A list of characters appearing in the 2023 film Barbie.
For the mainline series of fashion dolls the film is based on (and other installments of the franchise), go here.
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Barbieland
Barbieland in General
Barbieland
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Discussed trope. All of the inhabitants of Barbieland lack genitals. At one point, Beach Ken gets self-conscious about this and awkwardly attempts to boast that he has "all of the genitals!"
- Crapsaccharine World: Downplayed. While Barbieland is a bright pastel utopia where everyone is happy all the time, it's soon made clear that the Kens (and unconventional Barbies and other dolls) are treated more like second class citizens, even if they (mostly) aren't full-out mistreated. The inhabitants overall also don't have as much agency as they believe they do, being influenced by the "real world". When the Kens take over, it still remains this, albeit with the sexism being gender inverted as well as having more beer, leather, and horses.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Barbieland is mostly based on the United States, with various landmarks replicated, such as a massive pink version of the US Capitol, a Statue of Liberty-esque statue seen on overhead shots of the town, a spoof of the Hollywood sign, and their own Rushmore Refacement, featuring previous face molds of Barbie, which later gets replaced with horse heads once Ken takes all over Barbieland. Barbieland's flag also resembles that of the USA, only colored in pink and light blue.
- Full-Circle Revolution: Happens twice. The first is when Ken, feeling mistreated by the Barbies, brings patriarchy to the region and renames it to "Kendom" and subjugates the women there with brainwashing. Then the Barbies trick the Kens into fighting each other and re-install their former rule, but they do have a Heel Realization and give the Kens some autonomy and respect.
- Matriarchy: Barbies hold every position in their world, whereas Ken's roles are limited to "beach" and being accessories.
- Planet of Steves: Almost every inhabitant is named Barbie or Ken, ommitting the many characters in Barbie canon who are of different names. The movie heavily implies that all of the "less popular" characters (basically everyone who isn't Barbie or Ken) have long fled to the real world, leaving behind only a few hold-outs like Alan, Midge, and Skipper.
- Platonic Cave: The Barbies do not fully understand their world or how it relates to the "real world", and Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken visiting it blows their mind. They're only really aware of the Mattel marketing that claims Barbie "cured sexism".
- Recursive Reality: Barbieland appears to be an alternate dimension that exists within the real world, created by the collective ideas of Barbie across Mattel and the children (and adults) who played with them. Although the nature of the place isn't explored much and the Mattel board of directors just give the Mathematician's Answer when Aaron asks for elaboration on how it functions.
- Single-Palette Town: Everything in Barbieland is predominantly pink-colored, much like the dollhouses associated with the Barbie character. The production used so much pink paint for the Barbieland set that it actually caused a GLOBAL SHORTAGE
of that particular shade.
Barbies
In General
- Adapted Out: Due to Planet of Steves being put into effect for Rule of Funny, any female character in the Barbie canon not named Barbie is excluded, apart from brief appearances by controversial dolls such as the pregnant Midge and breast-expanding Skipper. (Justified as this is not in the same setting; these Barbies are toys, not characters.)
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While their good qualities and kind personalities are entirely genuine, the Barbies can have quite a mean streak towards people/dolls they consider different. This is especially prevalent towards the Kens, Weird Barbie, and the other discontinued dolls. The Barbies finally apologize to them at the end of the movie.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: After Ken brings Patriarchy to Barbieland, most of the Barbies become trapped under a mental block that makes them forget their superior positions and become subservient to the Kens.
- Easily Forgiven: Weird Barbie forgives the other Barbies for ostracizing her and treating her like a pariah compared to the other Barbies.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: They have a Heel Realization on how they treated the Kens poorly, and agree to make things better, but only through minor concessions rather than true equality. On the plus side, the narrator's statement that the Kens have to start somewhere implies these concessions are stepping stones towards bigger changes.
- Ms. Fanservice: While the Barbies in Barbieland are all beautiful women in their own right, it becomes enforced when the Kens brainwash them into becoming subservient eye candy, resulting in most of them wearing revealing outfits (with Dr. Barbie and Physicist Barbie in particular being forced to wear French Maid Outfits). It’s deconstructed in that many of them are embarrassed about how they were forced to act (with Physicist Barbie in particular claiming she'd never wear that kind of outfit).
- Stepford Smiler: The Barbies become borderline robotic slaves after the Kens brainwash them into accepting patriarchy.
Stereotypical Barbie
Stereotypical Barbie
Narrator: And here is one of those Barbies now, living her best day every day!
Portrayed by: Margot RobbieOther languages
"It is the best day ever. So was yesterday, and so is tomorrow, and so is the day after tomorrow and even Wednesday and every day from now until forever!"
The main character of the film, and the "baseline" Barbie. When a series of imperfect events threaten her perfect life in Barbieland, she is forced on a journey to the real world.- Adaptational Dye-Job: Barbie's eyes are traditionally blue. Here, her eyes are green.
- Adaptation Name Change: At the end of the film, Barbie adopts the surname Handler as opposed to her traditional surname, Roberts.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Stereotypical Barbie is the archetypal Girly Girl and chooses to don a hot pink cowgirl outfit that exposes her midriff (since at that point she's still thinking in terms of doll fashion sense). This is in contrast to Ken's cowboy outfit (which has a full shirt), and isn't less flattering than her prior leotard; when she gets arrested again, the officers comment that she's somehow more beautiful with more clothes on.
- Become a Real Girl: At the end of the film, she ultimately chooses to leave Barbieland and become a real woman.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She may be kind-hearted, but she will not hesitate to knock out an assailant who just slapped her bottom. She also has a few other moments of losing her temper:
- As she drives off to the real world, Ken reveals himself to have been stowing away with the intent to accompany her and she loses her patience. She agrees to have him come, but reluctantly.
- Upon her return with Gloria and Sasha, she gets very angry with Ken for having altered Barbieland and turned it into "Kendom". She also berates Gloria for making negative drawings of her, which indirectly lead to the creation of Kendom.
- Brutal Honesty: She doesn't mince her words when telling Ken that she doesn't want him around for the rest of the night, though this is more by innocence rather than actual malice.
- Chaste Hero: She has no romantic feelings for Ken and shows no interest in romance or sex at all. She doesn't really understand the concepts either, reacting with confusion when they are brought up. She is likewise confused by and uncomfortable with the attention she gets from men in the Real World.
- Dumb Blonde: Her general cluelessness of the Real World paints her as one, and Sasha sees her as the poster child of this trope. It's even a point of angst for her when she has an existential crisis. That said, her ignorance is mostly borne of unfamiliarity, and upon arriving in the Real World she shows very astute observation skills that allow her to quickly understand concepts like objectification.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: She's the archetypal Barbie and is thusly considered a blonde bombshell when she turns up in the real world.
- The Generic Girl: She's not a Nobel Prize winner or politician or astronaut like the other Barbies. She's just a normal standard Barbie off the shelf. It turns out to be a great source of angst for her and she initially thinks she's not fit to save Barbieland when the Kens take over, as she thinks a smarter Barbie would know what to do.
- Growing Up Sucks: The entire movie is about Barbie's departure from the childish Barbieland to face the "messed up" real world. Ruth Handler also pointed out that by becoming a human woman instead of being an idea, she will eventually grow old and die. However, Stereotypical Barbie still decides that being human is worth it and leaves Barbieland to become human.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In classic Barbie fashion, she's blonde and an absolute sweetheart.
- Head-Turning Beauty: When she enters the real world, she receives a lot of verbal appreciation from men thanks to her good looks. Deconstructed, as the sort of attention she receives makes her feel unsafe and self-conscious, and this is the first clue to Barbie that the real world isn't as women-dominated and perfect as she thinks it is.
- Hidden Depths: While she's generally rather naive about how the real world works due to living in Barbieland her whole life, she's definitely not stupid:
- Her reaction to Sasha calling her a "fascist" shows that she's quite knowledgeable about political ideologies and forms of government.
- She is also apparently familiar with the works of Marcel Proust (possibly due to having met the unseen "Proust Barbie").
