It’s safe to say that Barbie has blown the socks off the global box-office this year. It is the highest-grossing film in 2023, nearly $100 million ahead of number 2 (at the time of writing), The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and $500 million ahead of the film it went u against at the pictures this summer, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Now that the dust has settled (though it still plays in some cinemas), we take a look at Barbie in glorious 4K on the home formats.
I missed the kerfuffle with Barbie theatrically, viewing this for the first time at home, but it’s easy to see what the fuss is all about. skilfully written, performed and executed, Barbie works on many levels depending on who is watching. Greta Gerwig’s film manages to combine popcorn fluff with indie sensibilities, deep thought-provoking conversation starters for teens and adults alike and tons of fun.
The film kicks off (post brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey homage) in Barbieland where we find our heroine – stereotypical Barbie (an excellent Margot Robbie, who also produces) living the dream among many other Barbies. This is a place where Barbie can be whatever she wants to be – doctor, pilot, vet etc. and where Ken, well, is just Ken. However, Robbie’s Barbie develops a case of flat feet and, after a visit to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), she is informed of a porthole to the real world where she can seek out the child who plays with her to sort out her new issues. So, off to the real world Barbie goes, complete with Ryan Gosling’s Ken, who hides in the boot until he reaches the city limits. In the real world – actually modern-day Los Angeles, Barbie discovers a very different world with people’s views of her and women in general different to what she’s used to back home as she continues on her quest to find herself in a world full of misogyny where, as Ken also soon discovers, men dominate.
Barbie is an absolute joy from start to finish; a pink-fuelled candy-flossed popcorn romp with all the hallmarks of a film directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig as you’d expect. A film that has grossed almost the same as ‘saviour of cinema’, the testosterone-fulled Top Gun: Maverick last year probably tells you everything you need to know. It has resonated with audiences around the world with women and men of all ages. As well as its clever screenplay, Gerwig’s film is jaw-dropping in its presentation with glorious set design, stunning cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (who has pulled off the ultimate one-two DP punch in 2023 also with the release of this month’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which he also shot), and brilliant acting from Robbie and Gosling.
The 4K is equally stunning, the disc glittering pink and the Ultra HD presentation of the main feature flawless. There are also six accompanying featurettes – ‘Playing Dress-Up’, a six minute look at the costumes from the movie with interviews with Gerwig, Robbie, Gosling and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, as well as some behind the scenes footage from the film. It’s interesting to see who some of the actresses individual qualities were brought to their costumes and it really gives some great insight to the design of the film. There’s also ‘Welcome To Barbieland’ which looks at the production design of the film – another of the key technical qualities of the final feature. Again, there are short soundbites from the cast and filmmakers which leads into another short featurette (4 minutes) ‘It’s Weird World’ which further explores the Weird Barbie set and design. Rounding off the six features are similarly-lengthed ‘Becoming Barbie’ which looks at how they brought Robbie’s Barbie to life, ‘Musical Make Believe’ about the music in the movie, and ‘All-Star Barbie Party’ which looks more at the cast of the film.
In all, a decent presentation though the featurettes taking a sweeping look at proceedings without going into huge detail. A Barbie special edition down the road would see a director’s commentary included as Gerwig’s input in the BTS features are the ones I particularly wanted to hear more of.
People buying this will be doing so for the film itself and not the bonus stuff [as they should] which will stand the test of time as it is an exciting, fun-filled, feminist feature that all really must see. My five-year-old daughter has been bugging me to see it as well, and something tells me it won’t be long before she’s allowed to do so. An important, fun film from one of the best filmmakers in town and absolutely one of the best films of the year.
Barbie is available on digital 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now.
Barbie
Summary
The bonus materials are brief but involving, but the feature is the main attraction here with Greta Gerwig delivering one of the biggest, boldest and best films of 2023.
