Barbie: Princess Charm School

Barbie: Princess Charm School is a feature-length Barbie film released direct-to-DVD in Fall 2011. It stars Barbie as Blair Willows, a poor girl living in the kingdom of Gardania, who wins an annual lottery to attend a school for princesses: Princess Charm School. The film is the 20th CGI-animated Barbie film and it was directed by Zeke Norton.

Official Summary
"Barbie™ stars as Blair Willows, a kind-hearted girl who is chosen to attend Princess Charm School: a magical, modern place that teaches dancing, how to have tea parties, and proper princess manners. Blair™ loves her classes — as well as the helpful magical sprites and her new friends, Princesses Hadley™ and Isla™. But when royal teacher Dame Devin discovers that Blair™ looks a lot like the kingdom’s missing princess, she turns Blair’s world upside down to stop her from claiming the throne. Now Blair™, Hadley™ and Delancy™ must find an enchanted crown to prove Blair's true identity in this charming and magical princess story!"

Plot
Blair comes home from a long day of work at Café Gardania. Her little sister Emily is watching the annual Princess Procession on TV. It involves princesses from other kingdoms coming in the original Princess Charm School to learn their full potential. A commoner is also allowed in if they win the lottery that wins them a scholarship to be a lady royal, a princess's most trusted advisor. Blair asks her sister if their mom is okay, but Emily tells her the doctors just said she was "comfortable". Blair wishes that their mom would get better, and wishes that Emily could grow up in a better neighborhood, as the family lives in the poor part of Gardania and has no money. Blair decides she will work hard for her family.

On the TV, Blair, Emily and their mother watch as the lottery winner is picked: This winner was Blair! This is because Emily entered her many, many times. Blair was shocked! Blair doesn't want to leave her responsibilities behind, but her mother sees it as a good opportunity and this'll change their lives forever. So, Blair leaves to go the school in a carriage with a man named Brock. In the carriage, Blair's arm gets jogged as she tries to put on lipstick, smearing it on her face, and she knocks over a cup.

At the school, she is greeted by Prince, a large dog that recognizes her. The headmistress of the school, Alexandra Privet, sees Blair on the floor with Prince and takes her to her locker, explaining things about the school along the way. Grace meets Blair at the locker by bumping into her with a cupcake. Grace is a sprite that has to be Blair's personal princess assistant. Every student has one. Blair uses her magical locker to change into her school uniform, and Grace takes her to her dorm room to get settled. Blair meets Isla and Hadley, her new roommates, and Caprice and Harmony, their assistants. They become good friends for Blair. They have to go to the Starlight Welcome immediately to get their training crowns.

At the welcome ceremony, Miss Privet explains for the children, that they will get real crowns one they have completed the semester with high expectations. A teacher named Dame Devin announces she will quit teaching after her daughter Delancy becomes princess of Gardania at the end of the semester. She explains that she has lived at the palace since her sister-in-law, Queen Isabella, and her family died in a car crash. Isla and Hadley discuss the legend that not all of the family died. They have a curtseying class after the welcome ceremony, and Blair gets distracted by Hadley and Isla and bumps into Delancy. Delancy develops a strong disliking for Blair. Hadley and Isla tell Blair they will be her friends, and that Blair can do anything Delancy can do.

Blair becomes pessimistic after she sees Delancy walking with a stack of 21 books on her head without a problem, when she can't even balance one. Many of the girls have problems, but when Dame Devin sees Blair's face, she becomes shocked. She tells Blair to get out of her class and tells her she doesn't belong. Delancy later on makes her assistant, Wickellia, tuck a tablecloth into Blair's skirt and Blair ends up being further embarrassed when she drags it off the table.

Isla and Hadley try to cheer up Blair by telling her that Dame Devin was once a lottery winner like her. However, no princesses picked her to be their lady royal, not even Queen Isabella. Blair receives a package from Emily containing some letters and a drawing of a baby Blair being left on her mother's doorstep. Blair explains to her friends that she is adopted, and so is Emily. Miss Privet comes to tell Blair some bad news, but stops when she hears this.