- I Am Not Pretty: When she has truly hit her lowest point and feels that she is no longer as perfect as she was, she tearfully says that she is not pretty anymore. The narrator promptly interrupts the film and admits that Margot Robbie is not a good choice of actor to get this message across.
- Immune to Mind Control: When the other Barbies become brainwashed by Ken’s patriarchal teachings, she remains unaffected due to her exposure to the real world.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: She looks like a blonde bombshell, enjoys wearing cute, often revealing clothing, and comes from a world of gorgeous women. However, she isn't aware of how the real world perceives women, so when she shows up in Los Angeles rollerblading in a skimpy leotard, she's confused at the appreciative glances and gestures she gets from men. This was a deliberate acting choice by Margot Robbie, who said in an interview that she viewed Barbie as sexualized, but not deliberately sexy; "Yes, she can wear a short skirt, but because it’s fun and pink. Not because she wanted you to see her butt."
- Innocently Insensitive: For all her Nice Girl attitude, Barbie can be downright mean to people. Often, she's dismissive, unthinkingly rude and totally lacking in empathy towards those who are different and "imperfect" (and Ken). It's not out of malice, though; it's just that she's been incredibly sheltered and living in a world completely tailored to her all her life.
- Ms. Fanservice: She wears a wide variety of outfits that show off her beauty and fashion sense, both in Barbieland and in the real world, with her first appearance in the movie being her modeling the original black-and-white swimsuit. It gets deconstructed after she arrives in the Real World and becomes the subject of objectification, causing her to grow self-conscious. The film then goes on to both play with and slowly avert this the next time she travels to Barbieland, wearing progressively less-revealing clothing that symbolizes her becoming more complex and human, yet still beautiful and pretty while doing so.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Barbie comes to realize that the way she treated the Kens is somewhat similar to how men have treated women in the real world. She didn't care about their feelings nor give her Ken any time to be together, leading to Ken feeling like an outcast and revolting against the Barbies. This leads her to apologize to Ken, but she also makes it clear that they can't be together.
- Named After Someone Famous: When she adopts the surname Handler at the end of the film, her name becomes identical to Barbara Handler, the namesake for the Barbie doll and the daughter of Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler.
- Nice Girl: Barbie is very friendly, sweet-natured, and kind to everyone she meets.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Her clothing, makeup and hair visually illustrate where she is in her journey: she wears the hyperfeminine, Awesome, but Impractical clothes expected of a classic Barbie up until her journey back from the Real World. During her existential crisis, she loses the jacket, hat, and shoes to her plaid dress and wears her hair unstyled, as she no longer feels like the "perfect Barbie". After freeing Barbieland from Ken's control, she switches to an understated yellow dress and sandals with a simple hairstyle, and when she becomes a real woman we see her in a blazer, jeans, and Birkenstocks, to show that she's no longer trying to be.
- Sliding Scale of Beauty: Being a stereotypical barbie and representing an ideal of beauty, she is definitely treated as a world-class beauty, bordering on the divine level. This gives her problems when in the real world, she cannot avoid the unwanted attention of many perverts.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: She has a tendency to describe her feelings in very simplistic and explicit terms. Justified as she's literally never felt anything besides joy before, and neither have any of the Barbies and Kens she first tries to explain her emotions to.
- What Is This Feeling?: What kicks off the movie - she starts feeling existential dread, sadness, and shame, emotions pretty foreign to Barbies. As she continues to the Real World, she picks up even more.
- Womanchild: She looks like a grown woman, but since she's spent most of her life in the very sheltered, idealized world of Barbieland, she's rather naive and has moments when she acts immature and overly dramatic.
Weird Barbie
Weird Barbie
"If you don't fix the rift, what's weird will become weirder. And what's ugly will become uglier. Then you'll look like me."
Portrayed by: Kate McKinnon Other languages
"Come into my weird house. Hi! I'm Weird Barbie. I can do the splits. I have a funky haircut and I smell like basement."
A Barbie who was played with a little too roughly. She lives in her "weird" house and is mostly disregarded by other Barbies except when they need her sage advice.- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: She's "always in the splits" and will "walk" up to a person by doing crazy cartwheels and back flips. This is due to her toy self having its limbs contorted and twisted around by its owners.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other Barbies treat her like a freak for being odd-looking and less idealized than everyone else. They freely admit to calling her "Weird Barbie" behind her back and to her face.
- Appropriated Appellation: By the end of the film, after President Barbie apologizes to her for calling her Weird Barbie for years, she shrugs it off and admits she's "starting to own it."
- Beauty to Beast: To the other Barbies of Barbieland due to her distorted and vandalized appearance until the end of the film where they apologize to her. As mentioned by Lawyer Barbie, Weird Barbie used to be "the most beautiful Barbie of all" until someone played with her too hard in the real world.
- Big Good: Is the one who gives Barbie the direction she needs in order to fix her life and winds up leading the resistance when the Kens take over Barbieland.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She's called "Weird Barbie" for a reason. Though she shows herself to be smarter than she looks on many occasions.
- Hermit Guru: She lives alone in her "Weird House", partly because other Barbies find her weird, and partly of her own volition. She is clearly the wisest of all Barbies, and she is the one who teaches Barbie what's wrong with her and how to reach the Real World. Furthermore, discontinued "odd dolls" who are similarly if less famously on the margins seem to spend time at her Weird House and hide when someone comes to see Weird Barbie.
- Informed Deformity: Aside from a weird haircut, marks on her face, and her odd clothing she's still fairly pretty despite the other Barbies treating her like she's The Grotesque.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: She's a bit of an outcast in the Barbies' society, considered weird and a little freaky due to her less than pristine condition and offbeat ways. However, she's also a genuinely nice and helpful figure who the other Barbies seek out for advice on unconventional topics.
- Mundane Wish: When President Barbie offers her any position in government she wishes as an apology, anything at all, she simply says "Sanitation" instantly without hesitation.
- Nice Girl: She goes out of her way to help everyone, even though they regard her as off-putting and treat her as an outcast.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Downplayed. While still the most knowledgeable of the Barbies about their world and the real world, she's still a doll whose facts come from a child. Thus she gets a lot of things wrong, like claiming the real world includes the "state of Los Angeles" and the "country of California."
- Sentimental Shabbiness: She has her hair messily cut short, scribbles on her face in different colors, mismatched and ill-fitting clothing, and "is always in the splits", looking like a hobo. Her appearance is in reference to real-life Barbie dolls lovingly defaced and worn out in the same manner by children. Fittingly, she's the one who tells Robbie's Barbie to venture into the Real World for answers. Gloria recognizes how she got that way and gushes at how it happens when you love your Barbie very much and play a little too hard. Weird Barbie then gives her a thumbs up and admits to the other Barbies later on that she's learned to accept it - if she was ever upset about becoming different, she's cool with it now.
President Barbie
President Barbie
Portrayed by: Issa RaeOther languages
The Barbie who is the president of Barbieland.
- Black Boss Lady: The President of Barbieland who's played by Issa Rae.
- Precision F-Strike: It's censored by a Mattel logo, but she calls the Kens "motherf***ers" when she announces the reclaiming of Barbieland.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She genuinely cares about all the citizens of Barbieland, and at the end, she readily agrees they should've treated the Kens better, and works to make things more equal.
- Universally Beloved Leader: As President Barbie, everyone agrees that all of her decisions are great and she spends more time complimenting people than passing laws. She even gets approval from the Kens after she agrees to give them a circuit court position.
Writer Barbie
Writer Barbie
Portrayed by: Alexandra ShippOther languages
A Barbie who is a well-known author.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: She wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. In a "kids playing with dolls" context, it's largely unserious and mainly shows that she is an accomplished writer and that the Barbies are very supportive of each other. Barbieland's version of the Nobel is also pink and sparkly.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Despite only having 3 major scenes in the movie, she is the first Barbie to be deprogrammed from the patriarchy by Gloria, showing the Barbies how to break the brainwashing effect.
