Barbie in A Christmas Carol


 * "Keep the beauty of Christmas in your heart every day of the year."
 * —Barbie

Barbie in A Christmas Carol is the fourteenth computer-animated film in the Barbie film series. It is a direct-to-DVD film released in 2008. Set during the Christmas period, Barbie plays Eden Starling, a singing diva living in Victorian London who hates Christmas. The story is based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Plot Summary
"Barbie in A Christmas Carol is a heartwarming adaptation of the classic Dickens story filled with cherished Christmas carols, fabulous fashions and lots of laughs! The tale stars Barbie as Eden Starling, the glamorous singing diva of a theatre in Victorian London. Along with her snooty cat, Chuzzlewit, Eden selfishly plans to make all the theatre performers stay and rehearse on Christmas Day! Not even Eden's childhood friend, Catherine, can talk Eden out of her self-centred tantrum.

It's up to three very unusual Christmas Spirits to take Eden on a fantastical holiday journey that will open her heart to the spirit of the season and the joy of giving. Barbie in A Christmas Carol is a family favorite to enjoy every holiday season!"

Full Story:
On Christmas Eve, Kelly is reluctant to go to a Christmas Eve ball, so Barbie tells her the story of Eden Starling, a glamorous singing diva in Victorian England and the owner of a theatre house. However, Eden is self-centred and loves only herself. She is very arrogant and believes that "In a selfish world, the selfish suceed". She is frequently accompanied by her snooty cat, Chuzzlewit. She does not believe in Christmas and orders all her employees to work on Christmas Day, threatning that if anyone talks about Christmas or goes home to celebrate, they will get fired.

Eden's employees, Freddy, Ann, Nan, Maurice, and costume designer Catherine are disappointed to hear the news. Catherine Beadnell, as Eden's best friend since childhood, tries to persuade her otherwise, but is met with no success. That night, she receives a visit from the spirit of her late Aunt Marie, who is chained with chains bound with mirrors for her cruelty to the way she raised her. She reveals that Eden is heading down the same path as she once was and intends to send three spirits to see her. The three spirits will convince Eden to change her life, each by showing her past, her present, and her future.

In Eden's past, Aunt Marie was very strict. She insisted that Eden should practice singing and playing piano without giving her a chance to take a rest on Christmas. Secretly, Eden went to her old, dearest friend Catherine's house to celebrate Christmas. There they sang together, but Aunt Marie showed up and forbade Eden to celebrate Christmas after that. It showed how her arrogant and selfish behavior began to manifest from it. Eden demands the spirit of Christmas Past returns her to her bedroom.

Meanwhile, the Spirit of Christmas Present shows Eden her co-workers teasing her behind her back, which offends her. She tells her to lighten up because they want to like her, but are never given the chance. The Spirit of Christmas Present also shows her that Catherine is a truly generous person as she gives the orphans clothes and helps at the orphanage. Eden is touched by this and has a change of heart. However overhearing a conversation between the owner and Catherine about the orphanage is closing down before spring due to a lack of funding, she shows concern for the orphans' future. When Eden asks the Spirit of Christmas Present what will happen to the orphans if their only home closes down, she becomes more offended when she hears her repeat the cruel words she had originally said to Catherine about them surviving as street urchins and demands they leave at once.

Finally, the Spirit of Christmas Future brings Eden to the coldest choice of life. After firing her co-workers from the Gadshill Theatre for coming in late on Christmas Day, the replacements she hired to fill in failed to live up to her expectations. Arriving into the future, Eden has lost her fame and becomes so poor, even Chuzzlewit's only dinner, a rat, runs away! She is not happy by this, but the spirit uses her magic staff to open a window to show her it's real. The Future Eden is cold and she shuts the window. However, she sees an advertisement of Catherine's new fashion studio to see the new fashion line. Thinking this is a sign things will change, Eden encourages her future self to visit her because she knows that Catherine would never let her live like this. Emboldened, future Eden tells Chuzzlewitt they're going to see an old friend. Immediately, Eden and the Spirit of Christmas Future has followed her future self to the fashion studio. Unfortunately, Catherine has not only become a rich and popular fashion designer, but she also adopts an arrogant attitude, much like the previous Eden did. She is very cruel to her own co-workers in refusing to take the Holidays off and demands they keep working in order to present the new fashion line on time. When a visibly poor Eden asks for help, Catherine refuses because she was bitter with the way she treated her and stopped celebrating Christmas with her family. She also tells her that she had tried to be selfless in looking after everyone and helped the poorest orphanage in town. After she was fired by Eden for coming in late on Christmas morning, Catherine had to scramble for work and found another job. However, it took her out of town for months. By the time she returned to town for Christmas, she was financially secure and ready to adopt Tammy, an orphan girl with a limp, right away. Unfortunately, Catherine was unaware that the orphanage closed down while she was away and was frantic to find her. She frantically looked for Tammy everywhere and soon learned that she and the other orphans have become street urchins. After that, Catherine stopped caring and focused on herself more in order to cope. Future Eden and Chuzzlewitt are turned away by her, only being left with a scarf which is dropped in the snow. Now horrified from what she saw, Eden begs the spirit to give her another chance because she has changed and awakens from her dreams in her own bedroom. She decides to let her employees have a holiday and is good to them too. Through her good deeds, Eden ultimately learns to keep the spirit of Christmas every day of the year. Through these journeys, Eden is able to change her life and learns to help and love others.

Kelly changes her mind about Christmas after listening to Barbie's stories. She decides to go to the donation party just as Nikki comes into Barbie's bedroom.

DVD Bonus Features

 * "Barbie & The Diamond Castle Secret Scene"
 * "Christmas Carol-oke Party"
 * "Jingle Bells" Music Video starring Chuzzlewit the Cat
 * "Collecting Dreams: The Making of the 2008 Barbie Collector Holiday Doll"

Trivia

 * Even though this was marketed as Barbie's first ever holiday movie, that was actually Barbie in the Nutcracker, which was set during the Christmas Period.
 * When Eden and Spirit of Christmas past are in Eden's past, Nutcracker, a character from Barbie in the Nutcracker, has a cameo on a shelf.
 * The DVD bonus "Barbie & The Diamond Castle Secret Scene" was cut from DVD in some countries of Europe.
 * This is the final Barbie movie to feature Kelly before being replaced with Chelsea in late 2010.