Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper

Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper is the fourth computer-animated movie in the Barbie film series. It is a direct-to-video and DVD film released in 2004. It is the first Barbie movie to be based on Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, the second being Barbie: The Princess & The Popstar, which was released in 2012.

Barbie plays two roles: a blonde princess named Anneliese and a brunette pauper named Erika. The girls dream to be free of their duties and by following their heart they will make their dreams come true.

Official Summary
"In her first animated musical, featuring seven original songs, Barbie comes to life in this modern retelling of a classic tale of mistaken identity and the power of friendship. Based on the story by Mark Twain, Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper feautures Barbie in an exciting dual role as a princess and a poor village girl who look amazingly alike! The girls' paths are fated to cross when Princess Anneliese is captured and Erika, her look- alike, must try to save her. Can Erika pretend to be the Princess and foil her captor, the evil Preminger? And what of the handsome King Dominick, who falls in love with Erika, mistaking her for Anneliese? In this magical musical performance, two beautiful, adventurous girls dare to follow their dreams and discover that destiny is written in a very special place: your heart!"

Plot
Narration: Long ago and far away, in a village high on a mountain top, something amazing was occurring. At the very same moment, two identical baby girls were born. One, a baby princess. The king and queen were overjoyed. Princess Anneliese would have only the finest. The second baby girl was named Erika. Her parents loved her every bit as much as the king and queen loved the princess, but they worried. They were so poor. How would they be able to care for their little daughter?

Many years passed. The princess learned her royal duties, while Erika worked long and hard as a seamstress for the spiteful Madam Carp. With lives so different, it wasn't surprising that the princess and the pauper never met, but fate decreed they would.

It all started at the royal mine, when the miners informed the Queen the gold had run out. The widowed Queen was shocked. The kingdom was now bankrupt. How was she going to take care of her people? If only she could call on her trusted adviser Preminger, but he was away on a long journey. She needed to do something quickly to save the kingdom, but what? And then it struck her: Nearby lived a rich young king, who was seeking a wife.

Anneliese and Erika sing about how they wish to be free. Anneliese wants to be able to do what she wants and marry her tutor and true love, Julian. However, her mother tells Anneliese that she must marry King Dominick to save their kingdom. Erika wants to be a singer and travel the world but she has to work off her parent's debt and interest to Madam Carp. They both know in their heart that duty is more important and they will never stop dreaming of freedom.

Queen Genevieve doesn't know that the reason behind the kingdom's bankruptcy is her adviser, Preminger. He has been stealing the gold from the royal mines with his sidekicks, Nick and Nack, for a long time. His plan is to have Princess Anneliese go mysteriously missing, then bring her back, thus making the queen so grateful that she will ask him to marry Anneliese. Then, Preminger can succeed to the throne and achieve all that he wants as King. While Anneliese is studying with Julian, who is in love with her, he tells her that King Dominick (who is pretending he is someone else) and Ambassador Bismark have come to see her with an engagement gift, a necklace. The Queen wants the wedding to be a week from then, which gives Preminger less time to carry out his evil plan.

Julian takes Anneliese for a day out into her kingdom as her last day of freedom. Anneliese hears Erika singing and goes to watch. Erika is singing in the street to raise money for herself but Madam Carp takes the money. Anneliese and Erika talk to each other and learn they identical, apart from the crown shaped birthmark Anneliese has on her shoulder and their hair color. They sing together and become friends, but Anneliese has to go back to the palace. That night, she is kidnapped by Nick and Nack, who leave a letter saying she ran away.

Julian thinks that Preminger kidnapped Anneliese so he asks Erika to pretend to be the princess until she is rescued. Preminger is surprised when Erika, as Anneliese, comes to the palace, because he thought she had already been kidnapped. Over time, Erika and Dominick fall in love but Erika is worried about what will happen when people find out she is not Anneliese. The real Anneliese has escaped from Nick and Nack. Julian finds out and tries to inform the Queen, but then he gets kidnapped. Anneliese is turned away from the palace because the guards think Anneliese is already in there. She gets taken away by Madam Carp because she thinks Anneliese is Erika.

