Shout Out / Barbie (2023)

• The prologue parodies the Dawn of Man sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with little girls in the place of the apes, baby dolls in the position of the bones, Barbie herself in the place of the monolith, and, of course, the "Sunrise" part of Also sprach Zarathustra as music over it. Natch, the scene ends with a recreation of the 2001 sequence's famous Match Cut — a little girl throws her baby doll into the air, which is tracked by the camera before cutting into the title of the film itself.
• The town's movie theater is showing The Wizard of Oz.
• When Weird Barbie gives Stereotypical Barbie the "choice" to venture into the real world or stay in Barbieland, it's presented as her being offered the red pill or the blue pill, with each choice respectively symbolized by a Birkenstock and a high heel.
• A snippet of the "Greased Lightnin'" number from Grease is shown when Ken learns about the patriarchal society of America for the first time.
• The visuals of Mattel's CEO and other top brass congregating around a giant heart-shaped table is a direct homage to the War Room from Dr. Strangelove.
• To Matchbox Twenty: part of the Barbies' mission to trick the Kens into giving up the Kendom is enduring hours-long guitar jam sessions to their song "Push".
• Barbie finds the girl who she thinks is playing with her sitting with her friends at a school cafeteria table. Said friends consist of an African American girl, a blonde Caucasian girl, and an East Asian girl. Add that the girl Barbie is seeking is a Latina teenager named Sasha, and they're clearly a nod to another extremely popular girls' doll line.
• The voiceover of the Depression Barbie commercial notes that she's watched The BBC's Pride and Prejudice seven times.
• According to Allan, all of the members of the band *NSYNC were originally Allan dolls who escaped Barbieland and became real men in the real world.
• The scene where Barbie stumbles upon Ruth Handler's kitchen is reminiscent of when Neo meets the Oracle in The Matrix Reloaded.
• The Kens pretend to ride imaginary horses in a very similar manner to how King Arthur and his knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail do the same.
• During the giant Ken battle, several can be seen wearing singlets and carrying pugil sticks, à la American Gladiators (which also had toys from Mattel).
• 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.
• Both versions of "Pink" start off with the lyric "When I wake up..." being said in the exact same cadence of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".
• As part of the plan to un-brainwash the Barbies in the Kendom, President Barbie sits down with a Ken who's watching The Godfather and puts on a ditzy act that she's never seen it, to which he jumps at the chance to explain its brilliance in an attempt to impress her; he calls it "a rich blend of Coppola's aesthetic genius and a triumph for Robert Evans and the architecture of the '70s studio system".
• After being un-brainwashed, one Barbie states that for some reason, she was "really invested in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League."
• Another Stanley Kubrick shoutout: during an moment of silence between Gloria and Barbie, Sasha asks if her mother and Barbie are "shining", as in the psychic ability from The Shining.
• The Running Gag of "Hi, Barbie!/Hi, Ken!" deliberately mirrors the intro to a certain Barbie-themed song that absolutely has nothing to do with Barbie.
• Stereotypical Barbie, Gloria, and Sasha, pass the beach on their return from the real world to see several Kens playing volleyball in an homage to Top Gun, complete with Maverick and Goose's high-five, low-five.