Barbie in a Mermaid Tale

 Barbie in a Mermaid Tale

Barbie in A Mermaid Tale is about a sixteen-year-old girl called Merliah Summers, (Liah for short). She is a top surfer at Malibu and is nicknamed, "Queen of the waves". On the day of a surfing competition, Merliah is surfing mavericks, when one part of her hair suddenly turns pink on contact with seawater. Nervous of showing everyone her hair, she dives underwater and meets a pink-ish purple coloured, dolphin named Zuma. When the Zuma talked Merliah gasps but finds out that she can breathe underwater. Zuma takes Merliah to her friends then disappears. Merliah tells her friends Fallon and Hadley what happened, then she goes home, confused. After telling what happened to her grandfather, Break, Merliah finds out that she is half-mermaid. Thinking that her parents died when she was a small baby, Merliah's grandfather tells her the truth. Break tells her that Merliah's father was a human named Rip and that her mother was a mermaid named Calissa (who in fact, is the Queen of Oceana).Break tells her that when Merliah's father died, Calissa was worried about the fact that Calissa's evil mermaid sister Eris would try to rule over. At the same time, Calissa gave birth to Merliah. Merliah had no mermaid fins which made it dangerous for her in Oceana. Calissa didn't want Merliah to get hurt, so she took Merliah to her husband's father, Break (Merliah's grandfather). Calissa asked if Break could raise Merliah so that she would be safer on land from Eris's rule. It worked. Then Eris took over and Break told her that Calissa had died or was in Eris's rule. At first, Merliah didn't believe Break and left to tell her friends the news.
After telling her friends the news, Hadley was excited and believed that Merliah is of mermaid royalty. Just then, Zuma appears and says that it is true about what Break said, but Merliah at first didn't believe anything and in anger she throws her necklace she'd been wearing ever since she was an infant, it reveals Calissa still alive, spinning Merillia, the life force of the sea. She also tells Merliah that the reason her hair is pink, that she can breathe underwater, is because she is part mermaid. Merliah decides to try to rescue her mother and save the kingdom.
With Zuma as her guide, Merliah arrives in Oceana just when the "Eris Festival" starts. Zuma explains that ever since Eris ruled Oceana, her Merillia was not as strong as Caliisa's, which made the ocean weak. Most of the coral has turned brown, much like the autumn leaves. During the Eris Festival*, Merliah and Zuma hide in a nearby shop. Merliah watches how Eris controls Oceana, by spinning whirlpools that are impossible to get out of, and they take merpeople straight to her dungeons. Merliah is terrified and doubts she can save Oceana. After the festival ends, Zuma takes Merliah to a boutique whose owners are Kayla and Xylie. whenone of them discover her they chose to help her---after snouts licks her super ticklish toes making her laughAfter a mermaid makeover, the team seeks out the Destinies, three small stylish mermaids who have prophetic powers. Just before they arrive, they hear Eris storming that she will destroy Calissa's daughter. Merliah hides, while Kayla and Xylie point Eris in the fake direction of Kabayo's daughter. While Eris was distracted, Merliah and Zuma meet the Destinies. They reveal in order for the team to succeed in overthrowing Eris, they need "three tools that are spread far and wide": The Celestial Comb, a Dreamfish and Eris' protective necklace.
They set out to look for the items. First, with Fallon and Hadley's help, they find the Celestial Comb in a cave guarded by three giant jellyfish. Kayla, Xylie and Zuma lure the jellyfish away while Merliah and Snouts look for the comb. Merliah managed to get it and escape from the cave just before a cave-in. Next, they find the Dreamfish, yet again with Fallon's and Hadley's internet help, in the Adenato currents. Lastly, they get Eris' protective necklace by distracting her with some music and a song. Furious, Eris spins a whirlpool in order to get rid of Merliah. Merliah gets sucked into the whirlpool. Desperate, Merliah calls on the Dreamfish which offers to send her back to Malibu, her mermaid half to go away and it as if none of this has ever happened. Merliah hestitates, but rejects the wish. She is given a real strong mermaid tail, and successfully comes out the whirlpool. Merliah throws Eris' necklace to the ground, revealing Calissa spinning Merillia. Merliah finds out that though Eris is from a royal family, she can't spin Merillia, which is why Eris did not destroy Calissa. Eris is fed up with Merliah and goes after her. Merliah leads Eris into her own whirlpool and she is sent to the bottom of deepest trench in the ocean. Merliah sets Calissa free and Calissa makes Oceana healthy once more. Calissa gives Merliah a necklace that will let her wish to be human or mermaid at anytime. Merliah then goes back to the human world and wins the surfing trophy.

