Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia

Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia is a 2006 direct-to-video computer-animated film directed by Walter P. Martishius and William Lau, and produced by Mainframe Entertainment. It is the 7th entry in the Barbie film series, a direct sequel to Barbie: Fairytopia and the 2nd film in the Barbie: Fairytopia series film stars Kelly Sheridan as the voice of Elina and Chiara Zanni as the voice of Nori. The plot follows shortly after the events of the previous sequel, focusing on a now-full-fledged fairy named Elina and a mermaid named Nori who attempt to rescue Nalu, a merman prince, from the clutches of the evil Laverna. Like all the CGI Barbie films, a line of dolls and toys were produced and released with the film. This was also the last Barbie film to be released on VHS. 
== Plot ==
The film starts with Elina flying through the air, still having trouble believing that she has wings. She is soon sought out by a juvenile sea-butterfly fairy who witnessed Nalu, the merprince Elina had befriended in the previous movie, being kidnapped by several of Laverna's goblin-like Fungi at the Crystal Cove. She was unable to intervene, but Naluwas able to send her to find Elina for help.
Laverna, who was banished to the Bog of the Hinterlands by the Enchantress' magic, is seeking the Immunity Berry- a berry that makes whoever eats it immune to all magic, past, present, and future. Nalu knows where to find the berry, and so she has sent her Fungi to recover it.
Fungus Maximus, the leader of the Fungi, threatens to pour a bottle of magical poison into the ocean to destroy Mermaidia if Nalu does not lead them to the berry. Nalu reluctantly agrees, and the Fungi take him away with them underwater. Elina arrives at the Crystal Cove a short time after this, accompanied by her companion Bibble. She finds no trace of Nalu but encounters a mermaid named Nori. Nori had planned to meet Nalu at the cove and is unaware of the reason for his absence. When Elina tells her of the kidnapping, Nori insists on going to rescue the prince herself (mainly because she was very sore that Elina brought the fire birds with her to the cove last time). Elina uses magical seaweed to breathe underwater and follows. Meanwhile, Nalu has delayed the Fungi in their quest by leading them to a place in the ocean called the Carousel of Confusion, with hypnotizing waters that make people forget what they’re doing. This allows him to direct them in circles for a long time before Fungus Maximus finally catches on.
Elina soon reaches Mermaidia and catches up with Nori, who has been unsuccessfully attempting to learn the location of the oracle Delphine so that Nori can ask her where to find Nalu. The only people who know the location of Delphine are the merfairies, who are too childlike to take any situation seriously and so are nearly impossible to speak with. Merfairies do settle down enough to converse with when entertaining guests in their above-water homes, however, so Elina can visit them and convince the merfairies to give her the location. Delphine is disguised as the fairy ferry Shellie, a large snail-like creature who takes travelers across a river at the edge of Mermaidia.
Having proven her usefulness to Nori, the mermaid reluctantly agrees to let Elina accompany her - “as long as you can keep up with me.” Nori easily out-swims Elina, but Elina takes to the air and skims along just above the waves to make the race more even. The two reach Delphine together, and Elina impresses Nori with her flying, prompting her to finally begin dropping some of her hostility. The two of them ask her for Nalu’s location, but Delphine won’t tell them directly, saying they first have to prove themselves. She tells them to travel to the bottom of the Depths of Despair to find the Mirror of the Mist, which will lead them to him. She warns that the two of them will have to rely on one other to make it and that Elina will have to sacrifice; the Depths of Despair are dangerous and require a great deal of underwater strength which is provided by a tail, not wings which means Elina will have to trade her fairy wings for a mermaid tail. Elina, however, doesn’t quite believe Delphine and refuses, having just gained wings recently after a lifetime without them, and says she can’t give them up.
Delphine gives Elina a magical pearl necklace in case she changes her mind later. Using the necklace is not without risk, though. When the necklace’s magic is invoked, the pearls turn blue and then begin slowly turning white again, one at a time. If the user is out of the water when the last pearl turns white, she will return to her original form, but she will become a mermaid forever if she’s still in the water. The two then head to the Depths of Despair together.
The Depths of Despair is a dark vertical shaft on the ocean floor. The two of them begin swimming downward. Nori swims downward with no problems, but Elina cannot progress against the powerful upwelling currents in the shaft. Nori presses onward, telling Elina to wait for her, but is soon entrapped by the fronds of one of the hostile sea plants growing on the shaft’s walls and starts yelling to Elina for help. Elina tries to swim to her but still can’t reach her to rescue her due to the current still pushing her back up, and thus, she is forced to activate the necklace after all, turning her into a mermaid. She asks herself what has she done, but knowing that Nori is in trouble and needs help. Elina reaches Nori and frees her, but is suddenly snagged herself and Nori returns the favor and the two fend off the plants to reach the cavern at the bottom.
