WMG / Barbie (2023)

WMG pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

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Pre-release theories

There is a "real" little girl who is connected to the Barbies in the movie.

In a similar vein as The LEGO Movie, it will be revealed that at least part of the narrative is influenced by a young girl playing with her Barbies and making up a story with them as characters.

• What helps the theory is Barbie and Ken driving out (and being turned away from) a long stretch of road pointing to "The Real World", which is also in line with LEGO Movie.
• The second trailer also makes a point of showing Barbie interacting with girls on the cusp of adolescence who remark on moving on from playing with Barbie, suggesting that Robbie's Barbie is probably being affected by whoever's playing with her growing up.
• Along these lines, consider Will Farrell's character... Do we know what The Lego Movie's unnamed real-world dad's day job was? Who's to say that this isn't the start of a "Living Toy Cinematic Universe"?
• Confirmed. A TV spot reveals that Barbies in Barbie Land are played with by multiple children in the real world. Also, Sasha, the daughter of America Ferrera's character Gloria, is actually the owner of Margot Robbie's Barbie.
  • Jossed, sort of, Barbies are influenced by people playing with them IRL but Sasha hasn't played her Barbies in years because she considers them problematic and regressive. Gloria has lately started playing with them as escapism from the mundane grind of life and brought the problems of depression, anxiety, existential dread, feelings of inadequacy, etc. to the Barbie world.

Ken will be a Twist Villain

The trailers and ads don't even remotely hide that he and the other Kens basically got a whole "living accessories to their Barbies" thing going on AND that this is clearly weighing down on him. Then of course there's this whole song where he's seen leading a charge of Kens to battle in the Barbie world in some kinda evil fur-lined wrestler coat garb. I think that Ken will genuinely start as a good guy and ally to Barbie, but as the movie goes on and he deals with more abuse as well as seeing how men and women are more equalized in the real world, he eventually snaps and ditches Barbie to go back to Barbieland to lead a Ken Rebellion. This would force Barbie to have to try and find her way back home and save it and when confronting Ken, the breakdown in the song would happen and Barbie would have to try and talk him down similar to how Emmet talked Lord Business down in the Lego Movie.

• Ken might have an encounter in the real world with an action figure (possibly He-Man in a cross-promotional Shout-Out) and decide that's what he wants to be rather than an accessory.
• Confirmed. While visiting the real world, Ken observes the flipped gender roles and more-stereotypical behaviors of men such as working out, riding horses, getting served beer by women in short dresses, and the like. He starts reading about patriarchy and teaches it to the other Kens, transforming Barbie Land to No Woman's Land amid Barbie's absence.

There will be some humor or plot points that are surprisingly dark and/or creepy.

The idea of a Living Toy entering the real world is ripe for Cosmic Horror, and tons of kids who played with Barbies have tales of crafting intricate, melodramatic, weirdly dark soap opera storylines with them, so it wouldn't be as out-of-place as you'd think.

• Confirmed. If the Kens discovering real-life sexism and then turning Barbieland into a chauvinist paradise where the Barbies are brainwashed into being subservient to them isn't dark, nothing is.

Possible references.

Place your bets for which Barbie properties and characters will be referenced here! A lot of stuff will probably show up as quick Mythology Gags or Easter Eggs, but some could become plot points.

• Barbie's sisters, Skipper and Kelly.
• Barbie Fairytopia, possibly related to Dua Lipa's mermaid character.
• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, possibly in the form of two minor characters having costumes inspired by Anneliese and Erika.
  • All jossed. There are no references to any of the animated Barbie movies.
• Barbie's many, many, many careers. While this is already present in the numerous Barbies living in Barbie Land, it's also possible Margot Robbie's "main" Barbie specifically will have a long and varied resume.
  • Jossed for "Stereotypical Barbie" (Robbie's character). Her job is "being the Barbie that you think of when you think of Barbie".
• Earring Magic Ken for a Parental Bonus.
  • Confirmed.
• Becky, Barbie's wheelchair-using friend.
  • Almost. There's a wheelchair-using character early in the film, but she's a Barbie instead of Becky.
• S.I.S., the discontinued branch of Barbie that centered on Black dolls.
• A big, pink, sparkling castle, home to all the other princess characters that Barbie's portrayed over the years.

At least one or two of the Barbies and/or Kens will be gay.

As a reference to the numerous amounts of Ho Yay in the franchise over the years.

• Maybe: Magic Earring Ken is a member of Weird Barbie's rebellion against the Kendom, next to Sugar Daddy Ken. Some fans assume they are a couple.

