Barbie: Movie promises more than just a doll face

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New “Barbie” trailer with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling shows a meta-comedy with heart and brain.

Colorful and pure sugar: Warner Bros. has released a brand new teaser trailer for the upcoming “Barbie” film adaptation with an all-star cast.

How do you actually imagine a “Barbie” movie? Sure, there are already “Barbie” animated films, lots of them in fact. Over 40 have been made since 2001.

And they’re obviously popular with young audiences. Most recently, “Barbie – A Fabulous Road Trip,” an interactive short film, was released on Netflix.

But the question is, how should we imagine a live-action film adaptation? In contrast to animated films, where the resemblance of the main character is guaranteed in appearance alone – even more so in the past than today – a live-action film adaptation must make the original material from Mattel recognizable in more than just a colorful outfit. Otherwise, there would be no need to use the brand name; it would be enough to run “Clueless” again.

What director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” film will be about was not really apparent after the first teaser trailer was released. The only thing that was clear was that neither the film nor the leading actresses would take themselves very seriously.

Barbie Movie Trailer

The new teaser trailer that has just been released hints for the first time that Barbie will possibly find her way from her colorful plastic world into reality:

Clearly, “Barbie” will most likely display a delightful self-irony. There’s hardly any other way to explain the glistening plastic world in which Barbie and her friends live and laugh. The fact that several important characters in the film are obviously named Barbie and Ken alone illustrates the meta-humor.

Director Greta Gerwig was afraid of “Barbie”

The real sensation, however, is not even the star cast with Margot Robbie as Barbie, Ryan Gosling as Ken as well as Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Emma Mackey and Kate McKinnon, but two names behind the camera: Greta Gerwig as director and screenwriter and Noah Baumbach as co-writer.

Both are better known for challenging cinema; Gerwig, who is also an active actress, has directed two acclaimed films, “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.” On the set of “Greenberg” she met her husband, filmmaker Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”).

And if she already has such a talented man by her side, why not involve him directly in the “Barbie” film, Gerwig must have thought. On the “At Your Service” podcast with Dua Lipa, she revealed that when Margot Robbie asked her to write the script, she simply dragged her husband into the project:

“She came to me and said, ‘Would you be interested in writing it?’ And I said, ‘Yes!’ And then I added, ‘And Noah [Baumbach] wants to write it, too.’ And I hadn’t really talked to Noah about it.”

Yes, with Gerwig and Baumbach’s resumes, you’d expect anything but a “Barbie” movie. But that’s exactly what makes this film adaptation so appealing.

Since the teaser trailer hasn’t revealed anything about the plot, we can only speculate now. But one thing is certain: There will certainly be one or two meta-surprises.

And: During the writing process, Gerwig quickly realized that she had something great in the works. The urge to direct the film herself grew. At the beginning, however, she had a very different, a queasy feeling:

“It was terrifying. It has its appeal when you start from a point where you think, ‘Well, anything is possible.’ Everything was spinning when I started writing. Where to even start? What would the story look like? The feeling I had was knowing that it was going to be a really interesting horror. Usually those are the best things. That’s what I’m afraid of. Anything where you think to yourself, ‘This could mean the end of a career.’ And then you think, ‘Okay, I should probably do it.'”

Gerwig did it. And the result can be seen in local cinemas from 21 July 2023, you can see global release dates here. As of yet, there is no schedule for a digital release, though this could be expected around 45 days after, in line with the studio’s history.

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Team AWSMONE
Team AWSMONE
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