 'n run video game of the same name. The plot closely follows the general plot of the movie and players must thwart Preminger's attempt to take over the kingdom by marrying Anneliese. Players control four characters: Anneliese, Erika, Serafina, and Wolfie in four levels with four stages and a minor boss-level each to undo the damage. They operate as pairs in the different stages of the levels: the two girls, the two pets, Anneliese with Serafina and Erika with Wolfie - each character has its special ability. The boss-levels are fought by one character alone and when all levels are completed, every character once fights Preminger until he's defeated. Progress is saved with a password, the player has an infinite number of lives.

External links

• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper at IMDb
• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper at AllMovie