She’s the world’s most famous doll and 64 years after her life in plastic debut, Mattel’s Barbie movie is finally hitting the big screen, thanks to writer/director Greta Gerwig. Her journey from toy aisle to the glitz of Hollywood hasn’t been smooth sailing, as this live-action iteration was first announced eons ago (read: 2009) with Universal, before finding a new home with Sony in 2014, and ultimately Warner Bros. in 2018. At the start, Amy Schumer, and later, Anne Hathaway, were linked to the project before Margot Robbie was attached to star as the iconic doll.
Updates around the movie came slowly but surely, and things picked up speed when the studio released that photo of Robbie at CinemaCon in 2022.
You know, the one of the Australian actress in a striped halter, a blue polka-dotted headband, and she’s sitting in the driver’s seat of a hot pink Chevrolet? Yeah, that one. Robbie was just a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world, and fans were all dying to be part of it. Just like that, Barbie became everything anyone could talk about – and for good reason.
With so much chatter going on about this highly anticipated title, we’re cutting through the noise and telling you all you need to know about the upcoming Barbie movie.
The Plot
Life in plastic is fantastic… up until you’re not as perfect as you were meant to be. In Barbie, the iconic doll has achieved a level of self-actualisation and is forced to leave Barbieland due to her so-called imperfections like having flat feet and thinking about dying mid-party. She sets off on an adventure in the real world with fellow doll and lifetime boyfriend, Ken, and discovers along the way that true perfection can be found within. Yes, that sounds cliche, especially coming from feminist auteur Gerwig, but living amongst humans is both a joyful and perilous experience and we’re keen to see Barbie be a fish out of water, or more specifically, a doll outside of her box.
The Cast
The Barbie movie will be led by stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.
Robbie admitted that creating a live-action Barbie film “comes with a lot of baggage” as well as “a lot of nostalgic connections.”
“But with that come[s] a lot of exciting ways to attack it. People generally hear ‘Barbie’ and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’” the actress told Vogue. “And then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t…’”
“This has been coming my whole life… I felt like I was seeing myself. I felt seen. I think a lot of Kens will feel seen when they see this. Gotta do it for the Kens. Nobody plays with the Kens,” said Gosling of his character (Variety). “That Ken life is even harder than The Gray Man life, I think… Ken’s got no money, he’s got no job, he’s got no car, he’s got no house. He’s going through some stuff.”
And like the doll that has been revamped, transformed and rebooted across six decades, there is more than one Barbie and Emma Mackey, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Ana Cruz Kayne and pop star Dua Lip also play variations of the doll.
And in a move towards equality, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans and John Cena also play variations of Ken.
Other members of the cast include Will Ferrell as the movie’s main antagonist, Michael Cera as Alan, America Ferrera as Gloria, Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha, Emerald Fennell as Midge, Connor Swindells as Aaron Dinkins, Jamie Demetriou as a Mattel Executive and Helen Mirren as The Narrator.
The Filmmaker
Now we’ve mentioned her quite a bit, but who is Greta Gerwig? Gerwig is an actor turned director who has made a name for herself making women-centred films like Lady Bird and Little Women. She signed on to direct Barbie in July 2021, and co-wrote the story with her partner Noah Baumbach. Baumbach is best known for his work on Marriage Story, White Noise and Frances Ha. His frequent collaborators include Adam Driver, Wes Anderson and of course, Gerwig.
Taking on Barbie was not an easy decision for Gerwig. In the beginning, she first thought Barbie was going to end her career.
“It was something that was exciting because it was terrifying,” explained Gerwig in a podcast with Dua Lipa. “I think that was a big part of it, like ‘Oh, no, Barbie.’… It felt like vertigo, starting to write it, like ‘Where do you even begin, and what would be the story?’… Usually, that’s where the best stuff is, where you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that.’ Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender’ then you’re like, ‘I should probably do it.’”
Connection to other Barbie movies? Barbieverse?
Gerwig’s Barbie is not the first (and hopefully not the last) movie about the beloved toy from Mattel. Mattel first started making animated Barbie movies in the early 2000s, starting with 2001’s Barbie in the Nutcracker. The Barbie movies began as reimaginations of popular tales like Rapunzel and Swan Lake before Mattel started telling original fairy tales about fairies, mythical creatures and Barbie as various princesses. The movies later evolve to tell more modern stories with Barbie as a pop star, a spy, a video gamer and more.
Mattel later collaborated with Netflix to produce the animated series Life in the Dreamhouse. The series took on a different art style and is a lot more self-aware. Although the series is a compilation of web episodes focusing on the daily extravagant life of Barbie and her friends, Life in the Dreamhouse fuses a lot of pop culture references from popular movies like Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Indiana Jones amongst many others.
Thus far, there seems to be no common thread that links and connects all the past Barbie movies and tv shows together – except for the fact they’re all led by the same character – so it’s unlikely that Gerwig’s Barbie will connect with previous Barbie movies too.
“You should watch this movie because it’s a fun movie. And it is SO much fun,” said Robbie (via Elle). “And it is so well crafted…everyone is operating at the highest level. It is a top-quality film; it also happens to be extremely fun. If you love Barbie, you’re going to love it, if you hate Barbie, you’re going to love it, but if you just love a good movie you’re going to love it.”
Barbie releases on 20 July 2023.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Natalie
Edwin Teo
