‘Barbie’ Teaser Enlists Helen Mirren For Wink At ‘2001’ And Offers A Splash Of Day-Glo Spectacle

A new teaser for Warner Bros’ new spin on Barbie takes the titular doll back into history — way back.

Most of the 1-minute teaser (watch it ABOVE) evokes Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Complete with the booming orchestrations of “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” the footage shows a building-sized Margot Robbie towering over the prehistoric landscape. “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls,” Helen Mirren intones on the voiceover. (The reference is yet another coy nod, to Mirren’s role in Documentary Now!) “But the dolls were always and forever … baby dolls. Until ….”

Cue the Richard Strauss, and the giant-sized Barbie, standing in for the monolith in Kubrick’s early-man intro to his sci-fi epic. Like the apes smashing bones, the little girls in the teaser begin to smash the “baby dolls.” Barbie winks, and the clip closes with a few seconds teasing the Day-Glo spectacle to come, including an amusing glimpse of Ryan Gosling as Ken.

Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, will hit theaters July 21, 2023. It’s the first major film production during Mattel’s current corporate era under CEO Ynon Kreiz.

Robbie is producing the film under her LuckyChap Entertainment production banner along with LuckyChap’s Tom Ackerley. Robbie Brenner also will produce through Mattel, as will David Heyman via Heyday Films. LuckyChap’s Josey McNamara and Mattel’s Kreiz are executive producers.

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