"You never know what you can do unless you try."
Barbie and the Secret Door is a Barbie movie released in September 2014. The movie features 7 original songs and is billed as "The Ultimate Fairytale Musical".
Barbie stars as Alexa, a shy princess who would rather read than perform her royal duties. One day, Alexa discovers a secret door in the royal garden that leads to Zinnia, a magical world full of colorful creatures—but one also under threat.
Romy and Nori, a mermaid and fairy, explain that the spoiled princess Malucia is trying to take all the magic in the land, as she doesn't have any of her own. When Alexa discovers her own magic powers, channeled through a wand, she's recruited to stop Malucia—but first she'll have to believe in herself!
The teaser can be seen here
and the trailer can be seen here.
This movie contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Human: Malucia and her unnamed parents look mostly human, but have odd hair colors. And considering they rule a Magical Land of fantastic creatures, it's hard to say.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Malucia's scepter is her main source of power over others, as she has no magic of her own.
- Another Dimension: The Secret Door leads to the world of Zinnia, a kingdom full of magic.
- Award-Bait Song: "If I Had Magic."
- Bad Boss: Malucia is not kind to her servants at all, much less her subjects.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Malucia's trog guardian, Grodlin. He's supposed to be looking after her while her parents are gone, but can't rein her in.
- Batman Gambit: Malucia employs one in her bid to capture the Queen Unicorn. She lets Nola go and tell the others that she's planning to capture the unicorn so they'll move her, but is secretly lying in wait to ambush them.
- Big Bad: Malucia rules the magic kingdom of Zinnia and has implike servants named trogs who attend to her, as well as sniffers who sniff out magic for her to drain.
- Big "NO!": Malucia has one as soon as her scepter explodes and she's sent flying by it, losing all the magic she took from Zinnia to keep for herself.
- Bookworm: Alexa would rather read than socialize, imagining herself in the books.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Malucia is a little brat who wants all of Zinnia's magic for herself.
- Brought Down to Normal: Malucia drained Romy and Nori's magic, turning them into humans.
- Captured on Purpose: Alexa, Romy, and Nori surrender to Malucia's guards in order to be brought before her.
- The Chosen One: Romy and Nori believe Alexa is the only one able to stop Malucia.
- Co-Dragons: Malucia has Whiff and Sniff, two Sniffers who can sniff out the scent of magic.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Alexa's magic is pink and rainbow-colored, while Malucia's is blue and a sickly green.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Alexa has the chance to return to her world after fleeing from Malucia, but her empathy and concern for Romy and Nori allows her to stay and help them.
- Creepy Child: Malucia has a magic-draining scepter and won't hesitate to use it.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Malucia's singing is so loud and high-pitched it shatters Grodlin's glasses while he's busy covering his ears.
- Dance Party Ending: Alexa returns to her world just in time for the ball. After dancing classically for a while, she turns it into a dance party.
- De-power: Malucia's magic-draining scepter takes away any source of magic from its victims, leaving fairies wingless, mermaids tailless, and unicorns hornless.
- Defeat Means Menial Labor: Malucia is forced by Grodlin to clean up the mess she made after she loses her scepter.
- Doting Parent: Malucia's parents spoil her rotten and let her do whatever she wants. In the ending, they decide giving her a present from their trip is more important than dealing with the mess she made.
- Enfant Terrible: Malucia, who plans to take over the world at age 10 and uses a magic-draining scepter to scary effect.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: At the start of the movie, Alexa has her hair in a Prim and Proper Bun, which shows her shyness. Near the end of the movie, her hair falls down with her transformation, showing she's finally ready to face anything.
- Explosive Overclocking: This is how Malucia is defeated. Alexa lets her absorb all of her magic until the scepter explodes.
- Face Plant: Nori has trouble walking since she's used to having a mermaid tail, and falls flat on her face when trying to take a step.
- Floating Platforms: Alexa, Romy, Nori, and Malucia use floating platforms to get around Zinnia. They float via magic.
- Girlish Pigtails: Malucia has a huge pair of purple pigtails to highlight her femininity.
- Goth Spirals: While the world of Zinnia is bright and cheery, the kingdom has a lot of spirals in its architecture, cliff designs, and plant life.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Malucia is jealous of others' magic since she was born without it, so she uses her scepter to steal it.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: During her duel with Alexa, Malucia levitates the trogs with magic and throws them at Alexa.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Right here. Special mention goes to the "Alexa opens the door" gags.
- "I Am" Song: The first version of "What's Gonna Happen" is about how Alexa would rather stay in her room and read.
- "I Want" Song: Malucia's song, "I Want It All," is about how she wants all of the magic in Zinnia and plans to catch the unicorns to get what she wants.
- It's All About Me: Malucia holds a huge party in honor of herself and is adamant that she be the only princess allowed to have magic.
