Trivia / Barbie

• Barbie & The Diamond Castle
• Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus
• Barbie and the Three Musketeers
• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper
• Barbie as Rapunzel
• Barbie as the Princess and the Popstar
• Barbie Fairytopia
• Barbie in a Mermaid Tale
• Barbie in Rock 'n Royals
• Barbie in the Nutcracker
• Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse
• Barbie: Princess Charm School
• Barbie: The Pearl Princess
• Barbie (2023)

General

• Banned in China: The dolls were at one point banned in Saudi Arabia, partly due to Islamic law and its issues with the female body, but also apparently because the government sees them as "Zionist dolls"^note The Handler family—particularly Barbara and Kenneth whom the dolls are named after—is of Jewish descent, so go figure. and "symbols of the perversion and decadence of the West". An UAE-based toy company created Fulla as The Moral Substitute, who wears Islamic dress and promotes Muslim values. The ban was temporary, however, and sale of the dolls were resumed shortly thereafter.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: That toy-based franchise, one of the most popular ever, has made over $33.5 billion over its long history. The 2023 film ended up breaking a billion dollars at the box office.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Here's an interesting example. Erica Lindbeck originally auditioned for Skipper and Teresa. She would later get cast as Barbie herself.
• Kids' Meal Toy: This franchise is one of the most common girl toys for McDonald's Happy Meals, and is usually paired opposite Hot Wheels for boys. A few memorable examples include Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, and Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, which had miniature dolls of the film's titular twelve princesses.
• The Other Darrin:
  • The long-time voice of Barbie, Kelly Sheridan, was replaced as of A Fashion Fairytale by Diana Kaarina, due to a revamp of the series. Fan reactions were less than enthusiastic. Sheridan returned in Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2.
  • Now Sheridan has been replaced again, with the aforementioned Erica Lindbeck, because of another revamp. (This doesn't include Kate Higgins, who voiced the character for Life in the Dreamhouse exclusively.)
  • Once again, Lindbeck has been replaced with America Young.
  • The same goes in the Japanese dubs: Originally, Barbie was voiced by Maaya Sakamoto, (with Ryōka Yuzuki voicing her in Barbie as Rapunzel and Barbie of Swan Lake) then she was replaced with Rieko Takahashi in many of the animated films, but just like in the English version, she was also replaced with Ami Koshimizu starting with Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. Likewise. Ken, who was voiced by Hiroki Tochi since the later 90s, was also replaced with Nobunaga Shimazaki in Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse.
  • Barbie dolls have had voice clips since before Kelly Sheridan started playing her, meaning that Sheridan is in herself a replacement.
  • On the 1962 album Barbie Sings!, Barbie was voiced by Charlotte Austin.
  • In the Barbie and the Rockers specials, Barbie was voiced by Sharon Lewis.
  • The Albanian dubs do the same thing, although it's less "replacement" and more Inconsistent Dub. They cannot decide if Barbie will be voiced by Luljeta Bitri or Suela Xhonuzi.

Films

• Celebrity Voice Actor: The early movies have an impressive record of casting well-known actors as the villains: Tim Curry as the Mouse King, Anjelica Huston as Gothel, and Kelsey Grammer as Rothbart, to name a few.
• Channel Hop: The live-action film was originally planned to be produced by Universal, then Sony Pictures. However, in October 2018, the production and cast moved to Warner Bros..
  • The CGI films started under Artisan Entertainment (through their Family Home Entertainment sub-label), and was in turn inherited by Lionsgate when they bought Artisan in 2004; Mattel switched to Universal Studios Home Entertainment in 2006, in part because of Mattel lowballing Lionsgate during negotiations.
• Fake Brit: In Barbie: A Fairy Secret, Kate Higgins, an American, voices Taylor, who's British.
• Mythology Gag: While not a gag per se, if Barbie stars as princess in a movie alongside a brunet deuteragonist, odds are the brunette is named Erika or using the letters in Erika's name.
• Production Posse: Often times, if you find a certain voice actor in a Barbie film, the chances are high that it's not their only one. For instances, there are several Barbie films carrying the voices of Nicole Oliver, Ashleigh Ball, and Kathleen Barr, among many others.
• What Could Have Been: Several from the movies:
  • A chapter book based on Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, which had illustrations based on the toys, indicated that Preminger would have had a toy. The same is true for Nick and Nack. The same can be said for Barbie of Swan Lake.
  • Additionally, Barbie was supposed to appear in the first Toy Story film, but Mattel squashed that. (Bo Peep was created in her place.) After the movie was a success, Mattel did agree to let Ken and Barbie appear in the sequels.
  • The Barbie movies originally intended to include more traditional fairy tales (notably Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella), but had to shelve both projects to avoid conflict with Disney. Ironically, Disney's Tangled borrowed quite liberally from Barbie as Rapunzel.
  • The two Barbie and the Rockers/Barbie and the Sensations specials by DIC Entertainment were both intended to be a Pilot Movie of sorts for a Barbie TV series (Mattel hoped to compete with Jem), but when nothing came of it, DIC made Maxie's World (based on Hasbro's "Maxie" dolls) instead.

