Voice actors:

Kelly Sheridan,

Chiara Zanni,

Kathleen Barr,

Lee Tockar,

Alessandro Juliani,

Christopher Gaze,

Tabitha St. Germain,

Andrea Libman,

Brittney Wilson,

Pam Hyatt,

Venus Terzo.

Barbie Fairytopia (film, 2005).

Being a sequel to Fairytopia (2005, Barbie™), Mermaidia is a story in which Barbie, as the fairy Elina travels to the realm of the mermaids to rescue her merman friend Nalu, who was kidnapped by the evil fairy Laverna. Laverna pressures Nalu to reveal the location of a special berry, by threatening that she would poison the waters of Mermaidia. With the help of Nori, a mermaid in love with Nalu, Elina tries to save Nalu before Laverna’s servants retrieve the magical fruit allowing her to become the most powerful fairy. On their quest to find Nalu, Elina and Nori meet a lot of characters (the sea-snail Shellie, the oracle Delphine or the merfairies) and visit different places, such as the Mirror of the Mist in the Depths of Despair. After multiple tribulations and adventures, Elina and Nori manage to save Nalu from Fungi, Laverna’s servants, as well as to hide the berry and overthrow Laverna. To accomplish the mission, Elina temporarily transforms into a mermaid but is told to leave the water when the last pearl in her necklace begins to fade if she wants the transformation to be reversible. Unfortunately, when the time comes for her to transform back to a fairy, Laverna’s servants drop a vile poison into the ocean. Elina manages to intercept the poison before it infects the water, but because she is under the surface when the last pearl fades, she will always have to remain a mermaid. However, Nori remembers a "reveal-one’s-true-self" berry they came across during their mission, which, as Elina tastes it, turns her back to a fairy with wings even more beautiful than before, as a reward for her willingness to sacrifice them. Nori is reunited with Nalu, Elina returns to Fairytopia, and they all live happily ever after.

Although the plot of the film happens in a fairyland beyond time and space as we know them, the references to antiquity can still be found on several levels.

Firstly, the ocean in the film is populated by mythical creatures like mermaids, merfairies and mermen/tritons such as those mentioned by Pliny the Elder* or Physiologus** (2nd century AD), but the protagonists of Barbie: Mermaidia look quite differently. The underwater kingdom brings to mind the image of the underwater realm of Poseidon according to the tripartite separation of world powers between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Moreover, while in the underwater kingdom, the main heroine, Elina, undergoes a physical transformation, or metamorphosis, into a mermaid – she loses her fairy wings in exchange for a fishtail, which she needs to reach the Depths of Despair at the very bottom of Mermaidia. This theme of metamorphosis and the questioning of one’s "true self" as a medium of expression resembles the extensive exploration of change as a concept in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. For example, Elina’s reaction to becoming a mermaid has an almost tragic overtone similar to the degrading transformation of Perdix’ son into a bird.

Another element straight from the classical tradition and used by the creators of the film is the motif of the Delphic oracle. As the two mermaids travel to rescue prince Nalu, Nori tells Elina that she is looking for the oracle, Delphine. The merfairies, who know where the oracle is, tell Elina to use the ferry guide to find Delphine. As Elina and Nori reach the ferry, it turns out to be run by a giant sea-snail. Eventually, the mermaids discover that the oracle is the snail itself. The oracle appears to be based on the image of the ancient one in Delphi – the name of the oracle, Delphine, is likely intended to be associated with the Oracle of Delphi. Moreover, it uses the same manner of response. Delphine does not directly tell them where to find Nalu, but rather that they must go through a trial of trust and sacrifices by going to the Depths of Despair and seeking out the Mirror of the Mist. Such an answer strongly resembles the non-directional character of Pythian prophecies, which tends to edify in a mysterious and ambiguous way. 

Another connection to the ancient tradition is through the Latin language – an evil servant of Laverna is named Fungus Maximus, and his helpers, preserving the Latin form of plural – Fungi. This certainly evokes the Linnaean system of classification, yet is still rooted in Classical Antiquity. Being the sole instance of Latin language in the film, it suggests such a measure was used on purpose. Since the Fungi are to effect the poisoning of the ocean, should prince Nalu not cooperate, their name in Latin is fitting because fungi in the Roman civilization symbolized death by poison.

* Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, chapter IX .4. (5.) The forms of the tritons and nereids. The forms of sea elephants.

** Chapter XV On the Siren and Onocentaur.

Pakis, Valentine A., “Contextual Duplicity and Textual Variation: The Siren and Onocentaur in the Physiologus Tradition”, Mediaevistik. Internationale Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Mittelterforschung 23 (2010): 115–186 (accessed: December 15, 2021).

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, IX. 4 (5), John Bostock, H.T. Riley, eds., London: Taylor and Francis, 1855. (accessed: December 15, 2021).

Translations: 

Dubbing available in the following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Castilian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese. (source: Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia | barbie-dubbing, accessed: October  27, 2020).