Late Night Video - My AMV?

And a late night it is.  However, tonight's video is very special because it is one I made.  You see, back when I went ahead and watched Barbie and the Diamond Castle, I got the idea to make an AMV featuring Lydia.  It was actually a completely different song, but then I watched an AMV set to "In the Dark of the Night" from Anastasia, and thinking about it later, I realized that it fit Lydia pretty well, too.  This video, however, is only a small bit of the song, since I found that the song may fit the movie, but the movie itself doesn't have the greatest footage to match the lyrics.  At this point, I'm optimistic that I can figure out the rest of it (except for the beginning.  I have no clue how to do that), but just in case I never do, I wanted to get this up.

Late Night Video - Island Princess/PotC mash up

I didn't really intend for this to become a series or anything, but if I'm going to be up this late, I might as well share the videos I come across. This one is a song from Barbie as the Island Princess set to clips from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies:


It cuts off a couple of seconds early.

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).

A Voice Acting Fact Finding Mission

In trying to find out whether or not the Maryoku Yummy series is actually airing anywhere, I saw that a new episode had been posted on AGPbrands.com. And not just any new episode, but a Formatted Episode. That is, instead of just being one of the two 11 minute stories that make up an episode, this one is both stories with bit of filler in the middle *and* the closing credits. Which is very good for me, since I could finally see the list of voice actors. As per usual, the cast is listed without any acknowledgement of who plays who, but I have a few guesses:

Shannon Chan-Kent - Maryoku

Scott McNeil - Shika

Maryke Hendrikse - Ooka

And I was right that Chiara Zanni is in it, thus she must be Hadagi. I based a few of my guesses on watching clips of other things they've done, to pinpoint the voice actor if they hadn't done anything I recognized, which was kind of funny when I was watching Death Note clips of Misa, trying to see if the voice sounded closer to Maryoku or someone else.

Looking up the VAs, I noticed that a few of them were in the same titles over and over again, which means that most of them are in the Ocean Group dubbing company (they do a lot of Viz-related dubs). I also noticed that some of them were in the dub of Powerpuff Girls Z, which surprised me because as far as I'd heard, it hadn't come out over here yet. When it came out in Japan, I watched about the first twelve or so episodes and then just read Moetron for any more info I wanted, since their posts were usually more interesting than watching the series. And it was Moetron that gave me the info I wanted to know: apparently, the dubbed episodes haven't been shown in the states yet, but have aired in Australia and the Philippines. But the real reason I'm bringing this up is because they linked to some clips that have been put up on Youtube, including a clip with the Gangreen Gang, and when I was watching it, I very nearly said "Ace is Ikura!" outloud. And sure enough, it was Andrew Francis. Also, Mark Oliver (Grizzle's VA) is Him:

One more thing. While pinning down whether or not Maryke Hendrikse was a close enough match for Ooka, I watched a little bit of Barbie and the Diamond Castle, mostly the part where her character gives the backstory on the villain of the movie, Lydia, an evil ex-muse who trapped two others, and I saw something that just made no sense to me. You see, in the flashback we see the three of them before Lydia turned evil, but while the other two are wearing simple tunics, Lydia is already decked out in her villainwear. I mean, normally you'd think a muse that turned evil would have an Evil Costume Switch, not be Obviously Evil from the get-go (and to be fair, her flute does get an evil makeover), especially when the other two seem to have some kind of muse dress code going on. Unless this was a gradual thing...first, she traded in her flower headband for thorns to hold her bun, then she started playing death metal songs on her flute, and then came the outfit. All the clues were there, but the other muses refused to see the truth about what was happening to their friend until it was too late. Either that, or since it was Melody's flashback, she just remembers it happening that way ("All the muses were nice, except for Lydia, who was evil. Evil, I tells ya!").

Barbie and --what?!

Okay, look at this image of an upcoming Barbie line, and guess what the accompanying Direct-to-DVD movie is about:

You're thinking something involving fairies or royalty, right? Maybe a "Barbie does the Wizard of Oz" kind of thing? (Those dresses are giving me serious Glinda vibes. And those are obviously wands they're holding, right?) Well, think one more time before scrolling down.

Think you're ready?

Okay, here it is:

What manner of Tomfoolery is this?! Barbie and the Three Musketeers? I just... there aren't words for my feelings toward this. I mean, I haven't felt this kind of indescribable rage toward any of the Barbie direct-to-DVD movies just from seeing the cover. Maybe if they weren't wearing dresses.... Or if the dolls had the funky hats instead of crowns. Or if the doll's swords didn't look so unswordlike. And that cat with a sword? That's even worse, and makes potentially less sense, than the comic relief owl in that French animated version that I keep meaning to upload.

At the moment, there is hardly any information on the actual plot, nor has a release date been set, although a couple of books are slated to come out in August.

SSC - Happily Ever After

Despite seeming like it would come out much later in the game, Happily Ever After was released a few days ago. While I already watched one half of it, it was my first time seeing the first segment, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. A few thoughts:

• Why isn't Ginger Snap part of the cover art? She's in the first story, too!
• Banana Candy just fails in her duties as a page, but then again, it was Brambleberry's fault for not having a mail box in the first place. Or maybe she had one and Banana Candy just didn't look hard enough for it. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised.
• What's up with Tangerina Torta suddenly gaining an accent? She never had one before...
• Why was Brambleberry so pleased that the princess was put to sleep, when she was supposed to vanish forever? I guess she (or the writers) forgot.
• I was hoping the story would somehow end with the prince and Brambleberry becoming a couple. It's obvious she was crushing on him, and why would he eavesdrop on her if he hadn't followed her to the castle in the first place.
• Wouldn't Rainbow Sherbert have been more behooved to cover her tracks with "I was saying 'my best friends'" than "'my best friend and my other best friend?'" If you're not listening for it, it's easy to miss an S, and makes more sense than that other phrase. But then again, this is Rainbow Sherbert we're talking about.
• On the other hand, I'm sort of amused with the lead-in to A Princess Called Rap. Rainbow Sherbet mentions she's thinking about cutting her hair really short, and Angel Cake is all "No! No haircuts ever!" Considering how everyone has gotten superlong hair lately, I'm not surprised she reacted like that. Status quo is god, after all.
• Was it just me, or was the dialogue really stilted in both stories? I mean, not all the time, but a lot of the time it just didn't flow right, like there was a kink in the deliveries or something.

On the note of 'fairy tales retold so they have almost nothing to do with their origins,' I've noticed that the latest Barbie DVD is called Thumbelina, but according to the synopsis, it's really a modern-day environmentalist tale. But the real reason I'm mentioning this is that the main character gets involved with a human girl named, of all things, Makena. Despite the spelling, the trailer reveals it's pronounced just like McKenna. So, I'm just wondering, what is up with that name? I'm tempted to rent the movie when it comes out just so I can make some sort of comparison post. Makena vs. McKenna!

While I've never checked out any of the Barbie DVDs, I did catch the beginning of Mariposa when it aired on Nickelodeon, and I really was sorely tempted to rent it purely for the snark value. I mean, I only caught the first ten minutes or so, but there was so much wallbanging going on, I wanted to share my thoughts. But I never got around to it, and the urge eventually went away.