Live-action remakes and adaptations are becoming increasingly common within the past decade. This is especially the case with Disney adapting their animated princess films into live-action ones, with The Little Mermaid being their latest. But Disney isn’t the only production company focusing on live-action films of children's characters. And no, we’re not talking about the whole bombshell that was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
The Barbie movie (yes, a live-action film about a children’s doll) will be released in theaters on July 21, 2023. The film company behind this movie, Mattel Films, plans on making another similar movie. This time around, it’s time to bring up a character that adults now probably haven’t thought about in so long: Barney the purple dinosaur.
There is going to be a live-action Barney movie sometime in 2024 with Get Out star and Spider-Punk himself Daniel Kaluuya starring in the film. There is little to no information about the film itself, so how will it be live-action? Will Kaluuya play a character who will be in a Barney suit? Will he BE an actual dinosaur? This all sounds silly on paper, but the Barbie movie is already gearing up to be a box-office success. If that’s the case, then Barney could potentially follow in the footsteps of the doll in pink herself.
The Whole Self-Discovering Journey
It has been confirmed that the live-action Barney movie with be akin to an A24 movie. When we think of A24, it’s the horror movies like Hereditary or The Witch that we think of first. Or other films that have that kind of vibe.
With Barney, however, the film does not seem like it will follow in the footsteps of the horror genre. It will have those darker elements that make up an A24 film, but more on the lines of angst than scary.
The Barbie movie is going to be about Barbie and Ken’s journeys of self-discovery. That there just might be more to them than just being Barbie and Ken in their pink paradise of other Barbies and Kens. Their journey leads them to the real world, which isn’t the perfect utopia that their home is. Or pink, for that matter. They might learn to be more “human” as opposed to the Barbie and Ken that they are supposed to be and learn to be happy with themselves.
The Barney movie could do something similar. There is not a lot of information about the plot of the film, so keep this in mind. This is only speculation, given the information that Mattel Films and the starring actor Kaluuya have provided. According to Nope star Kaluuya, Barney is a “ubiquitous figure in many of our childhoods,” and he “disappeared into the shadows, left misunderstood.”
This could mean that Barney will be going through his own journey of self-discovery but not to the pretty pink and vibrant extent that the Barbie movie is taking. With an A24 style, there is plenty of opportunity for Mattel to explore the millennial angst and personal issues like the stress and depression that comes with being an adult. And how adults discover more of themselves as they look back on the characters (like Barney), they looked up to as children.
Tackling the Societal Pressures
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From the trailers alone, it’s clear that the Barbie movie will tackle certain societal pressures we see daily. Specifically, the movie will bring to light the issues that women face in society. In this upcoming film, Margot Robbie’s Barbie and Ryan Gosling’s Ken get expelled from the Barbie utopia Barbie Land to the real world for being “less than perfect dolls.”
Greta Gerwig, the director of the Barbie film, was inspired by the nonfiction book Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher for the film’s narrative arc. The book accounts for the effects of societal pressures on American adolescent girls and how women are portrayed in magazines, in movies and television, and even in kids' toys as thin girls with makeup, big breasts, and an hourglass figure. That image of the “perfect girl” also categorizes the Barbie films and toys, making the idea that Barbie is supposed to signify a “world of opportunities” somewhat controversial.
The Barney movie could play with something similar. Maybe not to the extent of societal pressures among women, but it could tackle a common pressure that all adults can experience. Being an adult is exhausting. Most people who have watched Barney are in their 30s now or are going to be within the next five years. That is the exact age demographic that Mattel Films wants the Barney movie to reach out to.
According to Mattel Films, the film will not be R-rated, and “it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirty-something, growing up with Barney — just the level of disenchantment within the generation.” The idea of growing up is a certain level of maturing into becoming an adult; a fully grown and developed person. A societal phenomenon of being an adult means abandoning the child that you once were.
A Movie for Adults With an Inner Child
Both the Barney film and the upcoming Barbie movie will lean more toward adult audiences. That was announced for both films right from the start. But that does not mean that kids cannot watch it, either. The Barbie film will certainly be a movie that kids, especially adolescent girls, will be asking questions about.
Why do we take that as a bad thing? Kids are curious and will ask questions about something they don’t know about. About the “adult things” like feminism, sexuality, racism, etc. All of these issues that kids will eventually learn about anyway. That shouldn’t stop them from being kids. Still, adults stop being kids at such an early age.
A movie or TV show with a specific age target audience does not mean that ONLY that age group watches it. For example, cartoons on networks like Disney or Cartoon Network usually have a target demographic of kids ages 6-12. While that is the majority and target, not all children watch cartoons. Adults between the 18-49 demographic also watch those same cartoons. And that is totally fine, yet it’s “childish” for an adult to watch a “kid’s show.”
That is what the Barney movie should be the same way Barbie will be: a movie for adults with an inner child. Bring back those memories of the 30-year-olds as children and the things that made them happy and full of imagination. That journey of growing up to become the adults they are today. We can be both a mature adult and embrace that inner child that may have grown up too fast. And we deserve to have a movie that can relate to that, which is what the Barney movie should do.