Character |
Marlo is a character in Barbie Dolphin Magic and Barbie: Mermaid Power. She is voiced by Maryke Hendrikse in Dolphin Magic and Melanie Minichino in Mermaid Power, serving as the main antagonist in both movies. In Dolphin Magic, she was a marine biologist and self-proclaimed dolphin expert who owned a research facility on an island, hoping to become rich by first selling the Gemstone Dolphins and then by capturing Isla and placing her on display. In Mermaid Power, she attempts to capture mermaids to prove they exist after being laughed at, but reforms when Barbie saves her from drowning by using magic to transform her into a mermaid.
Story[]
Dolphin Magic[]
Pete captures a Gemstone Dolphin named Emerald. Emerald is sold to Marlo, and she keeps him in an enclosure at her research facility on an island. Emerald's mermaid friend, Isla, follows Emerald to Marlo's facility. Barbie comes to the island with her sisters and their puppies. They plan on visiting Ken during his marine biology internship at Marlo's facility.
During a break from work, Ken goes free diving with Barbie and Skipper. They see a glimpse of Isla and follow her to the facility. Stacie and Chelsea see Emerald in the facility and go there to get a closer look. Emerald gestures that he wants to leave the facility, but Marlo stops Barbie from freeing him.
Marlo says opening the enclosure gate would endanger Emerald because he is sick. Ken asks if Emerald is a Gemstone Dolphin, but Marlo lies and says no. Marlo says she is a dolphin expert and that Emerald needs to be checked by a vet because he was caught in a fisherman's net.
Marlo tells everyone to leave because they are making Emerald stressed. After everyone leaves, Isla arrives at the facility. She transforms her tail into legs using a necklace, and tries to free Emerald. Barbie goes back to Marlo's facility after realizing they left the puppies there. Barbie and Isla meet, and Isla says there are a few more Gemstone Dolphins. Barbie and Isla agree that Isla will wait for the vet to come tomorrow afternoon, as long as Barbie doesn't tell Marlo about the other Gemstone Dolphins.
Later, Marlo calls a man named Hugo and asks him to come in the morning instead of the afternoon. She tells Emerald that he is going to make her a lot of money. The next morning, Barbie discovers Isla is a mermaid and meets the other Gemstone Dolphins. At the cabin, Stacie says she wants to swim with Emerald. Skipper says Marlo won't let them anywhere near him. Stacie and Skipper agree that Marlo seems strange. After seeing Marlo wave in a helicopter, the girls assume the vet has arrived. They go to the facility in hopes of saying goodbye to Emerald.
Near the facility, the girls overhear Marlo saying she wants to transport Emerald to the mainland facility immediately. Marlo and Hugo briefly discuss how Emerald is going to make Marlo a very large amount of money. The girls realize Hugo is not a vet, and Skipper takes a photo of the logo on the side of Hugo's helicopter. Barbie and Isla discover a cave with a maze of tunnels. While they are distracted, the other Gemstone Dolphins swim towards Marlo's facility.
Emerald squeaks sadly at Ken, who reassures the dolphin that the vet is coming soon. Marlo tells Ken to stop pestering Emerald, and they notice the other Gemstone Dolphins at the gate. Marlo restrains Emerald and says to let the dolphins in because they're making Emerald stressed. Marlo gives Ken a code, and he unlocks the gate. The Gemstone Dolphins swim over to Emerald, but Marlo orders Ken to close the gate before they can escape. Marlo leaves and phones Hugo. She tells him that she will need more nets. Barbie's sisters overhear her talking to Hugo again.
Barbie and Isla find the Gemstone Dolphins at the facility, and Stacie says Marlo is up to something. Skipper reveals that the helicopter logo is for a sideshow company that Hugo owns, but Stacie says that Marlo wants the Gemstone Dolphins for herself. Ken is shocked that Marlo isn't really helping the dolphins. He tries to use the code from earlier to unlock the enclosure, but Marlo has already changed it. Ken gets locked out of the system, and a new code is sent to Marlo's master device. The master device is a small remote that Marlo carries with her.
