The Toughest ‘Barbie’ Critics Are Barbie Collectors

Moreno appreciated the “nuggets” that Gerwig threw in for collectors, like a cameo from the Skipper that grew breasts, and onscreen textual content noting the precise names of ensembles from Barbie’s closet. “My first thought was, ‘That’s cool,’” he mentioned. “But then also like, ‘That’s going to rise in price now.’” Several collectors The Times spoke with additionally appreciated the reference to the canceled collectible broadly often called “Sugar Daddy Ken” (whose title was truly a reference to his canine being known as Sugar).

But there have been additionally some nitpicks. Jian Yang, a 43-year-old marketer in Singapore with 12,000 dolls, mentioned the costuming “looked handmade; it looked not Mattel.” Both Maar, who labored at Mattel greater than 20 years in the past, and Keith, 55, refuted the best way Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), is portrayed as a candy, non secular information for Robbie’s Barbie. “Ruth has never been the grandmotherly type,” Maar mentioned of Handler, who died in 2002. “She was a ball basher.”

These Barbie lovers additionally would have most well-liked much less of the Real World. After all, while you’re drawn to Barbie due to the fantasy, the actual world simply appears disappointing.

“I felt very spoiled by the Barbie Land,” Saldaña mentioned, and Lindsey Walker, 27, who works on civil rights in Washington, D.C., had an identical feeling: “Every time they went to the Real World, I was like, OK, when are they going to get back to Barbie Land? Because it was just so much more interesting and so much more colorful.”

There have been additionally extra vital gripes. Walker praised the variety of the solid however wished Issa Rae and Ncuti Gatwa, who’re among the many solid’s Black performers, had gotten extra display screen time. He additionally took situation with how the feminist themes have been examined: “Overall, I’m like, a white woman wrote this, and then also there might also be some people that haven’t really explored feminism and can get something out of this, so I’m just taking it for what it is.”