Barbie (2023)
She’s everything. He’s just ken.
Hey look, my name is in the tagline of the movie! I’m famous! I’m just joking of course, but as a dude who wakes up to Ken’s theme from Street Fighter, me making such a stupid quip should be expected. I decided that I need a burst of color and bubble for the day after spending most of it feeling just plain tired (I’m starting to think science is lying about that whole only needing 7 hours of sleep thing) - so I found the most brightly colored thing stored in my “To Watch” list. Yeah, that’s right, tonight is fantastic because life is plastic, we’re going to check out Barbie.
Our narrator is gonna be spitting some great jokes over the course of this - but she starts off laying out it out for us - Barbie came to be, and girls everywhere upgraded from the stone age of pretending to be moms with only baby dolls to being everything and anything they could dream off - and as far as the Barbies over in imagination land know, everything was awesome and girls totally rule the world. When our lead Stereotypical Barbie suddenly starts having things go weird - ranging from thoughts of death and flat feet - it’s discovered that someone in the real world is associating these things on to her, and she’s going to have to travel to the real world and right this or run the risk of being like Weird Barbie - whose constantly doing splits and has some wild old school Cyndi Lauper hair. It’s already a situation gone wrong, but when Ken travels along with her it gets a lot worse when he discovers that in the real world, it’s a total role reversal.
Actors do wonderful here. I mean, don’t get me wrong - it’s kind of a weird movie, and I’m not super versed on Barbie lore or anything like that - but it feels like people are acting like you would think. Like, when you think of someone playing with dolls in an everything is wonderful way, this is how you would expect those dolls to act - but it’s also not like they are acting bad. I feel like I’m just making that even more confusing, but people are doing a good job here - very bubbly and oblivious or stupid as the movie calls for it, but also having that emotional play when it’s needed. Most the heavy lifting is arguable the main Barbie - and at times it can be a bit over-played or under-played amongst the other actors, but I never felt like people weren’t acting as the movie really intended them to be. It helps quite a bit when you get to jokes when the actors are doing such a good job.
Characters are mostly all very straightforward. Our main Barbie and Ken get to have their little emotional journeys that help build out their characters, and the two main human characters get to have a bit of a relationship journey of their own. That said, the bulk of this movie is side Kens and Barbies and Allan. They are there, and mostly all window dressing towards their specific targeted personality or role in the background. Still, between those main four you get a decent amount of stuff to build onto the stuff for the commentary and thinking types, and for the most part everyone playing amongst themselves works well for screen entertainment value. I also find it funny that this is the second toy franchise movie that happens to have Will Ferrel in it that I can remember of the top of my head.
Imaginary pastels.
Now, the real fun here in my opinion is the mood and willingness to have fun despite everything in the movie. It’s got plenty of serious topics in here, but it’s all displayed bright and wacky, with people - or dolls i guess technically - more than willing or break out into song and dance numbers at any given moment. It helps contrast the real world’s rather disappointing bleakness, but it also helps to liven things up without feeling out of place. Again, I’m no expert on Barbie products and lore (I have no idea who Allan is, but I assume it was probably a one off character given there’s only one of him in the movie), but from that outsider perspective it really does feel like what you would expect if someone told you there was a Barbie movie and in it a BarbieLand. The fact they aren’t afraid to make fun of themselves even as it plays out only just adds to the fun of it.
Beyond the bright colors and the effects digital and practical all looking about as polished up as Barbie’s car’s paint, those jokes are all over the place. One of my biggest complaints about something like the all female Ghost Busters movie was that their drive to make every man in the movie dumb ruined the gag with Hemsworth’s character being dumb. Here, it does similar things amongst the kens - but it’s literally toys and even amongst the Barbies they all feel surface level “kid” smart - it’s not ruining a joke as much as setting up events later in the movie, which in turn allows for some good character moments but also lets you get in plenty of pun-jokes about beaching off. That kid-like philosophy also plays into plenty of moments about roles and the likes - but comedy is always subjective, so although I was laughing at some of the (obviously) stupid jokes and innuendos, it won’t necessarily be everyone’s cup of tea.
Audio is finely balanced, and everyone delivers their lines well. Music comes and goes, but most of it is catchy and although the vast majority of the soundtrack is something I wouldn’t be coming back to even if I did have the choice, the novelty of “Kenergy” and the accompanying heaver beats to it did still have me enjoying at least some of it more than others. A lot of it tends to follow the “explaining what is going on” kind of routine where it almost works as an assistive listening caption or something, just with music. For the thinking types, there’s a lot in here. Like, a lot. You know how some people’s reaction if they are embarrassed to like something to to support how it’s okay to like it by giving you all these meaningful things that it has or does? Yeah, it’s like that level of stuff. We got social commentary on not just roles of women in a modern time, but the literal contradictions of being a women, flat out pointed out at that. We get ups and downs of relationships and not being in the same position of interest in said relationships, we get fun back and forth plays on power and the people who have it. There’s also some mental health stuff in there as well. Yeah, if you like to think there’s plenty you can dig into - and it’s not all hidden, most of it is straight in your face, and yet not too preachy feeling.
Real pastels.
I have to be honest, I had more fun than one would probably think I should with this movie. It’s charming, has plenty of jokes and deceivingly serious thoughts involved in it. I can see why the movie did so well - and I’m totally okay with that. The movie is still fun even for someone like me who has no real business here given I’ve got no interest in Barbie or in thinking hard about my movies - but it’s put together real fine, and has plenty of fun scenes to ogle with your eyes and ears. On top of that, even though you might know where the story beats are going before they hit, you never really know just what nonsense the movie is going to play out next - so it still keeps you entertainingly on your toes.