A seven-year-old Barbie fan was distraught the film has a 12 rating because the target audience for the iconic toys – the under-12s – have not been able to watch their hero in action.
Olivia Barrett wrote a letter to director Greta Gerwig demanding a new film.
A doll connoisseur with her very own Barbie DreamHouse, she was left baffled after her mother, Emily, told her she would not be able to go.
Coming out at the start of her summer holidays and with adverts that seem to be on every billboard across the country, youngsters have been taunted as they can’t understand why they wouldn’t be able to see their favourite toy come to life.
Olivia writes Barbie
And so – taking up her pen – a furious Olivia wrote: ‘Why did you make the Barbie film for older children?
‘I am seven years old and I am sad that I can’t see it.
‘Will you be making another film for seven-year-olds?
‘I love Barbie.
‘Why has it got rood [sic] words in it?’Barbies are my favourite toys.’
Emily Barrett, 33, helped her daughter write the letter after seeing her disappointment first hand.
A business owner from Kent, she saw the film with her mother-in-law before deciding if it was inappropriate for her little girl.
Mother stops her
Research session over – she was glad she didn’t allow Olivia to come with her. With themes of death and sexual illusions, she doesn’t think it would be appropriate for people of such a young age.
She said: ‘She’s always been a big fan of Barbie. She’s got a Barbie house that she plays with constantly and the Barbie film has come out primetime summertime when all the kids are off.
‘There’s been a load of advertising around it – like Margot Robbie in the Barbie car looking amazing.
‘She was so gutted and she kept on saying to me: “Why can’t I see the Barbie film?”
‘There’s lots of things in it I just don’t think she’s ready to hear.
‘It’s just really gutting for them that it’s been put at a rating and there are enough things in it that will stop parents from taking their little ones to see it.
‘I took her to see a film yesterday at the cinema and it’s all Barbie everywhere – it’s a reminder of: “This isn’t fair, I’m not allowed to watch it!”‘
Emily didn’t even tell Olivia when she went to see the film because she was afraid of upsetting her.
Mother compensates daughter
And to compensate for her not being able to see the film, her mum Sue has got bought her a special Barbie top.
Olivia has now become the star of the family WhatsApp chat after her letter was posted in – with everyone very impressed by her strong-minded penmanship.
Emily continued: ‘Eventually when this comes out on Netflix, I could show her the first 15, 20 minutes of it where it is all about Barbie Land and it’s exactly what the little girls want to watch.
‘It’s all the pretty dresses and the car and the dancing and it’s really good fun – that’s what you expect from a Barbie film!
Mother’s reasons….
‘But once you go into the human world it gets quite adult and it’s all about feelings and older connotations and thoughts.
She continued: ‘By having some of the thoughts of death – it was just a bit unnecessary. The kind of things they were exploring in it was a bit strange.
‘There’s lots of connotations of death, lots of innuendos – there’s quite a lot of sexualising in it.
‘She’s seven years old. I don’t really want to be exposing her to that stuff too early, but she’s just really gutted. She’s so into Barbie.
‘I kept saying to her it’s not a child’s film – and that’s just so confusing for kids.
‘Taking a Barbie doll and saying, actually, it’s not intended for children to watch it – especially when they make this bright pink poster with the Barbie in the car.
‘She was asking me so many valid questions and she said to me: “I want to speak to the person who made it!”
‘So I let her go with it, and I said why don’t you write a letter – and she did it! I helped her write it with the spelling and things, and I thought it was a really good thing for her to do, to voice her opinion on it.’
The Barbie’s fame
The Barbie film passed the $1 billion mark in the box office this week, making history as the first female-directed movie to do so after its release just three weeks ago.
It was infamously released alongside Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible – leading some theatre-fanatics to see all three in one go in a challenge dubbed ‘Mission Barbenheimer’.
But for Emily the fun was undermined by adult themes in a film about her child’s favourite toy.
