There have been many animated films on the world’s most famous doll but there was never a live-action film based on Barbie. That was until now.
When word got out many little girls (and adult women) were excited for this. Then it got released around the same time as ‘Oppenheimer’ which was a biography film on the man behind the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan. Summer of 2023 quickly became known as ‘Barbenheimer’ because of that summer’s two most anticipated releases. Que in the countless memes including the common “pink glitter bomb” one that frequently showed up from time to time.
As with many women, I grew up with Barbie but unlike those women, I wasn’t much of a fan. Yes I had the Midnight Barbie but that was only because she was almost a soft toy compared to the others and the only one that I took a kindness to aside from my mum’s old Cindy doll (dolls creep me out still).
I also saw maybe one or two of the animated Barbie films growing up during the 2000’s. That was all the Barbie that I had in my life (my younger sister was more of a fan than me).
My only interest in the film was mainly because I’m a huge Margot Robbie fan and I was curious to see how she’d pull off Barbie.
The story starts of with Helen Mirren explaining the history of Barbie and the impact that the doll has had since her creation. She also explains that there is a hidden world called “Barbieland” where Barbie dolls and Ken dolls all live.
This is when we are introduced to Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) who is going about her “Best Day Ever”. Towards the end of the day, Barbie goes to the beach where Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) tries to impress her by showing off some surfing moves in which he gets “hurt”.
After making sure that Beach Ken is alright, Barbie admits that she’s having a party later on that night with all the other Barbies. Ken is disappointed; he wants to go too. Barbie gives in to him and allows Ken to come along…as well as the other Kens and Allen (Michael Cera).
During the party, Barbie accidentally lets slip about having thoughts of dying. Everyone is shocked by her words but she quickly covers up her mistake by meaning about dancing.
The next morning when Barbie wakes up, she senses that something is wrong with her. She’s not her usual bright self and everything is going wrong. Whilst at the beach with the other Barbies, Barbie admits that her feet are now flat. The others freak out. One of them suggests going to see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to see if she can help Barbie.
Barbie reluctantly agrees to and goes to see her straight away. Weird Barbie tells her that Barbie is feeling like that because the girl that used to play with her is feeling sad. Barbie must go to the Real World, find her and make her happy again.
I was able to watch it when it came out on blue-ray (funnily enough the box and disk were pink). Coming from a none-Barbie fan I had mixed feelings about it. Some of it was good such as the cast performances, especially coming from Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera and Will Ferrell (playing Mattel’s CEO). I also really liked the Barbie set designs as well as the outfits that Barbie and the other Barbies had (even though I would never wear them in real life) and the concept at the start of the film was good as well. I also enjoyed the dance scenes that were in there such as Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance The Night Away’ song during Barbie’s party at the beginning of the film and ‘Not Ken Enough’ towards the end.
Then there was the stuff that I didn’t like such as the concept of making Barbie’s original owner happy was soon thrown away for mean-spirited style feminism. Especially coming from her original owner’s daughter who talks about all the negative points about Barbie and why she’s not as popular as she thinks she is at Barbie.
I also wasn’t crazy about the ending either. Not to spoil anything but I’m sure the Barbie I knew wouldn’t do what that Barbie did in the end.
Another thing I wasn’t crazy about was most of the soundtrack despite some of the musical numbers that I mentioned above. Barbie’s face when she started to have a bad day would be the sort of face I’d be making if I had to wake up to Lizzo “singing”.
Also, I wouldn’t allow any child under ten to watch this film as there’s some very mature themes going on in it in areas despite first glance.
Over all, my reactions to this film were very mixed even as a none-Barbie fan.
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