Barbie is looking to dominate the box office later this month as the surprise hit of the summer, but the connotations of the movie could have a larger impact according to star Simu Liu. The film has set itself out as something beyond the usual animated Barbie fare, aiming to blow open the world of Mattel’s famous doll that everyone has come to know and accept as a bright, joyous universe of pink happiness marketed at girls. Liu recently explained to ScreenRant how he believes that Barbie will help break down the final walls around gender-orientated toys and more. He said:
“I didn’t really have a relationship with Barbie in the past, you know? I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a society where traditional gender norms were pretty heavily enforced and were pretty prevalent. [We] were taught from a very young age, “Boys don’t play with that, and, “Boys don’t wear pink.” Colors became gendered; toys became gendered — all of these rules were imposed on us. And so, Barbie was not my toy. That’s, like, on the other team.I’m so glad this movie exists, because I really think it just puts that final nail in the coffin of this very heteronormative idea of what gender is and what is or is not gendered. How can you make a color gendered, you know? Over the course of this movie, I’ve seen, been around, worn, and played with more pink than I ever thought possible. And it was so great — it’s so great to be free to express yourself in all of the ways that you feel like you want to. Not to feel like, because something is attributed to a certain gender or a certain idea, you can’t also do that. That’s, I think, what’s really struck me about being a part of this movie. That’s what’s involved in my understanding of Barbie and what it is, and what I hope that audiences will get from it when they watch the movie.”
Barbie is Already Gaining a Lot of Praise in Early Reviews.
Barbie entered the running for 2023’s big summer blockbuster as a rank outsider, even with the star power of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling at the helm. However, after lower than expected showings for many of 2023’s blockbusters, the way is now clear for Barbie to claim her place in the top of the year’s highest grossing movies.
Initial reactions have been full of praise for Greta Gerwig’s vision for Barbie, which seems to be delivering something more than any previous iteration of the doll on screen. With a strong cast, witty script and seemingly no end of enthusiasm, the idea of Barbie being anything more than a huge success this summer.
Barbie is set to open in cinemas next weekend, where it will see challenges from Oppenheimer and a second weekend of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Now there is a three-way box office battle that no one ever expected to see.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