Dr. Barbie
Dr. Barbie
Portrayed by: Hari NefOther languages
"Great. Not even broken. You'll be fine."
A Barbie who works as a doctor.- French Maid Outfit: As part of her brainwashing into an obedient Stepford girlfriend for the Kens, she wears a French maid dress.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: She invokes this to distract Ken by wearing glasses and saying she's ugly so he can take them off and "discover" that she's beautiful.
- Hollywood Healing: Due to doll logic, she's able to fix up pretty much anyone within five minutes simply by showing up and looking them over.
- Hospital Hottie: An attractive Barbie Doll who's also a doctor, and sports a French Maid Outfit after being brainwashed by the Kens.
- Large Ham: She freaks out the most when Stereotypical Barbie reveals that her heels are now flat."FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!"
- The Medic: Barbieland's official doctor.
- Not So Above It All: Being a medical professional, she keeps a calm face when told that Stereotypical Barbie's feet are suddenly flat and asks to take a look. Then proceeds to scream about her flat feet and freak out right along with the rest of the bunch.
Physicist Barbie
Physicist Barbie
Portrayed by: Emma MackeyOther languages
A Barbie who has won the Nobel Prize in physics.- Brainy Brunette: She has brown hair and is a physicist. When she's brainwashed by the Kens' patriarchy, she turns into a Brainless Beauty.
- French Maid Outfit: As part of her brainwashing into a subservient girlfriend for the Kens, she puts on a French maid dress. After she's deprogrammed, the first thing she asks is why she's wearing such a ridiculous outfit that she'd otherwise never wear.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Tourist Ken. The two are often shown hanging out together at the start of the movie. At the end, after the Barbies become un-brainwashed and take back the Kendom, Tourist Ken cries out that he never cared about any of that and that he just misses "[his] best friend Barbie." Physicist Barbie rushes over and reassures him that she’s still there, and the two are shown embracing while waving to Stereotypical Barbie as she leaves for the real world.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: She wins the Nobel Prize in physics. Similar to Writer Barbie, her Nobel is in a "kids playing with dolls" context and is mainly used to show that she is intended to be an accomplished scientist and that the women of Barbieland are very supportive of each other. Barbieland's version of the Nobel is also pink and sparkly.
Lawyer Barbie
Lawyer Barbie
Portrayed by: Sharon RooneyOther languages
One of Barbieland's foremost legal experts.
- Artistic License – History: Mattel in real life has yet to have released an official chubby-figured Barbie, yet Lawyer Barbie is a Big Beautiful Woman and her weight is not once commented on, as if it was never an issue with Mattel in the first place.
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's noticeably heavier than the other Barbies but is seen as no less beautiful by the Kens, even brainwashed into subservience like the other Barbies once the Kens take over.
- False Dichotomy: The first thing she's seen doing is arguing against one, saying that emotions and logic should work together to find justice.
- Token Minority: The only plump Barbie in the whole movie.
Mermaid Barbies
Mermaid Barbies
Portrayed by: Dua LipaOther languages
A special type of Barbie, they really are mermaids. They're also all identical, except for their hair.
- The Cameo: Dua Lipa portrays the Mermaid Barbies, and also made the song "Dance The Night" for the movie's soundtrack.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: There's not just one Mermaid Barbie, but several Mermaid Barbies, each with their own distinct hair and clothing color.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: While all of the other Barbies have unique appearances and are played by different actresses, all Mermaid Barbies are played by Dua Lipa with only their different hair and tail colors to tell them apart by.
- Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: While the rest of the Barbies (and Kens and humans) sport pretty common hair colors like blonde, brown, red, and black, the mermaid Barbies have blue, purple, and green hair. Fitting since they are the only representations of fantastical creatures in the Barbie World; the other dolls are meant to represent young women and men.
Diplomat Barbie
Diplomat Barbie
Portrayed by: Nicola Coughlan
- Advertised Extra: She gets an equal level of pre-release promotion with the most of the other Barbies, but has very short screen time, mainly confined to announcing the Nobel Prize winners (due to Nicola Coughlan's filming commitments to Bridgerton).
- Casting Gag: While it may be unintentional the role of a diplomat might hark back to Coughlan's role as Claire in Derry Girls, the series being set in Northern Ireland during the 90s when The Troubles started to finally wind down and peace talks would begin in earnest.
- Genki Girl: Shown to be quite excited and enthusiastic.
Proust Barbie
Proust Barbie
Portrayed by: Lucy Boynton
A Barbie that was discontinued by the real world because it did not sell well.
- Advertised Extra: In a fairly literal sense as Lucy Boynton is credited with all the other Barbie variants as "Proust Barbie" despite that her scenes have her out of focus in the background.note
- Shout-Out: To Marcel Proust. Greta Gerwig mentioned she inserted "Proust Barbie" as an obscure reference due to the plot of Swann’s Way, volume one of Remembrance of Things Past, being a parallel to the plot of Barbie.
- The Voiceless: She has no lines in the film.
Teen Talk Barbie
Teen Talk Barbie
Portrayed by: Marisa Abela
A Barbie that was discontinued by the real world due to critcisms to the lines in the doll's voice box.
- All There in the Script: Her name is not mentioned in the movie itself, but it is mentioned in the credits. Marisa Abela also reveals her character's name during a behind the scenes tour of the film.
Video Girl Barbie
Video Girl Barbie
Portrayed by: Mette Towley
A Barbie with a video screen built into her back.
- Casting Gag: She's a Barbie with a video screen on her back, portrayed by a "video girl" previously best known for appearing in music videos and other media as a dancer.
Kens
In General
- Adapted Out: Due to Planet of Steves being put into effect for Rule of Funny, many of the named male characters from the Barbie canon, such as Steven, Blaine, Ricky, Ryan, Curtis and Ken's younger brother Tommy, are absent.
- Brainless Beauty: They're all very handsome, muscular and impressive looking and are all very stupid.
- Character Development: By the end, the Kens collectively realize that they just want to be seen and heard more than they actually want a patriarchal society.
- Fratbro: After Beach Ken installs a patriarchy in Barbieland, they all behave like this, drinking copious amounts of beer from mini-fridges and turning the Barbies into their servants who have to wear skimpy outfits while catering to their desires.
- Graceful Loser: They all take their defeat by the Barbies very well and even admit the patriarchy they'd installed had lost its appeal pretty quickly.
- Laughably Evil: During the Kendom takeover, the Kens become hilariously stereotypical Fratbros while remianing handsomely dumb. This results in things like the temporary Supreme Justice Ken lifting weights while approving restrictive laws.
- Macho Camp: Many of them are muscular, while also enjoying the pink pastel aesthetics of Barbieland, even after turning it into "Kendom".
- Opposites Theme Naming: While most Barbies are named for their professions, the majority of Kens — such as "Beach Ken", "Basketball Ken" and the very vague "Tourist Ken" — are named for their designated hobbies or activities, highlighting how much of an afterthought their autonomy is and that there's no expectations on them to do anything important.
- Rooting for the Empire: In an In-Universe example, the merchandise based on the patriarchal Ken regime proved to be just as marketable as those based on the legitimate Barbieland government.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Their interpretation of a patriarchy is basically the masculine fantasy of every awkward tween boy brought to life and taken to their absolute limit
- Throw the Dog a Bone: They get concessions from the Barbies at the end, and will eventually reach the same level as women in the real world.
- Villain Song: "Man I Am", which plays as Barbie returns to the recently established Kendom, is an upbeat macho song about how the Kens have taken over Barbieland with the patriarchy.
Beach Ken (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Beach Ken
Narrator: Barbie has a great day every day, but Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.
Played by: Ryan GoslingOther languages
"I'm trained to stand confidently here."
Stereotypical Barbie's would-be boyfriend. He only ever has a good day if he can catch the eye of his Barbie. His job is "beach".- Adaptational Villainy: Ken from the toyline is absolutely a hero, while this Ken turns into a dictator in the latter half of the movie after discovering the concept of patriarchy. Granted, this is not the first time Ken is portrayed as a villain, and it's ultimately downplayed like his previous portrayal, as he's not wholly malicious in the role.