The next day, at a ballroom class, Blair knocks over Portia, Delancy's friend, and is kept behind after class. Miss Privet tells her that Dame Devin wanted her expelled, but Miss Privet knows about how Blair wants to become a lady royal to help her family, so she wants to personally tutor her. She tells Blair that being a princess is about character and confidence. One without the other is a problem, and she tells Blair that no one can make her feel inferior without her consent. With help from Miss Privet, Blair greatly improves in her balance, grace, dancing and more.

In the winter, the students are joined by young men from the Prince Charming Academy for a dance class. Blair gets partnered with Nicholas, and they joke with each other before dancing like they're at a party. Everyone else joins in, but Delancy. When they are done, the men leave, but Miss Privet tells them they will come to the graduation ceremony at the end of the semester. This is because they will have to see Delancy, the future princess of Gardania, be crowned.

In spring, two days before the coronation ceremony where the princesses and lady royals will be crowned, Miss Privet announces that the girls will get to go to the palace for a table manners class. Blair, Hadley and Isla go with their sprites to pamper themselves in the school spa, while Dame Devin tells Wickellia to rip up their clothes. Isla and Hadley tell Blair about Gardania's magic crown, which lights up when put on the rightful heir to the throne. The girls go back to their room to find their uniforms in shreds. Without their uniforms, they will not be allowed in the class, and missing classes gives you an automatic fail. Blair refuses to let her or her friends fail, so she and the sprites fashions some new, personalized uniforms using fabric from the old ones. They get to the palace just in time and get to explore the first floor before the class.

When exploring, the girls see a portrait of lot of kings and queens of this kingdom, but one portrait was the most unusual for them. The person in that portrait looked like Blair, but it was actually Queen Isabella when she was eighteen years old. Next they see a family portrait with a baby, Prince the dog, and King Reginald. Hadley and Isla thought that Blair could be the baby in the photo, because Princess Sophia apparently died in the car crash when she was 1 on April 26th. Blair was found on her adoptive mother's doorstep at that age, so they realize Dame Devin and Delancy are unfair to Blair because she is the rightful heir, but Dame Devin wants Delancy to be the princess. Delancy eavesdrops and becomes disturbed because her mother never told her these things.

At the class, Dame Devin explains her idea - which she says is Delancy's - is to bulldoze the poor areas of Gardania and create parks to make the kingdom more beautiful. Blair is shocked and informs her that her family lives there, but Dame Devin tells her she should leave immediately and move her family to a new home, not caring that they have no money. Blair tries to talk to Delancy, but Delancy doesn't say anything even though she is concerned, worried about what her mother will do. Blair runs away crying. She packs her bags back at the school, but decides to stay and find the crown so she can prove she is the rightful heir and stop Dame Devin and Delancy.

Hadley and Isla want to help, so the trio plan to go back to the palace that night before the coronation the next day to find the crown. Before they can leave with a bag packed with tools, a fire alarm goes off. The students all go outside while Dame Devin puts her jewellery in Blair's dorm room. Delancy finds her and becomes suspicious but her mother changes the subject by asking her why she has a customized her uniform like Blair's. She says it's because she likes it. 45 minutes later, the students finally can go back to their rooms, but Blair and her friends are stopped by a guard, Dame Devin, and Miss Privet. They are accused of stealing Dame Devin's jewellery, so the guard searches their room and finds necklaces.

The girls are to be detained until after the coronation ceremony, but while the guard takes them away to be arrested, Delancy stops him. She claims he will have to follow her orders in a few hours when she is the princess, so she orders him to give her his keys. He leaves and she quickly tells Blair and her friends to find the crown because she wants what's right for the kingdom. She tells them she will leave a window open on the third floor and runs off so her mother doesn't find her with them.

Blair, Hadley and Isla go to the palace and Prince distracts a guard for them. They use a rope to climb up to the third floor window and take an elevator to the basement. Hadley notices devices on the walls, and recognizes them as laser alarms. There are invisible beams that will set off an alarm if they are broken, so Blair blows some makeup powder over them and they become visible. Hadley shows some impressive gymnastics skills by flipping to the other side, but Blair and Isla have to slowly make their way across with help from Grace.

