By: London Williams

Barbie has been loved for many generations. She’s the plastic doll we’ve all grown to love. She’s fantastic, and so is this film! ‘Barbie’ came out this past Summer on July 21, 2023. Competing alongside “Oppenheimer” as one of the year’s most anticipated movies. This movie has made over 1.34 billion at the Box Office (for the US) just so far! Barbie jumped out of her box and has been crushing it at the box office ever since the release of this film! The feeling after watching ‘Barbie’ is unlike any movie I’ve ever seen. This movie is so charming and nostalgic. It has you thinking about it long after watching. It manages to have a perfect balance of relatable, real-life issues while keeping its innocent, humorous, and lighthearted approach. 

The plot of Barbie is pretty simple; Barbie has an existential crisis and goes to the real world to figure out why her perfect life seems to be falling apart. Ken tags along, and they both go their separate ways in self-discovery. Barbie runs into the mother-daughter duo that has the answers to all her problems, while Ken is convinced that the real world is run by men. (Which of course, makes him go back to Barbieland to make a world full of Mojo Dojo Casa houses and horses.) This movie perfectly handles the topic of equality. After Barbie goes back to Barbieland and sees what Ken has done she is torn and devastated, things didn’t go well in the real world, and now Barbieland is falling apart too. It feels like the “man vs. woman” situation Barbie felt in the real world. The way Barbie feels is clear and relatable for women while being easy to understand and empathize with for someone who couldn’t personally relate. 

I believe that the casting for the movie was perfect. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling did a fantastic job capturing their roles. It felt like Barbie and Ken came to life by how their humanization was portrayed. Robbie and Gosling took one-dimensional characters and gave them more depth and life. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are already extremely beloved actors. That’s another reason I think the casting is perfect. Who wouldn’t want to see the latest Margot Robbie or Ryan Gosling film? ‘Barbie’ also features many other well-known actors, including; Will Ferrel (as Mattel CEO), Michael Cera (as Alan), Dua Lipa (as Mermaid Barbie), and John Cena (as Male Mermaid), and that’s just to name a few! The casting for all the Barbies and Kens was epic, to say the least. It felt like every time I blinked there was an actor that I recognized. They even got Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice to create the song “Barbie World”! After that song came out, it was everywhere. I found myself having the song stuck in my head before and after finishing the movie. The release of “Barbie World” was one of the perfect buildups for the premiere of this film. Some would say it was also a “full circle” moment for Nicki Minaj since she frequently associates herself with the character. The song is also great as a standalone track that worked great with the end credits of the film. Who wouldn’t want to see this exceptional movie?  

I found the maturity rating for this movie very interesting. It’s definitely PG-13, but I noticed people being confused that a Barbie movie would be rated PG-13 instead of just PG. When I went to see this movie, there was an abundance of very small children walking in. This made me wonder about its advertising approach. This could just be parents assuming it was PG or just not caring if their 7-year-old sees a PG-13 movie; which definitely isn’t abnormal, but I thought it was worth noting. When I mentioned Barbie to a few adults in my life, they actually made comments about how they were surprised about the rating. After actually watching Barbie, it’s clear why it’s rated how it is; one very subtle sex joke, its mentions of death, and its topics of womens rights and equality. It feels like Barbie was in between PG-13 and PG, and they went with PG-13 to be safe. 

This movie has many beautiful moments. A notable one is when Barbie is sitting on a bench in the park by an older woman. She tells the woman that she is beautiful, as she is crying. Barbie realizes how beautiful people and the world are. Barbie is seen by a lot of people as a vision of the “perfect woman” who lives a “perfect life”. When Barbie sees the real world it makes it clear that it isn’t true. Nothing is perfect and that is what is beautiful. Things aren’t as simple as Barbie had originally thought. Beauty is all around us, and Barbie makes us realize that. Barbie truly is a beautiful experience you don’t want to miss!