What's up With The Barbie Movie!

By Leslie Urena ('24)

If you’ve ever wandered into a toy store at some point in your life, chances are you’ve come across shelves upon shelves of a certain plastic, blonde bombshell. She’s always sporting different accessories and trendy outfits with perfectly styled, synthetic hair. Maybe you’ve even seen her in one of her 40 movies, been inspired to pursue one of her 200 careers, or sung along to Aqua's hit song written about her.

Well, if it wasn't obvious, today we will be talking about a popular doll by the toy band Mattel. As previously mentioned, there have been over 40 movies, as well as a few TV shows starring the iconic Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie. In some she’s a princess, in others a mermaid or a fairy, and even in one, a spy. 

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I know when I was growing up, I was obsessed with Barbie. I had multiple dolls whose poor hair I would cut, foolishly thinking it would grow back. I would give them makeup in the form of Crayola markers and make them clothes from tapped-together fabric scraps. The dolls weren’t very pretty by the end of my time with them, but they still meant a lot to me. I watched every movie, with one of my earliest memories watching Barbie in A Mermaid Tale (2010) with my best friend. So as you can imagine, even in my teens, I was still thoroughly excited to hear about a live-action Barbie movie. 

I found out about the movie once the Internet started buzzing about it in 2021. However, the movie had already been in production long before then. The movie was originally announced in 2009, with comedian Amy Schumer starring as Barbie. Then, once that project was scrapped, another Barbie was developed with Anne Hathaway in 2017. But unfortunately, that project also fell through. It almost seemed that all hope was lost for a live-action Barbie movie... almost!

Hope came in the form of Greta Gerwig in July 2019, when Variety confirmed her to be Barbie’s new writer and director. Margot Robbie had already been announced to have replaced Anne Hathaway earlier in 2018, and with Gerwig on board, the movie finally began moving forward.

The movie was originally set to follow a “fish out of water” plot in which Barbie was banished from Barbie Land after not being “perfect enough.” Now, it’s a bit unclear what the new plot of the movie will be, but it seems to be pretty similar. IMDB offers the following description: “To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken.”

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With the release of the official trailer and various character posters, fans have begun to speculate about the plot. Will Ferrell’s character is listed as “Mattel CEO” on IMDB, and character posters are revealing that there are humans in the story, which has led some to believe that he is to be the antagonist of the story who will be chasing after Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling). Others theorize the that the story will be fabricated by little girls playing with their own Barbie dolls, much like in the 2014 Lego Movie.

So far, this movie’s marketing is genius. The first trailer was released in December 2022 and was a parody of A Space Odyssey, where little girls traded their vintage baby dolls in favor of the stylish Barbie doll. The second trailer came out on April 4, 2023, along with various character posters that offer foreshadowing about the forthcoming film. The sets all look very plasticy and doll-like, appearing as if they’ve been plucked from a toy store shelf. The characters' costumes were arrayed in vibrant colors.

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These characters have wit and charm.  The character posters also spurred new jokes: “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” Similarly, all the other Barbie girls have posters detailing their impressive careers, while the Kens are… just Kens. They also feature the one and only Allan and Midge, the only original characters other than the humans who are Barbie and Ken’s best friends.

If there is one thing to take away from these posters and trailers, it’s this: Life in plastic really is fantastic! The countdown for the movie’s release on July 21, 2023, has officially begun and I can’t wait!

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Watch the trailer!