Barbie trailer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

Oh come on. Surely you don’t believe that.

You’re right. I don’t believe what Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie say. I believe what YOU say. Obviously you were there for the development and filming, right?

[Anonymous]

I can't see Greta Gerwig as someone who played with Barbie's as a kid, so it would be more cynical. I never played with dolls either BTW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't see Greta Gerwig as someone who played with Barbie's as a kid, so it would be more cynical. I never played with dolls either BTW.

She talks about her experience with them.

Ryan Gosling talks about how his daughters leave Ken on the ground outside next to a rotting lemon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

How has Mattel "evolved" the product? Isn't she still a stick with boobs?

Mattel doesn't care about having a negative impact on girls. Look what they've done to the American Girl brand! AG used to be driven by works created by women specifically to educate and inspire girls, and Mattel has turned it into the Barbie Lite Parade of Tokenism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time I’ve seen anyone say the film was cynical. In fact, pretty much ever critic has said the opposite - it works because Greta Gerwig is so very not cynical.

This is actually part of a trend with critics I’ve noticed in other contexts. I think movie critics themselves are so seeped in cynicism that they can’t actually recognize a deliberately cynical movie when they encounter one. Movie criticism used to be done mostly by people who truly loved movies, but a lot of those critics have retired or moved on. The critics these days don’t seem to be able to actually enjoy a movie. Even if they give a good review, there is no joy in the experience. I think many critics are somehow afraid to show any happiness in the experience of cinema, and the pure joy of movies has been crushed out of a lot of reviewers. I used to read a lot of reviews. I didn’t always agree with them but what I felt I shared with the critics was a love of movies. But that’s been missing from reviews for awhile; I stopped reading.

Barbie is both cynical and manipulative, but if you make your living being profoundly cynical yourself, you can’t recognize it. In fact, packaged and cynical “joy” like Barbie provides is probably very appealing to most current critics.

Right. Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind Frances Ha, LadyBird, Little Women, and this film, is just a cynic. Film critics can’t recognize this, but you, a random DCUM poster, are smarter than everyone else. That is so DC

What is so DC is how much you are freaking out at the idea that someone, somewhere doesn’t agree with what you clearly believe is the only acceptable Official Opinion on the movie.

So someone on the internet doesn’t like a movie. Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

Oh come on. Surely you don’t believe that.

You’re right. I don’t believe what Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie say. I believe what YOU say. Obviously you were there for the development and filming, right?

You are so naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

How has Mattel "evolved" the product? Isn't she still a stick with boobs?

Mattel doesn't care about having a negative impact on girls. Look what they've done to the American Girl brand! AG used to be driven by works created by women specifically to educate and inspire girls, and Mattel has turned it into the Barbie Lite Parade of Tokenism.

Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, a Polish immigrant who was one of the two founders of Mattel. She created and named it for her daughter Barbara. Ken was her son.

You seem to take yourself and Barbie very seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time I’ve seen anyone say the film was cynical. In fact, pretty much ever critic has said the opposite - it works because Greta Gerwig is so very not cynical.

This is actually part of a trend with critics I’ve noticed in other contexts. I think movie critics themselves are so seeped in cynicism that they can’t actually recognize a deliberately cynical movie when they encounter one. Movie criticism used to be done mostly by people who truly loved movies, but a lot of those critics have retired or moved on. The critics these days don’t seem to be able to actually enjoy a movie. Even if they give a good review, there is no joy in the experience. I think many critics are somehow afraid to show any happiness in the experience of cinema, and the pure joy of movies has been crushed out of a lot of reviewers. I used to read a lot of reviews. I didn’t always agree with them but what I felt I shared with the critics was a love of movies. But that’s been missing from reviews for awhile; I stopped reading.

Barbie is both cynical and manipulative, but if you make your living being profoundly cynical yourself, you can’t recognize it. In fact, packaged and cynical “joy” like Barbie provides is probably very appealing to most current critics.

Right. Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind Frances Ha, LadyBird, Little Women, and this film, is just a cynic. Film critics can’t recognize this, but you, a random DCUM poster, are smarter than everyone else. That is so DC

What is so DC is how much you are freaking out at the idea that someone, somewhere doesn’t agree with what you clearly believe is the only acceptable Official Opinion on the movie.

So someone on the internet doesn’t like a movie. Get a grip.

Thinking you’re smarter than everyone else is very DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time I’ve seen anyone say the film was cynical. In fact, pretty much ever critic has said the opposite - it works because Greta Gerwig is so very not cynical.

