Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
Dec 16, 2000Anime Space Opera
Classic anime space opera adventure made not long after Star Wars and filled with moments of glorious visual poetry including the conceptually absurd image of a spacegoing train
Kathleen Barr
Barbie in The Nutcracker (2001)
Dec 20, 2009Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The first in a long series of animated films based on Mattel's girl's doll Barbie. This casts Barbie as a lead in an adaptation of The Nutcracker ballet, although is largely routine
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Mar 7, 2005Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The third animated film based on the popular girl's doll Barbie. This places Barbie into Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake in an okay telling, if one that suffers from the usual limited animation of Mainframe's early films
Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper (2004)
Jul 17, 2009Animation/Barbie Fairytale
Here the Barbie films turn to Mark Twain's classic (non-fantasy) tale of rags and riches and spins it as a fairytale This has the same blank, plastic style of the early Barbie films and is otherwise bland
Barbie Fairytopia (2004)
May 2, 2005Animation/Land of Fairies
The previous Barbie animated films had adapted various fairytales but this casts her as a fairy in a magical kingdom – simplistic, but one of the most colourfully animated of Mainframe's Barbie films
Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006)
Dec 31, 2015Animation/Barbie Fairytale
Another animated Barbie film that leaves you quite certain that every problem in life can be solved with a positive upbeat ditty
Barbie Mermaidia (2006)
Oct 18, 2018Animation/Fairy Barbie Visits the Mermaid Kingdom
Seventh of the animated Barbie films, spinoff of the earlier Barbie Fairytopia, all delivered in sugary upbeat sentiments amid pastel colour schemes that would look eye-poppingly psychedelic if one were high
Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow (2007)
Sep 9, 2007Animation/Land of Fairies
Sequel to the earlier Barbie animated film Barbie Fairytopia. Extremely colourful but essentially a fantasy version of a teenage girl high school drama that quickly slips into pre-packaged formula
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007)
Mar 7, 2009Immortal Combat/Anime
The Highlander series conducts an anime variant on the franchise, a not uninteresting item set in a post-holocaust future co-directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Ninja Scroll fame who adds some highly stylised moves
Barbie & the Diamond Castle (2008)
Jan 11, 2009Animation/Barbie Fairytale
One of the first of Mainframe's animated Barbie films, this creates a fairytale where reasonable effort gone into the animation and characters
Barbie Mariposa (2008)
Dec 14, 2008Animation/Land of Fairies
Another of Mainframe's interminable Barbie films that soon slip into a sameness. This is at least directed with a visual sweep
Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009)
Feb 27, 2014Animation/Barbie Swashbuckler
Alexandre Dumas's classic adventure story is turned into an animated vehicle for Barbie with genders reversed and an absurdly upbeat Girls Can Do Anything vibe. Being a kid's film, the girl Musketeers are no longer allowed to wield swords
Barbie Presents Thumbelina (2009)
Sep 12, 2009Animation/Barbie Fairytale
Another animated Barbie film, this appropriate the name of the Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale and makes it now about a fairy who preaches conservation. As these films go, this is one of the better made and comes with quite a degree of colour