With Its Homage to Stanley Kubrick, Barbie Trailer Crosses Over to High Art
Greta Gerwig's Barbie is a surrealist pink dreamscape. Suffice to say, it's going to be one of the most-anticipated watches of next year. In the first trailer for the Margot Robbie-led film, we just saw what appears to be a homage to Stanley Kubrick.
We may recall that in 2001: A Space Odyssey, humanoid creatures encounter a monolith, which they would later learn to weaponize as a symbol of evolution. Well, in Gerwig's restaging, the creatures have been replaced by little girls playing with dolls and the monolith with Robbie.
The rocky savannah has never looked this... fab. Helen Mirren's voice is also heard narrating the the opening. "Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been... dolls," says Mirren's narration. We even get to hear Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," just as it did in Space Odyssey. The Kubrick Estate approves, too, as they should.
Here's a side-by-side for reference:
For anyone else who was looking for a side-by-side comparison of the Barbie trailer with 2001: A Space Odyssey, here ya go! pic.twitter.com/CzoKzoFvpH
— Matthew Gaydos (@MatthewGaydos) December 16, 2022
Robbie's Barbie silhouette, dressed in a black-and-white swimsuit, is a nod to the first-ever Barbie Mattel produced in 1969. The trailer also showed us a few looks from Ryan Gosling's Ken, together with Issa Rae and Simu Liu.
We're also going to get a star-studded cast, featuring the likes of America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Alexandra Shipp, Connor Swindells, Emerald Fennell, Emma Mackey, Kate McKinnon, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Michael Cera, Ncuti Gatwa, Rhea Perlman, Scott Evans, and Will Ferrell. It's a hell of an ensemble.
The internet, of course, has reacted appropriately.
— kambole (@kambolecampbell) December 16, 2022
“three tickets to the barbie movie, please” pic.twitter.com/GJFubpmCXe
— twilight renaissance | fanpage (@twilightreborn) December 16, 2022
— Breaking Bad Irony (@BreakingBadIrny) December 16, 2022CONTINUE READING BELOWwatch now
Five tickets for the Barbie movie pic.twitter.com/DCv6dJgIsM
— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) December 16, 2022
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
— Stanley Kubrick (@StanleyKubrick) December 16, 2022
Even Barbie is a Kubrick fan… https://t.co/BHUKx9c4Si
Written by Gerwig and her partner, Noah Baumbach, Barbie is set to hit theaters in July 2023.
