When it was first announced that there would be a Barbie movie, way back in 2016, there wasn’t much hype. Nor hope that it would be anything particularly revolutionary or subversive. Amy Schumer was attached to the project at the time and it was tipped to be a “fish out of water story” reminiscent of nostalgic films like Splash, Enchanted and Big.
Sure, it had some wafts of feminism: Schumer apparently wanted her Barbie to be an “ambitious inventor”, but the studio suggested her invention be a “high heel made out of Jell-O” and even sent the comic actress a pair of Manolo Blahniks to celebrate the collaboration. “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal,’” Schumer said, when discussing the ins and outs of the live-action project she subsequently pulled out of.
