The upcoming Barbie film, directed by Greta Gerwig, has already developed a following because of the abundance of intriguing set footage from taking pictures earlier this 12 months. Then lastly, the first official footage of the movie was launched earlier this month.
Featuring just a few pictures and no dialogue — save for an introductory voiceover by Helen Mirren — this preview didn’t give followers a lot to research from the movie itself. However, it did present people with a style of the tone of the movie, together with its strategy to the supply materials.
The bulk of the trailer consists of an introduction paying homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The aforementioned narration performs over a gaggle of little women with their child dolls, explaining that mentioned child dolls have been a staple of younger girlhood since the 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. Finally, a number of clips from the film that includes Robbie and some others in the all-star forged — together with Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, and Simu Liu — are briefly proven, together with the film’s emblem.
The few temporary glimpses we get of the movie make it clear that Barbie is taking numerous inspiration from the toy line, from outfits to the brightly coloured world itself. But it’s not simply Barbie’s aesthetics that will likely be in the film — it’s her spirit, or fairly, the spirit of her creators. Barbie is basically seen as the quintessential “girl toy,” and the model has been criticized for being too conformist to society’s requirements of magnificence. But as the trailer factors out, Barbie was and is a trailblazer in the toy business, which is one thing that’s typically neglected these days.
Before Barbie, as proven in the trailer, the “standard” toy for little women was the child doll. In addition to giving them one thing enjoyable to hold round and gown up, the underlying message of those dolls being marketed to ladies particularly reinforces conventional gender roles of girls being answerable for elevating kids and being society’s caregivers basically.
So when Barbie stepped out onto the scene, she checked a unique 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 job mannequin, which turned out to be each an excellent and dangerous factor, nevertheless it supplied an alternative choice to child dolls and the caregiving expectations that got here with them.
Yes, Barbie ended up selling an entire totally different set of gendered expectations — principally in the appears division — however the model additionally ended up being rather more progressive than it’s typically given credit score for. Beyond merely current as a grown-up doll in a sea of child ones, Barbie has continued to showcase ladies taking up roles effectively past motherhood (although there have been Barbie dolls centered on motherhood, together with being pregnant). She’s performed almost each sport on the market, from these historically seen as “feminine” like gymnastics and ice skating, to ones like hockey, basketball, and boxing. She’s had numerous careers, similar to physician, chef, director, dancer, information anchor, entrepreneur, trainer, farmer, army officer, firefighter, astronaut, scientist, pilot, cowgirl, and beekeeper, to call a number of.
Barbie has additionally develop into extra inclusive over the years to those that don’t match her unique look of being white with blonde hair and blue eyes. The dolls first turned extra racially numerous, and extra not too long ago have additionally rolled out a greater variety of physique varieties and skills, with dolls with wheelchairs and even listening to aids becoming a member of the Barbie lineup. This can be one thing the film may even embrace, with a number of totally different variations of Barbie and Ken being current, every trying radically totally different from one different.
While Margot Robbie watched The Truman Show and Splash to organize for the position, the movie Barbie is shaping as much as resemble the most proper now seems to be The LEGO Movie. This was additionally a movie devoted to bringing the world of a preferred toy model to life, however had a self-awareness that endeared audiences to it. It by no means received to the level of self-parody, however integrated the distinctive elements of the toy alongside components of the means folks play with and put it to use, in addition to the tradition surrounding it.
With Barbie being known as subversive and the trailer giving audiences a style of that, one has to surprise if the movie will go so far as to criticize the model itself (if not the means it’s in the modern-day, then not less than its previous of being much less inclusive than it’s now). This would push the boundaries additional than the aforementioned LEGO Movie, 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 job in the movie. That being mentioned, it’s value noting that Mattel Films itself is one among the manufacturing corporations behind the challenge, so the film might not find yourself being as essential of the toy firm as some would possibly hope. Still, with the movie’s script being the prime 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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