Barbie Whips Super Mario Bros as 2023's Top Movie

I certainly didn't expect it but “Barbie” has officially become the year's biggest box office hit, after the doll's big-screen earnings overtook the Super Mario Bros Movie's total. 

 

The movie – a runaway success since its release on July 21 – which sees Margot Robbie's titular toy swap her pink fantasy home for the real world, has now made $1.38 billion globally. That has taken it past the $1.36 billion taken by the “Super Mario Bros Movie”. 

 

It's a remarkable run for a movie few expected to become a blockbuster despite a huge marketing budget that was more than the film's budget. 

 

Life in plastic is mostly fantastic according to many critics, who have broadly praised the Greta Gerwig-directed film, made with co-operation from toy manufacturer Mattel. 

 

Empire said Barbie was "painfully funny", while the Independent described it as "joyous from minute to minute". 

 

But Time said it was "very pretty but not very deep", while the Daily Mail described it as "uneven, disjointed, the plot makes no real sense – and the dead hand of corporate America weighs heavily upon it". 

 

The fact is the movie made a lot of money!

Malaysia Day 2019

Happy Malaysia Day! 

Barbie has been many things – from a bathing beauty to an astronaut to even president.

And Mattel has just made public a version of the iconic doll that is inspired by Mexico’s traditional Day of the Dead celebration. 

The latest collectible is a Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, Barbie (left) – to be sold for $75 (RM312.64) – and is based on the famous “Catrina” – a character drawn by cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1912. 

Diego Rivera, a prominent Mexican painter whose frescoes helped establish the Mexican mural movement in Mexican art also immortalized the character in a mural completed in 1947. 

The Day of the Dead festival, celebrated in Mexico from October 31 to November 02, is believed to be when the gateway separating the living and the deceased opens, allowing people to pay their respects to those who have passed. 

Barbie has always been known for her excellent fashion sense, and she’s dressed for this occasion wearing a black, ruffled dress embroidered with monarch butterflies, as well as yellow and red marigolds. 

This particular Barbie's face is painted as a traditional Day of the Dead skull mask and she's decked out with a headpiece featuring marigolds and more monarchs. 

“That the tradition is recognized with this doll, the best known in the world, is something that makes me proud”, Mexican toy collector Jaqueline Vidal told AFP in Mexico City, where the collectible doll was officially unveiled on Thursday. 

The limited-edition doll has nevertheless invited controversy by some who consider it “cultural appropriation” – using a time-honored tradition to make money. 

I agree because nobody would believe Barbie celebrates Day of the Dead! 

But Mattel fared a lot better with the Barbie doll of Rosa Parks (right) – the legendary US civil rights activist. 

The doll released on August 26, is part of Mattel’s Inspiring Women series depicting female role models and heroines of their time. 

Rosa Parks on December 01, 1955 had refused an order to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to the back of the bus – and her act of defiance became the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 

‘Rosa Parks’ quiet strength played a notable role in the civil rights movement, but it would still take another nine years and more struggles before the 1964 Civil Rights Act overruled existing segregation laws. 

Anyway, the above is all about continuing to make Barbie relevant. And of course, raking up profits in the process.

A David Bowie Barbie

The David Bowie Barbie doll. Image credit: Mattel 

On Thursday, the world learned that Barbie is a Bowie fan. 

With the release of a doll dressed as David Bowie’s iconic alter ego Ziggy Stardust, Mattel said they were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of “Space Oddity”, released in 1969. 

The Barbie doll wears a body-hugging metallic “spacesuit”, calf-high red platform boots and silver earrings with dangling stars. Her dark red backcombed mane of hair is just like Ziggy Stardust’s, and daubed on her forehead is the golden circle he wore. Her nails are painted black. 

Barbie replicates the look of Bowie’s bisexual messenger from the stars – though her usual pleasant smile doesn’t quite match the intense stare usually associated with the character. 

It is a notably androgynous look for a doll that epitomized the stereotypes of feminine appearance in its earlier iterations. 

Introducing the $50 (£40) doll, Mattel said: “In a definitive celebration of two pop culture icons, Barbie honors the ultimate pop chameleon, English singer, songwriter and actor David Bowie, whose dramatic musical transformations continue to influence and inspire”.

David Bowie performs in 1973 in his Ziggy Stardust persona. Image credit: Michael Putland/ Getty Images

Note: Bowie was known for his gender-bending style and sexual fluidity, and Ziggy Stardust was one of the most memorable experiments. He debuted the persona in 1972 with the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (often shortened to Ziggy Stardust), featuring the classic songs Five Years, Starman and Suffragette City. He evolved the character in 1973, ushering in the era of Aladdin Sane.

Meet Lammily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The $25 doll – slogan 'average is beautiful' – is now ready for shipping. Photograph: Lammily

 

A doll with cellulite, acne, stretch marks and the proportions of the average teenage girl aims to challenge the 55-year domination of the market by Barbie.

 

The creator of Lammily, artist Nickolay Lamm claims it is the first affordable doll on the market made according to realistic body proportions and is the result of a crowdfunding campaign that saw more than 13,621 backers pre-order over 19,000 dolls.

 

“Many people criticize Barbie but there was no alternative,” Lamm said. “Now I’ve made one and when little girls see her, hold her, they feel like they already know her because she is more like them and the people they know.” Were Barbie life-size, she would measure 36-18-33, stand 1.75 metres (5ft 9in) and weigh 50kg (7st 12lb) – 16kg underweight for a woman that height.

 

Scholars once worked out that the likelihood of having Barbie’s body shape is one in 100,000. Lammily, in contrast, is based on the proportions of the average 19-year-old young woman as measured by the American Centers for Disease Control.

 

But as ground-breaking as Lammily’s body shape is, her range of accessories will also give any Barbie-worshipping child a jolt: for an extra $6 there are stickers that allow children to add a range of so-called physical flaws, including freckles, glasses, blushing, bruises, dirt and grass stains.

 

Lamm first made headlines in May 2013 with a series of Photoshopped images of fresh-faced Barbies and other conventional dolls, to show children that dolls – and by association, girls and women – don’t need makeup to be attractive.

 

Barbie is owned by US toy maker Mattel. But I bet you didn’t know that Barbie was originally modelled on a German doll called Lillie, who was in turn based on a comic strip character described as a “gold-digging prostitute”?

 

On Thursday, Sunway University Toastmasters Club had their last meeting for this calendar year – our 60th – and I was the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening. I think I did a good job.

 

And since Benny Chia was at the meeting, I seized the opportunity to speak – and so I delivered CC speech #6 and he evaluated me. He correctly described my speech as a potpourri of ideas that went helter-skelter – in other words, I was trying to achieve too much with my speech. Still I was voted Best Project Speaker.

 

Overall, a good meeting and of course, I am giving it an 8 over 10 score.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW, we also said farewell to two members, Hisham Mohamed (photo below, left) and Musthaq Mukthar (right) who have completed their studies and will soon be heading for home (i.e. Maldives and Sri Lanka respectively). I wish them all the best in their future undertakings.