Thinking of Taking Princess Genevieve Barbie For a Spin?

My daughter had been begging for a Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses Princess Genevieve Barbie ever since seeing it in Target one day when we were supposedly shopping for a birthday present for another girl, so my son bought both the Barbie and the associated movie for her for Christmas.

The Princess Genevieve Barbie is really a beautiful Barbie and not all tarted up like the My Scene Barbies are. She is dressed in a sparkly pink confection, just like you would expect from a Princess Barbie, but there’s a new twist on this one: press a button on her legs and the skirt spins around and lights up. Now, this is kind of weird to me, especially when putting the batteries in, as they go into her legs, but my girls, 3 and 7, just thought it was the bees knees. It does look neat all lit up, especially in a dark room.

There are a couple of issues with Princess Genevieve Barbie, though. The first is that the clothes don’t come off, which, if you are like the 3 year old, is greatly disappointing because why have a Barbie that you can’t strip naked and leave all over the house in Naked Barbie Wasteland?

Secondly, if the arms are not up and out of the way of the skirt and the top is not “just so”, then the skirt won’t spin. Both these issues caused enough frustration that poor Princess Genevieve was tossed aside in favor of one of the dozen or so other Naked Bride of Frankenstein Barbies by the three year old after just a few minutes of play. The 7 year old, who treats her Barbies more as collector’s items, got a bit more play from the doll, using it to act out scenes from the movie. In that respect, the doll functions more as an action figure rather than a Barbie, enough so that my 5 year old son will sometimes take the doll to play with rather than to antagonize his sisters.

The disconnect I had was after watching the movie. I have no idea why this Barbie has a skirt that spins, because there is no corresponding action in the movie. My daughter acts out scenes from the movie without ever using the skirt spinning function.

Additionally, Princess Genevieve in the movie has a cat named Twyla, a beautiful white persian cat. Princess Genevieve the Barbie doll comes with a cat, too – but it’s the wrong cat. The cat that came with the doll is an orange tabby cat dressed in a pink tutu. Any fan of the Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses movies would recognize the cat as resembling Wolfie, the barking cat from Barbie Princess and the Pauper. This was mildly disconcerting to my 7 year old, who likes to have her things “match up”. I have heard a rumor that this has since been fixed; if it is important to you or your child for things to “match up”, check the box to make sure you have the right cat before you buy.

Overall, Princess Genevieve is a fine doll with neat bells and whistles, but if you are looking for a more traditional doll that can be dressed in other ways, your money would be better spent on a different Barbie.