She's not a lame mom. She's weird and dark and crazy in the best ways.
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- The fact that not every Barbie is identical in any way (save the Mermaid Barbies) is one. Barbie truly does represent a spectrum of women in this film, and Lawyer Barbie is as attractive and happy as any other Barbie, while Wheelchair Barbie is tearing it up on the dance floor as well as any other. Show, Don't Tell is in full effect, too, as we simply see them being their best Barbies with all the others.
- Barbie is extremely reluctant to go to the Real World, and wishes she had someone to go with. Ken accompanies her without a moment's hesitation.
- Early on during the dance party, as Dance the Night plays to set the tone for the scene, at the line “Turn the rhythm up, don’t you wanna just / Come along for the ride”, Barbie happily turns to the camera and makes a hand gesture towards the screen, as if to cue you, the viewer, to join her for what about to unfold. Small, but cute nonetheless.
- Barbie sitting on a bench and absorbing a full breadth of human emotions, good and bad, happening to all sorts of people, after accessing her owner's memories and simply observing the people in the park across from her. It moves her so much that she's brought to tears, and then she subsequently discovers how good it feels to cry.
- This is then followed by the scene of Barbie seeing the old lady and telling her she's beautiful. Aging is completely nonexistent in the Barbies' world, but instead of being repulsed or scared, the eternally youthful living doll tells the old lady with complete sincerity that she's beautiful.
- The old lady herself playfully snarks back that she knows it, leading to her and Barbie sharing a laugh. One would almost expect her to be taken aback by the compliment due to the standards of beauty surrounding age or have her response be Played for Laughs that undercut a dramatic moment, but the movie plays it as one of the most pleasant interactions Barbie experiences in the real world.
- When Barbie complains about the Real World and how the Barbies failed to inspire any of the women, Gloria sincerely tells Barbie that she inspired her.
- As Gloria bemoans about not having had the chance to really do exciting things in life, Barbie takes Gloria and Sasha to Barbieland saying she wants to give them a fun time.
- Sasha deciding to go back to Barbieland to help the Barbies, despite Gloria's objections, because they are in need of help. It is a far cry from Sasha's contempt towards her mother and Barbie as a whole during her introduction. And through this, the mother and daughter finally reconnect after many years of distance.
- Sasha telling Gloria she loves the dark and weird parts of her mother that she tries to hide from everyone.
- The CEO reveals he doesn't (mostly) care about the money from the job; he truly wants little girls to be happy and is trying his best to do that. It's fully made apparent at his horror at the Ken products overtaking the Barbie products.Mattel CEO: If we don't get my Words Lady- Executive Words Lady and someone who is probably her daughter back here and close the portal, our worlds could be altered forever!
Executive #2: But what does it matter if it's Barbie or Ken? The money's pouring in!
Mattel CEO: Shame on you, Executive #2! You think I spent my entire life in boardrooms because of a bottom line?! No, I got into this business because of little girls and their dreams! ...In the least creepy way possible!- Upon actually making it to Barbieland, he decides to let the Barbies and Kens keep their newfound (slightly more) equal society instead of returning it to what it was before since it truly has made things better for everyone. He also approves of Gloria's idea for a new Ordinary Barbie doll, though granted only after learning that it'll turn a profit.
- Barbie comforting Ken after taking back control of Barbieland, apologizing for having taken him for granted and encouraging him to find his own identity and happiness independent of her.
- As the Ken rebellion ends, Tourist Ken says he doesn't care about all that anymore and misses being with his friend Barbie! Clearly, Stereotypical Barbie isn't the only one to be Just Friends with 'her' Ken, and Tourist Ken doesn't have the same feelings of neglect.
- The Barbie he mentions (Physicist Barbie) hears this and rushes to his side and can be seen mouthing "I'm right here" to which Tourist Ken responds with visible joy.
- "I Am Kenough" is the culmination of Ken's character arc from a Satellite Love Interest, having literally no identity beyond "Barbie's boyfriend" and "Beach," to someone with permission to be himself. It's so easy to assume that Changing Yourself for Love works, but the truth is that it's backwards. It's easy to assume Barbie doesn't love Ken at the end because of "feminist empowerment" or "Subverted Tropes" or whatever, but the Truth in Television is much deeper: you fall in love with someone for their personality. Barbie can't fall in love with Ken because he has no personality, because he has deliberately suppressed that personality to — or so he thinks — be a more attractive option. Watching Ken realize that "I Am Kenough", exactly as he is, can be enormously cathartic to anyone who has undergone his journey — and that's a lot of people, from both genders.
- President Barbie apologizes to Weird Barbie for making fun of her behind her back and also to her face, and offers her a job on her cabinet. Weird Barbie takes this in stride and says that she's learning to own it... but still happily takes the Sanitation position.
- And even though she doesn't feel comfortable with the Kens immediately having a court position (given their attempted coup), she does offer them a circuit court position, which they happily accept. Even the Narrator notes how this will act as stepping stones to bigger changes in the future.The Narrator: Well, the Kens have to start somewhere. And one day, the Kens will have as much power and influence in Barbieland as women have in the Real World.
- And even though she doesn't feel comfortable with the Kens immediately having a court position (given their attempted coup), she does offer them a circuit court position, which they happily accept. Even the Narrator notes how this will act as stepping stones to bigger changes in the future.
- When Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator, tells Barbie that she named her after her own daughter and imbued Barbie with all the hopes and dreams she had for her child.
- In the same scene above, Ruth shows Barbie what it's like to be human. A montage follows where we see clips of women and girls (who are actually the relatives of the people who worked on the movie) just living their lives and experiencing what it means to be human. As painful as it is to be human — and especially to be a woman — it's also an experience filled with joy, love, and meaning. This is ultimately what convinces Barbie to become a real human being. And also because, following Ruth's advice, she didn't want to just be an idea created by a human that lives forever; she wanted to be the one who creates those ideas, finds meaning in life, and then have her life meet a natural end.
- This is a truly profound moment. We humans create fictional characters, like Barbie, to inspire us, to warn us, to go places and do things we can't. We create towering cultural icons like Barbie, or Superman, or Captain Kirk, or Wonder Woman to be aspirational figures, to measure ourselves against and think "if I can be a tenth as awesome as they are, I'm doing pretty good." And yet here, one of those aspirational figures, one of those characters we created to inspire us, is inspired by us, because we have the power to create immortal ideas like Barbie.
- At the very end of the movie, after Barbie becomes human, she now goes by Barbara Handler — taking on her creator's last name and now matching the name of the real-life namesake for Barbie.
- Gloria, along with her husband and Sasha, driving Barbie to her gynecologist appointment. When she expresses nervousness, they all reassure her that she's going to be fine.
- While it's Played for Laughs and he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, Gloria's husband is shown to be learning Spanish, presumably to connect more with his wife and daughter, who are both Latinas. And while they do tease him whenever he makes a mistake, they are still genuinely encouraging.
- The inclusion of Hari Nef as one of the 'main' Barbies. A film about womanhood and personal identity including a transgender woman in its female-representative cast is a hearwarming message to the transgender members of the audience, stating that trans women are in fact women who are just as welcome in Barbieland as any other woman. The film doesn't even acknowledge her transgender status, treating it as just a normal kind of womanhood.
- The Reveal that Gloria was the original owner of Stereotypical Barbie - someone who has long since grown up and doesn't regularly play with Barbies anymore - becomes this when you realize that, unlike the Toy Story universe, the Barbies and Kens are not affected by their owners abandoning them for other interests. They keep on living their lives having "the best day ever" in Barbieland.