Toys

• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • In the early 2000s, there was an infamous "Pregnant Barbie" doll that was discontinued due to controversy that it supported Teen Pregnancy. The doll in question was Midge, Barbie's old friend who was brought back after several years. Midge was Happily Married to Alan and was an adult (even the Barbie in the commercial was old enough to be a doctor). Midge even already had a toddler-aged son with Alan.
  • Despite reports and rumors, "Teen Talk Barbie" never said, "Math is hard." It was "Math class is hard", which gives off a completely different meaning.
  • Moral Guardians hate Barbie for her Impossible Hourglass Figure. However, Barbie was intended to show girls that they can compete with, and in fact, outclass their male counterparts. She's a Teen Genius millionaire with a trophy husband. Her sex appeal is just icing on the cake. Mattel has mitigated it somewhat by giving her a heftier figure these days.
• Defictionalization: Mattel had life-size replicas of Barbie's dreamhouse created in 2009 and 2013.
• Dueling Shows: With Bratz. In the end, Barbie won. Interestingly enough, some people genuinely assumed the opposite would happen.
• Fountain of Expies: Being one of the, if not the, most well-known doll lines out there, Barbie is copied by both bootleg knockoffs and big name companies alike. This is usually just her design, but dolls that feature stories will also copy her character as well. Maxie and certain Sindy redesigns are blatant examples.
• The Moral Substitute: Barbie has an Islam-friendly counterpart called Fulla, which was created by the Emirati toy company NewBoy.
  • A non-sectarian yet similarly modest substitute is Lammily, a crowdfunded fashion doll aiming for a more realistic feminine body image instead of a particular religious belief.
• What Could Have Been: In the 1971 Mattel catalog, there were pictures for a "Becky" doll. She was made from the Casey head mold, was hand painted and shown in blonde, although prototypes of her were made in blonde, brunette and redhead. Some 1971 clothes were labeled as being for "Francie and her new friend Becky", however Becky herself wasn't released... until 2009, when "Most Mod Party Becky" came out. The original "Becky" is not to be confused with the Becky introduced in 1997, who is in a wheelchair and is a completely different character.

Video Games

• Keep Circulating the Tapes: A number of PC games which were previously released on Steam, namely Barbie Dreamhouse Party and Barbie and Her Sisters Puppy Rescue, are no longer available on Steam, presumably due to licensing issues.
  • Any Barbie line is this when it's discontinued.
• What Could Have Been: Hi Tech Expressions, who had previously released several Barbie video games, including the 1991 NES game, Game Girl, and Super Model, planned to release a video game called Vacation Adventure for the SNES and Sega Genesis in 1994, with the latter version being part of Sega's "Sega Club" line of games aimed at children under twelve. This game would have been a collection of mini-games where Barbie travels to five different states in North America; Wyoming, Iowa, California, Texas, and Florida, with each mini-game corresponding with each state, such as a walk through the wilderness, playing carnival games, deep-sea diving for treasure, horseback riding, and finding presents hidden in a mansion. This game was never released to the public due to Hi Tech Expressions going bankrupt in 1995, although roms have been leaked online and can be played through emulation or reproduction cartridges.

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