Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

So, on Early May Bank Holiday Monday in the UK this year, my parents and I saw the 2023 film ‘Barbie’ on Netflix. It was a fascinating film experience to sit through. I’m glad ‘Barbie’ has been released on Netflix lately, as I can now say I’ve seen the film after all these years.

My parents and I were curious about ‘Barbie’, as it received a lot of hype since its release at cinemas in July 2023. I can’t say I’m an expert on Barbie. I never played with any of the toy dolls as a kid, despite seeing them advertised whilst watching GMTV shows in the 1990s.

When ‘Barbie’ was announced to be released on Netflix, I wanted my parents’ and my curiosity satisfied as to what this film was like and whether it was worth seeing. I’m glad I’ve seen the film, though frankly, I don’t know what to make of it and I’m not very satisfied.

You see, this isn’t really a story about the character of Barbie. It’s a story about the Barbie product and how she’s affected the real world. The film is a satirical fantasy comedy that addresses Barbie’s place with women and how her image has widely affected them.

I can’t say I fully understand what’s going on with the film in terms of the plot, as there’s a lot of metaphors and symbolism featured throughout. This film is likely required to be seen more than once in order to appreciate and understand what its themes are all about.

I don’t believe this film is even for little girls that want to watch it, especially when it contains adult themes and sexual innuendos. For grown-up Barbie fans, they may get into the puns and jokes related to Barbie. But for younger viewers, I’m not sure that’s possible.

This is a contrast to Barbie having had her own animated films and specials over the years. This includes ‘Barbie in the Nutcracker’, which I believe has its own fictional plot and characters that don’t make it a satire. I’ve not seen those films and specials to be sure, but still.

Despite me struggling to get into the the film’s plot, the cast for ‘Barbie’ is quite stellar. There’s Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn from ‘The Suicide Squad’ films) as Barbie – or ‘Stereotypical Barbie’, as she’s called. Honestly, I found Margot Robbie to be an incredible Barbie in the film.

There’s Ryan Gosling (from ‘La La Land’) as Ken, a friend of ‘Stereotypical Barbie’ who is often referred to as ‘Beach Ken’. Some of you might be expecting this film to feature a romance story between Barbie and Ken, but the film doesn’t really do that, quite frankly, which is a shame.

There are also other Barbies, including Issa Rae as President Barbie, Kate McKinnon (from 2016’s ‘Ghostbusters’) as Weird Barbie, Alexandra Shipp (from two ‘X-Men’ prequel films) as Writer Barbie, Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie, Hari Nef as Dr. Barbie, Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie, Ana Cruz Kayne as Judge Barbie, Ritu Arya as Journalist Barbie, Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie and Nicola Coughlan (who was in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Joy to the World’) as Diplomat Barbie. There’s Mette Narrative as Barbie Video Girl, Marisa Abela as Teen Talk Barbie, and Lucy Boynton as Proust Barbie.

There are also other Kens, including Simu Liu (Shang-Chi from the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’) as Rival Ken, Kingsley Ben-Adir as Basketball Ken, Ncuti Gatwa (the Fifteenth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ – I knew there was a reason why I saw this film 😀 ) as Artist Ken, Scott Evans as Stereotypical Ken and John Cena (who’s been in ‘The Marine’ and ‘Bumblebee’) as Kenmaid, a merman Ken. 🙂 There’s Rob Brydon as Sugar Daddy Ken and Tom Stourton as Earring Magic Ken. There’s a big fight between the Kens at the film’s end. 😀

The rest of the film’s cast also includes America Ferrera as Gloria, Arian Greenblatt as Sasha, Gloria’s daughter, Rhea Perlman (who was in ‘Matilda’) as Ruth Handler, who created the original Barbie doll, and there’s Helen Mirren who’s the film’s narrator.

Will Ferrell (who’s been in ‘Elf’ and the two ‘LEGO Movies’) stars as the CEO of Mattel – the company that made Barbie. There’s Michael Cera as Allan, Connor Swindells as Aaron Dinkins and Jamie Demetriou as the CFO of Mattel. Apparently, Emerald Fennell (who’s been in ‘Call the Midwife’ and she recently directed the 2026 film ‘Wuthering Heights’) is in the film and she plays Midge, who’s a pregnant doll that lives in Barbieland.

There’s Asim Chaudhry as a Mattel warehouse employee, Ray Fearon as Dan at the FBI, and Erica Ford as Skipper and Hannah Khalique-Brown as ‘Growing Up’ Skipper. There’s also Ann Roth as the woman on the bench, Annie Mumolo as Anxiety Mom, Lauren Holt as Time Mom and Ryan Piers Williams as Gloria’s husband in the film.

I expected the 1997 song ‘Barbie Girl’ by pop band Aqua to be in the film, as I recall it vividly when growing up in the 1990s. Sadly, the song’s not in the film, though samples of it can be heard in the reworked song called ‘Barbie World’ by rappers Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.

‘Barbie’ the 2023 film has been a fascinating film to experience on Netflix lately. It’s visually impressive and I’ll give credit to the director Greta Gerwing (who directed 2019’s ‘Little Women’ and the upcoming ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ film) for putting this together.

But I can’t say this was a satisfying film to watch. I prefer more fictional stories with character development rather than a satirical fantasy comedy that addresses how Barbie affects the real-world. The messages featured in the film are rather complex for my liking.

For me, I enjoyed the Barbie in the ‘Toy Story’ films more than the 2023 film. I’m currently looking forward to revisiting ‘Toy Story 3’ sometime soon this year, especially when it has Barbie, voiced by Jodi Benson, interacting with Ken, voiced by Batman‘s Michael Keaton.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