Making sense of the BCU (Barbie Cinematic Universe)
For as long as I've been aware of my existence, I have loved the Barbie franchise. I had a few dolls growing up, but the movies are what really caught my interest. Recently I took it upon myself to see if I could tie (at least) all of the nearly 45 films that have been released since 2001 into a complete "timeline/life of Barbie as a character." This project is still in progress (and I may not even be successful) but I want to get some thoughts down while I work on it, and I plan to update as I go.
There are a few distinct groups of the Barbie movies. There are the movies in which Barbie, as herself, is telling a story to someone. In some movies she and her friends or family are the main characters. And in some movies, Barbie is in the title, but not a character within the movie.
In the 2010s Mattel began focusing on Barbie as herself. They started fleshing out the details of her life, like growing up in Wisconsin before moving to Malibu. The movies that have been released on Netflix, as well as the show Dreamhouse Adventures and the series of vlogs that were released on Youtube, are all included in this phase that is still ongoing.
I say I want to tie together "at least" all of the main movies because I don't know if I'll add other spin offs and such into the timeline. There have been many movies and shows under Barbie's name over the years that it's hard to decide how I'll piece it together, and which pieces I will use. So, I have decided to start with the more recent movies, work my way out and backwards through the past movies, and then add the lesser-known shows and etcetera media.
Anyway, this is like my overview post about the project. I've been rewatching and watching things bit by bit and adding any relevant information to a Google doc before I start piecing everything together. The older movies were a breeze to get through since I can practically quote them word for word. Now that I'm on the more recent shows and movies I haven't seen yet things have slowed down a bit. I don't know how long this will take but I'm having fun! The current Barbie media may not have the same charm as the Barbie media I grew up with, but I am so glad we're still getting any content at all.