Directed by Greta Gerwig
Barbie is a 2023 fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig, who wrote it with Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, it is the first live-action Barbie film after many computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, who go on a journey of self-discovery after their expulsion from the utopian Barbie Land. Appearing in supporting roles are America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell.
Chris Stuckmann reviews Barbie, starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp, Simu Liu, Issa Rae. Directed by Greta Gerwig.
A live-action Barbie film was first announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing, but development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to the character. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway in the titular role, Sony lost the rights, which were transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018, with Robbie being cast in 2019. Gerwig was announced as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2021. Gosling and the rest of the cast were announced in early 2022. Filming took place primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England from March to July 2022.
Barbie premiered at The Shrine in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. After being expelled from the utopian Barbie Land for being less-than-perfect dolls, Barbie and Ken go on a journey of self-discovery to the real world.
Cast
- Margot Robbie as Barbie
- Ryan Gosling as Ken
- America Ferrera as Gloria, a Mattel employee who finds Barbie in the real world
- Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie
- Issa Rae as President Barbie
- Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler
- Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel
Different variations of Barbie played by:
Hari Nef as Dr. Barbie
Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie
Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie
Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie
Dua Lipa as the Mermaid Barbie
Nicola Coughlan as Diplomat Barbie
Ana Cruz Kayne as Judge Barbie
Ritu Arya as Journalist Barbie
Different variations of Ken played by:
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Simu Liu
Scott Evans
Ncuti Gatwa
John Cena as Merman Ken
Helen Mirren as the narrator
Emerald Fennell as Midge
Michael Cera as Allan
Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha, Gloria’s daughter
Jamie Demetriou as a Mattel employee
Connor Swindells as Aaron Dinkins, a Mattel intern
Ann Roth as an old woman who meets Barbie
Additionally, Marisa Abela has been cast in an undisclosed role.
Production
Development on a film based on the Barbie toy line began in September 2009, when it was announced that Mattel had signed a partnership to develop the project with Universal Pictures and with Laurence Mark as producer, but nothing came to fruition. In April 2014, Mattel teamed with Sony Pictures to produce the film, which would have Jenny Bicks writing the screenplay and Laurie Macdonald and Walter F. Parkes producing through the Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation banner they created. Filming at the time was anticipated to begin by the end of the year. In March 2015, Diablo Cody was brought onto the project to rewrite the screenplay, and Amy Pascal joined the producing team. Sony would again have rewrites done to the screenplay later that year, hiring Lindsey Beer, Bert V. Royal, and Hillary Winston to write separate drafts.
In December 2016, Amy Schumer entered negotiations to star in the title role with Winston’s screenplay; Schumer helped rewrite the script with her sister, Kim Caramele. In March 2017, Schumer exited negotiations, blaming scheduling conflicts with the planned June 2017 filming start; in 2023 she revealed she left the project due to creative differences with the film’s producers at the time. That July, Anne Hathaway was under consideration for the title role, with Sony hiring Olivia Milch to rewrite the screenplay and approaching Alethea Jones to direct as a means to interest Hathaway into signing on. Jones was attached to direct by March 2018. However, the expiration of Sony’s option on the project in October 2018 and its transfer to Warner Bros. Pictures would see the departures of Hathaway, Jones, Macdonald, Parkes and Pascal. Margot Robbie would enter early talks for the role, with Patty Jenkins briefly considered for the director position. Robbie’s casting was confirmed in July 2019, with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach now penning the screenplay. Gerwig would sign on to also direct the film in July 2021. Robbie stated that the film’s aim is to subvert expectations and give audiences “the thing you didn’t know you wanted.”
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Writing and Casting
Gerwig and Baumbach were given full creative freedom in writing the film. They collaborated on the screenplay during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020–2021 and described the writing process as “open” and “free”. For the film treatment, Gerwig had written an abstract poem on Barbie, in the vein of the Apostles’ Creed. For the narrative arc, she was partially inspired by the 1994 non-fiction book Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher, which accounts the effects of societal pressures on American adolescent girls. She also found inspiration in classic Technicolor musicals such as The Red Shoes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is she quoted saying of: “They have such a high level of what we came to call authentic artificiality. You have a painted sky in a soundstage. Which is an illusion, but it’s also really there. The painted backdrop is really there. The tangibility of the artifice is something that we kept going back to”.
