Barbie - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Barbie



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I’ve been watching the Barbie phenomenon for the better part of two years, and sitting by with popcorn on stand by since basically the beginning of 2013. The film was already slated to be Warner’s attempt at pulling a Top Gun: Maverick just with how much hype it was putting behind the production, and how absolutely secretive they were during it’s production (locking down online chatter, NDA’s that were Marvel movie levels, you name it) was decided that this summer I’d actually see how it had turned out. By that time the marketing team had whipped the masses up into a frenzy of anticipation, and even then I don’t think even THEY anticipated how much this film would blast at the box office.

Now I’m going to fully admit up front that I’m not the target audience for Barbie. I never had the dolls as I was 1 of 5 boys in my house, and I knew from the get go that this was going to be a big girl boss/power movie due to the fact that Greta Gerwig was helming it. However, I’m willing to give everything a chance, and Greta Gerwig turned out the fantastic Ladybird a few years back, so I decided that it was time to give the film a theatrical go, and I’m glad I did. Watching the film back in theaters AND today to reinforce my opinions, I solidified the idea that Barbie is one of the best examples of marketing genius to ever grace the silver screen. You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. This is marketing genius to Albert Einstein levels, with Mattel and Warner pulling off the long game here, and attaining victory in what will probably be a graduate level course involving marketing some time in the future.

You see, Mattel was king of the doll world for SOOOOOOOO many decades, but after the turn of the century the Barbie line was dying. I don’t mean that Mattel was going broke or anything, but the Barbie line of dolls was literally turning into a husk in front of our faces. Modern day values have lambasted the doll line for giving girls unrealistic beauty standards, the films and toys were hanging around on shelves unwatched and unbought, and there were even whole websites (pinkstinks for example) that were devoted to railing against the doll and what damage it had supposedly done to little girls. Simply put, Mattel was in a world of hurt as their most iconic and American line of dolls was no longer a virtual money printing press like it used to be. Sooooooooo, they got together and figured out how to make Barbie commercially viable again. Make a movie with Warner brothers, spend $300 million in production with an estimated extra $150 million in marketing, hire big name actors, and use Indie film couple Greta Gerwig and Noah Bombauch to write a girl power script aimed not at little girls anymore, but their MOTHERS. And while it was a long shot, they somehow pulled it off. They built and executed a movie that that utilized a message of anti capitalism, anti patriarchy, and general rebellion to an audience who had basically given up on Barbies and their message, and in that same fell swoop got them to buy into their toys once more! I mean, Barbie has raked in 1.5 BILLION dollars so far, and Mattel’s stock value has shot through the roof in a short few months! Barbie is once again a household name, and the once dying line is actually selling toys like they were in the 80s and 90s. As I said, absolute BRILLIANCE.

Now, we also can’t deny how polarizing Barbie has become in the media (as much as I’d like to ignore it). From a scale of “Ben Shapiro ranting about it for 45 minutes on his podcast” to “Vox claiming that if you don’t like Barbie you hate women” I’m somewhere in the middle. Greta Gerwig doesn’t go the typical Hollywood trope route for her film, instead crafting a supposed satire that takes the world of Barbie and blends it with the real world in a sort of dystopian hyperbolic take on genera relations, the patriarchy, and some crafty winks and nods to the camera about the dangers of both side. The film starts out with Barbie (Margot Robbie) living idyllically in Barbieland where she is perfectly content with the status quo. The Barbies all live in happiness and harmony, all being the doctors, nurses, senators, and world changing leaders that the Barbie variations promised young girls in their toy lines decades ago. But the Ken’s (lead Ken being played by Ryan Gosling) as stuck off to the side as “Barbie’s accessory”. Things get shaken up when Barbie starts having thoughts about death, cellulite, gaining flat feet, and struggling with depression. After visiting “Weird Barbie” (Kate McKinnon) Barbie figures out that her human playing with her in real life has somehow ruptured the fabric separating Barbieland from the real world, and has to venture into the real world to fix things.

