Barbie vs. Oppenheimer: Disney Edition
“Hi Barbie! Hey Barbie! Hello Ken.”
Hello readers, it’s time to ‘think pink’ and harness some atomic star power, as we dive headfirst into this weekend’s obsession, Barbenheimer mania.
In this week’s double feature section on pop culture, we are going to look at the head-to-head summer blockbuster mania, Barbie vs. Oppenheimer, with a Disney twist. This was too fun an opportunity to pass up. And don’t worry, this is completely spoiler-free.
Barbenheimer vs. Disney
In case you missed it, this was a high stakes weekend for the box office as the ‘Barbenheimer’ craze swept the country! Hailed as the latest peanut butter meets chocolate of the double features, these wildly divergent films have turned this weekend into the biggest movie event of the summer, for a perfect double feature pairing.
Neither of these studio films are related to Disney (or Disney franchises), but I can’t help but want to get in on this weekend’s Barbenheimer fever. It’s in this spirit that we are going head-to-head to review Disney’s ties (however loose) to both Barbie and Oppenheimer. Wish me luck, as I tie these two topics together.
Buckle up the seatbelts to your pink convertible and get your iodine pills ready, because we are jumping in!
Disney and Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s nuclear epic Oppenheimer (2023) tells the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1946. A theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer was pivotal in developing the first nuclear weapons, and thereby ushering in the Atomic Age.
The stakes were high during this time period, as the Manhattan project was credited with igniting the fuse for a decades long cold war between the allied axis powers and the Soviet Union. Everyone then took a collective sigh after the events of the Manhattan project. However, instead of exhaling, the world held its breath. The world had witnessed firsthand nuclear fission was a terrifying reality, and the nuclear bomb was no longer science fiction.
It was then, in mid 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower exhaled, and his administration asked the Walt Disney Studios to produce a show championing the civilian use of nuclear power. The show would eventually air on January 23, 1957, in an educational episode of the Disneyland television series, called Our Friend the Atom.
The Eisenhower campaign had previously reached out to Disney in the early 1950s to help create some television commercials for the Presidential campaign. The administration cultivated a positive relationship with the Disney Studios, and began an ongoing partnership.
The Eisenhower administration wanted to alleviate some of the tension around the public’s perception of nuclear science, and Walt Disney had a great platform for reaching the American public in his weekly broadcast, Walt Disney’s Disneyland. The show was watched religiously by the American public and regularly featured programs covering a variety of educational topics.
By this time, Walt Disney had already cultivated friendships with influential people and surrounded himself with fellow artists, scientists, politicians and forward thinkers. Walt described himself as both an optimist and a futurist, and it was with these credentials Eisenhower knew Walt Disney would be the right man for the job.
Like President Eisnehower, Walt Disney also had in mind the perfect collaborator to help develop the script for the television special, later named Our Friend the Atom. Dr. Heinz Haber was appointed by Walt to be the Chief Scientific Consultant to Walt Disney Productions.
Like several other German scientists involved in research post World War II, Dr. Heinz Haber was recruited by the US Government by Operation Paperclip with the aim of identifying scientific expertise and bringing researchers and scientists to the United States. Ultimately this operation resulted in a considerable contribution to the development of NASA.
In 1946, Haber emigrated to the United States and joined the USAF School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Air Force Base. Together with fellow German Hubertus Strughold, he and his brother Dr. Fritz Haber made pioneering research into space medicine in the late 1940s. In 1952, Dr. Haber became an associate physicist at UCLA.
In the mid 1950s, Dr. Haber eventually became the Chief Scientific Consultant to Walt Disney Productions, where he later co-hosted Disney's Man in Space with noted aerospace engineer, Wernher von Braun. Dr. Haber is also credited with providing the story for Donald in Mathmagic Land.
When the Eisenhower Administration asked Disney to produce a show championing the civilian use of nuclear power, Dr. Heinz Haber was given the assignment.
Due in part to the success of Our Friend the Atom, Dr. Haber wrote a popular children's book with the same title, which explained nuclear fission and fusion in simple terms.
Soon after, General Dynamics — a manufacturer of nuclear reactors — sponsored the nuclear submarine ride at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. Our Friend the Atom (1959) #1591 was also made into a promo comic book by Disney.
I searched high and low to see if Walt Disney and J. Robert Oppenheimer ever crossed paths. From what I can tell, the two men never met and if they did, their meeting wasn’t well documented.
Although their backgrounds were very different, Walt and Robert did have some common ground. Both men were roughly the same age, and both men were married with two children. They devoted their lives to their beliefs, one was a man of science and the other was a man of faith and principle. You could, however, argue both were men of science and principle.
J. Robert Oppenheimer attended and later graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. Walt Disney never graduated from high school, but in 1938, Harvard awarded Walt with an honorary Master of Arts degree.
On June 7, 1949, Oppenheimer testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had associations with the Communist Party USA in the 1930s. In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, Walt Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). It was alleged by The New York Times in 1993 that Disney had been passing secret information to the FBI from 1940 until his death in 1966, on individuals suspected of being disruptors and communists.
Both men were habitual smokers and passed away about a year apart from cancer. Both men left their thumb print on our world.
Time for intermission…grab a snack and come back!
Barbie and Disney
Long before there were Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, there were Jodi Benson and Michael Keaton as Barbie and Ken in the Pixar Franchise, Toy Story.
