Twenty-three minutes of animated pink. And it is still glorious.
In 2013, Barbie's web series Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse spawned a series of animated TV specials.
The first special, simply titled Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, aired on Nickelodeon on September 1, 2013. It includes two shorts: "Trapped in the Dreamhouse" and "Perf Pool Party". Each runs 10 minutes, even longer than the original webisodes.
The second special, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse-The Amaze Chase, premiered on Nickelodeon on October 5, 2014. The plot involves Barbie and her friends competing on a reality show similar to The Amazing Race. It marks the first Life in the Dreamhouse special with a 23 minute runtime, the longest of any installment so far.
The third special, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse-Sisters' Fun Day, premiered on Netflix on May 1, 2015. In it, Barbie tries to balance celebrating Sisters' Fun Day with her younger sisters with directing a Fifth Harmony music video.
"Perf Pool Party" became available on DVD and Blu-Ray as a bonus feature for Barbie: The Pearl Princess.
The specials contain examples of:
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All Specials
- Confession Cam: This staple of the web series passed over into the specials.
- Shout-Out: See ShoutOut.Barbie Life In The Dreamhouse
Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Closet turns evil again in "Trapped in the Dreamhouse", thanks to Raquelle pushing the Evil button.
- Air-Vent Passageway: How Barbie, Midge, and Summer escape the closet.
- Alliterative Title: "Perf Pool Party"
- Banister Slide: Barbie and Summer slide down a railing in order to outrun a giant Barbie head, with Midge lagging behind.
- Beach Episode: Pool variant: "Perf Pool Party", of course.
- Breather Episode: "Trapped in the Dreamhouse" and "Perf Pool Party" aired on TV in that order. The second has a simpler story than the first.
- Chekhov's Gun: The butterfly pendant that Barbie considers bringing to Teresa's fashion show proves useful in finding the location of the Dreamhouse's CPU.
- Continuity Nod:
- The friendly bear from "Oh, How Campy Too" makes an appearance eating sherbet in the Dreamhouse freezer.
- Barbie and Skipper have this exchange after the water slide comes in the mail, calling back to "Accidentally on Porpoise":
Barbie: Finally, something to give the Dreamhouse a little flair!
Skipper: You know you're the only person in the world with an indoor dolphin aquarium, right?
(pan to dolphin aquarium standing in the foyer)- Raquelle proclaims that she must steal Barbie's spotlight at the pool party, because Barbie stole Raquelle's spotlight at a previous party, possibly the one from "Party Foul".
- Crazy-Prepared: Ken always carries blueprints of the Dreamhouse, in case someone needs help navigating it. As well as a second Dreamhouse.
- Easily Forgiven: After all the torment Closet causes in "Trapped in the Dreamhouse", Barbie still lets him stay with them. She explains that she understands that he acted that way not out of his free will, but because someone pushed his Evil button.
- Fashion Show: Teresa plans one in "Trapped in the Dreamhouse".
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: Raquelle's plan to steal Barbie's spotlight at Teresa's fashion show involves locking Barbie in the Dreamhouse. Unfortunately, Raquelle gets locked in as well.
- Human Popsicle: Raquelle becomes one after she, Skipper, and Stacie try to escape through the freezer.
- I Broke a Nail:Raquelle: I'm trapped! I'm gonna die here! Even worse, one of my color-change nails is chipped!
- Inventional Wisdom: No one remembers why Closet has an Evil button.
- Lethal Chef: Subverted with Chelsea, in a manner similar to "Happy Birthday, Chelsea". She stuffs random food in the microwave, and out come hot dogs with buns and mustard.
- Never Say "Die": Averted on two instances, Raquelle cries that she is going to die in the locked dreamhouse and at the end of the segment Ken points out the closet could have killed Barbie.
- No Ending: Some prints of "Trapped in the Dreamhouse" leave out Barbie forgiving Closet, Ken attempting to remove the Evil button, and Ryan modeling for his cardboard standees.