The Story of Thumbelina

THE STORY OF THUMBELINA

Once upon atime . . . there lived a woman who had no children. She dreamed of having a little girl, but time went by, and her dream never came true.
She then went to visit a witch, who gave her a magic grain of barley. She planted it in a flower pot. And the very next day, the grain had turned into a lovely flower, rather like a tulip. The woman softly kissed its half-shut petals. And as though by magic, the flower opened in full blossom. Inside sat a tiny girl, no bigger than a thumb. The woman called her Thumbelina. For a bed she had a walnut shell, violet petals for her mattress and a rose petal blanket. In the daytime, she played in a tulip petal boat, floating on a plate of water. Using two horse hairs as oars, Thumbelina sailed around her little lake, singing and singing in a gentle sweet voice.
Then one night, as she lay fast asleep in her walnut shell, a large frog hopped through a hole in the window pane. As she gazed down at Thumbelina, she said to herself: "How pretty she is! She'd make the perfect bride for my own dear son!"
She picked up Thumbelina, walnut shell and all, and hopped into the garden. Nobody saw her go.Back at the pond, her fat ugly son, who always did as mother told him, was pleased with her choice. But mother frog was afraid that her pretty prisoner might run away. So she carried Thumbellna out to a water lily leaf ln the middle of the pond.
"She can never escape us now," said the frog to her son.
"And we have plenty of time to prepare a new home for you and your bride." Thumbelina was left all alone. She felt so desperate. She knew she would never be able to escape the fate that awaited her with the two horrid fat frogs. All she could do was cry her eyes out. However, one or two minnows who had been enjoying the shade below the water lily leaf, had overheard the two frogs talking, and the little girl's bitter sobs. They decided to do something about it. So they nibbled away at the lily stem till it broke and drifted away in the weak current. A dancing butterfly had an idea: "Throw me the end of your belt! I'll help you to move a little faster!" Thumbelina gratefully did so, and the leaf soon floated away from the frog pond.
But other dangers lay ahead. A large beetle snatched Thumbelina with his strong feet and took her away to his home at the top of a leafy tree.
"Isn't she pretty?" he said to his friends. But they pointed out that she was far too different. So the beetle took her down the tree and set her free.
It was summertime, and Thumbelina wandered all by herself amongst the flowers and through the long grass. She had pollen for her meals and drank the dew. Then the rainy season came, bringing nastyweather. The poor child found it hard to find food and shelter. When winter set in, she suffered from the cold and felt terrible pangs of hunger.
One day, as Thumbelina roamed helplessly over the bare meadows, she met a large spider who promised to help her. He took her to a hollow tree and guarded the door with a stout web. Then he brought her some dried chestnuts and called his friends to come and admire her beauty. But just like the beetles, all the other spiders persuaded Thumbelina's rescuer to let her go. Crying her heart out, and quite certain that nobody wanted her because she was ugly, Thumbelina left the spider's house.
As she wandered, shivering with the cold, suddenly she came across a solid little cottage, made of twigs and dead leaves. Hopefully, she knocked on the door. It was opened by a field mouse.
"What are you doing outside in this weather?" he asked. "Come in and warm yourself." Comfortable and cozy, the field mouse's home was stocked with food. For her keep, Thumbelina did the housework and told the mouse stories. One day, the field mouse said a friend was coming to visit them.
"He's a very rich mole, and has a lovely house. He wears a splendid black fur coat, but he's dreadfully shortsighted. He needs company and he'd like to marry you!" Thumbelina did not relish the idea. However, when the mole came, she sang sweetly to him and he fell head over heels in love. The mole invited Thumbelina and the field mouse to visit him, but . . . to their surprise and horror, they came upon a swallow in the tunnel. It looked dead. Mole nudged it wi his foot, saying: "That'll teach her! She should have come underground instead of darting about the sky all summer!" Thumbelina was so shocked by such cruel words that later, she crept back unseen to the tunnel.
And every day, the little girl went to nurse the swallow and tenderly give it food.
In the meantime, the swallow told Thumbelina its tale. Jagged by a thorn, it had been unable to follow its companions to a warmer climate.
"It's kind of you to nurse me," it told Thumbelina. But, in spring, the swallow flew away, after offering to take the little girl with it. All summer, Thumbelina did her best to avoid marrying the mole. The little girl thought fearfully of how she'd have to live underground forever. On the eve of her wedding, she asked to spend a day in the open air. As she gently fingered a flower, she heard a familiar song: "Winter's on its way and I'll be off to warmer lands. Come with me!" Thumbelina quickly clung to her swallow friend, and the bird soared into the sky. They flew over plains and hills till they reached a country of flowers. The swallow gently laid Thumbelina in a blossom. There she met a tiny, white-winged fairy: the King of the Flower Fairies. Instantly, he asked her to marry him. Thumbelina eagerly said "yes", and sprouting tiny white wings, she became the Flower Queen!