This is actually part of a trend with critics I’ve noticed in other contexts. I think movie critics themselves are so seeped in cynicism that they can’t actually recognize a deliberately cynical movie when they encounter one. Movie criticism used to be done mostly by people who truly loved movies, but a lot of those critics have retired or moved on. The critics these days don’t seem to be able to actually enjoy a movie. Even if they give a good review, there is no joy in the experience. I think many critics are somehow afraid to show any happiness in the experience of cinema, and the pure joy of movies has been crushed out of a lot of reviewers. I used to read a lot of reviews. I didn’t always agree with them but what I felt I shared with the critics was a love of movies. But that’s been missing from reviews for awhile; I stopped reading.

Barbie is both cynical and manipulative, but if you make your living being profoundly cynical yourself, you can’t recognize it. In fact, packaged and cynical “joy” like Barbie provides is probably very appealing to most current critics.

Right. Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind Frances Ha, LadyBird, Little Women, and this film, is just a cynic. Film critics can’t recognize this, but you, a random DCUM poster, are smarter than everyone else. That is so DC

What is so DC is how much you are freaking out at the idea that someone, somewhere doesn’t agree with what you clearly believe is the only acceptable Official Opinion on the movie.

So someone on the internet doesn’t like a movie. Get a grip.

Thinking you’re smarter than everyone else is very DC

That is your weirdo interpretation because you can’t handle the idea that someone disagrees with you. Stop being so weird and get a grip. Disagreement is okay. Healthy, even, though I know you will never agree with that. Take a breath, honey. It’s just a movie and some people don’t like it. That is actually okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this movie going to be a bad idea for someone with or recovering from an eating disorder? Quick feedback much appreciated.

there is nothing specifically triggering about movie if you’d go see another movie starring margot robbie looking beautiful. there is a mention of cellulite but it’s not tied to food and happens more as a spontaneous outbreak like chicken pox or something. there is not much focus on body size otherwise. obviously the women are thin and glamorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

How has Mattel "evolved" the product? Isn't she still a stick with boobs?

Mattel doesn't care about having a negative impact on girls. Look what they've done to the American Girl brand! AG used to be driven by works created by women specifically to educate and inspire girls, and Mattel has turned it into the Barbie Lite Parade of Tokenism.

so i actually checked out the barbie section in target after the movie today. there is still classic barbie. but there were also barbies with more realistic body shapes and they weren’t special “plus size” barbie’s or anything. just one of the options in the regular barbie themes. there was also a barbie with braces and one with a prosthetic leg - those were part of an intentionally diverse lineup. hilariously, there was only one ken, looking exactly like the ken from the movie, on clearance.

[Anonymous]

There is actually an ongoing discussion going on these days in movie circles about the homogenization of critics and critical opinions and the increasing gap between critics and audiences.

Here is an example of an article from more mainstream news, but there is also discussion in entertainment trade journals.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-08-28/critics-and-fans-have-never-disagreed-more-about-movies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time I’ve seen anyone say the film was cynical. In fact, pretty much ever critic has said the opposite - it works because Greta Gerwig is so very not cynical.

This is actually part of a trend with critics I’ve noticed in other contexts. I think movie critics themselves are so seeped in cynicism that they can’t actually recognize a deliberately cynical movie when they encounter one. Movie criticism used to be done mostly by people who truly loved movies, but a lot of those critics have retired or moved on. The critics these days don’t seem to be able to actually enjoy a movie. Even if they give a good review, there is no joy in the experience. I think many critics are somehow afraid to show any happiness in the experience of cinema, and the pure joy of movies has been crushed out of a lot of reviewers. I used to read a lot of reviews. I didn’t always agree with them but what I felt I shared with the critics was a love of movies. But that’s been missing from reviews for awhile; I stopped reading.

Barbie is both cynical and manipulative, but if you make your living being profoundly cynical yourself, you can’t recognize it. In fact, packaged and cynical “joy” like Barbie provides is probably very appealing to most current critics.

Right. Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind Frances Ha, LadyBird, Little Women, and this film, is just a cynic. Film critics can’t recognize this, but you, a random DCUM poster, are smarter than everyone else. That is so DC

What is so DC is how much you are freaking out at the idea that someone, somewhere doesn’t agree with what you clearly believe is the only acceptable Official Opinion on the movie.

So someone on the internet doesn’t like a movie. Get a grip.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time I’ve seen anyone say the film was cynical. In fact, pretty much ever critic has said the opposite - it works because Greta Gerwig is so very not cynical.

