Barbie: Star Light Adventure is a Barbie movie that was released on August 29, 2016. It is preceded by Barbie Spy Squad and followed by Barbie And Her Sisters In A Puppy Chase.
Barbie lives with her father and her flying pet, Pupcorn, on the idyllic planet of Para-Den. Using her ability to move things with her mind, she lives happily, until one day the stars across the galaxy begin to flicker and fade. If nothing is done, the stars will go out for good, and Barbie is recruited by King Constantine to help reignite the stars before it's too late.
Joined by the champion hoverboarder Sal-Lee, the expert pilot Leo, and the psychic twins Kareena and Sheena, Barbie must learn to work with others, when to stand up for herself, and when to not make assumptions before the stars go out for good.
This movie contains examples of:
- All Animals Are Dogs: Played with. Barbie speculates on whether Pupcorn will transform into a dog once he "pops", and teaches him to fetch, but he looks and acts more like a cat. Pupcorn eventually turns into a cat.
- Always Someone Better: Barbie views Sal-Lee as this in regards to hoverboarding.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Everyone aside from Barbie, her father, King Constantine, Prince Leo and Sal-Lee.
- Award-Bait Song: "Firefly" and "Shooting Star".
- Big Eater: Leo, who spends most of the film either eating or mentioning food in some way.
- Classical Music Is Boring: Barbie and Prince Leo, at the ball, compare the classical music background (Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker) to a lullaby. Barbie still try to find rhythm in the tune, and soon, she does modern dancing instead of waltz, infuriating the king.
- Crash-Into Hello: How Barbie and Prince Leo meet.
- Dance Party Ending: The movie ends with everyone dancing.
- Defrosting Ice King: King Constantine grows nicer as the film progresses and Barbie proves her worth.
- Expressive Hair: Barbie has a pink streak in her hair that fluctuates in intensity depending on how sure of herself she feels, even disappearing entirely when the opposite is true.
- Fake-Out Opening: The opening starts by saying a destined leader would stop the stars from going out... then points out that it's not King Constantine.
- Friend to All Living Things: Barbie is friends with all animals, and it becomes a crucial plot point later on.
- Good Parents: Barbie's mother is deceased, but her father also dispenses words of wisdom and pep talks, both from his wife and on his own.
- Gratuitous Princess: King Constantine declares Barbie a princess sometime between the completion of the mission and the ending for no real reason other than to be a princess.
- Gravity Master: Sheena can make things heavy, while Kareena makes things light.
- Green Aesop: A tie-in comic revolved around protecting Para-Den's natural beauty, which was under threat of being excavated to find gems that were actually seeds.
- Honorary Princess: The king admires Barbie for being The Chosen One of the prophecy, and when she manages to make the stars dance again, he declares her the princess of stars.
- Hover Board: Barbie and her friends use hover boards to get around.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Barbie is a huge fan of Sal-Lee's hoverboard skills.
- Left Hanging: Barbie's powers, Sal-Lee's speed, the identity of the narrator, and several other things are never explained by the film's conclusion.
- The Lifestream: When Barbie focuses her powers she can sense the life energy around her, helping her know where and how to move things.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Wide eyed, idealist Barbie and the more grounded and realistic Sal-Lee.
- Magic Music: Barbie controls her telekinesis via humming.
- Meet Cute: Barbie and Leo literally bump into each other.
- Memento MacGuffin: Barbie's musical locket contains an image of her and her mother and is used/referenced several times when Barbie is in distress to help guide her.
- Mind over Matter: Barbie's power is telekinesis, which is aided by focusing her mind.
- Missing Mom: Parents for the main characters are mostly missing, but only Barbie's mother is outright stated to be dead.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The team is sent on a trial mission to capture a Starlian creature which they accomplish but Barbie, who was rebuffed when asking why they were capturing it and thinking the king only wants it for his zoo, sets him free. It turns out the creature was needed to protect the team from magnetic fields they would encounter on their journey to the center of the universe. The King immediately dismisses them for it. only temporarily though
- The Night That Never Ends: Without any stars, this will happen to the entire universe if they're not stopped from going out.
- No Antagonist: This is the second Barbie movie to not have a villain, the first being A Perfect Christmas.
- No Name Given: Barbie's mother is never given a name and her father is just listed as 'dad' in the credits.
- No-Paper Future: Implied when Barbie finds a note from her father and is surprised that it's paper.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Barbie has a variant in that her formal wear gown is temporarily recreated during the finale when dancing with the stars of the universe.
- Poor Communication Kills: The king's refusal to tell Barbie what he wants the Starlian for leads to Barbie thinking he just wants it for his private zoo and freeing it; in actuality, he wanted to use it to protect the team from magnetic fields they might encounter. He calls Barbie out on letting it go and dismisses her from the team, and she calls him out for not telling them what he actually needed it for.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: King Constantine and Prince Leo certainly qualify. Barbie qualifies for this retroactively due to King Constantine declaring her a princess sometime between the completion of the mission and the finale ending.
- Scenery Porn:
- The trailer and movie are gorgeous, especially the forest and sky scenes.
- The castle of King Constantine is this and not enough can be said about the stars and galaxy itself even while dimmed.
- Science Fantasy: While the setting is a futuristic galaxy, the story beats are that of a fantasy quest. Prophecy seems to be accepted fact, inexplicable powers are accepted, and Barbie's abilities are pretty clearly magical in nature.
- Ship Tease: With Barbie and Leo, who share a small duet section and a few flirty glances but nothing more.
- The Chosen One: Three guesses as to who, but why she is this is never explained.
- The Stars Are Going Out: This prompts Barbie's search to find out what's making them stop.
- Superpowerful Genetics: It's implied Barbie inherited her gift with animals and ability to focus and sense the lifestream from her mother, who also had the gift.
- Team Pet: Pupcorn is Barbie's pet originally but soon grows to be loved by the entire team.
- Telekinesis: Barbie can use this, via humming, to move objects.
- Twin Telepathy: Literally. Kareena and Sheena are twins and can communicate telepathically.
- Vague Age: Due to their height compared to all the adults it's easy to assume they are all teenagers but it's never stated outright how old any of the assembled team are. Instead we simply know that they are younger than the king and Barbie's dad.
