Without a doubt one of the most children’s toys over the past few decades have been Barbie’s.
I vividly remember the first toy I owned as a kid that my brother wouldn’t steal was a Barbie. I took that doll everywhere with me from the time I got it until I got a new one. So it’s safe to say that when I found out there was going to be a live action Barbie movie I was a tad bit dramatic. But after seeing the movie I can truthfully say that I wasn’t ready for the meaning of the movie.
From the trailers I expected it to be a movie that would at most make me laugh, I wasn’t expecting a movie about a doll to make me cry. The movie at first glance is a funny movie for kids but with a certain perspective the meaning behind the movie is much deeper. The movie predominantly focuses on the duality of the real world and ‘Barbieland’ which is the perfect pink bubble Barbie lives in.
In the beginning of the film we see Barbie start experiencing things like her breath stinking, having thoughts about dying and her feet becoming flat rather than hold up like heels. We see her converse this with her fellow Barbie’s who say she needs to go talk to ‘Weird Barbie’ about what she’s feeling.
Later in the film we see Barbie visit the real world and realize that over time Barbie’s popularity with kids has decreased. She’s also forced to come to terms with the fact she is no longer the prime example of every little girl and that she’s been set as the standard of what men look for and that with time she went from being a children’s toy to being what girls are being held to the unmeetable standard by men.
She has to learn that life in the real world is a lot different than the world of Barbieland. Another point of the movie I thought was realistic is the way Ryan Gosling’s Ken treats Margot’s Barbie. Throughout the movie he tries to pursue a romantic relationship with Barbie although Barbie expressed that her feelings are only platonic. Eventually Ken turns against Barbie and brainwashes all the other Ken’s to do the same, the reasoning behind this is the sole fact that he was hurt because Barbie wouldn’t date him. I found that pretty realistic to how some boys act after they get rejected.
One of the most memorable moments from the film for me was when America Ferrera’s character Gloria gives a lengthy monologue to Margot Robbie’s Barbie about how society expects women to be everything all at once. I felt like she was talking directly to me through the screen and from things I’ve heard from my friends who have watched the movie I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
The end of the movie had me bawling in the movie theater. Throughout the movie the film briefly touches on the complexity of growing up. For me I saw Barbieland as my childhood where everything was pink and shiny and nothing was wrong with the world. While on the other hand the real world symbolizes adulthood and the darkness of the real world now and that now everything isn’t great there are things that should be paid more attention to.
The scene that was the saddest to me was the scene that Billie Ellish’s song played over. Maybe it was the tone of the song that changed my emotions but I found myself in tears. Another scene that brought me to tears was the bus stop scene between Margot Robbie’s character and Ann Roth’s character. I think it was needed — a lot of women worry about things like aging, getting wrinkles and their hair going gray so much that they associate it with a lack of beauty but that scene shows that women are meant to evolve and even in their changes they still hold beauty.
If I took anything away from the movie it would be to appreciate the things I typically would overlook, to also appreciate the things my mother and my older female family members have done for me, and to just stop worrying about the things I can’t control. I think calling this movie the movie of the summer isn’t entirely an understatement. This was without a doubt the best movie I have seen in a long time.