However, fixing things is not so easy. Barbie soon finds that the real world is the polar opposite of Barbieland, with the Patriarchy ruling, meaning Barbie gets leered at, her butt smacked, and generally treated like a moron. Simultaneously Ken suddenly gets flooded with a sense of need and respect, as he finally is recognized for being something other than Barbie’s accessory for once. While Barbie is tracking down the Mattel leadership and her “human” to fix things, Ken learns about the wonders of the patriarchy, and descends back to Barbieland to change everything up there.

Barbie is interesting. It’s been labeled as either a hunk of junk, or the best movie that’s ever been made and if you don’t like it you despise women every where. Honestly, I’m in the middle. Personally I found Greta and Noah’s narrative to be all over the place, with a very rocky 1st act that doesn’t really kick off until the 45 minute mark when Barbie has to escape from Mattel and their CEO (played by Will Ferrell). Then it actually picks up steam and becomes rather fun. Greta obviously satirizes a lot of things and amplifies them to ridiculous levels to make a point (her main one being that Patriarchy and Matriarchy have their benefits, but also points out that there are some downsides to the extremes of both ideologies), but the third act starts to fall apart right after America Ferrera gives a bit speech on what it means to be a woman, with 30 minutes left in the film (that speech really feels like it should have been given near the end rather than the end of the 2nd act).

HOWEVER, Ryan Gosling absolutely dominates as Ken (heh, little play on words there). He is by far the most likable character on screen and just steals every single shot that he’s in. I’m talking he went full Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow here, turning a quirky character that could have ruined the movie into an utterly mesmerizing performance. Every single person I saw the film with was chuckling with Ken every time Gosling pops up on screen. He was charming, goofy, lovably stupid, and so over the top that you literally couldn’t take your eyes off of him. Ironically he’s also probably the most relatable character in the entire movie (but that could simply be my male bias). Robbie did a good job as Barbie (not a bad choice for stereotypical beauty) and hats off to Michael Cera as Alan, the one 5 minute side character who was more memorable that everyone except Ken, even though he’s only in the film a few minutes.

Honestly, Barbie is a big GIGANTIC marketing tool by Mattel, who cleverly disguised their toy sales pitch as a pro girl extravaganza, and the audiences ate it up in DROVES judging by the box office. Was this film for me? I don’t think so. I could definitely see that while many men will enjoy the film, this was geared directly for the mothers and not the daughters or husbands this go around. And in that aspect it really did pay off for them. I don’t think I’d seen this big a female turnout for a film EVER. Warner made a calculated risk and it paid off big time for them. They made a clever and unique film for a non standard demographic, in a non standard way and the audience was hugely receptive to it. Bravo for them.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language.





4K Video: Video:

If anything, Barbie fans will love this 4K UHD disc (no Blu-ray included so we couldn’t compare to the 1080p variant) which dazzles in every way imaginable. The digitally shot film with a native 4K master pops onto disc with a gorgeous 2160p transfer that is just saturated with candy colored shades. Barbie land is just ablaze with pink, more pink, blues, yellow, more pink and guess what...PINK! Galore, while the real world pops with nearly as much colors. Midst the natural hues of grass green and dark sidewalks of New York, we have Pink Mattel board rooms, dazzling blue/pink/yellow leotards, sparkling blue skies, and STUNNING amounts of fine detail everywhere. Honestly, this is one of the best looking 4K discs I’ve seen in the last couple of years, with nary a sign of banding or other common artifacts to mar the image. This is about as sparkling and perfect as you can get for an encode as Warner puts the film out on a full triple layer 100 gig disc.








Audio:

Almost as impressive, Barbie’s Dolby Atmos track really shines here. It’s full of life, with stunning musical numbers that make use of all the channels, and the overheads even get used with a few times during the escape from Mattel scene, or in Barbieland as a plane goes by. However, this is a very forward heavy track in some portions (very talky film), but also rich and vibrant in surround usage for almost 50% of the time. There’s a wonderful array of background effects going on in just about every scene (such as the boardwalk where Barbie and Ken emerge on roller blades), and the LFE channel knows when to judiciously pop in and out (mostly for the score). Great sounding track, with sparkling clarity and razor sharp dialog up in the front of the room.












