Watched Barbie (the movie).
Unfortunately this film was a big enough sensation that I’d heard many of the best lines before watching it, and I don’t suppose it’s single-handedly going to cause the feminist revolution we all still sadly need. But it was very cool to see some of these ideas brought to the truly mass market](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbie-biggest-warner-bros-movie-globally-box-office-1235575786/) in such an enjoyable way, alongside some nods and winks to folk who already have already started the journey to enlightenment.
Same applies to film buffs - many shoutouts are included to iconic films of years past. The way it starts is an extremely clear parallel to 2001: A Space Odyssey’s famous intro.
The world design was also delightful, especially (I’d assume) if you have a history of playing with the classic doll. And somewhat educational too. I did for instance learn that there used to be a pregnant Barbie, aka Midge, for real. The Today website informs us that it came with:
…a detachable, magnetized pregnant belly that could fit her accompanying plastic infant
No-one wouldn’t want to see this, so here we go, from the same Today article.
Not to mention an $82 doll actually called ‘Sugar Daddy Ken’. But don’t worry, that’s definitely not wildly inappropriate, he comes with a dog-doll that happens to be called Sugar. He’s just Sugar’s Daddy. Only someone must have forgotten the apostrophe and s when designing the box. Here he is, taken from the same article.
And, at the other end of the slightly disturbing spectrum, ‘Growing Up Skipper’ which was:
…a technological marvel of a doll that grew taller — and grew breasts — when users twisted her left arm
So you’ll need to see a video of that one.
For the avoidance of doubt, despite being the film’s villains, Mattel - owners of the Barbie brand - are probably not all that upset at the film. They estimated the film will have increased their monetary takings buy at least £100 million - some directly as coming from the rights to a percentage of box office revenues, other parts more due to a surge of interest in Barbie after the film release.
But it can’t be all bad though. After all, the movie drove a certain kind of conservative activist wild when it came out - who can forget hilariously thin-skinned Ben Shapiro burning his Barbie in protest?
Here’s the trailer for the few remaining people who haven’t seen it.