Barbie comes up with a plan to get a new code. Ken's role is to distract Marlo. Ken approaches Marlo while she is trying to eat lunch at the sandwich bar. She notices him looking at the remote, so she covers it with a napkin. While Ken asks Marlo questions, Chelsea puts a slice of cheese on Marlo's shoe. Marlo gets startled when Chelsea's puppy, Honey, tries to eat the cheese. Marlo tells Chelsea to go play somewhere else. Chelsea gives Skipper the remote, and she syncs it to her tablet so they can find out the new code.
After being pestered by Ken, Marlo gives up on eating her lunch and tells Ken to clear her table. Before Marlo notices her remote is missing, Isla splashes water nearby. Marlo sees Isla's tail when she checks where the splash came from. Skipper finishes getting the new code, and her sisters put the remote back on Marlo's table. Marlo notices Ken leaving with Chelsea and Honey and that her remote is dirty. She changes the code when she realizes she has been hacked. At the facility, the code fails when Skipper tries to unlock the enclosure. Marlo reveals that she doesn't need to open the gate because she is taking the dolphins out by helicopter.
Marlo notices that the enclosure pool is empty. Barbie tells Marlo that the dolphins have escaped, and Marlo rushes away with Hugo to see if they can spot the dolphins from the helicopter. The dolphins resurface with Isla, who hid in the pool with them. She shows everyone her tail and says they were hiding in a tunnel. She suspects that it leads to the cave she found earlier with Barbie. In the helicopter, Marlo sees the dolphins in the pool. Barbie helps Isla and the dolphins to navigate the tunnels, and they escape from Marlo's facility.
Ken arrives on a speedboat, and Isla gets on after transforming her tail back into legs. Ken drives the speedboat away from the facility, and the Gemstone Dolphins swim alongside it. Marlo and Hugo use the helicopter to follow the dolphins. When the water gets too shallow for the speedboat, Isla transforms her legs back into a tail, and swims with the dolphins. Marlo sees Isla as a mermaid and says she wants her instead of the dolphin.
Barbie quickly uses seaweed and her diving flippers to make her silhouette look like a mermaid. Marlo shoots the helicopter's net-launcher at Barbie and captures her instead of Isla. On land, Marlo says a mermaid is going to make a lot of money, but sees that she captured Barbie by accident. Hugo leaves in his helicopter, and Barbie tells Marlo that she will have her research facility taken away from her. Barbie says that a real marine biologist wants to help animals, not just use them to get rich.
Mermaid Power[]
Marlo is first seen in a college auditorium, attempting to give a lecture on mermaids and the legend of the Mermaid Moon, but is only berated by Dr. Tang, who is one of the scientists in attendance, for her lack of proof or research on the subject. After Dr. Tang informs Marlo that her funding will be cut off, she is more determined than ever to prove that mermaids exist by attempting to capture one and put it on display. Together with her assistant Oslo, they set out for the ocean in an underwater vessel and ultimately capture Chelsea and Aquaryah, who became lost as they were trying to return to Pacifica.
As Marlo is reveling in her apparent victory and making plans to capture more mermaids, she is oblivious when Chelsea and Aquaryah escape, with help from a couple of anglerfish, and is ultimately confronted by Barbie, who has come looking for her sister after learning from Viva the vaquita about the kidnapping. While revealing the tiara that was apparently once owned by her grandmother, Marlo breaks into a rant about the stories told to her by her grandmother of encountering mermaids and her belief that she was descended from them, but then Oslo finally gets her attention about Chelsea and Aquaryah's escape from the tank, just as the vessel's hull breaks down, causing the inside to flood. Fortunately, Barbie is able to recover her necklace and shares its magic with Marlo, turning her into a mermaid and saving the both of them from drowning. But as the vessel collapses further while Marlo is attempting to dislodge the tiara she saved, Barbie is pinned under a pile of debris and pleads with Marlo to help free her, explaining that there is more to being a mermaid than Marlo thinks. After managing to recover the tiara and remembering what her grandmother told her about it, that "Its power belongs to the sea", Marlo places it upon Barbie's head, which fully awakens her Water powers, allowing the blonde to free herself and blast an escape out of the doomed vessel. Then the twosome head out to meet up with the other merpeople at the island of trash.
