Barbie and the Diamond Castle [DVD]

This latest Barbie video, a cross between a fairytale fantasy and a "Best Friends" story, is one of the more original films Mattel have produced and my seven-year old children thoroughly enjoyed it.

It begins with Barbie and Teresa practicing a guitar duet when a smaller girl bursts in having just had a terrible row with her best friend. Barbie starts to tell her a story of two friends who were put in great danger because each thought her friend had betrayed her, but their friendship won out in the end ...

The friends concerned, Liana and Alexa, share everything, including their love of music. One day they are given a magic mirror - and find a girl, Melody, magically hiding inside it.

Melody is an apprentice to the three muses who use the magical "Diamond castle" to inspire and spread music through the land. Unfortunately one of the muses, Lydia, wants to be the sole ruler of music. With the aid of her magical flute and an evil winged serpent called Slyder, Lydia has turned her fellow muses to stone. Melody has the secret key to the Diamond castle, so Lydia and Slyder are searching for her.

Alexa and Liana set out to help Melody rescue the petrified muses and overthrow Lydia - they will face dangers and deception along the way.

The story is one of friendship rather than romance, but "Ken" makes an appearance as Ian and Jeremy, a pair of rascally but warm-hearted twins who are travelling musicians. Ian and Jeremy share the role of comic relief with two adorable puppies, Sparkles and Lily: the twins have been given some quite amusing dialogue with plenty of ironic banter, probably intended to keep adults who are watching the film with their offspring amused.

Before we first rented one of the Barbie videos for my daughter, I was expecting them to be trite, over-commercialised, over-sugary and over here. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, they do have a lot of commercial spin-offs and a high saccarine count, but the quality of the Barbie films we have subsequently bought or rented, including "The Diamond Castle" was significantly higher than I would have originally expected, and the quality has kept rising as each successive Barbie film seems to be more beautifully made than the last. They have not just kept my children engrossed for hours - including my son as well as my daughter - but introduced them to some beautiful stories and truly wonderful music.

Prsonally I love classical music and want my children to have the opportunity to learn to appreciate it. So it was a big positive for me when I was listening to CDs of classics such as Beethoven's pastoral symphony, or "The Queen of the Night's aria" from Mozart's magic flute, and my daughter, then aged five, recognised the music, and correctly remembered which Barbie film had used it. ("Magic of Pegasus" and "Mermaidia" respectively.)

With one exception the soundtrack to "The Diamond Castle" isn't taken from the classics, the songs in the musical are all modern. The exception is a pastiche of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" which plays when the castle finally appears near the climax of the film. The orchestral accompaniment was recorded by a top rank classical orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. In my opinion Arnie Roth, who conducted the orchestra and co wrote the music with David Blamire, did a good job of it - almost as good the music he wrote for "The Princess and the Pauper" which has the best soundtrack of those Barbie films which have new music rather than scores taken from the classics.

Those people who enjoy criticising what the Barbie franchise represents will not have much difficulty finding things in this production to sneer at. If you, or more importantly your kids, are allergic to an excess of twee sweetness, then this film and the Barbie videos generally may not be for them.

And the female characters are all on the thin side of plausibility: I'm not worried that watching this is going to give my own daughter anorexia as she likes food too much and has a good sense of the difference between fantasy and reality. However, if you are worried that your children may be forming an unrealistic idea about how thin a healthy female body shape is, it is not quite impossible that this film may contribute to it.

Barbie is often accused of reinforcing gender stereotyping, but I don't think the charge is entirely fair, and less so for this film than most of the others. Insofar as gender stereotypes are present in "The Diamond Castle" the film appears to be taking the mickey out of them.

On the plus side: it is beautifully made, it will hold the attention of most small children for long enough for the typical exhausted parent to clear the mess they have made in several rooms of the house or collapse for an hour's rest after doing so.

Or alternatively, if you want to watch it with your children, there are a fair number of more sophisticated jokes thrown in to keep you amused.

Another great Barbie film and addition to the collection, the songs were quite poppy and very catchy and as usual there is a clear moral to the story. My daughter loved it and can't wait for Christmas Carol to come out!

I recorded this movie on Sky+ for my little girl, and she absolutely loved it, I must say so did I.

The songs and music are really good.

In the box you get a "Best Friends" picture frame, which my daughter has put to good use, with a pic of her and her friend.

A lot of the time kids will watch a DVD once and then get bored, but we have watched this so many times now, my dadughter, wife and I practically know the words by heart.

if you are looking for a film to keep the kids quiet for an hour or so, you wont go to far wrong with this.