Commentary: ‘Barbie’ Is Live Action ‘Toy Story’ And ‘South Park’

Barbie was one of the surprise smash hits of 2023 and with good reason.

The film is exceptionally shot with some grand sequences that are throwbacks to the Golden Age of filmmaking. Besides being a technical achievement, it also plays well with absurdist comedy and even deep, passionate social commentary. But at its core, the story ultimately plays in two different ballparks. The first has to do with toys while the second concerns imaginary play. And while Barbie is obviously not a direct adaptation of any work that came before it, it definitely feels like a live-action mashup of both Toy Story and South Park‘s “Imaginationland” saga.

Tasked with making a film about a doll, filmmaker Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie had to get pretty clever in order to tell a compelling tale. The idea is that manifestations of Barbie and the other toys from Mattel exist in a place called Barbieland. This is where all the idealized versions of the toy line exist in harmony and it happens because people in the real world play with the toys — essentially bringing them to life. The triggering event of the story occurs when a mother plays with a Barbie doll in the real world and somehow transfers her torn emotions into the imaginary world of Barbie, thus imprinting them onto the toy.

The live action Toy Story comparison is fairly obvious. In Pixar’s Toy Story, toys actually come to life after being played with. These characters are made of plastic (for the most part) and yet have souls, personalities, and emotions. Things are a bit more complicated when dealing with a live action film, but the concept remains the same. Robbie’s Barbie is, essentially, a real live toy walking around in the real world. But she comes from a world of imagination that gains its power through humans and play. This is extremely similar to South Park’s “Imaginationland” episodes. As its name implies, Imaginationland is where all imaginary characters live. When people imagine a creation, that’s where it comes to life. So it’s interesting to see such a blockbuster film draw elements from two distinct and vastly different animated sources.

Barbie is now streaming on Max.