People have been waiting, hoping, praying on any new information about the Barbie movie, written and directed by Greta Gerwig. We’ve seen paparazzi photos from various location shoots and we’ve heard that every actor in Hollywood wanted a part in the movie. We know that Mattel has completely signed off on all of it, so even though there will be some edge and maybe even some important lessons about self-acceptance, we know this is fundamentally a movie about a doll. Well, on Tuesday, Warner Bros did a huge poster-drop and then they released another teaser trailer:
I like that the trailer doesn’t explain the rules of the movie, that we don’t know if the whole thing is just little girls creating storylines for their dolls or whether the dolls come to life or whatever. It does feel like much of it takes place in Barbie World though. As for the character posters – they identify the humans (America Ferrera and the child actress) as well as Helen Mirren as the narrator. The rest of the characters are based on the dolls – Margot Robbie’s Barbie is everything, Issa Rae’s Barbie is President, Nicola Coughlin’s Barbie is a diplomat, Kate McKinnon’s Barbie is always in the splits, and on and on. Ryan Gosling is Ken, but Simu Liu is also Ken, and so is Kingsley Ben-Adir. Michael Cera is Allan. Dua Lipa is a Barbie mermaid, and Dua apparently sings in the movie.
Anyway it looks like a lot of fun for moms and kids. Still can’t believe this is coming out on the same day as Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan is shaking in his boots.
Posters courtesy of Warner Bros.
Moms and kids? I don’t see this as a moms and kids movie. You are the first one who’s mentioned kids. Very much looking forward to this.
Right? I’m old enough to remember, and to have had, that first Barbie, the blonde with blue eye shadow & zebra-striped swimsuit. I’m seeing this on the big screen!
I also dont see this as a mom-kids movie. they have been creating new modern takes on movies for teens/young adults who are probably going the most to theaters and referencing GenX so (we) can also go because this is our beloved childhood memories. Hopefully kids could love it too – but I dont think this was aimed for them or moms.
“There’s only one Alan!”
I love that there is a busted Barbie, in the splits, face magic-markered and hair chopped off!
I literally laughed out loud so hard when I saw that, this is amazing, I’m still laughing
That totally made my day!
My mother and auntie used to do at-home Jheri curls in the 1980s. Guess who was their unwilling, captive subject? Yep. I had a home Jheri curl at 9 years old done by 2 women who had no beautician training. You can imagine how 9 year old me looked. The only good thing that came out of it is that I gave my barbie dolls home Jheri curls, too. The whole shebang–activator, neutralizer, etc. I can report that those Barbies had the most busted hair of any Barbie in history. The Jheri curl products FRIED fake hair. It gave my blond barbies permanent orange Heat Mizer/Don King/Syndrome from the Incredibles stick-straight-up, finger in the electric socket updos. My barbies looked as if they had survived a nuclear war. It was brilliant. (Funny I didn’t subject my black barbies to my incompetent hair misadventures.) I wasted a lot of product. No matter–it was less product that could be used on me!
The fact that the movie included a busted barbie made me remember this and laugh out loud. There was always that one barbie who got thrown in the toybox in the splits, half dressed, arms akimbo, subject to marker makeup, bizarre haircuts, or in my case, Jheri curls!
It made me laugh so hard! I had a busted Barbie – I’d chopped off all her hair and “dyed” it with my mum’s old mascara (so it was a sticky, clumpy mess). In order to make her more pretty, I dropped some clear polish on her eyes to make them sparkle. I watched in frozen horror as those painted on eyes lifted from her plastic face and slid down her cheeks. Once the terror paralysis lifted, I wrapped her in tinfoil and she became Android Barbie – Barbie’s best helper friend and defender.
Let’s get more “busted barbie” tales here! LOL the Android barbie with melted eyes.
They did Kate’s Barbie so perfectly. The chopped off hair with streaks, face scribbled with marker. It’s so perfect!
