Warning: Many Spoilers Ahead for the Barbie movie.
In “Barbie,” Gloria, played by America Ferrera, is having an
existential crisis in the “Real World,” which results in her daughter’s old
Barbie doll “Stereotypical Barbie,” reflecting her very out-of-place emotions and
concerns in Barbieland, sending Stereotypical Barbie, played by Margot Robbie,
on a journey of self-discovery.
But why is there only one Stereotypical Barbie?
When we see Barbieland, we see every variation of Barbie
doll in the Barbie universe. There’s Doctor Barbie, President Barbie, Physicist Barbie, and so
on. There are also multiple variations of Ken, and side characters like Midge
the Pregnant Barbie and Allan, Ken’s friend. But there’s only one of each of
them. None of the Kens or Barbies look exactly alike. There only appears to be
one Stereotypical Barbie, one Beach Ken, etc. etc. But we know from the plot
that this Stereotypical Barbie is tied specifically to Gloria. She’s the Barbie Gloria played with with her daughter Sasha when she was younger. So where are all the millions of other
Stereotypical Barbies that all the other kids played with?
The only conclusion possible is that we are in Barbieland
Prime, and this Barbieland is one of a million parallel Barbielands, one for
each Stereotypical Barbie doll that Mattel produced. This gives rise to another
question. Are each of the other Barbies in a Barbieland Universe tied to a girl
in the real world, or only one? And if it’s each one, how does the multiverse
decide which Barbies will populate which universes? In other words, does the Prime Universe Doctor Barbie owned by Real World Girl A live with the
Stereotypical Barbie owned by Gloria because the two Barbies came from the same
toy store, or because Gloria and Real World Girl A who owns Doctor Barbie Prime live in
close "Real World" proximity to each other? Or are all the Barbies in this particular Barbieland toys of Gloria's daughter? Do poor kids create Barbieland Universes populated only by one or two Kens and Barbies?
The Midge Problem
Then there is the problem of Midge. Midge is the “Pregnant
Barbie,” who we learned was discontinued because the concept was a little too
disturbing. This means there are fewer Midges out there than other Barbies.
Does that mean that certain Barbielands have Midges and some don’t? If each Barbieland Universe represents one child's toy collection, this works fine. But if different Barbieland Barbies in the same universe have different "Real World" owners, this is a problem. Are
there Barbielands with Midges who aren’t tied to people in the “Real World?” Or
does Midge ONLY appear in Barbieland prime and represent all Midges in the Real
World?
(Fun fact: Any guesses who the father of Midge's baby is? Here's a hint: It's not Ken!)
Mattel World
The “Real World” presents another problem. It doesn’t seem
like it can really be “our” world. The “Board of Directors” of Mattel is a caricature.
They’re all clueless men, when in reality Mattel’s BOD is roughly half women.
They dance and run like action figures/dolls. They effortlessly travel back and
forth between their world and Barbieland, and they also know the “correct”
Barbieland to travel to when seeking Stereotypical Barbie Prime.
I propose that Mattel World is not “our” world at all, but a
hub universe around which all the Barbieland Universes are connected, while
also having some connection to “our world,” so that what the Barbies do in
Barbieland affects the owners of their dolls in the Mattel World Universe,
which in turn affects those dolls and their owners in our actual real world.
Other Universes
So if the Barbieland/Mattel Multiverse is its own distinct
multiverse within the omniverse, where does that leave related
Universes/Multiverses? For example, does the Mattel Universe also connect to
other universes where Mattel toys are real, such as the Big Jim Universe or the
American Girl Universe? And are these also self-contained multiverses, with a
universe for each toy produced or purchased? What about the Toy Story Universe?
We know that Barbie exists there. Is the Toy Story Universe a Barbieland
Universe, far from Barbieland Universe Prime, where “Barbie Reality” has been
distorted due to cosmological distance? Or is the Toy Story Universe part of
its own multiverse adjacent to the Barbieland Multiverse?
I’m certain that all these questions and more will be
answered in “Barbie 2.” Until then, we can only speculate.
