I like most American girls raised in the 70's and 80's had a Barbie. I also had a Ken, but he was short lived as he had an unfortunate accident that led to his beheading. Having said that I loved the overall look of this film...it was fantastic. The pink was spot on, the Barbie convertible, her Malibu dream house, even the packaging of the Barbie box was so perfect it brought back a strange nostalgia for my childhood gone. The music was good...but I was saddened that they didn't use Aqua's song Barbie Girl for the film.

I loved both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. I thought they were perfect in their roles as classic 1980's Barbie and Ken. I was entertained by some of the comedy...like Barbie's feet going flat, the trip to "the real world" concluding in them on roller skates on Venice Beach, Ken thinking the patriarchy had something to do with horses, the concept of misfit Barbie...which everyone has seen at least one of, the self mockery around failed Mattel products like earring magic Ken-pregnant Midge-Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken, and I loved the on going joke about "who's Allan?".

I thought the whole scene with the introduction of Barbie in its 2001 A Space Odyssey format was fantastic and realistic for the sentiment of its introduction.

Where I started to fall off enjoyment-wise was in the degradation of Ken/Kens, who were made to be nothing more than himbos/mimbos who didn't exist except for when Barbie turned her attention onto him making him this obsequious idiot.

Conceptually I liked the idea behind the Barbie's experience being tied to the girl playing with her (as is reality) and I enjoyed classic 80's Barbie's disillusionment with the real world where women weren't really anything they wanted to be...like for example there wasn't a single woman on the Mattel board. By the way I loved Will Ferrell! I didn't know he was in the film and that was a pleasant surprise.

Where everything really went south for me was when the real mother and daughter team up with the Barbies in Barbie World to distract Ken's so they can reprogram the Barbies, deploying such tactics as feigning ignorance and interest. I found that to be a sad fiction imitating reality moment that just didn't sit well with me...and then I was equally annoyed with all of the current political sentiments being added in.

Overall however I think you should watch the film, so this is a recommendation from me...but I probably will never watch it again.

My favorite scene in the whole film is right after a teenage girl at a table full of obnoxious and disgruntled teenage girls in counter culture garb tell Barbie that she is what is wrong with the world and that she has ruined their lives...dejectedly and with tears 80's Barbie sits on a bench where there happens to be an older grey haired lady (no one ages in Barbie world) and she says to her "you are beautiful" and the older woman responds simply "I know". As a woman I wish that was reality...but in reality women aren't allowed to show their age in Hollywood and are expected to continually look young spurning industries of plastic surgery and cosmetics and cosmetic procedures and diets etc. I wish we as a culture and a nation thought older women were beautiful...and I wish they knew it, making that scene bittersweet...but my favorite part of the whole film.