There is a keypad that needs a password to unlock a door, so they try the date of the coronation. It is incorrect, and so they use the password hint ("The day it all fell into place") to figure out the real password. They try the date of the car crash and it works. Inside the room are Dame Devin's possessions. Blair and her friends find the magical crown but Dame Devin finds them, and makes Brock, her guard, take the crown. She changes the password, with Isla memorizing the tune of the buttons she presses, and locks them in the room.

They are stuck in the room for hours as the coronation begins and Delancy becomes moments away from being crowned. She tries to make time while Blair and her friends figure out how to escape. Isla keeps humming the tune of the keypad buttons, and when Hadley accidentally knocks a cover off a box of electrical wires, they wire up Blair's phone to the keypad to use Blair's phone buttons to enter the password from inside the room. Isla does the correct tune on the phone and they escape. They arrive at the graduation ceremony just in time and Blair makes a claim to the throne, saying she is Princess Sophia. Emily and her mother watch at home, shocked.

The royal judge, who crowns the princesses and lady royals, takes her seriously, but Dame Devin tries to stop her. They fight over the crown before Delancy catches it and has to decide whether to give it to her mother or Blair. She gives it to Blair and when she puts it on, it lights up and she transforms to look like a proper princess. Dame Devin exclaims that she killed Queen Isabella just so Delancy could be the princess, so she is arrested, while a disappointed Delancy watches her get dragged away. Blair makes a quick speech, telling he people of Gardania she is honored to be their princess. Miss Privet tells her she can have time to pick a lady royal, but she quickly picks Delancy, and she is crowned.

In the evening, at the graduation party, everyone dances to Isla's song "We Rule This School" which she DJs for. Even Miss Privet dances, and Nicholas comes to Blair again. He is unsure of whether to call her Princess Sophia or not, but she wants to continue going by the name Blair. Emily and her mother come and Blair welcomes them to their new home. Emily then asks since Blair is a princess does that make her one too to which Blair replies "there's a princess in every girl".

Starring the Voices Of

 * Blair: Diana Kaarina
 * Miss Privet: Morwenna Banks
 * Dame Devin: Nicole Oliver
 * Delancy: Brittney Wilson
 * Portia/Hadley: Ali Liebert
 * Isla: Shannon Chan-Kent
 * Emily: Madeleine Peters
 * Male Announcer: Lee Tockar
 * Female Announcer/Keypad: Cathy Weseluck
 * Blair's Mom: Ellen Kennedy
 * Prince Nicholas/Guard #2: Vincent Tong
 * Brock: Derek Waters
 * Prince/Guard/Royal Judge: Brian Drummond
 * Lorraine/Grace: Tabitha St. Germain
 * Josette: Bethany Brown
 * Wickellia: Kelly Metzger
 * Harmony: Kazumi Evans
 * Caprice: Anna Cummer
 * Pawdicurist Sprite: Rachel Franco

Special Guest Star

 * Miranda Ram-Nolte as Princess Miranda

Music

 * 1) "You Can Tell She's A Princess" performed by Reann Peters.
 * 2) "On Top of the World" performed by Rachel Bearer.
 * 3) "We Rule This School" performed by Simon Wilcox.

DVD Special Features
On the DVD menus for the special features, an instrumental for "Get Your Sparkle On" plays. There are Outtakes, a music video for "You Can Tell She's A Princess", Camping with Barbie and Her Sisters, and a trailer gallery. The trailers are Barbie: Jet, Set & Style, Barbie: A Perfect Christmas, Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2, Barbie in A Mermaid Tale, Barbie: A Fairy Secret, Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale, and The Barbie Movie Collection. The Barbie Movie Collection includes the first the 13 Barbie movies, excluding The Barbie Diaries.

