(OPINION) The upcoming “Barbie” film ignores its key demographic in favor of catering to “a small percentage of the population,” a faith-based film review site claimed.
“Warning: Don’t take your daughter to Barbie,” Movieguide, a Christian movie review site warned ahead of the film’s release July 21. The review criticized the film about the iconic doll of abandoning its core audience of families and little girls to instead focus on LGBTQ stories.
“The new BARBIE movie forgets its core audience of families and children while catering to nostalgic adults and pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender character stories. Furthermore, the movie was poorly made with multiple premises, losing even the most die-hard fans,” the scathing staff review-penned piece began.
“They had a built-in market and audience for this franchise that they completely ignored,” the story continued. “Millions of families would have turned out to the theaters and purchased tickets, but instead, Mattel chose to cater to a small percentage of the population who has proven over and over to abandon the box office.”
However actress Margot Robbie defended the film in a recent interview, saying it was “literally crafted to be for everyone.”
“This is such a thing people say when they do press for a movie. They’re like, ‘It’s for everyone.’ But it was literally crafted to be for everyone,” Robbie said after being asked if the film was made for kids. Director Greta Gerwig crafted humor aimed at children and adults, the film’s star further explained.
However, members of the cast and crew have praised the film’s left-leaning messages on gender in media interviews. “It most certainly is a feminist film,” Gerwig said to ABC News Australia. “It’s feminist in a way that includes everyone,” she elaborated.
Transgender actor Hari Nef, who plays a “Doctor Barbie” told Out Magazine that the film had an empowering message about being transgender.
“As much as there’s a celebration of femininity and being a girl in this [movie], I think there’s also an encouragement of letting go of the checklist we ascribe to living and living your life and being in your body your way, on your own terms,” Nef said.
