The upcoming Barbie film, directed by Greta Gerwig, has already developed a following due to the abundance of intriguing set footage from capturing earlier this yr. Then lastly, the primary official footage of the movie was launched earlier this month.
That includes only some pictures and no dialogue — save for an introductory voiceover by Helen Mirren — this preview didn’t give followers a lot to investigate from the movie itself. Nonetheless, it did present people with a style of the tone of the movie, together with its method to the supply materials.
The majority of the trailer consists of an introduction paying homage to 2001: A House Odyssey. The aforementioned narration performs over a bunch of little women with their child dolls, explaining that stated child dolls have been a staple of younger girlhood for the reason that starting of time. Margot Robbie’s titular Barbie herself then makes her debut, wearing the identical black-and-white swimsuit the unique Barbie doll from 1959 wore. Lastly, a couple of clips from the film that includes Robbie and some others within the all-star solid — together with Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, and Simu Liu — are briefly proven, together with the film’s brand.
The few transient glimpses we get of the movie make it clear that Barbie is taking plenty of inspiration from the toy line, from outfits to the brightly coloured world itself. Nevertheless it’s not simply Barbie’s aesthetics that will probably be within the film — it’s her spirit, or quite, the spirit of her creators. Barbie is essentially considered because the quintessential “woman toy,” and the model has been criticized for being too conformist to society’s requirements of magnificence. However because the trailer factors out, Barbie was and is a trailblazer within the toy trade, which is one thing that’s usually ignored these days.
Earlier than Barbie, as proven within the trailer, the “normal” toy for little women was the child doll. Along with giving them one thing enjoyable to hold round and gown up, the underlying message of those dolls being marketed to ladies particularly reinforces conventional gender roles of ladies being in control of elevating kids and being society’s caregivers generally.
So when Barbie stepped out onto the scene, she checked a distinct field. The character was older than her goal demographic, which means she was one thing to aspire to quite than care for. She was a job mannequin, which turned out to be each an excellent and dangerous factor, however it supplied an alternative choice to child dolls and the caregiving expectations that got here with them.
Sure, Barbie ended up selling an entire completely different set of gendered expectations — principally within the appears to be like division — however the model additionally ended up being rather more progressive than it’s usually given credit score for. Past merely current as a grown-up doll in a sea of child ones, Barbie has continued to showcase girls taking over roles properly past motherhood (although there have been Barbie dolls targeted on motherhood, together with being pregnant). She’s performed almost each sport on the market, from these historically seen as “female” like gymnastics and ice skating, to ones like hockey, basketball, and boxing. She’s had numerous careers, equivalent to physician, chef, director, dancer, information anchor, entrepreneur, trainer, farmer, army officer, firefighter, astronaut, scientist, pilot, cowgirl, and beekeeper, to call a couple of.
Barbie has additionally grow to be extra inclusive through the years to those that don’t match her unique look of being white with blonde hair and blue eyes. The dolls first grew to become extra racially various, and extra not too long ago have additionally rolled out a greater diversity of physique varieties and talents, with dolls with wheelchairs and even listening to aids becoming a member of the Barbie lineup. That is additionally one thing the film may even embrace, with a number of completely different variations of Barbie and Ken being current, every wanting radically completely different from one different.
Whereas Margot Robbie watched The Truman Present and Splash to organize for the position, the movie Barbie is shaping as much as resemble essentially the most proper now seems to be The LEGO Film. This was additionally a movie devoted to bringing the world of a well-liked toy model to life, however had a self-awareness that endeared audiences to it. It by no means received to the purpose of self-parody, however integrated the distinctive points of the toy alongside components of the way in which folks play with and put it to use, in addition to the tradition surrounding it.
With Barbie being referred to as subversive and the trailer giving audiences a style of that, one has to marvel if the movie will go so far as to criticize the model itself (if not the way in which it’s within the modern-day, then not less than its previous of being much less inclusive than it’s now). This may push the boundaries additional than the aforementioned LEGO Film, although Barbie does look to be geared a bit extra towards adults than that movie was.
It’s additionally notable that Will Ferrell’s Barbie character has been reported to be the CEO of Mattel, which implies that the model itself will play a job within the movie. That being stated, it’s value noting that Mattel Movies itself is among the manufacturing corporations behind the challenge, so the film might not find yourself being as essential of the toy firm as some may hope. Nonetheless, with the movie’s script being the highest facet of the movie hyped to excessive heavens by these concerned with it, absolutely one thing in Barbie will shock audiences when it comes out.