- Affably Evil: Even after turning Barbieland into a patriarchy, Ken never really had any true malice towards the Barbies (except Stereotypical Barbie and even then he's not happy about initially casting her out). In fact, after his Kendom had fallen, he admitted that bringing all the Barbies to his control didn't make him feel any better and before when he realized the patriarchy had nothing to do with horses, he lost interest immediately.
- Aimlessly Seeking Happiness: Deconstructed, the only purpose Ken has is to be Barbie's trophy boyfriend and go to the beach, that's all it is. Ken is fully aware of this and is secretly depressed about how hollow his existence really is in the grand scheme of things compared to the Barbies. When Ken returns to Barbieland, he brings the patriarchal culture with him and turns Barbieland into a patriarchy where the Kens dominate the Barbies. In doing so, however, he still doesn't find any sense of purpose or fulfillment and takes Stereotypical Barbie's advice to find what he truly wants in life.
- Ambiguously Bi: He's determined to get with Barbie as that's what he was created for, but at the end of his musical number, he appears flattered when two other Kens kiss him. Moreover, his desperation to appear "cool" to Simu Liu's Ken could be read as a crush.
- Animal Motifs: Horses. He not only focuses on men in the patriarchy, but also horses, and sees them as extensions of men. He fills the dream house with horse-themed decorations in addition to stereotypically manly items. He later admits that he started to lose interest in the Patriarchy once he realized that it wasn't really that connected to horses.
- Anti-Villain: In the third act of the film, he becomes the antagonist when he introduces Patriarchy to Barbieland. However, Ken is not acting wholly out of malice; rather, he and other Kens have lived their lives in a society where they are overlooked and unappreciated by the Barbies for simply being what they are and want to give themselves meaning by rising to power. His desire to be respected is sympathetic in a way, despite the way they go about it.
- Arc Words: "Just Ken", revolving around his identity crisis. It's on multiple posters (including his own as seen above), he gets his own song called "I'm Just Ken", and by the end he realizes it's okay to be "just Ken" instead of "Barbie and Ken".
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He only admits it after the Barbies retake control of Barbieland, but a lot of the Testosterone Poisoning things he introduced to Barbieland still weren't satisfying to him. All of the minifridges were way too small, and once he figured out that patriarchy actually doesn't involve horses that much, he started to lose interest.
- Being Evil Sucks: "Evil" is stretching it, but he doesn't get much catharsis out of flipping the script on Barbieland by making it a patriarchy, due to the fact that he does still care about Barbie despite his grievances with how she's been treating him. Also, he finds that he's unhappy upholding the patriarchy's hyper-masculine culture, especially with the fact it has nothing to do with horses, and the minifridges for their beers are terrible.
- Be Yourself: Barbie teaches him by the end that his purpose in life shouldn't be just being her Satellite Love Interest or a "Beach", but finding out what Ken is without those things.[Ken's hoodie]: I am Kenough.
- Big Bad: After he establishes the Patriarchy in Barbieland and rules as dictator, he becomes the main antagonist of the film and the third act focuses on dismantling his regime.
- Big Bad Slippage: When they first leave Barbieland, he seems to be a traveling partner for Barbie, or at least a comic foil, and Mattel HQ are set up as the antagonists. Instead, he learns that the real world is primarily run by men instead of women, and he takes his knowledge back to Barbieland and brings it under his direct control.
- Brainless Beauty: He's quite muscular and attractive. He also briefly thinks patriarchy is about horses, fails to consider that he needs a degree to work an office job or perform surgery, and has a career of "beach".
- Camp Straight: He comes up as really flamboyant in his clothing style and mannerism (which doesn't get unnoticed by a group of gays) and is really fascinated by horses, but has clearly a romantic interest in women - in one woman especially, Stereotypical Barbie.
- Character Development: After having lived a life of pining after Barbie and sinking into an existential fit because he's insecure, Ken ends the film realizing he wants to figure out who he is beyond being Barbie's boyfriend.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Ken's stated purpose of "beach" — namely, standing around on the beach looking hot, and only looking hot — does not translate into any potential career like a Barbie, or even a useful skillset; when he's goaded by Rival Ken into trying to surf, he immediately wipes out and injures himself. He's even rejected for a lifeguard position in the real world because he doesn't know how to swim, and expects the whole job to be just more "beach".
- Department of Redundancy Department: After taking over Barbieland, he renames Barbie's old house as his Mojo Dojo Casa House, when "casa" just means "house" in Spanish.
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: By nature, he was essentially created to be Barbie's boyfriend, but Stereotypical Barbie isn't interested in him in that way, and moreover, he doesn't really have a job or other traits to set him apart from the other Kens, so he feels lost and resentful as a result. At the end of the movie, Barbie encourages him to find out what he truly wants in life beyond his given role.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Beach Ken is absolutely obsessed with Stereotypical Barbie and near-constantly tries to win her over with absolutely no success, mainly due to Barbie not loving him the same way. In the end, after the dust has settled on the Ken Rebellion, the two actually don't get together, though Barbie does at least acknowledge her own faults in how she treated him and the hand it had in his mental breakdown while advising Ken to find his own individual identity before leaving Barbieland for good.
- Don't Look At Me: After he and the other Kens learn that the Barbies have taken back their Dream Houses, he runs off crying into the former Mojo Dojo Casa House and yelling over his shoulder, "Don't look at me!"
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: He wants to be seen as something more than just another friend by Stereotypical Barbie and is insecure over having a lack of truly standout qualities that would differentiate him from the other many Kens. Unfortunately, he discovers the concept of patriarchy and decides to make enforcing that his identity.
- Easily Forgiven: In spite of having committed high treason against Barbieland, Beach Ken and his fellow rebels were let off with a slap on their wrists.
- Entitled to Have You: Downplayed. Due to his role as an In-Universe Satellite Love Interest, being "Barbie's boyfriend" is all that matters to him. As such, he tends to be a bit pushy despite Barbie making it very clear she doesn't want their relationship to change. In the end, it becomes clear that the initial setup was bad for them both, with Ken hopelessly pining for someone who just doesn't feel the same way, but it was also wrong of him to try and put Barbie in the "One True Love" role when she clearly doesn't wish it. They end things and go their separate ways, which is much healthier for both of them.
- Even the Guys Want Him: When he and Barbie enter the real world, while Barbie is shown getting most of the attention, a pair of Camp Gay men take a moment to check Ken out.Barbie: What's going on? Why are these men looking at me?
Ken: They're also staring at me! - Face–Heel Turn: After discovering the concept of the patriarchy in the real world, he turns against his Barbie and brings the idea to Barbieland, causing the Kens to take over.
- Flat Character: In-Universe, Ken's whole purpose in life is to just be Barbie's boyfriend, something he flat out admits at one point, and he's deeply depressed and insecure about it. By visiting the real world, Ken learns that Kens can be more than just Barbie's boyfriend and can be given just as many rights and opportunities as the Barbies in Barbieland. However, his methods in achieving equal rights for himself and the other Kens are completely wrong. Ken installs the patriarchy so it would brainwash the Barbies into serving the Kens. Ken did this under the belief that it would give him and the other Kens equality but it just makes him more miserable and unfulfilled.
- Fratbro: He poses as this after taking over Barbieland as a way to cover up for his insecurities.
- Freudian Excuse: Spending his whole life in a world where he has no rights and is expected to just be arm candy for the Barbies who exclude him from their lives has left Ken greatly resentful and desperate to assert his dominance.
- Graceful Loser: Ken takes his ultimate defeat by the Barbies remarkably well, showing no anger or resentment and even revealing afterwards that he no longer wanted to assert the patriarchy anymore and simply wanted more purpose than Barbieland had allowed him to have prior.
- Handsome Lech: He is a tall, muscular, and very handsome man. And yet, Stereotypical Barbie barely notices him.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: His arrogant, patriarchal attitude after returning from the real world stems from his lack of identity and self-esteem issues.