Preminger decides that that the Anneliese in the castle is an impostor and takes the real Anneliese to the royal mines with Julian and tells his henchmen to collapse the mine with Anneliese and Julien trapped inside. He goes back to the palace and exposes Erika as a fake and accuses her and Julian of treason. Erika is sent to the dungeon. She sings to make the guard go to sleep and takes his keys so she can break out. She escapes, but bumps into King Dominick. He tells her that he knows she isn't guilty and in the mines, Anneliese and Julian find out how to restore the kingdom's resources from some rocks that have geodes in them. They confess their love and escape from the mines.

Preminger convinces Queen that Anneliese is dead and says they must marry to save the kingdom, and she has no other options so she agrees. Before they can are married, Anneliese arrives and tells everyone the truth about Preminger. She tells her mother that she wants to marry Julian and that they can save the kingdom. Dominick and Erika say they wish to marry as well, and Madam Carp goes out of business. Erika wants to sing so she doesn't marry Dominick right away, but she returns after realising that sometimes freedom means choosing not to leave, but to stay. Anneliese and Julian, and Dominick and Erika, all have a double wedding, and their cats, Serafina and Wolfie, have kittens.

Starring the Voices Of

 * Princess Anneliese/Erika: Kelly Sheridan
 * Singing Princess Anneliese: Melissa Lyons
 * Singing Erika: Julie Stevens
 * King Dominick: Mark Hildreth
 * Singing King Dominick: Mark Luna
 * Julian: Alessandro Juliani (as Allesandro Juliani)
 * Preminger: Martin Short
 * Serafina/Bertie: Kathleen Barr
 * Wolfie/Guard #3: Ian James Corlett
 * Queen Genevieve: Ellen Kennedy
 * Madame Carp: Pam Hyatt
 * Nick/Guard #1: Brian Drummond
 * Midas/Nack: Jan Rabson
 * Royal Scheduler: Colin Murdock
 * Palace Maid: Janyse Jaud
 * Ambassador Bismark/Guard #2: Lee Tockar
 * Herve: Garry Chalk
 * Minister: Roger Monk

Music

 * 1) "Free" - Anneliese and Erika
 * 2) "How Can I Refuse" - Preminger
 * 3) "Written In Your Heart (Prologue)" - Erika
 * 4) "I Am A Girl Like You" - Anneliese and Erika
 * 5) "To Be A Princess" - Erika and Julian
 * 6) "The Cat's Meow" - Erika
 * 7) "If You Love Me For Me" - Erika and King Dominick
 * 8) "To Be A Princess (Reprise)" - Erika
 * 9) "How Can I Refuse (Reprise)" - Preminger
 * 10) "Written In Your Heart" - Anneliese and Erika
 * 11) "I'm On My Way" - Sara Niemietz

Bloopers

 * The first clip is of Serafina preparing for hercatapult stunt. The film-makers are showing her a quick demo with a crash dummy in the form of a cat. It is first launched in the air but never falls back down. The second scene shows the test dummy hitting a hard brick wall. In the final take, the dummy crashes through a boarded up window. Serafina consults her agent.
 * The next scene is of Preminger saying "My, you're attractive!", to himself in a mirror.
 * After, is Erika singing a part of her song; "The Cat's Meow", and Wolfie falls into the bathtub accidentally. The director then orders; "Can I get a hair dryer over here?"
 * Next is another clip from Preminger and the mirror.
 * Then, Nick and Nack are attempting to jump into the mining cart. Nack ends up jumping in, but Nick runs past it and misses. The director reminds him to do so. He says "Right, I knew that..."
 * Another Preminger and the mirror clip is shown.
 * After is the scene with Erika and Dominick watching the sunset. Erika's cell phone suddenly rings. "How romantic, right?" She says, embarrassed.
 * Yet again, Preminger's mirror scene is shown.
 * Prince Julian suddenly starts hip hop dancing, causing Erika to burst out laughing.