John Cena is playing an action figure.

Of the hypermasculine persuasion, ala He-Man or G.I. Joe.

• The latter is unlikely, as GI Joe is owned by Mattel's main rival, Hasbro.
• Jossed. He is just like Dua Lipa's mermaid Barbie; they only appear briefly to greet the other Barbies and Kens.

Barbie will meet Barbara Handler - Barbie meets her maker. Literally.

In the trailer, a woman says "Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever." The subtitles reveal that the woman's name is Ruth. Ruth Handler passed in 2002, but perhaps this is in another time or an afterlife of sorts. Alternatively, Barbara will be playing the role of her mother. To add to this, the reason that Barbie is contemplating her mortality is that Ruth is dying of cancer, and Ruth will muse that at least her ideas will live on.

• Jossed. Barbie meets the ghost of Ruth Handler and takes the name Barbara Handler after becoming human, but the actual Barbara is neither seen nor referenced.

Some characters from a certain top competitor of Barbie will make brief cameo appearances.

Perhaps The Stinger could show Chloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade traveling to the real world as well, especially if they are much more faithfully adapted than their previous live-action appearance.

• One of the trailers shows Barbie interacting with a quartet of teenage girls who resemble the Bratz girls.
• Jossed. The teenage girls are just Gloria's daughter Sasha and her friends, but this might be a reference to Bratz since one of their more popular dolls is named Sasha.

Simu Liu's Ken will be the secondary antagonist

He's gonna be the Green-Eyed Monster to Gosling's Ken, and possibly become the Mattel President's Dragon. The redemption arc is optional.

• Confirmed. Although all the Kens practically became secondary antagonists when Barbie Land becomes Kendom.

The song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua will be played in the film

That song will be played either in the credits or in the movie.

• There was a remix of the song in the last trailer, so it's possible.
• Confirmed with Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice's remix. It plays during the credits.

The Kens will force all the Barbies to wear the same outfit as punishment

In the trailer, it showed all the Barbies dressed in the same outfit in a courtroom. Barbies don't dress the same on purpose. It could be a harsh punishment in Barbie Land.

• Jossed.

Barbie will take inspiration from Plato's theory of forms

The trailers depict Barbie as leaving the comfort of the world she's always known for an uncertain world that's more real than hers. It's also mentioned in a trailer that ideas are forever, related to concepts living in a five-dimensional timeless plane of existence. It would be really fun if the movie takes clues from that, maybe using a liberal dose of metafiction or postmodernism.

Post-release theories

A sequel could potentially explore Beach Ken's life in Barbieland once that Stereotypical Barbie is gone

Other Mattel properties could be featured in a sequel.

Maybe not as major plot points but Barbie may discover other worlds like Masters of the Universe or Polly Pocket and interact with those characters.

• Ken is still on his journey of self-discovery, it's possible that he stumbles on Eternia in his search. As Eternia is said to be the center of the universe and the intersect of all realities it's the perfect place for all of Mattel's brands to cross over.
  • Ken will begin to deteriorate due to being away from Barbie, gradually transforming into...SKELETOR!!! Then he will say ,"C'mon Barbie...lets go party" in the classic Skeletor voice!
• Don't forget Mattel also is the shareholder in Island of Sodor! After checking Japanese dub of Barbie, Ken's voice actor Shunsuke Takeuchi also acts Gordon in AEG.

Stereotypical Barbie is Queer

• Stereotypical Barbie is "awakened" by choosing a Birkenstock and "Closer To Fine" (a song with significant queer subtext). Combined with the fact that she has no interest in any Kens and Kate McKinnon's role as an LGBT activist, it may well be that Stereotypical Barbie is queer.

Weird Barbie used to belong to Gloria

• Gloria outright states in the movie that she had her own Weird Barbie as a child, prompting Weird Barbie to let out a knowing "Yeah you did." When Gloria then explains that you "make them weird by playing too hard", Weird Barbie's only response is a reassuring "It's cool." This could imply that Gloria was Weird Barbie's human, and the one who made her the way she is.
  • The scene showing Weird Barbie getting played with briefly shows "GLORIA" spelled out in Scrabble tiles taped to the wall of the playroom. Weird Barbie's understanding of the world, what's going on with protagonist Barbie, and possibly Barbieland as a whole might be more connected to this one family than the brand in general.

