Sunday, April 28, 2024

A Few More Things Before the End of the Alphabet Journey

Well, it's almost over. Only two days left for the A to Z. My last two posts have already been scheduled. I've enjoyed it so far and there are several blogs I have visited. When the Road Trip begins in May, I'll get to others I've missed and perhaps revisit those I've already seen. 

It was hard to decide what to include for each post. A friend mentioned Peaches and Cream Barbie, which I vaguely remember hearing about. I must not have remembered when it came time to decide what to post for each letter.  This one came out when I was 13, so I was only vaguely aware of it at that time.



The only Barbie I can ever recall having was this one. I was never that big on the line. I was more about other similar dolls, as I said in this post  (from last year's A to Z blogging event). The hype over the movie was mainly what made me choose this theme.



This blogging journey has also brought to mind several references to Barbie in other media. I wasn't sure how to fit these into the regular A to Z posts, so I will post them here while we are on our last Sunday break.

One that comes to mind is the movie  Never Been Kissed, where the three mean girls all show up as different iterations of the doll at the prom, with the theme of "Famous Couples Through History."  One of the girls is Malibu Barbie, and the others are Evening Wear Barbie and Disco Barbie (Not so sure that these ever were a thing, but it might be true). Disco Barbie's Date (Disco Ken?) looks a bit like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. And they think that Josie's Rosalind (from Shakespeare's As You Like It) is supposed to be "Medieval Barbie." Never heard of that one, either, but my friend found a collector Barbie in Victorian dress (she's fascinated by that era).


Another is from the movie Rat Race, when a girl sees a sign for a Barbie Museum, which isn't what she thinks:



Malibu Stacy, the Barbie parody on The Simpsons, who was the focus of an episode. The name brings to mind the annual Barbie swimsuit lines (which were known by the Malibu name until the mid-80s) as well as Stacy, a British friend of Barbie's from the late 60s/early 70s, who was in the Malibu line. But the doll depicted is based on Teen Talk Barbie from the early 90s, one of whose phrases, "Math class is tough!" generated controversy. 



The 1998 movie Small Soldiers, about interactive military action figures and monsters (smart toys), included a Barbie parody called Gwendy. The Gwendys (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci) are turned into a new army for the soldiers.


And there still may be more I missed. This is only scratching the surface. This may be something to bring up in my Reflections post. The Reflections posts begin this Thursday.

5 comments:

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I've really liked this Challenge. I found your blog along with several others whose posts I've enjoyed. It was a good way for me to come back to blogging after a long time off.

Elephant's Child said...

Barbie largely passed me by. I learnt a LOT from your posts.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

One of Mattel's biggest errors was refusing to let Barbie be in Toy Story along with the other named toys. Mattel was so scared of being made fun of or mocked, not realizing that it would make Barbie and them cool. They figured it out eventually and that's why Mattel went "all in" for the Barbie movie.

Liz A. said...

I'm sure you could come up with a year's worth of posts doing deep dives on movies and pop culture and all things Barbie. There's so much there.

Ronel Janse van Vuuren said...

Great selection!