Snow White

The Story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Grimm's Fairy Tale version - translated by Margaret Hunt - language modernized a bit by Leanne Guenther Once upon a time, long, long ago a king and queen ruled over a distant land.  The queen was kind and lovely and all the people of the realm adored her.  The only sadness in the queen's life was that she wished for a child but did not have one.   One winter day, the queen was doing needle work while gazing out her ebony window at the new fallen snow.  A bird flew by the window startling the queen and she pricked her finger.  A single drop of blood fell on the snow outside her window.  As she looked at the blood on the snow she said to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony."   Soon after that, the kind queen got her wish when she gave birth to a baby girl who had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony.  They named the baby princess Snow White, but sadly, the queen died after giving birth to Snow White.

Soon after, the king married a new woman who was beautiful, but as well proud and cruel.  She had studied dark magic and owned a magic mirror, of which she would daily ask, 

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?. 

Each time this question was asked, the mirror would give the same answer, "Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all."  This pleased the queen greatly as she knew that her magical mirror could speak nothing but the truth.
One morning when the queen asked, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" she was shocked when it answered:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White is even fairer than you.

The Queen flew into a jealous rage and ordered her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed.  She demanded that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart as proof.  
The poor huntsman took Snow White into the forest, but found himself unable to kill the girl.  Instead, he let her go, and brought the queen the heart of a wild boar.
Snow White was now all alone in the great forest, and she did not know what to do.  The trees seemed to whisper to each other, scaring Snow White who began to run.  She ran over sharp stones and through thorns.  She ran as far as her feet could carry her, and just as evening was about to fall she saw a little house and went inside in order to rest.
Inside the house everything was small but tidy.  There was a little table with a tidy, white tablecloth and seven little plates.  Against the wall there were seven little beds, all in a row and covered with quilts.
Because she was so hungry Snow White ate a few vegetables and a little bread from each little plate and from each cup she drank a bit of milk. Afterward, because she was so tired, she lay down on one of the little beds and fell fast asleep.
After dark, the owners of the house returned home.  They were the seven dwarves who mined for gold in the mountains.  As soon as they arrived home, they saw that someone had been there -- for not everything was in the same order as they had left it.

The first one said, "Who has been sitting in my chair?"
The second one, "Who has been eating from my plate?"
The third one, "Who has been eating my bread?"
The fourth one, "Who has been eating my vegetables?"
The fifth one, "Who has been eating with my fork?"
The sixth one, "Who has been drinking from my cup?"

But the seventh one, looking at his bed, found Snow White lying there asleep.  The seven dwarves all came running up, and they cried out with amazement.  They fetched their seven candles and shone the light on Snow White. 
"Oh good heaven! " they cried. "This child is beautiful!"
They were so happy that they did not wake her up, but let her continue to sleep in the bed.  The next morning Snow White woke up, and when she saw the seven dwarves she was frightened.  But they were friendly and asked, "What is your name?"
"My name is Snow White," she answered.
"How did you find your way to our house?" the dwarves asked further.
Then she told them that her stepmother had tried to kill her, that the huntsman had spared her life, and that she had run the entire day through the forest, finally stumbling upon their house.
The dwarves spoke with each other for awhile and then said, "If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want."
"Yes," said Snow White, "with all my heart."  For Snow White greatly enjoyed keeping a tidy home.
So Snow White lived happily with the dwarves.  Every morning they went into the mountains looking for gold, and in the evening when they came back home Snow White had their meal ready and their house tidy.  During the day the girl was alone, except for the small animals of the forest that she often played with.
Now the queen, believing that she had eaten Snow White's heart, could only think that she was again the first and the most beautiful woman of all.  She stepped before her mirror and said:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, 
Who in this land is fairest of all?

