MovieChat Forums > Barbie (2023) Discussion > Todays analogy for "The Emperors New Clo...

Todays analogy for "The Emperors New Clothes"


This is a movie where people don't want to dislike the shiny new thing that everyone claims to love, so many are simply chiming in how great it is...while also saying it's not that great. So many reviews make "the message" the highlight of the experience, while many others discuss how it isn't actually that great, yet leave an oddly high review score. It says plenty that the film didn't even represent itself accurately in its marketing, which was a brilliant choice despite being dishonest. It pushed it as a pure comedy for the whole family, but that definitely wasn't what it was. Ultimately, this is a feminist film that convinced the world that you are part of "the patriarchy" if you didn't like it, and people are stumbling over themselves to bobblehead their agreement, lest you be labeled an "ist" of some sort. I assure you, this film will have no staying power, and is destine to forever be on the "$4.99 and under" sales list in a year. Incidentally, I saw this with 2 women, and they both hated it and laughed at their friends for fawning over it because of "the message". Well done world, you've fallen into the mindset of a centuries old fable because so many of you are afraid to think for yourselves.

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I don't care what people think. The empress has no clothes, she has a terrible body, she stinks, her boobs are droopy and flop around, and she really has no business running around naked because she's scaring all the animals away. That is what I think of 4th wave feminazism, and nobody can change my mind about that. Not even toxic people who are exactly what they accuse me of, because I see them for exactly what they are, just as I see this film for the pile of crap it is.

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It just wasn't even entertaining. I can ignore a bullshit agenda if I'm entertained, but it was brutal to sit through.

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Hearing that America Ferrera was in this and acting that stupid makes me want to smack her.

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She's a good actress, and I like her in other things, but she was insufferable in this.

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YOU NEED TO MEDITATE OR SOMETHING.

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What was “the message”?

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convoluted

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But what is the message? You keep mentioning it.

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Yes, I mentioned that other people mention it. Go ask the reviewers.

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Not really clear. Just a huge tirade against a much loved doll created 65 years ago. The movie is an extension of the doll.

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Its not, but ok.

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The doll was a sociological breakthrough for young girls.

What is your takeaway of the first 20 min. to Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey?

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Barbie was no more of a sociological breakthrough to girls than Transformers were to boys. It was appealing and popular for lots of reasons, but don't suddenly lend undeserved weight to Barbie just because the movie told you too. And as far as the 2001 scene, it's been done many times already. Just last year in Everything Everywhere all at Once had one, just like tons of others before it. Again, just because the movie tries to suggest something is profound, doesn't mean it was.

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But did you see the movie 2001? I’m not talking about Also sprach Zarathustra played in other movies. Why the Dawn of Man scene?

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Yes I've seen 2001, and actually own it. This movie did it to poignant, but instead it felt stale. They were trying to imply that barbie was a monumental turning point in the evolution of female society. It wasn't, not in the way they are suggesting

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Barbie WAS an instrumental turning point. Comparing Barbie to Transformers (that in itself is a 50-year difference). What perception or lack of. That doll changed the lives of young girls. It was the first adult doll that wasn’t a baby or a companion. She had endless clothes that served a different occasion and role. And there wasn’t a Birkenstock Barbie. Thank god. Barbie traveled. She gave the promise of a different kind of life. One outside the home. The idea you could be an adventurous girl first and a mother later, if you wanted, was a new concept. Guys could be firemen. Racecar drivers. Astronauts. Girls got dolls that cried and diapers needed changing. And oddly enough, most guys would love to have a gf who was a Barbie in looks and spirit. But you are the master of this discussion. You know everything about women. And of young girls. You must be very popular.

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Barbie is an iconic brand, and undeniably an important cultural milestone in American history, and you make a good point—how Barbie would wear many different hats. But… at first, wasn’t she kind of a stepford wives bimbo? A “trad wife”, every conservative, patriarchal man’s dream girl?

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So, if I find its message specious and tedious, I'm part of the patriarchy? Okay, so I'm part of the patriarchy. Do I get an ID card or something? A discount at Home Depot? A free sex visit to the Handmaid's Tale women's concentration camp?

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I should definitely get a name tag that says: Hello my name is Part of the Patriarchy.

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