13 movies like Barbie to fill the pink hole in your heart, and where to watch them
You’ve seen Barbie two, maybe three times at this point, we know. And it’s not enough. You need movies like Barbie to keep the good pink feeling alive. And you’ve already gone back and watched the Greta Gerwig filmography (just a head’s up; Nights and Weekends features full frontal penis) and maybe even browsed the list of movies that she used for inspiration. You’ve noticed the plot similarities to The Truman Show and Free Guy and The Lego Movie and Enchanted, but goshdarnit, you’re not looking to recapture the intellectual experience of seeing Barbie. You want the Barbie feeling! The, like…Barbie of it all!
That’s where this list comes in. Role-model-worthy female protagonists, impeccable hair, makeup, set and costume design, clever humour, and a whiff of nostalgia are the top notes of the perfume that is Barbie-ness, and these movies are absolutely soaked with that scent. Read on for movies like Barbie, and where to stream them.
It racked up a 4,000 person waitlist earlier this year, and now, you can get it for less.
- Getty Images
Legally Blonde
Elle is basically styled like Barbie throughout the movie (and they definitely played up her Barb-ness on the poster), but the similarities run deeper. They both go confidently out of their pretty-girl worlds into a much more complicated new space to solve one problem, only to discover that they need to fix something else entirely. Both discover and reject the male gaze, and both dump their bozo boyfriends. This Barbie Is a Lawyer!
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett CollectionCharlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
TV Charlie’s Angels presented impossibly perfect women who took down terrorists without a hair out of place. These movies don’t necessarily complicate that narrative so much as blow it up, giving all three actors a chance to truly shine as badasses and comedians, putting them in all kinds of imaginative situations, and dressing them up for winky humour as often as for sex appeal. A running joke is that they purposely pander to the male gaze in order to confuse their targets and gain an advantage, and if that went over your head when you watched it…well, literacy isn’t for everyone!
©Universal/Courtesy Everett CollectionJosie and the Pussycats
A slightly saltier take on consumerism, and even more subversive. While the capitalist executives of Barbie are trying to make a buck on gender norms, the ones Josie & Co. are up against literally brainwash the youth of America for profit. Features fantastic costumes, super-fun songs, and du Jour, a boy band that’s basically all Allans and Kens.
©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett CollectionBratz
The fact that we got a live-action Bratz movie before a live-action Barbie movie makes a lot more sense when you realise that the Bratz movie was written and shot in like a week. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but this movie seriously…makes no sense. But it is based on a line of fashion dolls! Anyway, the reason to watch is so you can listen to Mike’s Mic and HDTGM talk about it.
AlamyMamma Mia!
You thought it was going to be a fun romp with musical numbers, but oops, it’s actually about mothers and daughters growing up and apart, but then coming back together and you’re crying! And what is anyone’s job in this movie? Beach. Their jobs are beach.
Courtesy Everett CollectionFunny Face
Though Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the Audrey Hepburn movie most often homage’d in editorials, this is the one that actually takes place in the fashion world, and the opening number, “Think Pink,” could very well have been shot in Barbieland. Inner and outer beauty are explored (quite lightly), and Fred Astaire brings all his Kenergy.
©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett CollectionLife-Size
The OG! Before there was even a rumbling of Robbie, Tyra Banks and Lindsay Lohan starred in this made-for-TV Y2Klassic about a girl who doesn’t even want to play with dolls but finds herself babysitting one after she comes to life. Also, the origin of this GIF.
Streaming nowhere! But the sequel is available to stream on Disney+
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett CollectionDown With Love
Gerwig took a lot of inspiration from French films and musicals for Barbie, and Down With Love takes a similar tack but is parodying the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies of yore. The messaging is both obviously and subtly feminist, lots of gender norms are played with, and everyone is having an absolute blast. Underseen and underappreciated, but it’s great, and the COSTUMES….
©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett CollectionEmma
Listen, there are only so many times a person can watch Clueless in a calendar year, and we’ve both hit that number already, haven’t we? Thankfully, there’s another candy-colored adaptation of the same Jane Austen novel, and while this heroine might be a little more self-serving and scheme-y than Cher or Barbie ever were, she comes around.
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett CollectionA Little Princess
Dream sequences, a girl who leaves the world she knows and changes those around her for the better simply by being good…and a doll! A very special doll! Alfonso Cuarón directed this movie, so it’s actually Intelligent of you to watch it.
Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett CollectionBarb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Barb’s name could be Barbie…
Their job, once again, is beach. This is an over-the-top romp with a bunch of goofy gags and a himbo who does a dance number; who could ask for anything more? Oh, you wanted a theme and a deeper meaning? I’m so sorry, but move right along.
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett CollectionThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
There’s no wrong way to be a teen girl! There is also, unfortunately, no right way. Coming of age is explored in a few different directions in this millennial classic starring America Ferrera from Barbie, and Blake Lively who truly is a Barbie. All the nostalgia, all the feels, and somehow we can totally imagine magical one-size-fits-all pants existing in Barbieland.
The Stepford Wives
A campier remake of a horror classic, this is basically the Barbie brainwashing sequence but a whole movie. Nicole Kidman plays a Liberated Woman whose husband nefariously transforms her into the perfect, submissive wife—and SHOCKER, it doesn’t make anyone any happier!