- Insane Troll Logic: For whatever reason, he believes horses to be the perfect representative of masculinity. Finding out that horses aren't that big a part of the patriarchy as a concept causes him to lose interest in it.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: His excursion to the real world introduces him to the concept of a male-dominated society, and as a being who has never had any real respect or agency in his world, he is exhilarated and decides to be just like the men he saw in real world. Of course, Ken being Ken, his understanding of manliness is like out of a prepubescent boy's imagination at best, involving a lot of minifridges, brewski beers, flexing, and horses. In the end, he reveals that he lost interest in the whole patriarchy thing when he realized it's actually not about horses, and he was always miserable without Barbie... and how inconvenient the minifridges were. With Barbie's help, he learns to be "just Ken", be truly his own person instead of this caricature of masculinity human society taught him being a man was.
- Keet: Beach Ken is extremely energetic, playful, and happy-go-lucky. For instance, notice how during the travel montage, Ken is constantly moving around distracted by their surroundings while Barbie stays focused. Even in the real world, Ken is so energetic about learning about patriarchy.
- Large Ham: Ryan Gosling is clearly enjoying himself immensely, chewing scenery in almost every moment.
- Manchild: Ken is very possessive of Stereotypical Barbie and emotionally immature. In his words, he has no real skillset other than "beach". When he learns about the real world's male-dominated society and turns Barbieland into a patriarchy, his ideas of masculinity are more like that of a prepubescent boy's, with he and the other Kens becoming fixated on things like beer, mini-fridges, working out, and horses.
- Mr. Fanservice: Par for the course with the character, Ken's good looks are regularly emphasized and he spends much of the film with no shirt to show off his glistening, chiseled physique.
- No Shirt, Long Jacket: After Ken takes over Barbieland, he starts wearing a long fur coat with no shirt underneath, an outfit choice patterned to evoke over-the-top masculinity (the film even shows images of Sylvester Stallone in a similar getup).
- Not Good with Rejection: Zigzagged and downplayed, Ken is infatuated with Barbie and he's persistent in wanting to be with her, who's comfortable with their current relationship and has no desire to change it from friends to lovers. However, his reasons aren't as simple as "I will follow her until she loves me", his existence (as well as the other Kens in Barbieland) is tied to the Barbies, they have no other purpose than to be Barbie's boyfriend so without her, Ken feels that his existence is meaningless.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: His takeover of Barbieland puts him and the other Kens in charge and forces the Barbies to be subservient to them. Downplayed somewhat in that, while his treatment of the Barbies is sexist, it stems more from his desire to be respected than any serious issues with women.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Of course, coming from Barbieland, Ken wears alot of pink throughout the movie. He doesn't even mind, even finding it amusing, getting kissed on his cheeks by two other Kens during his musical scene.
- Satellite Love Interest: Deconstructed. His only purpose in life is Barbie, and she doesn't love him. This leads into his fall to accidental villainy when he brings patriarchy to Barbieland because the Real World was the first place he felt seen, and later breaks down crying and admits he doesn't know who he is without her. Barbie encourages him to be "just Ken" and grow beyond his role, and he eventually throws off his obsession with being Barbie's boyfriend.
- Shout-Out: Ken's outfit once he establishes the patriarchy in Barbieland features black pants with his name styled in the font of Metallica's logo. The name also appears like that as a sticker on the acoustic guitar he acquires.
- Single-Target Sexuality: He only seems to have any romantic interest in the Stereotypical Barbie alone.
- Sliding Scale of Beauty: Being created to represent the classic trophy groom, he is definitely treated as an example of world-class beauty. Although unlike Barbie, he does not suffer as much harassment in the real world, due to being a man.
- Temporarily a Villain: He learns about the patriarchy and, after finding it more complicated in the Real World, brings it to Barbieland to start fresh. He ends up becoming an antagonist for the Barbies to overcome.
- This Loser Is You: Ken has a lot of flaws that's found in everyday life, from his one purpose mostly being him feeling the need to impress Barbie and being emotionally immature. These flaws are also what leads to him taking an interest in the patriarchy when he discovers about it because of how empty his existence is, similarly to how easily people can believe harmful things without realizing how bad they are.
- Tragic Villain: Ken is only overthrowing Barbieland because he's deeply insecure about his role in life. He was created as a Satellite Love Interest for Stereotypical Barbie, but he ends up corrupted by the misogyny of the Real World, even receiving a song entitled "I'm Just Ken" where he (and eventually, the other Kens) ruefully sings about how caught up he is in his feelings. When Barbie reaches out and acknowledges his insecurities, he ultimately realizes he wants to find out who he is.
- Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Unlike Barbie, who has a variety of roles and jobs to choose from, Ken only really has one, be Barbie's boyfriend. However, Barbie doesn't see him that way and is dealing with her own existential crisis during the events of the movie. Ken is actually quite depressed about this and is deeply insecure as a result.
- The Usurper: After learning about the patriarchy in the real world, Ken returns to Barbieland and promptly converts the citizens into a misogynistic society with him as the leader.
- Villainous Breakdown: After the Barbies take back Barbieland, Ken (who's still in patriarchal dictator mode) tries to link up with his Kens for one final confrontation. He ultimately can't go through with it and runs into the Dreamhouse, crying and screaming at everyone not to look at him.
- Villain Has a Point: He goes about it in entirely the wrong way, but he is right that life in Barbieland for the Kens is thoroughly empty as they are not given any purpose, only expected to be decoration for the Barbies, are regularly spoken down to and dismissed and don't even have a say in the government, as well as the fact that the Barbies never gave them any consideration or treated them as equals and were fine with all of the above as long as they were enjoying how things were, with Stereotypical Barbie even admitting when asked that she doesn't know where any of the Kens actually live. By the end, President Barbie also agrees that things need to be more equal in Barbieland, offering them a place in the lower courts and the narrator saying that they'll eventually get the same rights as women in the real world— which is progress, but as she sheepishly admits, isn't perfect.
- Villain Song: "I'm Just Ken", a song about how he feels like a Satellite Love Interest and thinks the Patriarchy will give him an identity of his own. Played with, in that it's also a very sad song as opposed to over the top and gloating, indicating how much of a Tragic Villain he is.
- Who's Laughing Now?: His entire takeover of Barbieland is essentially just a way to lash out for how little respect that he and the other Kens get from the Barbies. By reversing the entire system, Ken makes Barbie finally feel just as inadequate as he does.Ken: Now, if you will excuse me, this is my Mojo Dojo Casa House, it's not Barbie's Mojo Dojo Casa House, right? How does it feel? It is not fun is it? Every night is boy's night.
Rival Ken
Rival Ken
Played by: Simu LiuOther languages
"Well, looks like this beach was a little too much beach for you, Ken."
A Ken doll. He acts as a rival to Beach Ken for Stereotypical Barbie's affections.- Always Someone Better: Beach Ken worries he's this because he can do backflips.
- Beard of Evil: He noticeably grows a stubble after patriarchy infects Barbieland.
- Betty and Veronica: In regards to Stereotypical Barbie, he is the Veronica while Beach Ken is the Betty. Barbie leaving for the Real World in the end means that neither of them actually get with her.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being solely The Rival at first, it's heavily implied that Rival Ken is also insecure, much like Beach Ken, as he joins him in the final chorus of "I'm Just Ken" and seems to develop alongside him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Rival Ken is delighted to bother and antagonize Beach Ken, he ultimately joins him in the final chorus of "I'm Just Ken" and seems to connect to the other Kens when their revolution ends.
- The Rival: Mainly serves to antagonize Beach Ken. This, however, does not stop him from serving Beach Ken in his rebellion against the Barbieland matriarchy. However, when the Kens start to fight, he leads the opposing side to Beach Ken.
- Twinkle Smile: He occasionally sparkles, both smiling and flipping his hair. It escalates to the point where he and Beach Ken have a Bishie Sparkle Beam-O-War.
Basketball Ken
Basketball Ken
Portrayed by: Kingsley Ben-AdirOther languages
"Anyone who wants to beach him off has to beach me off first."
