Barbie Plot Summary
Barbie lives in Barbieland and has a pretty normal life until one day she starts malfunctioning. After talking to Weird Barbie, the doll destroyed by a little girl who played with it too much, Weird Barbie dedicates her life to helping the other Barbies live their perfect existences.
Weird Barbie tells Barbie that the answers to her questions are in the real world where a little girl who’s playing with her too hard caused her to malfunction. In the real world, Barbie is met with the harsh reality that the creation of the Barbie doll has not revolutionised the world and that women are still having a hard time in comparison to men.
Barbie, along with the women who caused her to malfunction, Gloria and Gloria’s daughter Sasha, go back to Barbieland to try and make things right there.
What happened to Barbieland?
After arriving at Barbieland, Barbie sees how Ken has taken over her house and the entire Barbieland had been turned into “Kendom” after Ken read books about Patriarchy on his trip to the real world. Barbie finds out that all the other Barbies hace been brainwashed by the Kens into being subservient to them.
With the dolls having forgotten their own identities they start tending to the Ken dolls and their needs. Barbie tries to talk to Ken about it but he claims that it’s Gloria’s fault for changing their normal life by giving Barbie thoughts about Death.
Mr Mattel and his men follow after Barbie to see what’s going on in Barbieland, since the Barbie doll is one of the most important products that have generated their company a lot of revenue. There is trouble in Barbieland when Barbie has a mental breakdown and cannot cope with her anxiety and depression.
The Mattels decide that having a Depressed Barbie would be a good idea and plan on marketing it. At the same time, Barbie believes that she will just sit and wait for things to go back to normal. Gloria and Sasha try to knock some sense into her.
How does Barbie deprogram the other Barbies?
Gloria and Sasha take Barbie and a few other Barbie dolls to Weird Barbie’s house where they decide to stop the Kens from taking over Barbieland. The Barbies team up and get brainwashed Barbies to separate from their Kens in order to deprogram the dolls.
Once all the Barbies had been deprogrammed, they decide to turn their charm on in order to trap their respective Kens. Barbie asks Ken to date her and then tries to plant seeds of doubt in his mind about her friendship with Other Ken. All the Barbies do the same thing with their Kens and cause the Kens to be divided into two teams as they wage war on each other.
What happens to Ken after Barbies take back Barbieland?
The Kens split into two different teams and fight each other at the Beach while the Barbies take back Barbieland after re-electing President Barbie as their leader. The Kens finally go back to Kendom and see that it had been turned back to Barbieland.
Ken gets upset and starts crying because of how he was a failed doll but Barbie motivates him to create an identity for himself by discovering who he really is. Mr Mattel, who’s overhearing the discussion, believes that he understands the burden Ken’s holding onto but that there is nothing he can do about the doll situation.
What does Gloria ask Mattel to do to revamp Barbie?
Gloria suggests that there should be an ordinary Barbie that resembles an everyday woman who does not have any big dreams or expectations like taking over the world. She believes that the new Barbie will resonate with every woman and change the perception of people in the real world and how they look at dolls as objects of stereotypical beauty.
Mr Mattel and the other men decide to go with the idea and close the portal between the two worlds. However, Sasha asks for Barbie to be given her own ending.
What does Barbie do with her life?
Barbie believes that she cannot decide what she wants to do with her life but Mr Mattel retorts that he can’t do anything to help her. Mrs Ruth Mattel shows up and tells Barbie that she’s the creator of the Barbie doll. The petite old woman had died years ago and her industry had been taken over by men. Ruth claims that Barbie was named after her daughter – Barbara. She tells Barbie that she should go on a path of self-discovery to see what she wants to do with her life.
How does Barbie Movie end?
Barbie goes back in time to see the history of women and realises that she no longer wants to live as an idea that comes out of someone else’s mind. Instead, she wants to be a human that makes ideas herself. She asks for Ruth’s permission to be a human woman but Ruth tells her that the choice is up to her.
All the Barbies and Kens bid Barbie farewell as she goes into the real world. Gloria and her husband drop Barbie off on her first normal day as a normal everyday woman. Barbie goes into the real world and the first thing she does is go to her gynaecologist like any other woman would.
Read More: Barbie (2023) Story Recap
I’m staying tuned for the sequel.