Barbie In The 12 Dancing Princesses

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

by Scholastic Inc (Contributor)

Barbie and her eleven sisters discover a magical world where they can dance all night.
A novelization based on the August 2006 Direct-to-Video release.

Barbie, and her eleven sisters, live in a kingdom full of dance and laughter until her greedy aunt moves in and strips the joy from the castle. The princesses are miserable until Barbie discovers a secret entrance to a magical world in their bedroom.

While the princesses are dancing each night in this magical world, their evil aunt is gaining more and more power in the world above. With the help of a cobbler, his bird and lovable cat, Barbie thwarts her evil aunt and restores joy and happiness to the castle.

Genres: Childrens, Fairy Tales

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an okay retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, though I haven't seen the movie to compare how good of a novelisation it is. I do have to wonder, though, how it's Barbie if the main character's "Genevieve"...

Not surprised the queen (the princesses' mother) died, though—twelve kids, including twins AND triplets? Yikes! They seem to have taken cues from Ten Kids, No Pets in naming them alphabetically by age, anyway (though not in the same "first A name from the baby name book, second B name, third C name" order). I do have a few complaints about their choices, though—"Fallon"? Really?

I don't have a lot to say about the story; since it's mostly a retelling, the heavy lifting has already been done, so all that's left is what makes this version different. Well, Genevieve is the only one who gets married, and to their friend the cobbler who made all their dancing shoes—which is fine, since the triplets are still very young, though I don't know how the older sisters feel. The villain is their aunt Rowena, who wants to kill their father the king and get rid of the princesses so she can take power, though I can't remember who the villain is in the "main" version to know how much that changed.

Mostly the screenshots from the movie (I have to assume) look pretty middling. I have to assume it's the same studio(s) who made a lot of straight-to-video drivel marketed to the same audience as the one family I saw in the store once:

Small Boy: *grabs Twilight movie off the shelf*
Dad: That's not a movie for you. That's for older kids... $20? ...okay, we'll get it.

Uh.

Which isn't to suggest THIS book's movie is necessarily bad! ...it's just animated that way. Yuck. Like, the book's cover looks like they took an actual Barbie doll and dressed her up accordingly, which is pretty much what I expected! The stills look like, as someone in college once said, "The corny stuff they make us do in class is what ends up on TV." Pretty middling, minimum effort to get the basic idea stuff.

I get it, believe me I do! I studied 3-D animation for a while (before realising I was terrible at it), so I know it's hard rendering LITERALLY EVERYTHING required to make believable sets and faces and such. It's just that nowadays this is a LOT easier to do than in... 2006, huh. Anyway, easy to buy licensed 3-D assets and such to cut down on time spent setting a scene, just saying.

...that went on for a while.

Recommended for younger readers who like Barbie, I guess. It's *okay* reading it as a not-Barbie fan, possibly confusing to any total newcomer expecting to see Princess Barbie in here.

[Raine Villanueva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Princess Genevieve (played by Barbie) lives in the kingdom with her 11 sisters, each of them has interests to do, but most of the time they loved to dance. When their aunt, Duchess Rowena came, the princesses are trying to learn their proper etiquette and not going to dance or do what they want at all. That night, the princesses discovered a magical world in their bedroom, which they noticed from the book and danced.

Duchess Rowena is willing to become the queen and wants the kingdom to be hers, as Genevieve and her sisters are trying to stop her from the magical world to the castle and save their father, and it ended up with Genevieve's wedding day.

This chapter book is based from the animated movie of the same name, released in 2006.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was lovely! All the pages were rimmed in bright colours! They also had pictures- some slightly edited -from the movie all throughout.

I wish it hadn't simplified the movie, as much, but understand WHY they did for elementary readers! (Even if I wouldn't have done it! dx) No important part of the story was changed! Just... left out/not described completely.

I absolutely love the movie!
This is a good 'chapter book' for younger readers!

[Ashlee Weber]

Going through more of my old books I read. Who didn’t like Barbie as a kid🙃

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a coloring book like this book and also I like it because they have a dreamy land. They dance on 12 stones 3 times and a staircase opens and they can walk down and there's a river and they take a swan boat across the river where they can dance as much as they want. I like that part because they get to dance a lot and I like to dance too.

[Wisty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth be told, I read this book A LOT. It's seriously the perfect pick me up!

I actually just recently realized that it's Barbie IN the 12 Dancing Princesses. All my life, I thought it was Barbie AND the 12 Dancing Princesses. Which is stupid of me, because then it'd be 13 princesses...

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

the twelve princesses found a magic land and kept it a secret.my favorite part was when they found the magical land.Auryn 7yo

[Holly Letson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice story where another Barbie princess falls in love with and marries a poor man.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. Great story that gives you more information than the movie.

[Greisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite characters.5/5