Obviously, 2023 belonged to Barbie. it was the top grossing film worldwide, and managed multiple Oscar nominations, even winning for What Was I Made For? I feel like this documentary is not reactionary, but something that was in the works anyway. It explores how Barbie is important to black girls, and dolls in general. How black women have worked hard at Mattel to make sure Black Barbie exists, and that she’s not Barbie’s friend, because no one grows up wanting to be someone’s friend as their aspirational choice. this is retrospective, personal, and the only thing that’s lacking at all is participation from Mattel. There are times when the filmmakers haven’t received a proper response from Mattel about something, so there’s an acknowledgement, and they move forward anyway.

But these are real women, who have either been impacted by, or have helped to shape the cultural significance of a black Barbie doll. Really, Iuto did a nice job on the audio description, which makes a very specific and concerted effort to describe hairstyles. Lane Kelly feels like the right choice for narrator, and I hope to hear more from Lane in the future, but Lane is just putting that feeling into Amy Cullen’s audio description script, which is the one that has made a very specific effort to make sure that a documentary about representation actually has representation.

Lovers of the concept of Barbie, and the history of the doll, will like this.

Final Grade: A-