Extras:

• Welcome to Barbie Land – featurette
• Becoming Barbie – featurette
• Playing Dress-Up – featurette
• Musical Make-Believe – featurette
• All-Star Barbie Party – featurette
• It's A Weird World – featurette

Final Score: ​

Barbie has become a pop culture phenomenon that was amplified by social media marketing hype of Barbenheimer to what has become a MASSIVE hit for Warner Brothers. They’re pulling in peak Marvel Studios profits with this one, female audiences have been massively receptive. My only fear is that studios will get the wrong message and just start putting out more films based on toys and dolls, instead of taking from this what they should. That is audiences are starving for unique films that are well written and appeal to a broad section of the populace (sadly I’m not so sure they will get the message). We still want to go to theaters to see films, audiences are simply tired of only seeing Disney flops or Marvel blockbusters 3-5x a year! Also, START PUTTING THE BLU-RAY BACK IN THE 4K RELEASE! I understand that it’s become popular to go back to non combo packs, but for new releases it’s still a pet peeve of mine. That being said, this is a massively gorgeous looking and sounding 4K UHD release and for those who are fans of the movie, a very solid package. Personally I would have loved to have given it a higher rating film wise as everyone and their mother has been raving about it, but the film DOES have some problems. And couple that with the fact that this movie was obviously not targeted at me, leaves me a bit more lukewarm than others. Still, definitely check it out as it has become a pop culture zeitgeist this last year.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Helen Mirren
Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Written by: Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
Aspect Ratio: 2:00:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DD 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 114 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 17th, 2023

Recommendation: Check It Out.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. My kids saw this along with just about every kid in their school when it was released and they all loved it! I believe this is the target audience that the movie wanted. Also, just about everybody in the audience wore pink as well! Did you have your pink shirt on??? I will get it since kids enjoyed and I will check it out later..

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I enjoyed it. I'm shocked every time I seen Ben Shapiro quoted anywhere that's not his podcast. I think Warner's pricing prevented me from liking it more than I did. Shapiro is the personification of vaginal dryness, so I'm not sure he gets an opinion on this. They priced it so high, and I held out for so long, that it really raised my expectations. I'll watch again next year and see how I feel. Shapiro is just an angry little man because he failed miserably in Hollywood despite every family connection and privileged advantage one could have. Even with the high expectations to go with the price tag, I would still give it closer to 4.5 stars than 3.

 

[tripplej]

I enjoyed it. I'm shocked every time I seen Ben Shapiro quoted anywhere that's not his podcast. I think Warner's pricing prevented me from liking it more than I did. Shapiro is the personification of vaginal dryness, so I'm not sure he gets an opinion on this. They priced it so high, and I held out for so long, that it really raised my expectations. I'll watch again next year and see how I feel. Shapiro is just an angry little man because he failed miserably in Hollywood despite every family connection and privileged advantage one could have. Even with the high expectations to go with the price tag, I would still give it closer to 4.5 stars than 3.

When you saw it in theaters, did you wear your pink shirt? Did most of the audience dress up?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

When you saw it in theaters, did you wear your pink shirt? Did most of the audience dress up?

I didn't go in theaters. We watched on Kaleidescape a couple weekends ago.

 

[Michael Scott]

I enjoyed it. I'm shocked every time I seen Ben Shapiro quoted anywhere that's not his podcast. I think Warner's pricing prevented me from liking it more than I did. Shapiro is the personification of vaginal dryness, so I'm not sure he gets an opinion on this. They priced it so high, and I held out for so long, that it really raised my expectations. I'll watch again next year and see how I feel. Shapiro is just an angry little man because he failed miserably in Hollywood despite every family connection and privileged advantage one could have. Even with the high expectations to go with the price tag, I would still give it closer to 4.5 stars than 3.

Lol. I used him as an example simply because EVERY flipping time I looked up something on Barbie. Or every time I opened Facebook someone was mentioning or creating a "insert person reacts to Ben Shapiros review on Barbie!!" article/video,,,so it seemed like the perfect juxtaposition for the negative side of my "love it or hate it" pendulum example

 

[Todd Anderson]

There's something about this movie that exudes: "Don't watch it, Todd!" I'm on the fence, big time!

 

[Michael Scott]

There's something about this movie that exudes: "Don't watch it, Todd!" I'm on the fence, big time!

don't worry Todd. Just give in to your inner pink and watch it !!! you know you will lol