Trivia

 * Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper won "Children's Title of the Year" at the VSDA Awards 2005.
 * The film also had 6 nominations at the 2005 DVD Exclusive Awards.
 * Preminger's voice actor, Martin Short, and his character designer Jean Gillmore were nominated in 2005 for the DVDX award of Best Animated Character Performance (Voice and Animation in a DVD Movie Premiere) for Preminger.
 * The baker from Barbie as Rapunzel makes a brief cameo in this movie.
 * Barbie: The Princess & The Popstar is a modernized version of this movie.
 * This is the first Barbie film that has a blooper reel.
 * In Madame Carp's dress emporium during the teaser trailer, there are some dresses that Rapunzel from Barbie as Rapunzel wore, and a dress that is worn Princess Odette in Barbie of Swan Lake.

Goofs

 * When Erika is taking her bath, the tub has taps. Plumbing would not have existed at that time.
 * Anneliese's mother says she missed her at breakfast, when Anneliese has breakfast in bed every morning.
 * One explanation for this is that the maid reported Anneliese was missing from her bed when she went to deliver breakfast.
 * Another explanation is that Anneliese ate breakfast with the Queen before she was kidnapped, and her mother sends her breakfast in bed after that to keep an eye on her so she wouldn't "run away" again.
 * During the song "Free" Anneliese walks along her very long balcony whilst singing. A wide shot shows that she is halfway along the balcony, but then a shot after shows that she is only a few steps away from the edge, yet there has been no signs of her running or taking deliberately large steps.
 * When Julian is talking to Erika, and tells her that Anneliese is missing, you can see a golden flower on his tie. But throughout the rest of the movie, and some seconds after you see it, it disappears.
 * Near the end of the movie as Erika's leaving on a horse she's wearing her old dress. When she returns she has the dress she borrowed on. No bag was shown attached to the horse's saddle for her to carry it in. Even if there was a bag the dress would have been too bulky to fit in it. Folding it wouldn't have helped.
 * Wolfie is referred as "no status quo calico" by Erika, which implies he is a male calico cat. Calico cats are almost 100% female cats, due to a sex-linked gene that allows them to be calico. In the very rare case in which a calico cat is male, it's due to a genetic disease and the cat are sterile, so realistically Wolfie wouldn't be able to reproduce with Serafina. However, Erika could have just been using "calico" as an interchangeable word for any kind of cat.

Also Known As

 * Chinese- 芭比之真假公主
 * Italian - Barbie: La Principessa e la Povera
 * Albanian - Barbi: Princesha dhe e Varfëra
 * French - Barbie dans Coeur de Princesse
 * Polish - Barbie jako Księżniczka i Żebraczka
 * Finnish - Barbie: Prinsessa ja kerjäläistyttö
 * Swedish - Barbie som prinsessan och tiggarflickan
 * German - Barbie als die Prinzessin und das Dorfmädchen
 * Greek - Μπάρμπι Βασιλοπούλα και Χωριατοπούλα 
 * Russian - Барби: Принцесса и нищенка
 * Hungarian - Barbie a Hercegnő és a Koldus
 * Latin Spanish - Barbie en La Princesa y la plebeya
 * Spanish - Barbie en la Princesa y la Costurera
 * Persian - باربي شاهزاده و گدا
 * Brazilian Portuguese - Barbie a Princesa e a Plebeia
 * Dutch - Barbie als de Prinses en de Bedelaar
 * Czech: Barbie jako Princezna a Švadlenka
 * Croatian - Barbie kao princeza i skitnica
 * Filipino - Barbie bilang isang Prinsesa at Pulube
 * Georgian - ბარბი: პრინცესა და ღარიბი
 * Thai - เจ้าหญิงบาร์บี้ และสาวผู้ยากไร้