Other casting choices hint at Gerwig’s personal tastes seeping into the fabric of her film-making; the narration courtesy of Helen Mirren suggests a connected cinematic universe linking Barbie and the cult comedy series Documentary Now!

In Barbie Fashion Police, Barbie has become part of the fashion police, and she must make sure that all the girls are following the latest fashion trends! Gerwig’s having a laugh at her own expense, conceding that all her subversions will be happily permitted so long as they agree with the profit margins.The reactionary weirdoes decrying Barbie as peddling the “woke” agenda haven’t pulled much of a gotcha, accurately summarizing the textual substance of a film about one woman’s sudden burst of institutional consciousness. In this land of rictus smiles and relentless sunshine, imperfection is a cardinal sin; Barbie’s existential crisis kicks into gear as she notices a small patch of cellulite on her thigh, and that her naturally high-heeled feet now stand flat on the ground. Featured soundtrack artist Dua Lipa even pops by as a trio of mermaid sisters to wobble her way through a few lines of dialogue, most of which are “Hi, Barbie!

Warhol’s axiom about art being whatever you can get away with comes to mind in surprisingly off-brand moments such as the instant-classic punch line that ties a ribbon on the film.

It’s not hard to imagine the dead-souled version of Barbie that alienates its built-in fanbase with lowest-common-denominator laziness and creative indifference, more advertisement than entertainment. Unlike superheroes or princesses or so much other exhumed IP, the glamorous doll doesn’t come prepackaged with narrative, leaving open the question of what she would do in a big-screen vehicle primarily greenlit off her brand recognition. Now that Gerwig’s latest is out there painting multiplexes an eye-searing shade of pink, we can issue the strongest spoiler alert warning possible and pop Barbie’s head off to see what’s going on inside her cavernous neck hole.

Ferrera’s character pitches the CEO on a normal-person Barbie, a character unencumbered by the expectations to be an immaculately manicured beauty nor a successful career woman. This realm is governed not by the laws of nature, but by the childlike illogic of playtime: Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie drinks from an empty cup, bounces off of plastic water and floats from her top-floor bedroom down to her car on the street as if carried by an invisible hand. Her penchant for macro-scaled sight gags can be traced back to the oeuvres of Jacques Tati and Charlie Chaplin before him, masters of physical comedy relevant to actors mimicking the body language of posable playthings. An upbeat song by Lizzo delivers exposition like a commercial jingle, narrating each of Barbie’s actions as she performs them.Mattel may have stamped their logo all over the film, but audiences have taken note and flocked in droves because in the auteurist sense, Gerwig has made it her own as well. If Barbie and Ken were to kiss, one assumes they would do so by mashing their faces together at a diagonal. Barbie creator and Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler appears with a deified glow about her in the form of Rhea Perlman, the actor’s presence a possible nod to her past gig on Cheers as sharp-tongued barmaid Carla Tortelli, the kind of flinty, funny, unapologetic woman that speaks to Gerwig. Like a college freshman taking an intro class on gender – or perhaps like a high-schooler seeing a mass-market blockbuster with a developed political streak for the first time – Barbie becomes abruptly aware of the untenable societal pressures heaped upon womankind, released in a cathartic monologue by normal-person surrogate America Ferrera. I would spend hours going through thousands of pages on popular font marketplaces to find great fonts.