Another Ken doll, who is close with Beach Ken.- Ambiguously Bi: Like most of the other Kens, he is shown as being interested in the Barbies. However, he is seen throughout the movie shyly looking at Beach Ken from the side or a distance, is never far behind him, offers to 'beach off' Rival Ken for him and even sheds Happy Tears when he gets the fur coat at the end.
- Authority Sounds Deep: Parodied. After their leader, Beach Ken, turns over his hypermacho Sylvester Stallone-esque mink coat to Basketball Ken, the latter straightens and drops a wise and authoritative line in a notably deeper voice than he spoke in prior."We were only fighting because we didn't know who we were."
- Token Black Friend: He's played by a black actor and primarily acts as support to the white blond Beach Ken.
Stereotypical Ken
Stereotypical Ken
Portrayed by: Scott EvansOther languages
- The Generic Guy: Per his designation as Stereotypical Ken, he is Stereotypical Barbie's closest counterpart as the standard ideal of "Ken," but lacks her character arc and capacity for self-reflection.
- Those Two Guys: He is often seen with Tourist Ken.
Tourist Ken
Tourist Ken
Portrayed by: Ncuti GatwaOther languages
- Fitness Nut: Parodied. He brings the hypermasculinity of the new Kendom to the Supreme Court by lifting weights while serving on it.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Physicist Barbie. The two are often shown hanging out together at the start of the movie. At the end, after the Barbies become un-brainwashed and take back the Kendom, Tourist Ken cries out that he never cared about any of that and that he just misses "[his] best friend Barbie." Physicist Barbie rushes over and reassures him that she's still there, and the two are shown embracing while waving to Stereotypical Barbie as she leaves for the real world.
- Those Two Guys: He is often seen with Stereotypical Ken.
Kenmaid
Kenmaid
Portrayed by: John CenaOther languages
A merman variant of Ken.
- Barbarian Long Hair: Has long lucious blond hair and portrayed by the muscular John Cena.
- The Cameo: AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!
- Dub Name Change: In the French dub, he is called "Triton Ken".
- Punny Name: His name is a play on "Ken" with "mermaid".
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: None of the trailers or TV spots show a glimpse of him. He doesn't even get a character poster like most the other Kens.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Being a merman, he wears no shirt.
- He also can't walk, being a Kenmaid.
Sugar Daddy Ken
Sugar Daddy Ken
Portrayed by: Rob Brydon
A discontinued Ken living in Weird Barbie's Weird House with the other discontinued dolls.
- Cool Old Guy: Older than the other Kens, and also helps the Barbies, Gloria and Sasha underthrow Beach Ken's patriarchy.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Is devoted to his pup Sugar, and refers to himself as her "daddy".
- Insistent Terminology: Weird Barbie introduces him as "Sugar Daddy Ken" with all that that implies. He insists that his name refers to him being "daddy" to his dog Sugar (which, to be fair, is what his designers intended).
- Token Good Teammate: Despite being a Ken, he neither partakes in the Ken uprising nor supports the subsequent patriarchal Ken regime, likely because he was already an outcast that the other Kens do not acknowledge.
-
Unfortunate Implications: Has a dog, Sugar, and he is her daddy. But calling him "Sugar Daddy Ken" sounds exactly like the name implies, which is the reason why he was discontinued.
Earring Magic Ken
Earring Magic Ken
Portrayed by: Tom Stourton
One of the discontinued dolls living at Weird Barbie's house.
- Bowdlerise: While his outfit is directly reproduced from the doll he's based on, his controversial "ring" necklace and vest decorations have been changed to generic "Barbie" logos.
- Camp Gay: This is the reason why he's so infamous to warrant his appearance in the film and why he was discontinued in the real world. Of course, his creators in the 90's were apparently only trying to make him "cool" so whether he's actually Camp Straight or doesn't feel any attraction at all is left ambigious.
- Token Good Teammate: Despite being a Ken he doesn't take part in the uprising and transformation of Barbieland into a patriarchy, probably because he was already an outcast that the other Kens don't acknowledge.
Others
Allan
Allan
Narrator: There are no multiples of Allan, he's just Allan.note
Played by: Michael CeraOther languages
A doll meant to be Ken's friend. He has no variants.
- Ambiguously Gay: Just like the real doll, Allan is described as "Ken's buddy" whose clothes are supposed to all fit him. Him joining the Barbies to overthrow the patriarchy can be explained by patriarchy harming gay men as well.
- Badass Adorable: Allan is a sweet and adorable guy who kicks some serious ass at some point in order to allow Gloria and Sasha to escape from the Kens at work.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Timid and reserved he may be, he shows some Bruce Lee level martial arts skills on the Kens.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: When the Narrator explains that there's just one Allan, he chimes in that he's confused about it himself. Though it turns out later on that he does know what happened to the other Allans.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Him vs the Kens. The results were... catastrophic for the Kens.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he felt cast aside in the matriarchal Barbieland, he doesn't like how Beach Ken turns it into "Kendom" and actively works with the discontinued Barbies to overthrow the patriarchy.
- Last of His Kind: Unlike the Barbies and Kens, he has no other versions of himself — apparently because several other Allans have escaped into reality, including all the members of *NSYNC.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: He's awkward and shy, but when he, Gloria and Sasha are stopped in their escape attempt by a group of construction Kens, he wipes the floor with all of them.
- Mythology Gag: He describes himself as "Ken's buddy" and mentions being able to wear all of Ken's clothes, statements taken directly from the packaging of the original Allan doll.
- Nice Guy: The absolute worst he does is try to sneak into Gloria and Sasha's car, and even that's with the intention of helping them.
- One-Man Army: Absolutely wipes the floor with the Kens at work.
- Only Sane Man: While he was forced to go along with the Ken patriarchy, he was clearly the only one not enjoying himself or actively participating.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When Gloria and Sasha attempt to return to the real world, he stows away in their car to escape the Kendom. He really does not like their leather sofas. Of course, the women decide to go back and aid Barbie, bringing him along with them.
- Token Good Teammate: He is one of the few known males from Barbieland to not support the Kens' patriarchal regime, and in fact he helps Gloria and Sasha try to escape back to the real world, and then with fighting back against the Kendom and de-brainwashing all the Barbies.
Midge
Midge
Portrayed by: Emerald Fennell
Barbie's pregnant childhood friend.- Flat Character: A pregnant friend of Barbie's. And that's about it.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: While not a complete Barbieland outsider like Weird Barbie, Midge is dismissed by even the narrator, who comments that a pregnant doll is just too weird to feature for very long. When the Mattel CEO sees her, he shouts in surprise and says he thought she was discontinued.
- Longest Pregnancy Ever: She's been constantly pregnant since her discontinuation. Then again, having no genitalia, there is no way she can be able to give birth.
- The Voiceless: She doesn't say a word in the entire film.
Skippers
Skipper
Portrayed by: Erica Ford
Barbie's younger sister.- Noodle Incident: She apparently escaped to the Real World, got a babysitting job, and tried to teach a toddler surfing before Mattel caught her.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She's the reason Mattel knows about Barbieland and is desperate to get Barbie back to it before she can affect things there.
"Growing Up" Skipper
Portrayed by: Hannah Khalique-Brown
A variant of Skipper with a Dual Age Modes gimmick who was discontinued.- Breast Expansion: Happens as part of her "growing up" gimmick that is triggered when her arm gets rotated backwards, which is implied to be part of the reason she was discontinued.
Real World
Gloria
Gloria
"I'm a boring mom with a boring job and a daughter who hates me! Can you blame me for wanting to have a little fun?"
Played by: America FerreraOther languages
"I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know."
A Mattel employee who unexpectedly forms a bond with Barbie and ends up helping her on her adventures.- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Certainly her daughter Sasha is a little embarrased about Gloria liking Barbie and deciding to get involved with the plot.
- Ascended Fangirl: Implied. She loved Barbie in her youth and as an adult works at the company that created her.
