Barbie Is A World Favorite Plastic Icon

Barbie+Is+A+World+Favorite+Plastic+Icon

Renee Darling, Staff Writer

After the release of 41 movies since 1987 starring the iconic Mattel doll, a live-action version, Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is finally being released in theaters this summer, starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken. In the film, Barbie is banished from “Barbieland” for her imperfections, and no longer feeling the “glamour in pink” nor living the fantastic plastic life, she’s forced to venture off into the real world.

The movie was first developed in 2016, but filming didn’t begin until March 2022. However, both fans and cast members believe it will be worth the wait. On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Gosling said the script is “the best he has ever read,” and Robbie fondly described her experience on the set at the 2023 Golden Globes.

“Oh, I was cracking up all the time,” she said. “This was a set filled with laughter and dancing and music and good vibes, yeah.”

According to People Magazine, Greta Gerwig “paid special attention to diversity and inclusivity” during casting, and the movie is all about “inner beauty.” At the 20th Unforgettable Gala, actor Simu Liu, playing a version of Ken, elaborated on Gerwig’s selection process for some of the big dance sequences.

“We were able to cast people of different shapes, sizes, differently abled, to all participate in this dance — all under this message of: You don’t have to be blonde, white, or X, Y, Z in order to embody what it means to be a Barbie or a Ken,” Liu said.

And paparazzi photos revealing some of Barbie and Ken’s costumes from the film have inspired a “barbiecore” trend, in which people, especially celebrities and influencers, are wearing retro outfits full of vibrant and neon pink garments or any other Barbie-inspired ensembles said to represent the “frivolity” and “hyper femininity” of the doll (Stuff).

Barbie is in only in theaters July 21.