"Balancing Act" is a Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures episode. It is the first episode of season 2. The episode premiered on Netflix US on September 13, 2018.[1]
Official Description[]
"Barbie feels like she's getting too old for her father-daughter tradition, so she passes it down to Chelsea. But is she really ready to let it go?"[2]
Story[]
Barbie and Ken make Chelsea a smoothie. Barbie throws the ingredients for Ken to catch in the smoothie jug, and Ken has quick reflexes under pressure because he is a lifeguard-in-training. George comes home with some groceries, so Ken offers to help him. Stacie and Skipper distract Ken with a "shark attack" using hand-puppets. Ken falls and bumps into George, so everyone has to catch eggs that fly in the air. Stacie and Skipper say the sharks are to help Ken with his lifeguard training; Ken made a deal with them to clean their room if they can do a successful "shark attack."
George says the eggs are related to the equinox, which is taking place the following night. Barbie and George have a tradition of going out at midnight on the equinox to watch for meteors and balance eggs. They drink hot chocolate, eat curried egg-salad pizza, and George tells jokes about eggs. Barbie says she is too old for the jokes because she is not 6. Chelsea asks why she has never heard of Barbie and George's father-daughter tradition, and George says it's because Chelsea is always asleep by midnight.
Stacie and George's tradition is that they do team tightrope at Beach Fest/where they previously lost to Misty balancing on a tightrope while holding an umbrella and a rose). Skipper and George's tradition is that they go to a technology expo called the Gee Whiz Expo every Spring. Chelsea says she also wants a tradition with George. George reminisces about Barbie being Chelsea's age the first time she and George did their equinox tradition. The equinox used to be Barbie's favorite night of the year, but she feels too old the tradition now that she's 17. Barbie wants to talk about how she's feeling with someone who understands her, but Margaret is out of town, so Barbie goes to see Ken for advice.
Skipper and Stacie lurk with their shark puppets while Ken works on his surfboard. Skipper runs at Ken, and Stacie uses a drone to fly over to him. He sprays them both with a hose. Barbie and Ken think Barbie has outgrown the tradition, but Barbie doesn't want to let George down because he is excited. Ken empathizes with Barbie, and she decides to talk to her dad the next day. Chelsea needs help thinking of ideas for her own tradition with George, so she asks Barbie for help. Chelsea decides to go with George for the equinox tradition instead of Barbie. Barbie feels sad about giving up her tradition, even though she knows Chelsea and George will both love it.
Barbie tells George she has outgrown their tradition. She is worried about disappointing him, but George says he is proud of the young woman Barbie is becoming. They try to think of a more mature tradition, such as a polar bear plunge or a swing dancing contest. They decide to invent their own event, like blindfolded basketball. They find it hard to think of something. George suggests that Barbie come with him and Chelsea for the equinox, but Barbie says it's Chelsea's tradition now. Barbie asks Ken if she can hang out with him, but he is still defending himself from Stacie and Skipper's shark attacks. Barbie reflects on past equinoxes that she spent with George. Even though things didn't always go to plan and she feels she has outgrown the tradition, she finds it hard to let go of it.
George and Chelsea leave, and Ken texts Barbie's friends to tell them she is at home. Nikki, Teresa, Renee and Daisy visit Barbie to comfort her. They have a pool party with Ken, Skipper and Stacie. They order pizza, but they get George and Chelsea's curried egg salad pizza by accident. Barbie says their orders must have gotten mixed up. Renee doesn't like the look of the curried egg salad pizza, and says none of them are allowed to say she has "weird" food at her house. Daisy claims she only said that Renee's food was weird because she was 5 years old and had never tried chicken feet before. Barbie leaves the party to deliver the pizza to George and Chelsea.
Barbie hides in a manzanita bush and tries to discreetly give George and Chelsea the pizza. They get suspicious about the bush, so Barbie tries using a fishing rod to give it to them. When Barbie sees them bonding without the pizza, and it makes her nostalgic for when she used to do the tradition. Barbie realizes that the tradition isn't about the pizza, meteors, jokes or the equinox; it is about spending one-on-one time together. Barbie accidentally gets exposed, so George and Chelsea are confused about why she is there.
Skipper and Stacie do a successful shark attack on Ken, so he has to clean their room. Barbie admits to George that she's not ready to give up the tradition. George says that growing up isn't easy, and Barbie just needs time to find a balance between traditions and growing up. Chelsea balances an egg because of the equinox. Barbie stays to watch meteors with George and Chelsea. They lay down and tell each other egg puns as they watch the sky. Barbie thinks that to help you deal with hard changes, you need to rely on things that never change, such as love for your family, the support from friends, and the comfort from jokes.
Featuring the Voices Of[]
- America Young as Barbie
- Kirsten Day as Skipper
- Cassandra Morris as Stacie
- Cassidy Naber as Chelsea/Young Barbie
- Ritesh Rajan as Ken
- Emma Galvin as Daisy
- Desirae Whitfield as Nikki
- Stephanie Sheh as Renee
- Cristina Milizia as Teresa
- Greg Chun as George
- Ben Diskin as Announcer
Other characters include Misty, Poppy and Whittaker Reardon, and Margaret.
Trivia[]
- Near the beginning, when Skipper and Stacie help Ken with his lifeguard training in the kitchen, Ken says, "Close, but no chihuahua." The original saying is "Close, but no cigar," but this was likely changed to be appropriate for the show's young audience.[3]
- George tells Chelsea that eggs can balance upright during equinox, but this is just a myth.[4]
- While Barbie is in the Dreamhouse salon, there are photos of her and her sisters behind her. The photos are from Barbie Dolphin Magic.
- The shark hand puppets are seen again in "Virtually Famous".
- When Barbie and George are trying to come up with new traditions, he mentions "the annual polar bear swim." The "polar bear plunge" is a real event that takes place once a year.
- Barbie says that Poppy and Whittaker Reardon judge the Malibu Father-Daughter Swing Dancing Contest.