In October 2021, Ryan Gosling entered final negotiations to play Ken in the film. America Ferrera, Simu Liu and Kate McKinnon were cast in February 2022. Liu auditioned for the film after his agent raved the script as one of the best they had ever read. In March 2022, Ariana Greenblatt, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Mackey were revealed to be in the cast. Will Ferrell joined to the cast in April, along with Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Ncuti Gatwa, Emerald Fennell, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Connor Swindells, Ritu Arya and Jamie Demetriou.
During the casting process, Gerwig and Robbie looked for actresses with “Barbie energy” (which is described as “a certain ineffable combination of beauty and exuberance”). Mackey revealed in a 2022 interview with Empire that much of the supporting cast will be playing various iterations of Barbie and Ken. In an interview with Vogue in May 2023, Robbie revealed she wanted actress Gal Gadot as a Barbie for the film, but Gadot was unavailable due to scheduling. Helen Mirren narrated the film’s trailer and also filmed a brief cameo for the film. Gerwig sought frequent collaborators Timothee Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan for cameo appearances but neither were available.
Filming and Set Design
Principal photography began in March 2022 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England and wrapped on July 21, 2022. Among the notable filming locations was the Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles, California. Rodrigo Prieto serves as cinematographer. Reshoots took place in Los Angeles in April 2023.
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer serve as set designer and decorator, respectively, on the film. For the Barbie Dreamhouse, the pair drew inspiration from the mid-century modernist architecture found in Palm Springs, including the Kaufmann Desert House by Richard Neutra, as well as the photography of Slim Aarons. Gerwig wanted to capture “what was so ridiculously fun about the Dreamhouses”, alluding to its previous models, and referenced Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud, and Gene Kelly’s apartment flat in the 1951 Technicolor musical An American in Paris. “Everything needed to be tactile, because toys are, above all, things you touch” Gerwig was quoted saying of the use of practical effects instead of CGI to capture the sky and the San Jacinto Mountains. The set design is also noted for its extensive use of a specific shade of pink paint, Pantone 219, which reportedly resulted in an international shortage.
Costumes
Costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who had previously collaborated with Gerwig on Little Women (2019), employed a practical approach to create Barbie’s wardrobe: “The defining characteristic of what she wears is where she’s going and what she’s doing, it’s about being completely dressed for your job or task.” To match the film’s Barbieland setting, Durran and her team created costumes made of roughly fifteen color combinations “that riffed off the idea of a French Riviera beach in the early 1960s” and drew inspiration from actress Brigitte Bardot. For Ken’s outfits, Durran zeroed in a look composed of colorful sportswear from the 1980s, while actor Ryan Gosling suggested a Ken-branded underwear for the character. Durran closely adapted outfits from past iterations of Barbie dolls, such as the 1993 “Western Stampin'” dolls and the 1994 “Hot Skatin'” dolls. She noted the Barbie dolls as “a very useful way to look at different ideas of femininity: what that means, who owns it, and who it’s aimed at” and reflected this idea in how she dressed the characters. While the majority of the clothing featured in the film were sourced by Durran and her team, they also pulled pieces from the fashion archives of Chanel.
Music
Alexandre Desplat, who had collaborated with Gerwig on Little Women (2019), was set to score Barbie in early September 2022. However, by May 2023, Desplat had left the project due to scheduling conflicts, with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt taking over scoring duties. Over the course of a year, Ronson was tasked with curating a soundtrack that matched Gerwig’s vision for Barbie. As the film was being edited in post-production, Ronson and Gerwig would show scenes from the film to artists they wanted on the soundtrack.
The film’s soundtrack, Barbie: The Album, will be released on July 21, 2023, and will include songs by Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, the Kid Laroi, cast members Ryan Gosling and Dua Lipa, and more artists to be announced. “Dance the Night” by Lipa was released as the album’s lead single on May 26, 2023. It was followed by “Watati” by Karol G on June 2, 2023, and “Angel” by PinkPantheress on June 9, 2023. “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice was released as the fourth single on June 23, 2023. The album’s fifth single, “Speed Drive” by Charli XCX, was released on June 30, 2023. On July 6, the album’s sixth single, “Barbie Dreams” by Fifty Fifty and Kaliii was released. The album’s seventh single, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, is set to release on July 13. Warner Bros. released a preview clip of Ryan Gosling singing “I’m Just Ken” on July 10.