- Running Gag:
- "Trapped in the Dreamhouse" has a number of instances in which characters wish the Dreamhouse had a second elevator. When Ken makes Barbie a new Dreamhouse, he makes sure to add one.
- In "Perf Pool Party," Ryan continuously attempts to successfully dive into the water.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: When Summer tries to help Barbie find the Dreamhouse's CPU, she sticks her head into a doorway, then pops out of another door on the opposite side of the hallway.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: Raquelle and Ryan have one in "Trapped in the Dreamhouse", with Raquelle demonstrating the ability to reach onto Ryan's side of the screen.
- Spider-Sense: Ken can detect from a distance if Barbie needs help with something.
- Terrified of Germs: At Barbie's pool party, Midge spends more time testing the pH balance of the water than swimming.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Ryan becomes one after the new water slide flings him into the sky.
- We Can Rule Together: An offer Closet makes to Barbie in "Trapped in the Dreamhouse":What's gotten into me? Trillions of terabytes of fashion knowledge. More than enough to become the greatest fashion designer ever. Join me and together we can rule the fashion galaxy.
- Weight and Switch: Barbie tries this to remove the Dreamhouse's CPU. She grabs a Bag of Holding, pulls a guitar, an anvil, and a lamp out of it, then tries to slide the bag onto the CPU's platform. The bag proves heavier than the CPU, causing a giant Barbie styling head to pursue Barbie, Midge, and Summer.
The Amaze Chase
- The Big Race: The teams must travel to various landmarks and complete four tasks in order to win the trophy.
- Cool Car: From the inside, Barbie's camper looks almost nice as the Dreamhouse foyer. It also has a jacuzzi, which can detach into its own car.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: One of the challenges takes place at Old Fabful, a geyser that spurts glitter. Another occurs at Sequin Falls, a waterfall made of sequins.
- Face–Heel Turn: Skipper quits Barbie's team for Raquelle's after accusing Barbie of snooping in her diary, even though Barbie didn't mean to say the password.
- Pool Scene: When Barbie allows losers of The Amaze Chase to hang out in her camper's jacuzzi until she can drive them home.
- Rushmore Refacement: Raquelle vandalizes Mount Barmore, Barbie's equivalent of Mount Rushmore.
Sisters' Fun Day
- Fangirls: Barbie's sisters and Raquelle love Fifth Harmony.
- Fictional Holiday: Sisters' Fun Day
- Foreshadowing: When Barbie tells Ken that she needs to be in two places at once, Ken laments that there's no time to clone Barbie. Mattel later released a three-part webisode, "Send in the Clones", in which chaos ensues after Ken creates a robot Barbie clone.
- Guest Star: Fifth Harmony
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Whenever Barbie needs to go back to the set of the music video, she tells her sister that she needs to go address a ridiculous disaster at the mall. On her way to the set, she discovers that the disaster came true.
- Kids Driving Cars: Chelsea briefly ends up driving Barbie's car after one of the flipquakes switches everyone around. After a few more flipquakes (including ones where the pets and Fifth Harmony are there instead of the sisters), she returns her to her original position in the car pouting.
- One-Man Band: Ken becomes one to spend time with Skipper.
- Team Spirit: To resolve the "flip-quakes", Barbie and her sisters approach the mountain holding the giant batteries that power their world, and work together to push a loose battery back into place. Barbie even gives an overly-dramatic speech about the importance of teamwork.
- Uninstallment: Barbie's website doesn't assign Sisters' Fun Day a number, like it has the other specials and webisodes. During its temporary addition to the website, the list made it seem like the 70th episode, but that number instead went to "Sidewalk Showdown", the first webisode Mattel posted after adding Sisters' Fun Day to the site.
- When You Coming Home, Sis?: Barbies' sisters become none too happy about how often she leaves them for work, until she arranges for them to attend the next Fifth Harmony concert.
