For over 50 years, Barbie has delighted little girls and inspired them through hours of creative play. How has Mattel's ultra popular doll kept pace with changing times? Barbie's success has been her ability to transform herself to reflect both changes in societal views and in the dreams of little girls. For today's media savvy children, transforming the creative play doll into a visual, animated movie personality has breathed yet another new life into the iconic Barbie doll. Through Barbie movies, the well loved character and her many friends digitally inspire creative play activities that children use to keep those movie images alive.
Today's children share very few toys in common with parents, yet Barbie is one that has stood the test of time-even through the generations of some grandparents. While previous generations of little girls often turned Barbie into somewhat realistic versions of future, grown up selves for playtime, focusing on dream careers and styles, little girls today are able to see Barbie in more imaginative roles, due in part to her movie identities. For nearly a decade, full length Barbie movies have taken little girls to the world of princesses and heroines, showing them that while Barbie can still be a doctor or a veterinarian-she can also be a princess and bring fairy tales to life.
Since Barbie in The Nutcracker, Barbie's first feature length movie in 2001, the doll has appeared in 15 additional animated films. With characters ranging from well known fairy tale favorites such as Rapunzel and Thumbelina to renditions of Swan Lake, the Three Musketeers, and full length stories of fairies and mermaids to name a few, Barbie movies have created a world of pretend play that provides a much needed fantasy style break from the everyday reality to which so many little girls are exposed.
Barbie, unlike many animated movies created for little girls, is not the typical movie screen girl, awaiting her Prince Charming. Barbie is portrayed as brave and strong-and perfectly capable of saving the Prince if called upon. Even in her fairy tale renditions, Barbie is portrayed in a light that inspires little girls to be thoughtful and accomplish goals and dreams. Barbie movies have served to keep interest alive in the doll that has served as an inspiration to so many little girls for such a long time.
