Barbie Footage Reaction: The Iconic Doll Gets Way Existential [CinemaCon 2023]

We're less than three months out from the most colorful film of the summer: "Barbie," led by the talents of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, wherein Greta Gerwig ("Lady Bird") delivers a feminist take on the iconic Mattel fashion doll, off an original script she co-wrote with filmmaker partner Noah Baumbach ("Marriage Story"). Despite the sheen of corporate synergy all over it, "Barbie" is somehow one of the most highly-awaited movies of 2023.

It doesn't hurt that "Barbie" has an absolutely stacked ensemble cast. Kate McKinnon ("SNL"), Issa Rae ("Insecure"), Hari Nef ("Transparent"), Alexandra Shipp ("Straight Outta Compton"), Emma Mackey ("Sex Education"), Sharon Rooney ("My Mad Fat Diary"), singer Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan ("Derry Girls"), Ana Cruz Kayne ("Little Women"), and Ritu Arya ("Humans," "The Umbrella Academy") are all playing different kinds of Barbie, in addition to Robbie as main Barbie.

And alongside Gosling as Ken, there's Simu Liu ("Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"), Kingsley Ben-Adir ("One Night in Miami..."), Scott Evans ("Grace and Frankie"), and Ncuti Gatwa ("Sex Education") also playing variations of Ken. Michael Cera ("Scott Pilgrim vs. the World") and Emerald Fennell ("The Crown") step in as Ken and Barbie's friends Allan and Midge, respectively.

We've already had two trailers (that have driven many conversations) and a bunch of character posters (that have fuelled thousands of imitations), but Warner Bros. saw fit to give us a new look at "Barbie" at the ongoing CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas, where /Film's Ben Pearson is on the ground. Here's what was shown.

It's Barbie's world and we're just living in it, folks.

Those in attendance at CinemaCon, including /Film's Ben Pearson, were given the exclusive opportunity to watch a montage of scenes from "Barbie," which begins with Margot Robbie's Barbie waking up in a heart-shaped bed. 

A dance scene quickly follows, with a tone full of bright-eyed optimism and kid-friendly antics accompanied by her voiceover proclaiming, "This is the best day ever! And so is yesterday, and so is tomorrow." Checks out, right? Well, not so fast. 

Barbie soon muses over a shockingly existential concern, "You guys ever think about dying?" That leads to a segment where we see the doll's life all but falling apart. Her feet, which the trailer showed perfectly preserving her famous heel shape, suddenly go flat on the ground. Not all is well in Barbie Land, it seems.

Enter Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie, who confronts Robbie's character with a "Matrix"-like choice: She can either wear a high-heel shoe ... or a sandal. The former represents her old way of life, while the latter symbolizes her quest to find knowledge. We can safely assume she chooses the sandal, embarking on a journey to the real world with Ryan Gosling's Ken. Oh, and they encounter John Cena. Who plays a mermaid. Yes, really.

The rest of the footage teases Barbie and Ken skating around the boardwalk of Venice Beach, a particularly memorable scene captured in set photos in months past. Then we meet Will Ferrell's character in a boardroom in a scene very similar to "The LEGO Movie," where he worryingly states that, "If people start realizing our characters are coming to life, it's going to mean very weird things for our world." Sounds like the perfect set-up for a spectacular summer blockbuster.

"Barbie" opens in cinemas on July 21, 2023, the same day as another highly-awaited film of 2023 that also has an absolutely packed ensemble, Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer."