With all the hype around Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, releasing in cinemas on Friday (21 July), parents might be wondering whether it’s a safe selection for a family movie night.
Starring Margot Robbie as the popular Mattel doll, the movie has been teased as a comedy-drama that follows Barbie’s adventures into the real world after she’s kicked out of Barbieland for having existential thoughts.
And while it’d be easy to assume that it’s intended for children, considering its source material, some parents may need some more information about its PG-13 rating (equivalent to a 12A rating in the UK).
A PG-13 rating is generally given to titles that the Motion Pictures Association (MPA) feels include “some material that may be inappropriate for children under 13”.
Barbie was granted this rating for “suggestive references and brief language”.
But what does that mean? Without giving too much away, here are some things you may find helpful in determining whether it’s suitable for your family.
*Warning, the following may contain spoilers*
In interviews ahead of its premiere, Gerwig revealed that its core themes are inherently heavy. Even in its official trailer, Robbie’s titular Barbie asks her fellow Barbies: “Do you guys ever think of dying?”
Danny Brogan, the executive editor at Common Sense Media, an organisation that reviews and rates content for children, shared his thoughts on Gerwig’s “maturer content” in an interview with Yahoo!.
Kate McKinnon in ‘Barbie’— (AP)
“I think Gerwig has included all this maturer content knowing that a large portion of the audience will be millennials and members of Generation Z – people who grew up with Barbie during the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s – looking for that nostalgia but also to be entertained,” Brogan said. “They’re no longer that eight-year-old who took Barbie everywhere with them.”
As for its “suggestive references”, many of the lines perhaps deemed as such will probably go over the heads of particularly young audiences.
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For example, Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie humorously says of one Ken character: “I’d like to see what smooth blob he’s packing in those shorts.”
It also reportedly features words, such as b****, crap and motherf***er, with the latter blatantly censored for comedic effect.
Robbie previously said a jaw-dropping, risqué joke was actually cut from page one of the script.
Either way, critics are raving about Barbie. The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey called it a “near-miraculous achievement” in her five-star review.
Barbie is out in cinemas on Friday (21 July).