Outtakes

 * In the scene where Blair travels to Princess Charm School in the carriage, it drives over a large rock on the road and shakes the carriage, leading to Blair to flying out of it.
 * In the scene where Miss Privet hands out books for a class with assistance from Blair, Prince the dog is typing on a laptop.
 * In the scene where Delancy is eating with Portia and asks the rhetorial question, "You know what really bugs me, Portia?", Portia gives the following replies:
 * "Toaster elves?"
 * "Underwater clog dancing?"
 * "Me? (laughs) Kidding."
 * "Ugly sweatpants?"
 * "What did I just say?"
 * In Blair's room at the school, Harmony and Prince dance while they listen to Isla's music.
 * Miss Privet takes photos of Blair and her friends:
 * Grace, Hadley, Delancy, Blair, Isla and Harmony smiling.
 * Hadley, Delancy, Blair and Isla making silly faces.
 * Grace, Hadley, Blair and Harmony posing (with Hadley and Blair in cowgirl hats) while Delancy falls off a horse in the background.
 * Blair, Hadley and Isla surfing as a reference to Barbie in A Mermaid Tale. Grace is surfing on a dragon instead of a surfboad.
 * Blair, Hadley and Isla forming a human pyramid while holding pom poms, with Grace floating on one side, and Harmony on the other side with her dragon.
 * Blair falling off the human pyramid.
 * Blair, Hadley and Isla out of the frame while someone's shoe and a pom pom are in mid-air.
 * A sprite, known in the credits as the Pawdicurist Sprite and not Harmony even though they use the same character model, giving Prince a pawdicure (a dog pun on pedicure).
 * Prince Nicholas arrives late for class and accidentally knocks Blair over.
 * Prince jumps on Blair excitedly, knocking her over.
 * Blair falls while she practices balancing with Miss Privet.
 * Blair falls while navigating the security in Princess Charm School.
 * Blair falls down in her room.
 * Blair falls while trying to balance, with Miss Privet looking annoyed in the background.
 * Blair falls in front of Delancy.
 * Blair falls while everyone is focused on having good posture, and causes a domino effect of everyone falling down except Portia.

Development
The working title for the film was Barbie: Princess Prep School. The teaser trailer for Barbie: Princess Charm School was on the Barbie: A Fairy Secret DVD.

Early Plot Descriptions

 * "Barbie plays Blair, a girl who grew up in the kingdom of Buckinghurst. She's an orphan who has seen the destruction of her kingdom's natural resources, and longs to leave. But fate has other ideas for Blair once she is invited to be an assistant at Buckinghurst's Princess Prep School!"
 * "In her latest direct-to-DVD movie, Barbie is a teacher's assistant at the prestigious Buckinghurst Princess Prep School. But when mean Princess Tessa wants to take over, Barbie and her princess friends must find a way to stop her!"
 * "In this unapologetically all-princess movie, Barbie packs her bags and heads off to a famous School to learn about how to become a Princess! Barbie stars as Blair, a very modern girl who lives in a contemporary fairy tale setting. She receives an invitation to attend Princess Charm School for formal princess training. She makes friends with Rock Star Princess and Soccer Star Princess Blair but still feels out of place since she doesn't come from a royal family like the other students. Blair and her new friends soon become convinced that she is the rightful heir to Gardania's throne as unusual things start to happen around the castle and Tess, one of the mean girls, looks set to rule the kingdom after graduation! Luckily the 'Sprites', Magical Princess Assistants, reveal a previous queen that looks a lot like Blair. Good will triumph... and after 15 years, Blair is revealed as the rightful heir to the throne of Buckinghurst Castle!"

Trivia

 * In the UK, a doll from this movie was Selfridge's best selling doll of 2011.
 * On the DVD box, it said Hadley and Delancy were the first friends Blair met, instead of Hadley and Isla.
 * The classical music piece playing at the dance class is "Minuet in G Major" by Christian Petzold.
 * According to the security code Blair tried, the day of the coronation is June 10, 2011, and the day of the royal family's car accident was April 26, 1993.
 * In the storybook, Delancy has braided hair.

References to other movies

 * Many character names have been taken from Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses such as Blair, Hadley, Isla, and Isabella.
 * Character models from Barbie in A Mermaid Tale, Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale, and Barbie: A Fairy Secret have been reused, such as Spencer and the fashionable woman from Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale and the fairy shop assistant from Barbie: A Fairy Secret.
 * Nutcracker appears in the palace basement.
 * Isla hums the chorus of "Can You Keep A Secret" during poise class.
 * There is a reference to The Wizard of Oz when Grace clicks the heels of Blair's pumps.