Marlo joins up with many of the merfolk of Pacifica, where she watches as Aquaryah, who Barbie reveals as Pacifica's new Power Keeper, and the others combine their powers and eradicate the island of trash completely. She wishes to know more about the mermaid society, but Coralia tells her that her place is with the land dwellers and reminds her to always treat the sea and its inhabitants with respect, and Marlo readily promises to take Coralia's advice to heart. She is last seen at the celebration at Mermaid Rock, dancing with the inhabitants of Pacifica under the Mermaid Moon.
Physical Appearance[]
Marlo is a woman with light skin, brown eyes, and short red hair. In Dolphin Magic, she wears a colorful long-sleeved top with purple shorts, purple and black water shoes, and bright green stud earrings. The top has a purple and gray torso, orange collar, light blue shoulders, and yellow and white sleeves.
In Mermaid Power, Marlo wears a lab coat over a gray pleated shirt and pants. She later wears an orange-red diving suit with violet decals at the left of her bodice and near her right shoulder. As a mermaid, Marlo's hair and lip color become a brighter red. She wears a two-piece gold-colored skirt, with the bodice adorned with gold stars at the top hem and the skirt held in place by a purple belt around her waist, highlighted by a buckle of lavender jewels in a diamond formation. On her ears is a pair of aqua-colored pearl earrings. Her tail is a deep reddish orange, ending with a fin of alternating stripes of sky blue and navy blue.
Personality[]
In Dolphin Magic, Marlo claims to be a "dolphin expert". She uses her self-proclaimed expertise to manipulate people into listening to her. She is more interested in exploiting animals for profit than actually helping or studying them. Marlo is condescending and intimidating to the people around her, and she has a strong sense of entitlement. Even after seeing Isla, she is unsure if mermaids really exist. She didn't believe in Gemstone Dolphins until she saw their markings in person.
In Mermaid Power, Marlo is very greedy and has an extremely short temper. She can be jealous and spiteful, especially when things don't work as she hopes they will. As a result, she becomes more determined and ruthless in her attempts to achieve fame and glory, and often refuses to listen to reason or admit when she's wrong. She is also fanatically proud of her supposed mermaid heritage and her family, as it was revealed when she explained that her grandmother would tell her stories of discovering mermaids when she was younger. However, she seems to abandon her fanatic tendencies when Barbie saves her and convinces her to think of others.
Quotes[]
Dolphin Magic[]
- (When Ken tries to free Emerald) "Get away from there! Ken, what are you doing? Why would you endanger this animal by opening the gate?!"
- (About Gemstone Dolphins) "They're not real. People just make up stories about things they can't explain."
- "I think your presence here is stressing out the dolphin."
- "Don't worry, little dolphin, you're going to make me a lot of money."
- (To Hugo) "Let me be clear: That dolphin is going to make me a fortune. You won't see a dime of it if we don't take off in an hour!"
- "An entire family of Gemstone Dolphins! I can't believe this!"
- (When she sees Isla) "But I-I thought they didn't exist. Forget the dolphins, Hugo. I want that mermaid!"
- (Trying to capture Isla) "I've got little miss mermaid right in my sight!"
- (After capturing Barbie instead of Isla) "There was a real mermaid. I saw it! You saw it, too. Right, Hugo?! Right?!"
Barbie Dolphin Magic |
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![]() Quote: "This is our story, what's yours?" Media: Barbie: Dolphin Magic Characters: Barbie | Skipper | Stacie | Chelsea | Ken | DJ | Rookie | Honey | Taffy | Gemstone Dolphins | Marlo | Hugo | Isla | Pete | Crab Locations: Island | Resort | Reef | Research Facility Transportation: Speedboat | Stacie's Scooter | Hugo's Helicopter Objects: Ken's Surfboard | Skipper's Camera | Skipper's Tablet | Stacie's Binoculars | Mr. Floatie | Isla's Necklace | Marlo's Remote | Stacie's Bodyboard Music: "So Beautiful" | "Live in the Moment" | "Treasure" Other Pages: Gallery | Transcript | Credits |