Had it not been for the online promotion and the silly way that people started talking about "Barbienhimer" I likely wouldn't have ever seen this movie. It isn't the sort of thing that I would ever seek out but between the weird controversy and the fact that it absolutely blew up in theaters lead me to watch it once it popped up on my Plex server.
I didn't expect to make it all the way through it let alone enjoy it as much as I did but I actually made it the entire way through this film without ever looking at my phone and that is a major achievement for a film in my world. This is quite simply, a very nicely made film.
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There are a lot of things to enjoy about this movie such as the way in which the dolls themselves interact with their world when all of their surroundings are static such as the waves not even moving at the beach. The little things like that and the fact that there is no actual liquid in their cups whenever they are having drinks are subtle little humorous bits that perhaps a child watching this might not even understand. I don't know if Barbie dolls are still popular or if they even exist, I presume they do and are probably enjoying a nice little push because of this movie as well.
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I also enjoyed the rather innocent way in which the Kens get into arguments with one another but it never results in any sort of actual violence. This approach probably made it a lot easier for the film-makers who no longer had to be worried about accidentally ending up with a rated R product, which I am sure they wanted to avoid.
The story is silly and I presume this is on purpose. When Barbie and Ken end up in the real world the way in which they are completely unprepared for how people operate in real life is pretty fun because they are completely clueless about the fact that people might be mean to them ever because this isn't how anything is in Barbieland.
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When Ken and Barbie are mocked by people in California for their silly outfits they don't even know how to process this information and Barbie cries for the first time in her life because of it. She doesn't even understand what crying is because in Barbieland everyone is just happy all the time.
The way in which Ken discovers the "patriarchy" and immediately LOVES it is pretty funny as well. This is where the problems start in Barbieland and I suppose they needed to create some sort of objective or clash somehow and what a wonderful way to make that happen. I suppose this is likely where a lot of people started to feel as though the movie was politically controversial but to those people out there that were hoping this movie would fail because of that I think they need to get a grip on their own "real world." In my mind it was simply light-hearted fun that was poking fun at the idea of the patriarchy and not necessarily attempting to get anyone on board fighting against it. I think some people had a problem with one of the Barbie being trans, and I suppose I can understand why that would be a hot topic issue right now but again, people need to lighten up. It's not like they were trying to recruit anyone with the brief inclusion of this in the movie.
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Will Ferrell's involvement as the hapless CEO of Mattel was a nice addition and while I think they probably designed the role around him, he was perfect for it. The clueless manner in which he leads the corporate board around attempting to solve Mattel's problems are wonderful and while I think a lot of people are sick of Will, I enjoyed having him as a minor character in this.
I had heard this was a musical, and I wasn't really excited about that being the case but honestly, it isn't really. There are a few musical / dance numbers in the thing but it isn't like it is a musical all the way through. The few dancing and singing parts of the film are done so infrequently that when they do happen, they are a funny and welcome addition to all the other stuff that is going on.
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Even if you aren't going to see this film I suggest you look up "I'm Just Ken" with Ryan Gosling because it is funny and very well done. I even thought the song, despite being quite silly intentionally, was pretty good as well. I don't believe that Gosling is actually singing it though. It doesn't really sound like him. Who knows though, that guy could just be multi-faceted.
Should I watch it ?
I wasn't even going to watch it myself but out of sheer boredom decided to do so. I enjoyed it many times over more than I thought I was going to. Originally I only watched it to find out what all the controversy could be about but in the end it was one of the only movies I have watched in recent times and kept my eyes glued to the screen the entire time and didn't look at my phone even once. I really didn't expect that to be the case at all. I thought it was just delightful and I don't even have any children in my house. I think that most people, unless you are a hyper-political type that is always looking for things to complain about, is going to feel the same way.