- Drives Like Crazy: Displays some Fast & Furious driving skills when helping Barbie escape Mattel. She picked up these skills to impress a boy who probably wasn’t her husband.
- Entertainment Below Their Age: When her daughter began to pull away, she began playing with her old Barbies to cope. This is what causes Stereotypical Barbie to start suffering an existential crisis.
- Happily Married: Gloria is married and the two have a daughter together. Despite how little we see of her husband, he and Gloria seem very happy together and in love, with her husband, who is played by America Ferrara's real-life husband, even attempting to learn Spanish for her and their daughter.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Gloria mentions she picked up some wild driving skills to impress a boy. When Sasha asks if that boy was her husband/Sasha's father, Gloria hesitates for a minute then says it definitely was in a tone implying it was not.
- Hidden Depths: Pointed out by her daughter Sasha when she's trying to convince Gloria to go back and help Barbie and the rest of Barbieland citing her recent Barbie designs with a more ordinary design:"[Your designs are] weird and dark and crazy—everything you pretend not to be."
- Nice Girl: Gloria is very loving and sweet, but is dealing with her daughter being a negative Alpha Bitch and also "weird, dark and crazy".
- Parents as People: She's trying her best with Sasha, but raising a moody teen who doesn't want to be close and has sometimes overly impassioned unrealistic views is difficult and she doesn't know how to bridge the gap.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- She had no idea that her drawings of older, ordinary Barbies having problems would affect Barbieland or lead to Barbie coming into the real world.
- She never had a Ken doll, meaning she never played Barbie and Ken as a loving couple, leading to Barbie's ambivalence towards him, fueling his inferiority complex and subsequent coup in Barbieland.
- Womanchild: Still enjoys Barbies as an adult, and even works for Mattel itself. She is also more light-hearted and cheerful compared to her cynical Emo Teen daughter.
Sasha
Sasha
"I don't even know where to begin with this 'Wishing a Barbie to life' crap!"
Played by: Ariana GreenblattOther languages
"Women hate women and men hate women. It's the one thing we can all agree on."
Gloria’s teen daughter. She's at a rebellious age where she pulls away from her parents and the old things they use to share - like Barbies.- Alpha Bitch: One of the kids actually warns Barbie before she talks to her at the junior high school that Sasha is heartless and bullies everyone near her. Barbie doesn't listen, and Sasha's vicious insults drive her to tears. Her group of friends follow her every belief, one even backtracking when she admits to liking Barbies as a kid when Sasha glares at her, and egg her on in her bullying.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Barbie's visions show that she used to frequently play with her mother, but now that she's in junior high, she's angrily dismissive of Gloria instead. The two of them bond through helping Barbie and appear to be on much better terms at the end of the film.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: After seeing Stereotypical Barbie fall into a depression in Kendom, she loses what little respect she had for her and abandons her to wallow in her pity. However, while she and Gloria are driving away to return to the real world, she changes her mind and convinces her mom they should go back and helps encourage Barbie to overthrow the new patriarchy.
- The Cynic: Her view of the world is completely lacking in anything resembling positivity—she believes only in the worst of everyone, and she seems only interested in harshly criticizing everything and everyone.
- Embarrassing Nickname: At one point, Gloria calls Sasha "Bunny Boo", to which Sasha tells her mom not to call her that. It's implied that she used to go by this nickname when this she was younger.
- Emo Teen: She's a teen who dresses in black for most of the film and doesn't respond to her mother's affection. She also apparently believes that people are all hiding that they are only darkness when her mother admits to having thoughts of death that were affecting Barbie.
- Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: Reconstructed. Sasha was close to her mother as a kid, and they would always play Barbies together. However, when she became older, she rebelled and became a cynical Alpha Bitch that completely dismisses her mother. It's during their trip to Barbieland, and especially after hearing her mother's speech about women's hardships, that Sasha defrosts and becomes way nicer and closer to her mother again. The reason she even decided to go back to Barbieland to abolish the Kens' patriarchy in the first place was because her mother loves Barbie, which is the first selfless act she does in the entire film.
- Female Misogynist: Despite her bashing Barbie for setting back women's rights, Sasha ironically doesn't have a high opinion of women in general and is anti-feminine. She shames one of her girl posse for admitting to liking Barbie as a child, and she clearly enjoys tearing down Stereotypical Barbie for being conventionally feminine and attractive.Sasha: Women hate women. And men hate women. It's the only thing we all agree on.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Alluded to and visibly seen. Sasha, when first introduced, is in all-dark clothing with baggy pants and a long sleeved t-shirt under a hoodie, refusing any markers of femininity such as pink, styled hair, or skirts. After she is brought to Barbieland with Barbie and Gloria and begins to reconnect with her mother, she is shown wearing more pink and feminine clothes, culminating with her last scene in Barbieland wearing a pink sparkly dress with her hair styled in a half ponytail. In the last scene she's still back in her modern clothes, but it's not all black anymore, showing her reconnection with feminine items and her mother.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: While she's rude to her mother and dismissive of things that are important to Gloria she also really doesn't like when other people are mean to her, coming around and defending her.
- Hypocrite: Her attempts at being "progressive" lead to her being just as narrow-minded as the patriarchy she claims to be against. While she thinks of herself as a feminist and very politically progressive, she has some very unflattering views on women she sees as embodying an old style of feminine behavior, dismissing Barbie and anyone who still likes the dolls as airheaded bimbos, and her progressive views don't stop her from verbally bullying other kids, to the point that almost everyone in the school is afraid of her.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While she is incredibly vicious and shows signs of not being as understanding of certain topics that she thinks herself to be (like Barbie's full impact on female empowerment and fascism), Sasha does have a point that Barbie's extremely high standards have lead to a lot of girls developing low self-esteem and other related issues whether or not Barbie intended them to. Her comment about Barbie having "unrealistic physical ideals" is actually an issue addressed by Mattel out-of-universe in recent years.
- Jerkass Realization: Appears to have one while hearing all the hardships women must face on a daily basis through her mother's monologue, after herself acting like a Female Misogynist.
- Kick the Dog: She is incredibly mean to Barbie upon first meeting her, viciously demeaning her as a bimbo and calling her a fascist, reducing her to tears. It's implied that this is common for her too, to the point that other students at her school avoid her as much as possible.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: While she thinks of herself as politically and socially conscious, her understanding of several issues is surface level at best and based on anti-feminine prejudice. When she calls Barbie a "fascist" as an insult, Barbie wonders how she could possibly be considered one as she doesn't do things actual fascists do, like control trade flow or public transportation.
- Not So Above It All: Despite presenting herself as politically savvy, Sasha displays her own prejudice against Barbie and her presentation, like calling Barbie the ableist insult "nutjob" before correcting herself to "reality challenged woman".
- Only Sane Woman: She's the one most verbally freaked out by the very concept of Barbieland and constantly questioning what is going on around her. Her relative groundedness ends up helping her mother out of her Heroic BSoD when convincing her to go back, as she admits she thought her "existential crisis Barbies" were cool and that she's glad Gloria isn't in denial of the issues around her.
- Political Overcorrectness: Downplayed, but present as part of her character, representing a politically active but perhaps too-online younger generation with their first foray into political views, and she uses words like "fascism" and "cultural" appropriation without fully knowing what they mean.
- Shout-Out: Her name and those of her friends are taken from those of the Bratz dolls, one of the biggest rival brands of Barbie, and herself acting like a humongous brat. Her mother later calls her "Bunny Boo", a nickname of the doll she was named after.
- Soapbox Sadie: Well-versed in politically-correct buzzwords and epithets (like "fascist") and all-too-willing to destroy Barbie and accuse her of ruining feminism. Later, she jokingly calls her dad out for misappropriating a Spanish political term in his attempt to speak Spanish.
- So Proud of You: She smiles while her mother monologues about the contradictoray obligations society imposes on women.
- Take That!: Her being a moody teen who calls Barbie a fascist and believes she is a symbol of patriarchy is not only reminiscent of Barbie critics who have that view but also of teenagers who would call others such things either in person or on social media sites without any form of self-awareness or actually understanding said issues.
