History
In 1987, Mattel produced two television specials with DIC Animation City and Saban Productions; Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World and its sequel Barbie and the Sensations: Rockin' Back to Earth, both featuring Barbie as the leader of a rock band (often seen as being Mattel's answer to rival fashion doll Jem from Hasbro); Mattel had previously avoided media projects for Barbie “for fear of giving Barbie a cartoon-type personality and not leaving anything to the imagination”. Though often speculated to be potential pilots for a regular Barbie series, no series ever happened. Instead, both specials were released direct-to-video by Hi-Tops Video, the children's division of Media Home Entertainment.[11][12] Another planned series for the fall of 1987 by the newly formed Mattel division MTS Entertainment was, unusually, a newsmagazine aimed at kids and teenagers, intended to feature both live-action and animated segments. Due to a flooded syndication market for children, the series never progressed, beyond a presentation at the 1987 NATPE convention.[13][14]
With the boom of home video marketing at the time, Mattel launched an eponymous in-house entertainment division in 2001[15] and began the creation of the Barbie films with the direct-to-video release of Barbie in the Nutcracker. The films initially revolved around Barbie being re-imagined as a princess and eventually expanded into various worlds of fashion and fantasy. A primary benefit of this strategy revolved around marketing, as Mattel could sell dolls specific to each film separately from the video sales and merchandise related to props, costumes and sets from the films.[9]
Tim Kilpin, then-senior vice-president for girls marketing at Mattel, stated: "What you see now are several different Barbie worlds anchored by content and storytelling. A girl can understand what role Barbie is playing, what the other characters are doing, and how they interrelate. That's a much richer level of story that leads to a richer level of play."[16] The strategy worked as U.S. Barbie sales, led by the princess line, "increased by two percent in 2006, saving Mattel's bottom line at a time when its worldwide share of the toy market was declining."[7][17] Within the films, Mattel included performances by well-known companies and orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic and the New York City Ballet.[9][18] These associations could have been included as an enrichment strategy on behalf of Mattel's marketing team to help the films be seen as educational.
Canadian animation studio Arc Productions, Inc. produced the first non-Barbie-film production for Mattel in 2011, a web series called Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse which debuted on the official Barbie website and YouTube on May 11, 2012, and concluded on November 27, 2015. The web series later spawned two television specials which were broadcast in the U.S. on Nickelodeon. Impressed, Mattel gave them four Barbie films to produce, enlisting them as the third production partner for the films after Mainframe Studios (at the time known as "Rainmaker Entertainment") and Technicolor.[19]
Israeli animation studio Snowball Studios, with support from the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund,[20] produced another web series, this time created by Nickelodeon alum Julia Pistor, for Mattel Playground Productions known as Barbie: Dreamtopia.[21][22] This series of 2-minute to 4-minute shorts launched on May 21, 2016, by Mattel's newest company, Mattel Creations, on YouTube's affiliate platform, YouTube Kids. The web shorts series later spawned an eponymous television film (distributed by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and broadcast on television in over 5 countries and regions/territories), one web-based special and a 26-episode web series – therefore becoming the first web-exclusive Barbie media franchise. This would be the catalyst for scholars and enthusiasts alike to notice Mattel heavily invested and involved in releasing more related Barbie web series and miniseries bundles on YouTube and its variants; YouTube Kids and YouTube Shorts.
Through the short video bundles on YouTube, Mattel also provided a platform for Barbie to give its audience a look into her fictional life while trying to educate them along the way. With a YouTube channel having over 11 million subscribers,[23] Mattel introduced Barbie as a YouTuber through a web series called Barbie Vlogger (or Barbie Vlogs), uploading its first video on June 19, 2015. Julia Pistor, who collaborated on the series as an executive producer and writer, stated: "Barbie is conscious of language and words; she talks about intention and she's self-reflective. While we might use words that kids sometimes need to look up, we try to be true to Barbie being a 17-year-old influencer." By giving a self-reflective nature to Barbie's character, this would allow her to discuss difficult topics (such as mental health and racism) in such a way that it inspires its audience to think about and discuss those topics as well.[24][25][26]
With the success of its online platforms, Mattel would continue to produce web series and mini-series on YouTube and its variants. Beginning with Barbie: Dolphin Magic in 2017, the media franchise as a whole moved over to streaming media services, Netflix, also including Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV+, with Mattel still maintaining the possibility of linear television broadcast agreements. In addition, Mattel signed an agreement on May 1, 2020, with Arts Music, Inc., a then-newest record label of Warner Music Group, to make thousands of songs from their brand portfolio – including Barbie – available through online music streaming services.[27][28][29] The agreement began taking effect a week later when the soundtrack albums tied to their related productions are made available through WMG's distribution label, ADA Worldwide. Mattel would extend its collaboration with Netflix on October 21, 2022, 4 days before the American debut of the franchise's inaugural interactive "special", Barbie: Epic Road Trip, which would also see the pre-2017 film catalogue previously held by Universal made available occasionally through the streaming service.
