A pink wave is about to overwhelm screens around the world: this Wednesday, July 19, in France, Indonesia or South Korea, tomorrow in Denmark, Australia or Israel, Friday in the United States or India: it’s “Barbie one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the year. This big-budget film is co-produced by Mattel, the maker of the 60-year-old doll. But the blockbuster is above all signed by one of the best representatives of American auteur cinema, Greta Gerwig.
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Barbie lives in a wonderful world where other Barbies are Nobel Prize winners in physics, presidents or members of the Supreme Court. But one morning, everything changes. To become the stereotypical blonde doll flanked by Ken, her sidekick, Barbie must step into the real world.
The American director Greta Gerwig starts from a paradox: by imagining astronaut or mechanic dolls before this is the case in reality, Barbie was able to anticipate female emancipation. But at the same time, hasn’t it also contributed to locking women into an unrealistic and alienating ideal of beauty? ?
Served by unbridled performers, starting with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, irresistible in the role of Ken discovering the patriarchy, the film will appeal to fans of great shows as well as moviegoers, children and their parents…
Rhythmic, hilarious and inventive, this Barbie signed Greta Gerwig achieves a tour de force: to be a real feminist auteur film in blockbuster guise serving the marketing strategy of a toy giant.
The economic stakes behind the film “Barbie”
Behind the scenes, the film’s release panicked the film and entertainment industry. At stake, more than 100 million dollars of budget, a gigantic all-out promotional campaign, and a hundred partnerships for derivative products… The feature film is intended as a critique of sexist stereotypes and injunctions to a formatted beauty , according to its producers, including lead actress Margot Robbie, who is also the film’s co-producer. But it is also the result of a vast commercial operation and a change of strategy of the Barbie manufacturer, Mattel, which financed part of the film.
Difficult to make the complete list of derivative products launched on the occasion of the release of the film: nail polish, clothes, rollerblades, and even an Xbox console labeled Barbie. For Mattel, the idea of making the famous doll into a movie got serious in 2015. Barbie sales are at their lowest in a quarter of a century. The doll suffers from a stereotypical product image, which perpetuates the model of an ultra formatted and unattainable beauty.
The brand then launched dolls with rounder shapes, to boost its sales. And it is initiating a major change in its economic model: more than a toy manufacturer, Mattel decides to become above all a franchise. By producing films in which his toys are the main characters. To better sell then derived products.
Result : Mattel has 14 films in preparation at the moment, video games or even an amusement park. The brand has also given its approval to a recovery of the tube barbie girl for the soundtrack of the film Barbie, whereas when the song was released in 1997, she had sued the group Aqua. At the time, Mattel claimed infringement of trademark law, but also the sexualization of its star doll.