The FBI helped Barbie integrate into the human world

• When Barbie and Ken crossed into the real world, the FBI alerted Mattel into their presence, which reminded them of a similar incident with Skipper escaping Barbieland and moonlighting as a babysitter in Key West. It is then presumed by the end of the film that the Feds helped build an elaborate cover story for the doll-turned-human who assumed the identity "Barbara Handler", birth certificate, identity papers and all.

In-Universe Conspiracy Theorists would speculate on the presence of "plastic men"

• Given the FBI's involvement in covering up Barbie and Ken's tracks (as well as that of Skipper's), it wouldn't be surprising for conspiracy theorists In-Universe to report on what they perceive as the infiltration of plastic men from another dimension, not unlike how David Icke accused world leaders and other notable individuals of being reptilians.

The movie takes place in the same universe (multiverse?) as The LEGO Movie

In addition to both being Warner Bros. products, they both seem to follow roughly the same rules for how their Living Toys function. They occupy a separate "pocket universe" where they live independent lives, but can be affected by those who play with them.

• Also Will Ferrel plays the same character, just at work vs at home.
  • Same suit and red tie!
• Furthermore, this means that Barbieland could potentially exist in the Spider-Verse.
  • Peter B. Parker, Miles Morales, and Peter 1, Peter 2, and Peter 3 and in fact Spider-Man himself are all Allans who escaped Barbieland, while Batman and Iron Man are Kens.

The Barbieland we see in the movie is specifically the world created by Gloria's playing with Barbies

Evidence:

• Stereotypical Barbie is directly affected by Gloria's emotions
• Gloria says she had a Weird Barbie and the flashback of Weird Barbie's creation heavily suggests that was Gloria
• Gloria was shown having an entire bin or Barbies which would provide origins for the other Barbies in the land but also their small population
• None of the Kens have any important role or individual identity because while she knew they existed she never had one herself
• She's fully aware of the Barbie toys being real and what the implications of one coming to the real world even though it's apparently only happened once before. Was it her Skipper who came to the real world before?

Slightly escalating from the above, Barbieland as seen in this movie is based on the Barbie play of individuals hired to work at Mattel.

This may explain why Mattel is aware of Barbieland's existence and how it works, as well as the population-it seems too high for it to be one person's creation, but a lot lower than one would expect for embodying the whole world or even Los Angeles itself. Events in Barbieland affecting Mattel product lines could also be reflecting this, as maybe even those who (unlike Gloria) never play with Barbies past childhood remain somewhat attuned to Barbieland.

There will be some kind of reference to Oppenheimer in the sequel

Given the Meme Acknowledgement of the Barbenheimer trend from much of the cast, this seems like a reasonable possibility. Maybe some kid will write a report on him, or maybe the Kens will watch the movie.

• Or an actor from that film will best cast in it likely mentioning how they wanted to make an atomic bomb.
  • Either Robert Downey Jr. could play an Iron Man Mego Doll or Cillian Murphy could play a Scarecrow action figure.
  • Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt will appear as Barbie Dolls not seen in the first film.

Barbie is a realization of what happens when girls invite boys to play Barbie with them

When most boys play Barbie, they make the Kens fight each other and mess up Barbie's Dream House and try to dominate Barbie.

• Thankfully, lawyers kept Duke, Batman, Wolverine, Darth Vader, Skeletor, King Kong, Godzilla, The T-Rex, T-800, Officer Alex Murphy, John Rambo, Optimus Prime, Slimer, and Raphael ('Cuz he's cool...but rude) out of it...

Allan is actually a refugee from The Real World

• Allan doesn't seem to behave like the rest of the dolls, has some kind of knowledge of The Real World, and in general looks like he doesn't belong in Barbieland. He's also the only one of his name. Granted, there do seem to have at used previously been other Allans who escaped from Barbieland, but he could be one who came back, or one who learned about Barbieland from N*SYNC and decided to make a life for himself there.
  • Jossed. Allan is an actual Barbie figure released by Mattel. He even quotes his packaging quotes when he fights the various Kens building the brick wall.
    "I'm Ken's buddy. All of his clothes fit me!"

In a sequel, Midge should be more of a character

After being so much of a joke in the movie, it would be justice to give Midge more depth in a potential sequel. Since she basically just as an outcast as Weird Barbie and the other controversial outcasts Barbies and Kens, it would be heartwarming to see the Barbie actually treat Midge like a friend as she's supposed to be. Maybe even have scene where they help Midge deliver her baby.

The Mattel CEO is being set up as the main connecting character in the planned Mattel Cinematic Universe

Basically he’s gonna be the Nick Fury of the all but confirmed Mattel Cinematic Universe, and the Mattel company is it’s S.H.I.E.LD.

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