Ok here’s my busted Barbie story
My sister and I were gifted the same “Pretty in Pink” Barbie I’m sure thinking it would end any fighting
WRONG because of course we needed to be able to tell them apart. So in my infinite 5 yo wisdom I but the toes off of hers thus making them easy to tell apart and mine the de facto prettier one 😂
I was so hot when my parents made me trade and now I had the toeless freak
Oh, y’all had me giggling! For some reason, my Barbies were sacrosanct, it was my baby dolls that came in for the haircuts, hairwashing, & etc. (never cut the toes off one, though!)
I put Blue Magic in one of my Barbie’s hair. I remember my confusion at the results and frustration that I couldn’t just rinse it out. Not even with the Cream of Nature shampoo!
I cannot believe how perfectly they captured the horror of self-cut Barbie hair!
I thought this movie would be ridiculous and pointless, but having seeing this picture and the latest trailer, I want to see it now!
That was half of my Barbies!! I CANNOT wait for this movie.
I love that Kate McK’s Barbie isn’t smiling, in fact she looks a bit traumatised. LOL. I can’t wait to see what she does with the role.
This is really a fun down memory lane post/thread. The two sisters I’m closest in age to (a difference of 4 years between 3), were gifted Barbie dolls for Christmas. We said our thank yous but also quibbled about why did I get her and she got Barbie. Lots of fussing. Yep, someone woke up one morning (not me-I had Midge) with Barbie sporting a military cut. After a week all the dolls no longer had much hair and were without one leg or arm and had purple or green skin coloring. Food coloring works well! The following year, we were given a shared gift, the Barbie head hair styling station. We did well sharing. But, after all of our shared collective creative ideas, the Barbie head was Satan in a month. Excellent goatee.
This movie looks like pure cotton candy fun.
I watched the trailer sooooo many times yesterday am so here for this – its looks so much fun and Gosling as Ken is just perfect (the whole beaching off dialogue had me in tears of laughter). He and Margot have a lot of chemistry. And Simon Liu was also great in the trailer.
EVERYONE in the cast looked like they were all having fun!!!!!
PS. The whole ‘Hi Barbie Hi Ken’ actually made me think they were going to start singing Barbie Girl by Aqua. I really hope this is in the movie.
Digital Unicorn, the fact that they all look like they’re having fun has me sold on this as well. My ultimate first reaction to a Barbie movie was actually “Nope, skip,” but I have totally changed my mind. The cast is excellent, it feels subversive and it really looks like a good time. Great posters, too. I also hope Barbie Girl from aqua made it in—I have that song in my head now.
I love Margot and I was super excited to see Will in this, but I will wait for the ability to rent. I couldn’t understand, as you said Kaiser, the rules of the movie. I also like how different Barbies are featured and Margot does an EXCELLANT job.
From what I’ve read elsewhere Barbie gets kicked out of Barbie land for being a less than perfect doll and sets off for fun and adventure in the human world with Ken by her side. Given the Will Ferrel character I would assume she ends up entangled in some way with the Mattel corporation.
With all the craziness around me I need a movie like this. I think what really sold me was the nostalgia of Barbie. Stranger Things was the same since it was set in the 80s. Takes me back to a naiver time where my biggest problem was if mom would let me get ice cream from the ice cream truck.
This looks way more fun than I anticipated! Also, Kate McKinnon’s Barbie with a DIY haircut and marker scribbles is cracking me up – we all had one of those, right?
Very cute trailer.
I’m a bit puzzled by the YouTube upNext elves though… the video that teed up after this one was about scary things in The Shining. Um no, You Tube, that’s not the vibe today. Beach Off!
LOL. Love Beach Off! Would love to see a clambake? beach birthday party on May 6th! Beach Off!
Simu Liu looks HILARIOUS and might steal the whole film, all the Barbies look great. Still not entirely sold on Ryan Gosling as Ken (was Glen Powell busy?) but his rollerblades delivery really did crack me up.
Glen Powell would’ve been such a great Ken! Now I’m mad that didn’t happen!
Ya, Ryan Gosling is a no for me, but Glen Powell would have been perfection!!!
And I think I’d have an easier time seeing Glen Powell as Ken by himself whereas with RG, I see Ryan Gosling playing Ken.