It answered:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White, beyond the mountains
With the seven dwarves,
Is still a thousand times fairer than you.

This startled the queen, for she knew that the mirror did not lie, and she realized that the huntsman had deceived her and that Snow White was still alive.  Then she thought, and thought again, how she could rid herself of Snow White -- for as long as long as she was not the most beautiful woman in the entire land her jealousy would give her no rest.
At last she thought of something.   She went into her most secret room -- no one else was allowed inside -- and she made a poisoned apple.  From the outside it was beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. But anyone who might eat a little piece of it would died.  Coloring her face, she disguised herself as an old peddler woman, so that no one would recognize her, traveled to the dwarves house and knocked on the door.
Snow White put her head out of the window, and said, "I must not let anyone in; the seven dwarves have forbidden me to do so."
"That is all right with me," answered the peddler woman. "I'll easily get rid of my apples.  Here, I'll give you one of them."
"No," said Snow White, "I cannot accept anything from strangers."
"Are you afraid of poison?" asked the old woman. "Look, I'll cut the apple in two.  You eat half and I shall eat half."
Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the one half was poisoned.  Snow White longed for the beautiful apple, and when she saw that the peddler woman was eating part of it she could no longer resist, and she stuck her hand out and took the poisoned half.  She barely had a bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.
The queen looked at her with an evil stare, laughed loudly, and said, "White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony wood!  The dwarves shall never awaken you."
Back at home she asked her mirror:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

It finally answered:

You, my queen, are fairest of all.

Then her cruel and jealous heart was at rest, as well as a cruel and jealous heart can be at rest.
When the dwarves came home that evening they found Snow White lying on the ground.  She was not breathing at all.  She was dead.  They lifted her up and looked at her longingly.  They talked to her, shook her and wept over her.  But nothing helped.  The dear child was dead, and she remained dead.  They laid her on a bed of straw, and all seven sat next to her and mourned for her and cried for three days.  They were going to bury her, but she still looked as fresh as a living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks.
They said, "We cannot bury her in the black earth," and they had a transparent glass coffin made, so she could be seen from all sides.  They laid her inside, and with golden letters wrote on it her name, and that she was a princess.  Then they put the coffin outside on a mountain, and one of them always stayed with it and watched over her.  The animals too came and mourned for Snow White, first an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove.
Now it came to pass that a prince entered these woods and happened onto the dwarves' house, where he sought shelter for the night . He saw the coffin on the mountain with beautiful Snow White in it, and he read what was written on it with golden letters.
Then he said to the dwarves, "Let me have the coffin. I will give you anything you want for it."
But the dwarves answered, "We will not sell it for all the gold in the world."
Then he said, "Then give it to me, for I cannot live without being able to see Snow White. I will honor her and respect her as my most cherished one."
As he thus spoke, the good dwarves felt pity for him and gave him the coffin.  The prince had his servants carry it away on their shoulders.  But then it happened that one of them stumbled on some brush, and this dislodged from Snow White's throat the piece of poisoned apple that she had bitten off.  Not long afterward she opened her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up, and was alive again.
"Oood heavens, where am I?" she cried out.
The prince said joyfully, "You are with me."  He told her what had happened, and then said, "I love you more than anything else in the world.  Come with me to my father's castle.  You shall become my wife."  Snow White loved him, and she went with him.  Their wedding was planned with great splendor and majesty.
Snow White's wicked step-mother was invited to the feast, and when she had arrayed herself in her most beautiful garments, she stood before her mirror, and said:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

The mirror answered:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you.

Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrived at the wedding, and her heart filled with the deepest of dread when she realized the truth - the evil queen was banished from the land forever and the prince and Snow White lived happily ever after.