- Teens Are Monsters: When she first meets Stereotypical Barbie, the junior high school student promptly eviscerates the very concept of Barbies and leaves the poor woman in tears. The girl who tries to warn Barbie beforehand admits that Sasha treats everyone like this.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Part of showing how she's embarrassed by her once-enjoyment of Barbie and current dislike of her is how she is now wearing more masculine clothing—a hoodie, baggy pants, and dark blacks—and being cynical and argumentative. However over the course of her time in Barbieland she slowly ads more pink to her wardrobe, and by the end of her time in Barbieland and having come around, she's wearing a sparkly pink dress with her previously unstyled hair in a more feminine half-ponytail style with decorations.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She drops most of her negative traits near the end of the film, after deciding to help Barbie to overthrow the Kens. This is reflected in her change in clothing as well.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: During the childhood flashbacks Sasha is seen happily playing with Barbie dolls with her mother until she lost interest in them. By the present, she has grown into quite the nasty Emo Kid Alpha Bitch with a perpetually negative view on life and a desire to viciously tear down anyone she sees fit like Stereotypical Barbie.
Mattel CEO
The CEO of Mattel
Played by: Will FerrellOther languages
"We sell dreams, imagination, and sparkle. And when you think of sparkle, what do you think of next? Female agency."
The CEO of Mattel, the company behind Barbie. When he learns of Barbie’s arrival into the real world, he quickly takes steps to get her back in her box.- Anti-Villain: While he's trying to put Barbie in her box, it's mostly to prevent a potential repeat of a presumably disastrous encounter with an escaped Skipper doll in the past. He also genuinely wants to keep Mattel the way it is because he thinks it's good for girls.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's initially set up as this, as he wants to send Barbie back to Barbieland before something goes wrong. Eventually subverted with the reveal that all he wants to do in life is make little girls happy, and that he only became a corporate executive because fulfilling that dream by any other means felt too creepy.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he obviously wants to make money for the company, he also genuinely cares about the Barbie brand and what its image means for little girls. Thus, even after he's told the Ken-altered toys are selling just as well as Barbies, he still chooses to venture into Barbieland in the hopes of returning it back to normal.
- Fantastically Indifferent: He knows all about Barbieland and is also aware that Ruth Handler's ghost occupies an office in the Mattel headquarters. He treats both as though they are perfectly ordinary.
- Good All Along: It turns out that he's in his line of work to try to make young girls happy, rather than just to make money, and while he can be rude, patronizing, and unpleasant on a personal level, on a macro-level all the seemingly bad things he does are misguided rather than malicious.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The CEO is dismissive and rude to his employees, and he does chase Barbie down when she attempts to run away from sending her back to Barbieland but his intentions were 100% genuine and he sincerely wanted to help. He even goes as far as to venture back into Barbieland to try and help the girls; he arrives too late but it’s the thought that counts.
- Honest Corporate Executive: His exact methods might raise some eyebrows; he doesn't see an issue with being an avowed feminist while not having any women in positions of power, but he does genuinely seem to want to make toys that positively inspire young girls and never does anything truly dishonest or villainous. Even trying to put Barbie back in her box was done because he honestly thought it was the best solution.
- Large Ham: He's pretty over the top. Then again, he is played by Will Ferrell so it'd be weird if he wasn't.
- Manchild: As has become commonplace with Will Ferrell. He expresses a desire for he and the other execs to spend less time on business, and more time tickling one another.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He shares more than a few characteristics with former Mattel CEO and Barbie head Tom Kalinske (yes, the same one who led Sega in the early 90s during the 16-bit phase of the Console Wars) who revitalized the Barbie brand with the aspirational "Barbie can be anything" career concept.
- No Name Given: He is never referred to by name and is listed as "CEO of Mattel" in the credits.
- Obliviously Evil: He is portrayed in the movie as reinforcing patriarchy, but not motivated by malice; he honestly believes that selling Barbie dolls is making little girls happy and making their dreams come true. He's not motivated by greed, either; when Ken dolls start selling just as well as Barbie dolls, he's against it, because that goes against the "dream" of Barbie he wanted his company to stand for.
- Only in It for the Money: Zigzagged. He rejects committing to a Ken-dominated brand despite hearing that it is selling well, since it would go against the company's principles of female empowerment. Inversely, when Gloria suggests an "Ordinary Barbie" doll, the CEO calls that a terrible idea only to change his tune when his accountant confirms it would make a lot of money.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He does genuinely want to provide positive entertainment for young girls. The only reason he's in corporate is because, as an adult man, he feels it's the only way to fulfill that goal without coming across as creepy. Bonus for wearing a pink shirt and tie.
- Red Herring: The trailers and the movie itself initially present him as the Big Bad. In reality he's Good All Along (well, to an extent), and the actual Big Bad is Beach Ken.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: He lives a comfortable life as the CEO of a major toy company, and all the important decisions that brings. That said, both he and his board of directors are complete bumbling idiots who barely know how to actually exist outside of the office. This is best demonstrated with their lack of spatial awareness when chasing Barbie through their own building.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Even when he learns that the Ken-altered dream houses are selling well, he remains determined to restore order and put Barbie back in the spotlight.
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: Parodied when he tries to justify the very male-centered Mattel company by saying that not only did they probably have two female CEOs throughout their history, he himself respects women because he's the son of a mother and the nephew of a "woman aunt", and then randomly adds "Some of my best friends are Jewish!".
Aaron Dinkins
Aaron Dinkins
Played by: Connor SwindellsOther languages
"I'm a man with no power, does that make me a woman?"
An intern at Mattel.- Ambiguously Jewish: The film features a camera cut to Aaron's drawn out, awkward reaction to the CEO shouting, ""Some of my best friends are Jewish!" "Aaron" is also a common Hebrew name and was used exclusively by Jewish people in the Middle Ages.
- Audience Surrogate: He acts as a generic guy who asks questions about the nature of their world, such as asking whether Barbieland is an alternate dimension, or a world created from imagination.
- The Intern: He works at the literal bottom of the Mattel building with the other interns and is repeatedly dismissed by the top brass. When Barbie is dismayed upon learning that Mattel's leadership is 100% comprised of men, Aaron asks if being a man with no power makes him a woman.
Ruth (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Ruth Handler
"I created you so you wouldn't have an ending."
Played by: Rhea PerlmanOther languages
"You think the lady who invented Barbie looks like Barbie? I'm a five-foot-nothing grandma with a double mastectomy and tax evasion issues! Nobody looks like Barbie. Except, of course, Barbie."
The creator of Barbie. Still maintains an office at Mattel HQ despite being apparently dead.- Another Story for Another Time: She jokes that her troubles with the IRS could make a good movie on its own.
- Cool Old Lady: She helps Barbie with a cup of tea and directions to escape the Mattel executives.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: In the film, tax evasion issues destroyed her career, which she jokes about the second time Barbie meets her.note However, she's a very rare benevolent example.
- Dead All Along: As the real Ruth died in 2002, the CEO of Mattel explains that it's her ghost who still has an office in their building.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: She is the one who created Barbie, and disregards the idea of there being a "perfect Barbie", believing that people should play with her how they like.
- Stealth Pun: Her being a ghost that works at Mattel while also being the one who created Barbie makes her the soul of the company.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: She's a ghost who still works at the Mattel building in an office that magically resembles her kitchen. The CEO is not only aware of this, but casually remarks upon it to everyone like it's no big deal.
The Narrator
The Narrator
Played by: Helen Mirren
"Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls."
The narrator of the movie.
- Deadpan Snarker: She often does this throughout the film while describing the dolls.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even she commented on how weird Midge's concept is as a pregnant doll.
- I Am Very British: She speaks with a very posh British accent while talking about an American toy line.
- Interactive Narrator: Downplayed. For the most part her narration goes unremarked upon by the characters. The only exception is when she points out that there is only one Allan, at which point Allan chimes in and remarks that he is a bit confused about that too.
- The Voice: Character poster with Mirren aside, we don't actually see her in the film proper.