Agree @schmootc. Ryan Gosling is playing Ken. Margot Robbie being cast as Barbie wouldn’t be a lot of people’s choice. Margot playing Barbie is great casting.
Love Powell. I have yet to see the Top Gun movie. Mildly fell in love with the young gent in Set it Up. I’ll say, I don’t see Powell as Ken. Now, if this was about someone being portrayed in the life story of Alan Ruck..Powell should not be overlooked.
Greta Gerwig is much much younger than I so I can forgive her for missing some of the best Barbie characters from my era. I had Mod Haired Ken complete with shag haircut and a whole array of stick on facial beard styles, puberty Skipper, whose boobs grew when you lifted her arm, grow your hair Barbie who had a button in her back whose hair could be pulled out to different lengths, and my favorite Malibu PJ who was so much prettier than Barbie. I still have them to this day.
Yeah, where’s Skipper? I hope she shows up. Is she still around in the Barbie universe, or has she gone the way of Barbie’s black friend Christie? (I think the Barbies of all backgrounds/abilities/physiques may have subsumed the friends–I wish all the barbies that exist now had existed when I was a kid)
Either I or my friend had puberty Skipper! What a weird thing to make, I feel like some perv at the toy company came up with that one.
I later had Barbie and the Rockers, I was so happy to have some different dolls, including a different Ken (I think his name was Derek).
Derek was the best of the boy dolls. He was the boyfriend of every Barbie I had!
Where’s Midge, Barbie’s best friend?
midge is pregnant emerald fennel
& pretty sure i also saw a skipper but cant remember who it was
so here for this. looks like so much fun and glad they have an asian man as Ken as well. Simu looks perfect for the role. The cut away to Michael Cera at the beach scene had me dying. I think a lot of people would be interested in seeing this, outside of the demographics of women which is probs the target audience.
I cannot wait. And strangely, I think there will indeed be a lot of overlap between the audiences for Barbie and Oppenheimer. I sure as hell will try to see both.
THIS is what my mood needs. It’s so f*cking weird and looks like so much fun.
I saw this yesterday and smiled through the whole trailer. The barbie shoes! Driving the car without driving! the colors/plastic looking everything! It looks so weird and so fun. I definitely want to watch. I will watch Ryan Gosling in anything so I think he’s fine as ken. LOL
I don’t know if it’ll be kid-friendly–the longest joke in the trailer was innuendo!
EVERYTHING about this movie looks hilarious. I’m obsessed with the color palette.
I had the Kate McKinnon Barbie. She was a rocker and she had Derek. What happened to DEREK?
OMG, I forgot about Derek! I think I had him at some point.
Ha! I loved Barbie and the Rockers. Who were the rest of the band? Dana and Diva I think? Dena? I don’t think Kate’s supposed to be a Rocker though. I think she’s the f-ed up Barbie that got scribbled on and got her hair chopped off.
I found out about this because Scott Evans (Chris Evans’ brother) posted a poster with him in it for the Barbie movie. Now I’m wondering if he’s in it.
I clocked him holding a surf board in the ‘beach off’ scene
The trailer gave me Roger Rabbit vibes. Barbie leaves to come to the “real world” and probably has to fight evil Will Ferrell who wants to exploit her for marketing or something something. After seeing the character posters I thought this looked a hot mess but the trailer turned me back around.
I loved the part where Ken says “because we are GF/BF.” LOL that was so cheesy. This seems like a movie I’ll enjoy. Bring back silly cute romantic movies instead of churning out faux deep romances.
LOL the part about her staying over “Cuz we’re boyfriend and girlfriend!”
Confusion….
Margot (and Issa) can do no wrong in my book. This looks amazing. I can’t wait!
Hahaha so Kate McKinnon is the Barbie that someone’s brother broke and cut the hair off of? That’s hilarious!
Now all they need is a rogue G.I. Joe to try and come between Barbie and Ken.
Back in the day, my barbies always dated my brothers GI Joe’s. I’ve taken many punches because of it lol