Despite fan expectations for the 1997 song “Barbie Girl” by the pop band Aqua to feature in the film, Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen, manager for Aqua lead singer Lene Nystrøm, said that it was not used. Variety speculated that this was due to bad relations between Mattel and MCA Records, the song’s American publisher, who engaged in a series of lawsuits over the song from 1997 to 2002. “Barbie World”, a rework of the song, will instead be featured in the film. It samples “Barbie Girl” Aqua is credited as a performer and co-writer on the track. Despite not being included in the official soundtrack, Spotify included “Barbie Girl” in their official Barbie playlist.
Marketing
Barbie was promoted with an extensive marketing campaign. In the months leading up to the release of the film, Mattel entered into several Barbie-themed promotional partnerships and collaborations with various brands including Airbnb,Aldo,Bloomingdale’s, Chi Haircare, Forever 21, Gap, Hot Topic, Krispy Kreme Philippines, Primark, Spirit Halloween, Ulta, and Xbox. Additionally, studio parent company Warner Bros. Discovery promoted the film through its TV channels, including an HGTV renovation reality competition series titled Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, co-produced by Mattel Television, which was set to premiere shortly before the film’s release.
A first-look image of the film was revealed during a Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon in April 2022. Released to the public on April 27, 2022, the image saw Margot Robbie as Barbie, sitting behind the wheel of her iconic pink 1956 Chevrolet Corvette. Collider complimented Robbie in the image, stating: “This photo is just further proof that Robbie was made to play this role. She just looks like a Barbie doll come to life—it’s almost uncanny”. On June 15, 2022, a second still featuring Ryan Gosling as Ken was released. Despite noting similarities between his look in the image and his previous roles, The Guardian asserted that “there is a very strong chance that this will be [Gosling’s] defining role”.
A booth dedicated to Barbie was opened at the 2022 CCXP event in São Paulo, Brazil. The first teaser trailer for the film debuted during preview screenings of Avatar: The Way of Water in December 2022. It featured a parody of the opening “Dawn of Man” sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which Robbie (clad in Barbie’s original 1959 outfit) imitates an alien monolith whose influence on the history of dolls is narrated by Mirren. Along with a theatrical poster, the teaser trailer was released to the public on December 16, 2022. Rolling Stone praised the 2001 homage and vibrant colors of trailer, and remarked on its vague outlining of the plot: “One has to wonder when, or better yet how, it will all get shaken up”.
On April 4, 2023, twenty-four character posters of the several Barbies and Kens featured in the film—each tagged with brief descriptions—were shared on the Barbie’s social media accounts. Empire remarked: “You might have thought that Multiverse fever would be constrained generally to comic book films and never-would-have-called-it Oscar winners [Everything Everywhere All at Once]. But it seems Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie will also be flooding the screen with variants, this time of plastic dolls Barbie and Ken”. A second teaser trailer was unveiled shortly after the release of the posters. It featured a rendition of the Beach Boys’ 1964 surf rock song “Fun, Fun, Fun”. The Washington Post noted that the “visually striking” and “polysemic” teaser captivated multiple demographics because of its humor, color palette, and the Barbie doll’s cross-generational appeal. An official trailer for the film was released on May 25, 2023. Critics noted for its existential tone set against upbeat music.Ben Travis of Empire said: “There’s much to discuss here—not least, that it looks visually impeccable” and speculated Academy Awards attention for its production and costume design.
A parade float was featured at the 2023 WeHo Pride Parade in Los Angeles to promote the film. Two of its LGBTQ+ cast members, Alexandra Shipp and Scott Evans, were present during the event.
In June 2023, a French Barbie poster went viral for including the tagline “Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken.”, which literally translates to “She can do everything. He’s just Ken.” However, ken is the verlan slang term for “fuck” in French, i.e. the phonological inversion of nique, while c’est (“he is”) is a homophone for sait (“he knows how”), meaning the tagline could be read as “She can do everything. He just knows how to fuck.” Analysts concluded that it was likely the pun was intentional, as the slang term is common knowledge among French speakers, though Warner Bros. would neither confirm nor deny whether this was the case.
Release
Barbie had its world premiere in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 21, 2023, taking over the original release date of Coyote vs. Acme. Previous iterations of the project were set for June 2, 2017; May 12, 2017; June 29, 2018; August 8, 2018; and May 8, 2020.
The film is set to be released on the same day as Oppenheimer, a biographical film about J. Robert Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. Due to the tonal and genre contrast between the two films, many social media users have taken to making memes and ironic posts about how the two films represent different audiences, and how the two films should be viewed as a double feature. The trend has been dubbed “Barbenheimer”.
Screening in Cinema’s All Over the World (as of 07/12/2023)
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