Last updated on September 6th, 2024
Mattel’s famous Barbie doll has been on an upswing in attention since last year’s billion-dollar blockbuster live-action movie. Doll sales, according to Statista, also have been on an upswing since the mid-2010s.
Barbie’s also been an animation mainstay for decades, mainly in direct-to-video films. Since 2017, Netflix has been Barbie’s primary home, with a series of TV shows and movies.
Of interest to this blog is said Netflix media including the African American version of Barbie. Black Barbie dolls have been a mainstay of the doll line since 1980, though Barbie’s had Black friends (and dolls of the same) since the late 60s. In 2023, a documentary, “Black Barbie: A Documentary” was produced covering the doll; the film debuted on Netflix in 2024.
Below, I take a look at the recent Netflix-made batch of Barbie animated films and TV shows.
Barbie in animation summary
Barbie debuted in animation in a pair of specials in the mid-1980s that tied into the “Barbie and the Rockers” doll line (Mattel’s short-lived attempt to cash in on the popularity of “Jem”). However, Barbie’s modern animated appearances kicked off in 2001, with the first of a long-running series of CGI animated direct-to-video films. Most of these films focused on magical fantasy settings/elements (such as mermaids), adaptations of fairy tales, or adaptations of classic literature.
In 2012, an animated series, “Life in the Dreamhouse,” debuted on YouTube, running until 2015. This series took a satirical look at Barbie and her friends, set in a world where they’re all aware they’re dolls. (Yes, similar to the premise of the live-action movie.) A few other YouTube-based Barbie series were also produced.
Starting in 2017 with the film “Dolphin Magic,” Barbie became a streaming-based series, with a new series of films and TV shows produced for Netflix. Interestingly, all the post-2017 Barbie animated media is set in the same universe, and possess actual continuity. That’s despite the various movies/TV shows varying in focus between “slice of life” and “magical/fantasy elements.” Presumably this is the result of needing to promote related doll lines, thus the odd mix of “auditioning for a record company” and “mermaids are real.”
Cast
The Netflix-based Barbie media focuses on Barbie Roberts, here depicted as in her late teens, and the rest of the Roberts family:
- George and Margaret, Barbie’s father and mother.
- Skipper, Barbie’s younger teenage sister.
- Stacie, Barbie’s preteen sister.
- Chelsea, Barbie’s grade school aged sister.
For those wondering, there’s been a few other one-off Roberts sibling dolls in the past, but Mattel has retconned Barbie’s official siblings to these three. I assume Barbie’s siblings are meant to represent various stages of childhood/adolescence.
Barbie’s friends include Teresa (who’s Latino), Nikki (who’s Black), Renee (who’s Asian American), Daisy (who has pink hair), and Ken (who has a crush on Barbie in the various Netflix series). Notably, there’s also Barbie’s newest friend… Barbie Roberts?
Barbie “Brooklyn” Roberts
On an interesting note, Mattel found a way to include the Black version of Barbie in the same world as the white one. (Instead of just treating them as alternate-universe counterparts.)
In the 2021 movie “Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams,” we learn that the white version of Barbie hails from Malibu, California, while the Black version of Barbie is from Brooklyn, New York. Both Barbies befriend each other in New York; since they both have the same name, they go by the nicknames “Malibu” and “Brooklyn.”
Brooklyn’s family consists of:
- Simone and Kelvin, Brooklyn’s parents. Simone’s a pilot, while Kelvin’s an architect.
- Jackson and Jayla, Simone and Kelvin’s godchildren, and Brooklyn’s godsiblings. The two are twins who live next door with their two Dads.
Netflix TV shows
The Netflix TV shows to date include:
- “Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures”: A series running from 2018 to 2020 for five seasons of 52 episodes. (Oddly, Netflix splits it into two separate series, with the subtitle “Go Team Roberts” added to the second “series.”) The series is “slice of life” stories about the Roberts family and their lives in Malibu. The famous Dreamhouse is shown as the Roberts’ home, a high-tech house designed by Barbie’s mother.
- “Barbie: It Takes Two”: A series running for two seasons in 2022; a follow-up to the 2021 movie “Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams.” The two Barbies attend a high school for the arts in New York, while trying to break into the music industry. The duo also hang out with Rafa, a Latino male classmate who’s interested in designing fashion. “Malibu”’s family make occasional appearances.
- “Barbie: A Touch of Magic”: A series starting in 2023, running two seasons. Unlike the above series, this one goes back to “magical fantasy”: the girls find a magical Pegasus, with magic-related hijinks ensuing. There’s also tie-ins to a few mermaid-focused films made a few years earlier. (Like I said, continuity’s now a thing for Barbie?)
There’s also multiple films made for Netflix, including separate ones starring Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea.
Highlights
- Yes, “Barbie” has LGBTQ representation. In “A Touch of Magic,” Barbie’s friend Daisy is seen asking another girl for a date. In “It Takes Two,” the twins’ Dads, Emmett and Tyler (“Dad” and “Papa”) appear in several episodes, and are given a Father’s Day shoutout on the YouTube Barbie channel.
- The fact they decided to fold the Black and white versions of Barbie into the same world, with both getting nicknames based on their hometowns.
Opening credits
Here’s the intro for “Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures.”
And here’s the intro for “Barbie: It Takes Two.”
Conclusion
Admittedly, it’s obvious that these shows are also meant to sell toy lines, especially the more fantasy-based spin-offs like “A Touch of Magic.” Checking, all of the kid/teenage characters above have dolls, including Daisy, the twins, and Rafa. The Barbie shows and films are also much lighter in tone versus fellow Netflix-based Mattel spin-off “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.” Still, if one’s kids like Barbie (or one’s a Barbie fan), these should be reasonably entertaining.
From browsing online, I gather “Dreamhouse Adventures” and the pre-Netflix “Life in the Dreamhouse” are the favorite TV shows among Barbie fans.
On a personal note, I’ve bought my nieces African American Barbie dolls over the years. Seeing someone that looks like you in toys (and media) is important, after all, and a reason diversity in such matters.
Image: “Barbie: It Takes Two.” (Mattel/Netflix/Mainframe Studios)
