Every Barbie fan theory is true — all of them

There are a thousand densely layered visible and verbal jokes in Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s script for Barbie, however one specifically stands out, as a result of it’s a light-weight gag with such huge story implications that it appears like an ethos. When Aaron (Connor Swindells), a low-level Mattel worker, finds out “Stereotypical Barbie” (Margot Robbie) has escaped from the fantasy world of Barbieland and entered Actuality, he instantly alerts Mattel’s CEO (Will Ferrell) and the company’s board of administrators. However then Aaron takes a second to ponder the ontology of the world he lives in.

“So… is Barbieland an alternate actuality?” He begins to ask. “Or is it like a spot the place your creativeness—” In absolute unison, the whole board cuts him off with a powerful “YES!”

The message is evident: Do not take into consideration the underpinnings of this world. Simply cease asking questions proper now. Additional, due to the best way Aaron will get minimize off with a sure earlier than he’s even completed itemizing the chances for what Barbieland could be or may imply, there’s an additional layer to all of it: a suggestion that certain, all theories about Barbieland are equally legitimate, and equally meaningless. And since the whole Mattel board delivers that verdict in emphatic refrain, there’s an additional trace of impatience and authority to all of it, an air that claims We’ve addressed this query a thousand occasions already, we’re bored with it, and we’ve come to a consensus. We simply need you to toe the occasion line on this and transfer on.

Picture: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. Photos

It’s a humorous second each as a result of it’s so abrupt, and since there’s a lot nuance to the best way Gerwig shoots and presents it. However it’s additionally gratifying in a approach that’s fairly uncommon for motion pictures, as a result of it’s a pleasant, jokey invitation to simply settle for the metaphor, and never fear concerning the particulars of Barbie’s cosmic building in any respect.

Quite a lot of us like to consider the small print in motion pictures. A few of us can’t assist it. For individuals who’ve made a life out of analyzing and discussing movie, being informed “Simply flip your mind off and revel in it!” or “Don’t you know the way to have enjoyable?” is annoying and pointless. Enthusiastic about motion pictures is enjoyable! If it wasn’t, why would there be so many on-line fora devoted to discussing and decoding popular culture? Why would wingnut concepts just like the Pixar Universe Idea get a lot viral traction, as followers mess around with ridiculous concepts about their favourite motion pictures or exhibits and share them round for an viewers of like-minded armchair analysts?

That mentioned, typically we are able to all get too obsessive concerning the particulars, in methods that may distract from a narrative. Simply have a look at the rise of the Reddit Detectives, the type of people that band collectively on Reddit to share microanalysis and mysteries in popular culture, and choose them aside. The Reddit Detective is an idea, not a selected circle of individuals — a approach of summing up the kind of on-line sleuths who obsessively pored over the proof within the Serial podcast, minutely decoded the net bread crumbs laid down for followers of Westworld as a part of that present’s viral advertising, or examined each attainable trace about who Jon Snow’s mom could be on Sport of Thrones.

This type of on-line sleuth — a detail-focused, collaborative fan, at all times racing to be the primary to note and publish about some Easter egg or secret connection — has completed a number of useful work on behalf of the remainder of us, like mapping each story path and attainable ending in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, or in a much less pop-culture-focused sphere, monitoring down proof of malicious moderation fraud on Reddit. However the darkish facet of that analytical urge is the drive to select the whole lot aside and root each secret out of each story — like, say, determining each large twist in Westworld nicely earlier than it occurred. This type of evaluation additionally takes each plot level to its logical excessive.

Picture: Warner Bros. Photos

Barbie invitations and defangs that impulse by saying that sure, all attainable theories concerning the nature and implications of Barbieland are true, and also you’re allowed to spin out any choices you need. Does the existence of Barbieland counsel that each different widespread toy or character that figures closely in youngsters’ imaginations has its personal precise, tangible alternate-reality universe? Positive, why not? Is there a Sonicland, a literal Mario World, a Legoland the place the motion of The Lego Film really came about? Yup, that’s fantastic with us. However wait! Gasp! If Barbies can simply stroll out of Barbieland into Actuality, might Pikachu and Mewtwo try this as nicely, resulting in an precise Detective Pikachu state of affairs? We’ll enable it. Might all these IPs collide in a single huge real-world crossover? Should you can think about that, go forward! It’s as actual as the rest on this film.

Barbie’s “Positive, any idea goes” angle provides us all permission to dream, whereas absolving itself of any thought we give you. However extra importantly, the Mattel board is telling Aaron (and the remainder of us) that determining these particulars isn’t an essential facet of this film. Does it make sense that, when Ken claims Barbie’s DreamHouse and turns it into Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa Home, that home out of the blue and immediately manifests as a real-world product and begins “flying off the cabinets”? If Barbieland characters are simply reflections of real-world toys presently being performed with, why are there so many discontinued dolls and fashions nonetheless represented in Barbieland? Why is there just one Allan?

Did any of those questions matter within the writing of Barbie? As Roger Rabbit would put it, “Solely when it was humorous.” There isn’t some Temporary Historical past of Time-degree handbook to the mathematical guidelines of Barbieland on the market someplace, protecting all prospects — you’re allowed to make up your personal guidelines.

Gerwig and Baumbach deal with Barbie’s weirder fantasy parts with precisely as a lot lightness and momentum because the film wants. They don’t waste time on boring disbelief and debate. Will Ferrell because the Mattel CEO factors out that Barbie characters have leaked into Actuality earlier than — so there’s no want to spend so much of vitality on a bunch of characters questioning how Barbieland might be actual, selecting via the metaphysical implications, or slowing the film down by complaining about its basic premise. They’ll simply transfer previous that, and get on with the humor and the trenchant evaluation of gender relationships.

Picture: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.

And when disaffected teenager Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her associates are confronted with a residing Barbie, they don’t spend a dreary chunk of the film asking how she might presumably be actual, or what it implies that she exists — they only lay into her for all of the negativity she represents. It’s straightforward sufficient to argue that in that second, they don’t consider she’s the precise avatar of Barbie the doll, that they only assume she’s a perky bimbo styling herself after the toy. However the film doesn’t hassle splitting these hairs. You possibly can learn the scene both approach, and it really works fantastic. Are they speaking to the doll, or a human lady who admires the doll? Sure, says the Mattel board, in unison.

This type of breezy hand-waving doesn’t work for each film — in critical horror, science fiction, and fantasy, it’s way more essential to have some sense of what the foundations are, as a result of there aren’t any clear story stakes in any other case. However for a comedy that’s targeted fully on different particulars — precisely what the accoutrements of a Ken-dom macho man are, or why Barbie floats in all places in Barbieland — pinning down the scientific particulars of the world simply doesn’t matter.

Barbie takes precisely the best path via its fantasy parts by breezing previous the facets of research that will make the film extra actual than it must be, whereas giving viewers enthusiastic consent to fill in the remainder any approach they need. Is that this a film for the Neil deGrasse Tyson-style nitpickers of the world? No. Is it a film that asks the viewers to think about who they need to be and what sort of world they need to dwell in, whereas finishing the metaphor by leaving the whole lot else within the film as much as their imaginations? A hearty, resounding, choral Sure.