The Barbie Movie: The Worldbuilding was Amazing! The Worldbuilding Sucked.
Before we start - a teacher once told me that you don’t critique a movie for not living up to what you want it to be. You critique if for not living up to what it’s trying to be. If Barbie just wanted to be a fun summer comedy, I wouldn’t be writing this. But Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is clearly and unabashedly trying to be a grand statement on modern womanhood. So that’s the standard I have to hold it to.
Since the first trailers, everyone was stunned by how beautiful and creative Barbieland looked in Greta Gerwig's highly anticipated movie. And now, having seen the whole movie, I can say that the world of Barbieland is even better than was promised.
It's not just the look, although that would be enough as it is. It truly does look like a playset come to life, bright and colorful, plastic yet appealing. A big part of that is that the movie used painted backdrops and real sets rather than relying on CGI. Good! Other movies take note!! But the physics and logic of the world are also well thought out and cohesive to the physical look and feel. The way things move in the world - from the opening of an ambulance to how a discarded shoe flies through the air - is consistent with how these objects would move if a child were playing with them.
I've seen the movie's plot criticized for not following a logical progression, for letting the commentary drive the characters. But honestly, it's all very consistent with how children use their imagination to play with their dolls. Ken stands here all day because that's his job! Then they all became brainwashed! And then there was a dance number! The fast, imaginative pace of the story is consistent with the physical worldbuilding. When we're in Barbieland. In the Real World however, it's a much different story.
From the first moment Barbie and Ken enter the Real World, it's clear this is a much more exaggerated version of LA than we would actually find. Barbie is beset with catcalls from every angle, one boy even smacking her on the ass in broad daylight. Yes, catcalling and casual sexism in the real world is real. No, it doesn’t look like this.
Things get much, much worse when we get to Mattel headquarters. The physical look, the movements, and the logic of the Mattel building and its employees is just as cartoony as the world of Barbieland. The Men in Suits spout obvious one liners about sexism in the modern world that are at best exhausting, and at worst patronizing. Their offices look like henchmen headquarters for Saturday morning cartoon villains, and the way they throw themselves at Barbie during the chase scene is even more animated. This, combined with the fact that the characters are completely superfluous (they have no impact on the plot or other characters, take them out and nothing else changes), means that every outing with Will Ferrell and Co. is an absolute slog.
But the Mattel scenes are only the most extreme example of the overall tone problem. Nearly every interaction Ken and Barbie have in the Real World works on the same childish logic that Barbieland runs on.
I realize that Barbie is a comedy, and the bouncy tone makes jokes easier. But the central journey of the movie is supposed to be Barbie letting go of the simplicity of Barbieland and embracing the complexities of reality. If reality doesn't feel real, it completely undercuts the message.
Note: The scene where Barbie sits with an old woman on a park bench is absolutely an exception to the problems I've detailed above. Taken on its own, it's a lovely scene that completely complements the emotional journey Barbie is supposed to go on. But in the context of the movie, it's such a tonal departure from the rest of the Real World scenes that it comes across false, and distracting. It feels like I'm supposed to find the scene important because the movie says it's important, not because it’s a natural culmination of emotional plot threads. If it really is so important, why didn't the rest of the reality scenes take place in the same physical and emotional world?
