
is this a safe space to say I didnt like the Barbie movie at all? I think it was TRYING to make this big feminist statement, but then it gives an entire musical number to Ken, at the expense of developing the relationships between female characters, which end up feeling very shallow. The entire movie is incredibly shallow, from the plot, to the characters, to the relationships, to the “feminist themes.” It is an insanely commercialized nothing burger of a movie.
It's literally in the same vein as the Transformers movies, Ninja Turtle movies, Pokemon movies, yet no one ever says those movies are making some sort of huge political statement. The Barbies not running Barbieland would be like if the Transformers were just regular cars. Its common sense
media made for children doesn’t need to be shallow though, and I think that’s where a lot of movie marketers and executives are going wrong. They think kids are stupid, so they dumb down the stories. Children’s media can have incredibly depth and still be entertaining and marketable to kids.
The first "kids" movie I think about that has incredible depth is Ratatouille. When I saw at as a kid though I didn't really get it all and a lot of the storyline went over my head. I feel like thats why the approach to Barbie while touching on womenhood and sexism, kept it fun and lighthearted and very rudimentary. I mean the Kens thought the patriarchy was just horses and beers 😭