The upcoming Barbie film, directed by Greta Gerwig, has already developed a following because of the abundance of intriguing set footage from capturing earlier this 12 months. 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. Nevertheless, 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 ladies with their child dolls, explaining that mentioned 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 forged — 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 quite a lot of inspiration from the toy line, from outfits to the brightly coloured world itself. However it’s not simply Barbie’s aesthetics that might be within the film — it’s her spirit, or fairly, the spirit of her creators. Barbie is basically considered because the quintessential “lady 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 missed these days.
Earlier than Barbie, as proven within the trailer, the “commonplace” toy for little ladies was the infant doll. Along with giving them one thing enjoyable to hold round and costume up, the underlying message of those dolls being marketed to women particularly reinforces conventional gender roles of ladies being in command of elevating kids and being society’s caregivers typically.
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 fairly than care for. She was a task mannequin, which turned out to be each a superb and unhealthy factor, however it offered an alternative choice to child dolls and the caregiving expectations that got here with them.
Sure, Barbie ended up selling a complete completely different set of gendered expectations — largely within the seems to be division — however the model additionally ended up being far more progressive than it’s usually given credit score for. Past merely present as a grown-up doll in a sea of child ones, Barbie has continued to showcase ladies taking up roles nicely past motherhood (although there have been Barbie dolls targeted on motherhood, together with being pregnant). She’s performed practically 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, comparable to physician, chef, director, dancer, information anchor, entrepreneur, instructor, farmer, army officer, firefighter, astronaut, scientist, pilot, cowgirl, and beekeeper, to call a couple of.
Barbie has additionally turn out to be extra inclusive over time 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 lately have additionally rolled out a greater variety 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 trying 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 obtained to the purpose of self-parody, however integrated the distinctive elements 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 a minimum of its previous of being much less inclusive than it’s now). This is able to 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 task within the movie. That being mentioned, it’s price noting that Mattel Movies itself is likely one of the manufacturing corporations behind the venture, so the film might not find yourself being as vital 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, certainly one thing in Barbie will shock audiences when it comes out.
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