An action-packed slog

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Cheyenne Nguyen (age 8) shares her review below: video review here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQQjts4wb9g This movie is great for surfers, skate boarders and Barbie fans. Malia is half human and half mermaid. She enjoys both her water world and human world. There are times that she has to choose which world is more important to her. She's very competitive in her human world and sometimes forgets her obligations to her water world.¬¬¬¬ Malia is in surfing competition in her human world and does not want to go to her water world for an important ceremony. Her mom is very sad because she choose the human world over the water world on this important day. Malia has an evil aunt who was put into the wind tunnel because she's bad. The evil aunt somehow tricks her competitor, "Kylie" to help her out of the wind tunnel. This puts the water world into harm's way. The aunt then traps Kylie in the wind tunnel. Malia senses that there is something bad happening to the water world. She swims into the ocean to look for her mom. While she's looking for her mom, she sees that Kylie is trapped in the wind tunnel. Malia helps Kylie out of the wind tunnel and gives up her secret to save Kylie. After this rescue, Malia and Kylie join forces to help the water world from the evil aunt. There is a lot of excitement with all the twists and turns, Malia and Kylie have a hard time fighting her evil aunt and her electric fish. At the end, Malia has to make a decision to be a human or mermaid to save the water world from evil. There are a lot of funny lines from the sea animals and I laughed a lot. This movie shows us how competition is good and bad. If we focus too much on winning, we tend to do the wrong thing to win. This is why we need to look into our skills and what we can do to improve what we have, rather than focus on our competitor and what they have. If you have a good heart and follow what your heart tells you to do, you will do the right thing. The music is very upbeat and the story line is very easy to follow. The surfing tricks are awesome. I give this movie 4 star out of 5 and recommend this for kids ages four to ten.

Despite being 20, I do get pleasure watching the Barbie movies. They are cute and fun, even they are on the corny side sometimes. I enjoyed the first Mermaid Tale movie, and was expecting similar for this sequel. And on the whole I got that. It could've been longer perhaps, the story does take time to get going and I personally could've done without the fish puns(Karate Squid and Raiders of the Lost Corp). However, the story on the whole is sweet with a nice message, getting even better with the chemistry between Merliah and Kylie, and the stunts are neatly done. The characters are nothing new compared to other Barbie movies, but Merliah and Kylie are likable with a but of sass and Eris is an effective enough villainess. The supporting characters are also very cute. The voice work is solid, with Kathaleen Barr doing a great job as Eris, and Kelly Sheridan getting better every time. I liked best of all the soundtrack, which is catchy with some whimsical moments as well, and the bright and colourful animation. Overall, sweet and entertaining, a good, if not great, movie. 7/10 Bethany Cox