Barbie, Mattel’s beloved doll to girls around the world for the last 64 years, was finally given her own live-action movie this summer that quickly became the highest-grossing film of 2023.
Now available in the ultra-high definition disc format, Barbie (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, 2.00:1 aspect ratio, 114 minutes, $29.96), director Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy, offers a nostalgic but subversively satirical battle of the sexes with an eye-popping production design.
From the early moments of introducing the first Barbie (in striped swimsuit) as an opening homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey” to the arrival to the joyous female world of Barbie Land, viewers were in for an eye-winking treat.
As the fairytale goes, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) relishes a land filled with and ruled by Barbies and dimwitted Ken dolls who simply look to get their attention.
One day, she has an odd crisis malfunction and is forced to visit a doll nicknamed Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who has been played with too much by its owner, for advice on having a case of now flat feet and thoughts of death.
Apparently, her original real-world owner Gloria (America Ferrera) has opened a rift between worlds that will threaten all of Barbie Land. Barbie must go to the real Los Angeles and find the girl playing with her to heal herself and the rift.
Of course, Stereotypical Barbie’s Ken (Ryan Gosling) tags along.
The pair arrive and Ken becomes aware of all things male and that men rule the real world and is now empowered by maleness while Barbie feels emotion and fear for the first time and is ridiculed for destroying feminism.
While Barbie pays a visit to Mattel headquarters to find answers, meeting with the CEO (and endearingly goofy Will Ferrell), Ken returns to Barbie Land and turns it into Ken Land.
Barbie must now find Gloria to right her crisis of confidence, escape from Mattel and get back to Barbie Land to save the day.
Based on a few of my female audience’s comments, I’m betting any woman who has ever had a Barbie doll will feel immersed in nostalgia from a film that relishes the history of its various iterations as well as its roleplaying structures and costuming often built to look like all of the originals.
I’ll reference just a few items such as Barbie’s 1950s Dream House; her pink Corvette; dolls such as pregnant resident Midge (Emerald Fennell), Physicist Barbie with lab coat (Emma Mackey) and Mermaid Barbie (Dua Lipa); and Barbie and Ken’s eye-melting Venus Beach fashion moment based on 1994’s Hot Skatin’ Barbie.
The plot never stops eliciting smiles and certainly reaches an odd climax when the Ken dolls battle in a musical number paying homage to the work of Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse and “West Side Story.”
Creating an intelligently plotted world dripping in satire, Ms. Gerwig almost blows the gag with a snooze-inducing and unnecessary monologue by Gloria’s horrors of being a woman near the end.
Why hammer an audience over the head when they already are in on the point of the whole movie. We get it, and we loved your film.
4K in action: “Barbie” was built for appreciation in the ultra-high definition format and uses a nearly screen-filling aspect ratio and high dynamic enhancements to their fullest to bring cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and costume designer Jacqueline Duran’s color-drenched world to life.
Barbie Land, for example, relishes a full complement of pinks supported by a rainbow of bright and neon colors throughout the various open-sided houses, streets and in the plastic-coated universe.
Reference quality moments to pause and admire are too numerous but include Barbie on an infinite road in her pink convertible with mountains in the back and then flipping over to land in pink puffs of animation; Barbie bicycling through a field of tulips; a beach scene bathed in blue and lit by fake orangish campfires; and a disco dance scene packed with a history of Barbie-costuming variations.
Best extras: Viewers get six featurettes (roughly 45 minutes) that often find cast and crew gratuitously praising one another as they discuss Weird Barbie, Mr. Gosling’s version of Ken, the pair of dance sequences, Ms. Robbie becoming Barbie, the creation of Barbie Land and the impressive costuming.