They find the Mirror of the Mist there in the keeping of a fish who operates it on their behalf, she tells the girls they are either brave or desperate to try and swim to the Depths of Despair, both of them ask to see Nalu, (even though they could ask to see any truth). The fish uses her magic on the pearl showing an image of Nalu hanging suspended in the air by his tail from a stone arch and creating a magical bubble for them to follow on the next leg of their journey. While en route, the two of them discover themselves spontaneously developing matching tattoos on their upper arms. Nori recognizes the symbol as the “Crest of Courage,” which mermaid legend says will decorate anyone strong enough to travel to the very bottom of Mermaidia.
The bubble takes them to the entrance of a cave filled with boiling hot thermal vents and the pops. Nori recognizes the cave and realizes it is the right path to the place that matches what they saw in the Mirror of the Mist when it showed them Nalu. She assures Elina that it’s possible to make it through by properly timing one’s passage with the eruption of the vents, having done it before, and leads them through. Bibble becomes stranded partway through, and Nori goes back to rescue him for Elina. Bibble is slightly boiled but will be okay, he is grateful to Nori.
Beyond the vents lies a cavern filled with a variety of sea plants bearing magical fruits, including one that causes the eater to speak backward, one that causes all of the eater’s hair to fall out, and one that reveals the eater’s true self. Bibble gets ahold of some of the berries, while they aren't poison, they are one that makes the eater dance with yodeling, one that causes the eater to sing beautiful opera, and one that causes the eater to speak in a deep voice. Elina and Nori think that is funny. When they reach the surface, they find Nalu guarded by Max’s two Fungi henchmen and have Bibble distract them with opera singing while the two mermaids leap from the water to cut the seaweed ropes holding him.
Nalu is grateful to be rescued but tells them that Max has reached the cave where the Immunity Berry grows, near where he was being held by the two lesser Fungi. Realizing that if Laverna were to become immune to the Enchantress’ magic, she would become unstoppable, the three battle with the Fungi to retrieve the Berry that Max has picked. They succeed, with Elina snatching the Berry and leaping out of the water at the top of a waterfall just as her final blue pearl begins to turn white. Max is lurking nearby, however, and threatens to release his magical poison into the water if Elina doesn’t hand over the Berry. She tosses the Berry to him, but Max breaks his side of the bargain and drops the vile over the edge of the waterfall anyway. Elina dives to catch it and manages to restopper it just before hitting the water at the bottom. Her last pearl finishes turning white, trapping her forever in mermaid form, and Max escapes with the Berry.
Nalu and Nori are grateful to Elina for saving the ocean, but Elina is heartbroken that she will be a mermaid forever and never see her friends again. Realizing that Bibble can't live under the water, she would have to say goodbye to Bibble which he does not want to do. The seeming defeat is soon partly reversed, however, when Nori reveals that she and Elina had swapped the Immunity Berry during the heat of the chase with a similar-looking substitute - one of the berries that reveals the eater’s true self which they somehow painted a red stripe onto to make it look exactly like the Immunity Berry. Elina then decides to risk eating one of the true-self berries herself in the hopes of restoring herself to fairy form. She succeeds, gaining wings even more spectacular than the ones she had before and a new outfit. After knowing that Elina and Nalu were just friends, Nori finally reveals her love for him and returns to Fairytopia.
Meanwhile, in the Bogs of the Hinterlands, Laverna takes a bite from the True Self Berry thinking it's Immunity Berry and finds herself transformed into a toad. Furious, she swears vengeance on Elina. Back in Fairytopia, Elina reunites with her family and friends and tells Dandelion everything.
== Production ==
== Trivia ==
* The Queen of the Night aria, from Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" is used in the film, notably with Bibble singing.
* This was the last Barbie film released on VHS in the USA.
* The re-release has the original DVD bonus features removed.
* This was the first sequel in the Barbie franchise.
Category:2006 films
Category:2006 direct-to-video films
Category:Barbie animated films
Category:Canadian animated films
Category:Canadian films
Category:2006 computer-animated films
Category:Lions Gate Entertainment films
Category:Films about mermaids
Category:Lions Gate Entertainment animated films