B Barbie Movies
Tracee Hsiang
My name is Ana Teresa, and I graduated from FSU in fall 2022. I double majored in History and English with a focus on Editing, Writing, and Media. I have a minor in French too. I joined FSU in 2018. As part of the History major, I had to write an article-length paper, the senior thesis. I chose to do my senior seminar on U.S pop culture with Dr. Mooney.
Between 2001 and 2014, Mattel, the company that owns the Barbie franchise, brought out 28 Barbie movies. The first thing I did, once I had decided on that project, was to sit down and watch the movies. That was a bit overwhelming, but it got me started thinking about what themes I could write about, what angles to take. I had never reviewed movies from a historical perspective before. Dr. Mooney said that I should first analyze the films and only then place them in their historical context.
So initially, I reviewed the movies to find common patterns and themes. After noticing some patterns, I decided to categorize the movies in two distinct categories, or eras, as I called them. I divided the movie between the First Era of Barbie movies, then the Transition Era, and the Second Era. After I categorized them, I looked at how each era was dealing with the themes I found. I decided to look at feminism in the movies and focused on gender roles. Specifically, I looked at body image, the princess trope, and happy endings. While the movies have much in common with Disney movies, the original idea had been that Barbie would be a more empowered, feminist character; she would take action and get things done. This idea did not always translate to the screen.
From the First Era of movies, which spans from 2001 to 2007, Barbie was acting in ways that were supposed to be empowering to young girls, but other things that she did or things that occurred in the movie contradicted that. As the movies progressed to the Transition Era, and eventually the Second Era, which starts in 2010, it seemed like Mattel was attempting to correct those contradictions and make Barbie even more empowering, but instead those contradictions continued even to the end of the Second Era.
An example of this ambiguity is that Barbie is always very active and hands on, she is the one who solves the problems, she is the one who rescues people. But on the other hand, her body shape becomes more and more unrealistic. She becomes thinner and thinner in her waist, making her overall proportions unachievable for young girls. In the end, however, I noticed that after the Transition Era, which included 2008 and 2009, was also when other more girl-empowering movies started to be released, like Frozen or Brave. That made me reach the conclusion that these Barbie movies, although ambiguous in terms of gender roles, were among the first movies intended to provide empowering role models for young girls.
Doing the senior seminar paper was a challenge, especially getting organized and staying on time with my deadlines. I am a big procrastinator. I had hoped to work a bit on the paper every day or every week, but when it came down to it, I set aside the four or five days before each deadline and worked exclusively on the paper.
Dr. Mooney had various deadlines built in during the semester for us to submit some parts of the paper, and that helped me stay on track. When I had to submit five pages from my paper, I realized that I had quite a lot to say about the topic and that I would be able to write the senior seminar paper, which helped relieve my anxiety a little bit. When we submitted the first draft of the paper, we discussed our work in class and we saw what everybody else was working on. By the time it came to working on the final draft, we had already written a lot of the paper and received feedback on it.
Getting started was the hardest part. Writing the first five pages helped me start the writing process. In the end, I discarded half of what I had written and divided the other half across multiple sections of my paper. In writing those five pages, I came to realize that my approach was not that good and that I had to change how I was going to structure the paper. Writing things down helped me see that.
The presentation was also a bit daunting. Dr. Mooney had told us to keep our talk to 10 minutes, and it was hard to cover all the material in such a short period of time. I am also not a very confident public speaker, so speaking in front of the group made me nervous. But my classmates and Dr. Mooney were all very supportive and were very engaged on the topic, so I was not so nervous when I talked. We had also decided, without talking about it, to dress up in the theme of our papers for the presentation. So, I wore a lot of pink that day.
The presentation helped me clarify my argument. When I was preparing for it and had to tell my classmates about my topic, it made me look at how I was phrasing things as well as the structure of my paper, so I decided to organize some of it differently. When I was done with the paper, I felt very proud of myself and confident. It was the longest paper I have written so far, 27 pages.
