Barbie and the Diamond Castle

So, my perversest curiosity piqued from the research I did last week, I went ahead and rented Barbie and the Diamond Castle. And I have to say, it was not terrible. In fact, I'd say it was okay, although that didn't stop me from being bothered by certain things:

• The lack of development of the muses. Not really the characters, but their way of life. I mean, all we know about them is that they live in a diamond castle that is supposedly the birthplace of music, and the three muses played music together. Aren't muses supposed to go out and inspire? Maybe that's what the apprentices did, and that's why a diamond would appear on the walls whenever a new songs was created, as proof that the apprentices weren't slacking off.
• And why does everyone assume that Lydia will take over the world if she gets the diamond castle? As far as I can recall (and I only watched it once, so maybe I missed it somewhere), the only thing she wanted to rule was music. And how does ruling music turn the world into "shadows and sorrow," anyway? I'm thinking this plan was not too well thought out. Either that or Melody was being overdramatic.
• Speaking of music, the contemporary songs in a decidedly noncontemporary time was really jarring. I mean, I can forgive the first one, since it was Barbie and Teresa shoehorning the song they were writing into the story, but the others have no excuse. Especially not the twins' one.
• And the dogs dancing in an anthropomorphic manner bugged me so very, very much. I know that the story takes place in a world with all manner of things that aren't real, but other than the dancing, the dogs mostly acted like nonanthropomorphic dogs, which is why it bugged me.
• Why didn't the girls grow any vegetables? Then they could make their own mashed potatoes. And since potatoes grow underground, they wouldn't have gotten ruined by the storm. Same with carrots.
• While Kathleen Barr did a good job as Lydia, I can't help but think there was just something a little off in her portrayal.
  
• And why was Stacie having a fight with Courtney? She's supposed to be Skipper's best friend, not Stacie's! (The only reason I feel this strongly about it, though, is my older sister had the Courtney doll.) Speaking of Skipper, whatever happened to her?

And a couple of observations:

• Looking at the flashback scene again, I can certainly see why Lydia wanted to go off on her own. She was already playing most of the melody of their songs while the other two just plunked away on a lyre and lute. If that's how most of their songs were, it's easy to imagine why she'd think the other two were superflous.
  
• I honestly was hoping that the seeds the muses gave the girls at the end would be vegetable seeds, but no.
• Oh, Scott McNeil, you must love that voice. This is the third time I've heard you use it.
• And listening to Melody is like listening to a slightly less-hyper Ooka every time. I tried to not hear it, but it was impossible (I mean, that's a lot of the reason that I had to watch this movie in the first place, but still).