Once upon a time at Pixar Studios, in sunny California, Barbie was meant to appear in the first Toy Story (1995) film as Woody's girlfriend, in place of Bo Peep. However, Mattel originally would not allow the use of Barbie for a few reasons, but it was most likely because Mattel didn’t want to risk Barbie’s reputation on a new studio’s first full length animated feature.
After the success of the first film, Mattel agreed to a partnership with Pixar Studios, and Barbie was prominently featured as Tour Guide Barbie in the film, Toy Story 2 (1999), and took the world by storm.
Tour Guide Barbie in Toy Story 2 (1999) is voiced by Disney Legend Jodi Benson, who also happens to be the original voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989).
We are introduced to Tour Guide Barbie, in Al’s Toy Barn, after Hamm, Slinky, Rex and Mr. Potato Head have become lost in the aisles, looking for Buzz Lightyear. Mr. Potato Head takes a wrong turn and ends up in an aisle filled with Barbies and Mattel accessories.
Tour Guide Barbie ends up taking the wheel and takes the toys on a tour of the toy store, looking for Buzz. What comes next is one of my favorite quotes from an early Pixar film.
“I’m a married spud, I’m a married spud, I’m a married spud…”
Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story 2 (1999)
Jodi Benson reprises the role of Barbie in the subsequent films: Toy Story 3 (2010) and Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation (2011).
In Toy Story 3 (2010), Barbie (a different Barbie) meets Ken in the Butterfly Classroom of Sunnyside Daycare. In this Disney twist on the Ken and Barbie “meet cute”, Ken (played by Michael Keaton) is the one with the fancy dreamhouse, an extensive wardrobe and matching accessories.
“Nice ascot.”
Barbie, Toy Story 3 (2010)
Ken wore 21 different outfits throughout the film, while Barbie stayed in her 1980s aerobic aqua jumpsuit, accessorized with a pink belt and scrunchie, for the majority of the film. The Barbie in Toy Story 3 is based on the real life 1983 Great Shape Barbie toy. It was also reproduced to include the accessories of a jacket or a Walkman. Mattel also included a separate self-assembly workout center.
The phrase, "Love your leg warmers," which Ken says to Barbie in their first meeting, was used in the original Great Shape Barbie toy commercial.
When Barbie is going through Ken's closet, they come across a blue and gold letterman's jacket with a "K" embroidered on the breast and a "State" pennant laying across the front. Michael Keaton, the voice of Ken, graduated from Kent State University, whose colors are blue and gold.
Both Jodi Benson and Michael Keaton reprise their roles of Barbie and Ken, in the Toy Story Toons short film, Hawaiian Vacation (2011).
In the film, Barbie is first seen along with Ken as they unzip Bonnie's backpack and emerge into Bonnie's room thinking they're in Hawaii. There, they meet Woody, Buzz, and other toys, but Ken becomes depressed when he finds out that he and Barbie have ended up in Bonnie's room and missed their "flight" to Hawaii. In response to this disappointment, Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toys decide to ‘stage’ a Hawaiian vacation for Barbie and Ken, in Bonnie’s bedroom.
Woody and his friends recreate Hawaii for the couple by arranging excursions, such as: fishing, a deep-sea diving trip, a guided nature walk and an extravagant luau.
The swimsuit Barbie wears in this short film is the same model the first Barbie doll wore when she made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.
After their various Hawaiian adventures, Ken and Barbie share their first kiss in the snow at sunrise, as Woody and his friends watch through a window, but then the two fall into the snow, prompting the toys to come to their rescue by digging them out and releasing them from blocks of ice. Hand’s down, this short film is worth a watch!
Barbie makes a silent appearance during the flashback in Toy Story 4 (2019). Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and Slinky come to Molly's room to enlist Bo Peep in helping them rescue R.C., who has been lost outside in a thunderstorm. Bo calls on her and two other Barbies to help with "Operation Pull Toy." Molly's toys create a catapult and Jessie gets on, then on Bo's command, Barbie and her friends jump on the catapult and launch Jessie into the air so she can unlock the bedroom window.
Barbie in Disney Parks
Disney’s relationship with Mattel actually spans decades, with both toy licensing agreements and attractions’ sponsorships. For a time, Mattel sponsored the Autotopia Raceway in Disneyland Paris, the It’s a Small World attraction in Disney World from 1991 until 1998 and then Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin from the attraction's opening in 1998 until 1999.
From 1993 to 1994, Mattel and Disney partnered together to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Barbie. In 1994, Barbie became EPCOT’s “Ambassador of Friendship.” Barbie was featured in The Magical World of Barbie – a 20-minute show featured at the America Gardens Theater. Fun Fact, this was the first show featured at the amphitheater under its current covered stage and viewing area.
EPCOT fans will likely remember the early 1990s as a pivotal time in the park's first evolution from the EPCOT Center of the 1980s. Previously, Disney characters and other Disney franchises were not featured in the park. The arrival of Barbie to The World Showcase is considered a first step in marketing EPCOT to a younger audience.
The Magical World of Barbie featured multiple different Barbies, not too dissimilar to the new film, taking a trip around the world – appropriate for World Showcase.
Check out this video below to catch a glimpse of the show.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. We are in the process of growing our community and we appreciate your readership.
Did you miss out on this week’s Magic in the Mail? Hit the button below to read part one of this week’s double feature newsletter.
If you haven’t taken the opportunity to do so, hit the subscribe button below to receive magic in your inbox.
Stay optimistic and see you real soon!
Sincerely,
Harper