First of all, I would like to thank you for making such wonderful movies that people of all ages can enjoy & learn something from. Barbie movies were a huge part of my childhood & classics like Barbie & the Diamond Castle, Barbie as the Island Princess, Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, The Barbie Diaries & many others will always have a huge place in my heart. The meaningful plot, the characters & their design & the fantastic songs with such well-written & relateable lyrics is what made these movies beyond brilliant. The movies used to be so well made & the storylines were always so original & well-thought-out. I still remember almost all of the songs from the 2001-2011 era & sing them all the time. In my opinion, these were not only great Barbie movies but one of the best animated movies ever made! But sadly, the more recent movies have lost their charm. I think I speak on behalf of millions hard core Barbie fans when i say that the newer Barbie movies are not even nearly as great or memorable as the older ones.
Barbie's design has changed so much over the years that she doesn't even look like Barbie anymore. She looks very plastic & doll-like now. Also, in some of the newer movies like Barbie & Her Sisters in the Great Puppy Adventure, she looks more like a teen & not anything like the Barbie we all looked up to. Wasn't Barbie supposed to be in her early 20's or rather, just a young looking girl with no specific age?
The plot of the more recent Barbie movies has become very basic. What we don't understand is that why do the plots have to be so dumbed down now when the target audience has been children from the very start? Barbie movies can be so much more than what they've been reduced to. Children need more than just bright colors, sparkles & fashion. Barbie movies don't always have to be set in the modern times for them to be appealing either. We want them to grow up watching the kind of Barbie movies we grew up watching, the kind that inspired us, taught us to be brave & follow our dreams, taught us important lessons about friendship & love, made us believe in magic, the kind that left a mark, the kind that gave us timeless songs like Connected, Believe, I Need To Know, Free, This Is Me, Shine, On Top Of The World & many other gems just like it.
We need the classic Barbie back. Us fans miss her terribly. Barbie is more than just a doll for us... we need her amazing movies to cheer us up & inspire us. Please Mattel, bring Barbie movies back to their former glory & give us back the Barbie we all love & remember. There are so many of us out there desperately waiting for good Barbie movies to be produced again. Also, if at all possible, please bring back Kelly Sheridan as the voice actress of our beloved Barbie.
It's established at this point that old Barbie movies are better, so there's no point in rehashing that argument. But in order to find out why exactly they were better, I went on a Barbie movie marathon this quarantine.
Just like Disney, Barbie films had some common themes (e.g. power of friendship, happily ever after, etc.), but that was where similarities ended. Each of the stories had their own unique themes. A magical paintbrush that let Rapunzel paint herself outside of the tower, a purple Pegasus, a beautiful peacock ball gown, charming ballet scenes, dreamy underwater aesthetic: stuff like this just stuck with you even after the movie was over.
The newer ones had storylines that sounded fun enough on paper, but came off as bland and forgettable. They seem dumbed down to a point where anyone can tell how the story will end after the first five minutes. Some of them borrowed themes from their older counterparts, making minor tweaks along the way, which just made it worse. There are some exceptions, though. Princess Charm School and A Fashion Fairytale turned out pretty decent, and I say this as an adult.
The picturesque environments are something you can't ignore when it comes to Barbie. One would think that newer animations would trope older ones, but that wasn't the case here. Most of the modern flicks look like any other animated movie nowadays, just in a flashy pink setting. Pre-2010 ones had something that was distinctly Barbie. The illustrations were stunning and immediately transported you to the elegant sceneries. And the best part is that there was always a transformation with a sparkly dress involved.
Beautiful paraphernalia weren't the only thing setting these movies apart. Catchy songs and ethereal instrumentals were a staple of the earlier films. "Shine" from Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, "Free" from Barbie as the Princess & the Pauper, "All for One" from Barbie & the Three Musketeers are still stuck in my head a decade later. The instrumentals worked as a nice complement to the magical backgrounds.
The villains and supporting characters (most of whom were cute animals) were pretty memorable too. Preminger even had his own villain anthem. Then there was Bibble, known for his adorable babbling, and Shiver, who made me want to keep a baby polar bear as a pet.
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