- Karma Houdini: After trying to drain all the magic in Zinnia, and nearly taking over the kingdom, Malucia's only punishment is losing her scepter and being forced to clean up the mess she made by Grodlin before she can get the big present her parents have brought her. The king and queen even decide that giving her the present is more important than punishing her!
- Kneel Before Zod: Malucia mentions this in her song.You see this crown? It means bow down.
- Lady Land: Sort of. Male creatures such as sniffers exist, but the kingdom is mostly populated by fairies and mermaids, who are all exclusively female. There are so few men in the kingdom that at one point Alexa's mermaid friend asks "What's a boy?"
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: Alexa has the opportunity to return to her world after escaping from Malucia, but the bond she formed with her friends makes her stay.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Alexa's hair becomes loose after her transformation, probably to show she's finally more confident in herself.
- Living MacGuffin: The Queen Unicorn, the most powerful magical creature in Zinnia. Malucia is desperate to capture her and drain her magic.
- Magical Land: Zinnia is this.
- Magic Wand: Both Alexa and Malucia have magic wands.
- Make My Monster Grow: At the climax, Malucia grows gigantic to deal with Alexa.
- Malevolent Mugshot: Malucia puts her face on a lot of things, and has a giant statue of herself.
- Mana Drain: Malucia's magic scepter drains others' magic.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Princess Malucia is the only one in Zinnia who doesn't have innate magic.
- The Musical: The movie features 7 original songs.
- Near-Villain Victory: Malucia successfully steals all of Zinnia's magic, and drains all of Alexa's magic just before her scepter explodes.
- Oh, Crap!: Malucia has one the moment she realizes her scepter is about to burst from overloading on absorbing Alexa's magic, leading to a Big "NO!" as she's sent flying by the blast right back into her throne, stunning and defeating her.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When Malucia's parents arrive, they assume correctly that Malucia's tried to take over Zinnia again. The previous attempts are not expounded upon.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Seventeen-year-old Alexa must contend with ten-year-old Malucia.
- Only the Chosen May Ride: Alexa is the only one allowed to ride the Queen Unicorn.
- Our Founder: Malucia has a golden statue of herself, and puts a foam hand on it to cheer about her inevitable triumph.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Alexa has a beautiful one.
- The Power of Friendship: Alexa learns that friendship is more precious than magic.
- Power Trio: A fairy, a mermaid, and a human princess must work together.
- Princesses Rule: Played with in that Malucia is only running the kingdom while her parents are away.
- Reality Warper: Among other things, Alexa's magic and Malucia's magic let them create things out of thin air and change others' appearances.
- Royal Brat: Malucia is a bratty princess who wants all of the magic for herself.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Nola, a fairy who Malucia drains magic from to show she's evil and to trick her into showing her where the Queen Unicorn hides.
- Save Both Worlds: The girls must work together to save every realm's magic.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Alexa runs towards the magic tunnel to her world after escaping Malucia, but she soon reconsiders.
- Sickly Green Glow: When Malucia drains others' magic it gains a sickly green color as it's being absorbed into her scepter.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: There's a prince from a neighboring kingdom, but no mention of him is made in the trailer or the synopsis.
- Sizeshifter: The more magic Malucia's scepter drains, the larger its headpiece becomes.
- Shrinking Violet: Alexa starts out as this, preferring not to socialize at all.
- Spoiled Brat: Malucia, who wants all the magic for herself.I want it all/I want it now!/What I want is really very small/I want it all!
- Sugar Apocalypse: See how bright and cheerful Zinnia looks? It doesn't stay that way when Malucia drains the entire land of magic.
- Sugar Bowl: Zinnia. It's a magical land full of fairies, unicorns, and mermaids, and its entire color palette is very bright and almost like candy. This is subverted when Malucia drains the entire land of its magic, though.
- Take Over the World: Malucia plans to take over Zinnia while her parents are away.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Averted for the first time in the series. Malucia is the first Barbie villain to get her own doll◊. She also features in other merchandise.
- Transformation Sequence: Alexa gets one when all the magic of Zinnia transfers to her. Also Nori and Romy when they get back their wings and tail respectively.
- Triumphant Reprise:
- Alexa sings a modified reprise of "If I Had Magic" as she tries out her magic wand throughout Zinnia. Her friends sing one of their own after all the magic is returned.
- Alexa also reprises "What's Gonna Happen" in an upbeat manner as she turns the ball into a dance party and enjoys being herself.
- Un-Sorcerer: Malucia is the only person in the land without innate magic.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Malucia wears a lot of makeup, and her lipstick in particular looks very creepy since she's a little girl.
- Villain Song: Malucia has "I Want it All."
- Wizard Duel: Alexa and Malucia get into a duel with their magic wands.
- Welcoming Song: Romy and Nori sing "You're Here" as they welcome Alexa to Zinnia and beg her to help the kingdom get its magic back.
- World-Healing Wave: Alexa restoring magic to Zinnia brings the color and magic back to the entire land.
You never know what you can do unless you try.
— Barbie