Similarities with Barbie as The Island Princess

 * Delancy and Princess Luciana are both the daughters of the main antagonists in their films.
 * Blair and Ro were both unaware of their identities as princesses.
 * Ro was separated from her family when she was six while Blair's birth parents died when she was one.
 * Dame Devin and Queen Ariana tried to live out their royal dreams through their daughters. However their plans were sabotaged by Blair and Ro.
 * Dame Devin and Ariana's treachery was exposed when their plans were sabotaged. When Ariana's treachery was exposed, she was banned from Apollonia. When Dame Devin's treachery was exposed, she was arrested.
 * Ariana tried to get revenge on the king and queen for how her parents had lived. Dame Devin got revenge on Queen Isabella for not picking her to be her lady royal.
 * Dame Devin and Ariana are cruel and judgmental, and they criticize Blair and Ro.
 * Isabella's daughter is named Sophia, and one of Antonio's younger sisters is named Sofia, although the spelling is different.
 * Both Delancy and Princess Luciana chose to help Blair and Ro and not their mothers.

Goofs

 * It would be impossible for Blair to create the new uniforms for her and her friends from the fabric from their old uniforms.
 * When the customers use the computers in Café Gardania, the computers were not on.
 * Blair told her mom that she bought her a blueberry scone, although the treat she picked up looked more like a chocolate cookie with pink icing.
 * When Blair dances with Emily, the television was not on, but the voice of the presenters is stills heard from the television.
 * After there is a fire drill, Dame Devin accused Blair, Hadley & Isla that they stole her jewelery and evidences it to Delancy who wears a violet dress but when she gets back from inspecting Blair, Hadley & Isla's room, it turns out she wears her uniform but when they are at their room it seems she wears her violet dress again.
 * During the joint dance class, Isla first gets the boy with blonde hair and glasses and when the fast paced music starts her partner changes to a boy with black hair.
 * There's only five sprites which appears during the movie; Grace, Caprice, Harmony, Wickellia, and Portia's sprites, instead Alexandra Privet said each student in Princess Charm School have one sprites
 * When Delancy is crowned as Lady Royal, her purple earrings were missing. But when the royal judge calls her as "Lady Royal Delancy of Gardania" and everyone claps, she is seen wearing her purple earrings again.
 * In the party, it was seen there's a DJ box was there which Isla was playing the music. But, when everyone was dance until the sprites dance in the end of the movie, the DJ box disappeared.
 * When Brock got the crown and he was going to give it to Dame Devin, the princesses/lady royals who are seated in their chairs, are not wearing the crowns.
 * During the song "We Rule This School", it's seemed that Prince Nicohlas is missing but he suddenly appears dancing with the others.
 * When joined Blair and Isla to find the crown, Hadley seems bring Blair's pink backpack. But in the scenes after they find the crown, the pink backpack is missing from her shoulders.

Also Known As

 * German - Barbie: Die Prinzessinnen-Akademie
 * Spanish - Barbie: Escuela de Princesas
 * French - Barbie: Apprentie Princesse
 * Italian - Barbie: L'Accademia per Principesse
 * Dutch - Barbie: De Prinsessenschool
 * Portuguese - Barbie: Escola de Princesas
 * Albanian - Barbi dhe Shkolla e Princeshave
 * Romanian - Barbie: La Școala Prinţeselor
 * Swedish - Barbie: Prinsessakademin
 * Croatian - Barbi škola za princeze
 * Greek - Μπάρμπι, σχολείο για πριγκίπισσες
 * Polish - Barbie i Akademia Księżniczek
 * Finnish - Barbie: Prinsessakoulu
 * Georgian - ბარბი: პრინცესების შარმიანი სკოლა
 * Persian - باربى پرنسس مدرسه افسون
 * Arabic - باربي في مدرسة الأميرات السحرية
 * Turkish - Barbie: Prenses Okulu
 * Czech - Barbie a škola pro princezny
 * Hindi - बार्बी : प्रिंसेस चार्म स्कूल