Review: Barbie learns the Recipe for Friendship (again) in latest movie

When Greta Gerwig's Barbie was on the slate a couple years ago, I decided to dive deep into the franchise, and watched a bunch of the animated Barbie movies that have come out over the years. There have been multiple eras, various iterations of the character, and some bizarre directions, but all-in-all, if you need something that goes down easy and might give you some laughs, an animated Barbie movie is a good way to go.

That's certainly the case with the latest release, the one-hour Barbie & Teresa: Recipe for Friendship, which is streaming on Netflix. This time around, Teresa is trying to perfect her abuela's tamale recipe, but much to her chagrin, cooking isn't always an exact science. In true grandmotherly fashion, Abuela says that cooking is from the heart -- she doesn't follow a recipe, doesn't use exact measurements. She tastes as she goes, feels her way through the process, and puts lots of love into everything she makes. Teresa's cousin Marisol is about to open her new restaurant in New York City, but with a broken foot, she needs reinforcements. Enter Teresa, both Barbies (Malibu and Brookly), and Nikki, who jet off to save the day.

While Teresa gets top billing here, the core of the story is more about Brooklyn and Malibu. I like this pairing a lot. They met in Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams, where they were gagged that they have the same name. Since then, they've costarred in some TV shows (I haven't watched those) and a mermaid movie, and they have a nice dynamic. Sometimes butting heads, always pushing each other to be better. This time around, Brooklyn overcommits when she agrees to help her friend Emmie mount a showcase for a new musical she's working on, leading her to miss important restaurant prep, and leaving Malibu feeling lost in the lurch. Both Barbies end up being a bit unreasonable but, of course, they find their way back to each other.

This era of Barbie movies has such a soothing quality to it. These movies are completely unchallenging, asking nothing of the viewer. The lessons are ones the characters have probably learned before on previous outings, but bear repeating. It's so charming how these talented characters bumble and fail a lot and then just suddenly are as amazing as they're supposed to be. Here, Nikki is the design whiz, but when she takes Malibu and Teresa to see a furniture showroom, every single piece is absurdly wrong for a restaurant. It's like...girl, what are you thinking? What is this nonsense? But then a few scenes later (and with help from token gay Rafa), she suddenly gets her taste and talent back, and the dining room looks amazing. It's so silly. I live.

One of the best parts of any Barbie movie is the music. There are so many Barbie songs on my running playlist, including a few from Big City, Big Dreams. This movie added two to the list -- "Friendship Goes the Distance", which Malibu and Brooklyn sing when they probably should be heading to the airport, but there's always time for a song-and-dance in this world; and "Inspiration is Everywhere," the Rafa-led number as he takes the girls on a whirlwind tour of New York to get their shit together. These don't rank amongst my favorite songs from the franchise, but I have a feeling they'll grow on me as I listen to them ad nauseam.

On the animation front, these movies aren't particularly notable. The characters' stiff movements can be forgiven since they're, you know, based on dolls, but I still don't understand why the puppies aren't cuter. And the puppies always end up getting showcased one way or another, so it's kind of an issue. I do want to give kudos for Teresa's hair though, which is shiny, shimmery, splendid. Hypnotic at times, even.

And even if the food doesn't look that good (Ghibli food, this is not....not by a long, long, long shot), this did leave me craving tamales. Which is always true, but it's especially true now.