This is actually part of a trend with critics I’ve noticed in other contexts. I think movie critics themselves are so seeped in cynicism that they can’t actually recognize a deliberately cynical movie when they encounter one. Movie criticism used to be done mostly by people who truly loved movies, but a lot of those critics have retired or moved on. The critics these days don’t seem to be able to actually enjoy a movie. Even if they give a good review, there is no joy in the experience. I think many critics are somehow afraid to show any happiness in the experience of cinema, and the pure joy of movies has been crushed out of a lot of reviewers. I used to read a lot of reviews. I didn’t always agree with them but what I felt I shared with the critics was a love of movies. But that’s been missing from reviews for awhile; I stopped reading.

Barbie is both cynical and manipulative, but if you make your living being profoundly cynical yourself, you can’t recognize it. In fact, packaged and cynical “joy” like Barbie provides is probably very appealing to most current critics.

Right. Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind Frances Ha, LadyBird, Little Women, and this film, is just a cynic. Film critics can’t recognize this, but you, a random DCUM poster, are smarter than everyone else. That is so DC

What is so DC is how much you are freaking out at the idea that someone, somewhere doesn’t agree with what you clearly believe is the only acceptable Official Opinion on the movie.

So someone on the internet doesn’t like a movie. Get a grip.

Thinking you’re smarter than everyone else is very DC

That is your weirdo interpretation because you can’t handle the idea that someone disagrees with you. Stop being so weird and get a grip. Disagreement is okay. Healthy, even, though I know you will never agree with that. Take a breath, honey. It’s just a movie and some people don’t like it. That is actually okay.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was so much better than I expected! The whole cast was great, but Ryan Gosling was exceptional and exceptionally funny.

For those who saw it….Please tell me you laughed at the depression barbie and the Pride and Prejudice rewatch. I was crying with laughter.

I’m one of the ones who didn’t like it (sadly, I was really hoping to love it), and those bits just made me roll my eyes. But to be fair, right around then I was debating whether I should just leave and cut my losses or not. So, by then I’d pretty much written the entire thing off.

I didn’t end up leaving, but in hindsight I probably should have.

I felt this way about the last Hunger Games movie I saw in a theatre. What didn't you like about the movie?

Where to start? It was cynical and heavy-handed. The forced inclusivity was painful and manipulative. There are so many examples of performative and tokenized diversity that were just awful. For instance, Mattel has never and would never make a truly fat Barbie like in the movie (their 2016 “curvy” Barbie is maybe a size 6 and they barely advertise it); in reality, the company probably contributed to the eating disorders of thousands of particularly Gen X girls, yet they put fat Barbie in the movie — who still gets no good lines, just in as the tokenized fat friend. Body diversity that is just there for the sake of driving more profits to the corporation that probably did more than most others to suppress bodily diversity is just profoundly cynical. I don’t need to pay Mattel to lightly diversity-wash itself and then go back to its piles of cash built on selling body image disorders to girls. I didn’t go to the movie intending to pay Mattel to be part of its own advertising campaign that above all else is design to cleanse its own image (but of course, not change what they actually sell and do). Yet that’s what I did, what all of us who bought tickets did.

Moving on: the movie trailer was funny. The movie itself was drained of nearly all humor, even managing to make the clips in the trailer fall flat. Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t save the movie from the endemic tedium. I almost could have dealt with what I wrote in the paragraph above if it had been funny. But it was profoundly unfunny.

The plot was barely existent. I realize it is a movie about Barbie but still, I like a movie that assumes its audience isn’t completely devoid of functional brain cells.

I will say this: the costumes and set design were very good. Towards the end, I stopped trying to listen to anything and just watched the sets and costumes. (although I couldn’t avoid the awful ending because that dominated the screen). I enjoyed it more when I stopped listening and just looked at the visual design.

Are you not up on Mattel and Barbie and the way they evolved the product? Not aware of any of the backstory to the film’s making? Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are in the driver’s seat here, not Mattel.

How has Mattel "evolved" the product? Isn't she still a stick with boobs?

Mattel doesn't care about having a negative impact on girls. Look what they've done to the American Girl brand! AG used to be driven by works created by women specifically to educate and inspire girls, and Mattel has turned it into the Barbie Lite Parade of Tokenism.

Are you the same person who didn’t like the movie because it included a fat barbie? I’m sorry not every actress in the movie was a thin white woman and that not all dolls are thin and white. This must be very difficult for you. Mattel and the filmmakers are in the business of making money and appealing to only thin white women—a declining segment of the population—is not in their best interests.