Barney is getting a movie! But unlike Mario, this won't be a light-hearted return to your favorite childhood memories. Instead, the Barney movie is going to be a serious A24 style piece...
Barney & Friends was discontinued in 2010, and so a few of you might not even remember the program. It was a fairly typical kids show that saw Barney the dinosaur singing with guests and spreading a positive message.
Now, based on that description at least, you would assume that a Barney movie would be upbeat and nostalgic. However, we've just heard the first details about the upcoming Barney movie, and to put it bluntly: This movie sounds like a bit of a nightmare.
- Until this film gets released you're going to need something to watch. Luckily, we have a 30-day Prime Trial for you (don't worry, you don't need to be a student).
The Barney Film Will Be Closer To "The Whale" Than "The Super Mario Bros. Movie"
As revealed in a recent piece by the New Yorker, execs at Mattel want to do something entirely unexpected with the upcoming Barney movie. As opposed to doing a run-of-the-mill family film, they want the Barney movie to be an angsty, surreal piece of cinema, aimed at adults.
As Alex Barasch describes:
McKeon seemed most excited by [Daniel] Kaluuya’s Barney project, which would be “surrealistic”; he compared the concept to the work of Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” he said. “It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney—just the level of disenchantment within the generation.” He told me later that he’d sold it to prospective partners as an “A24-type” film: “It would be so daring of us, and really underscore that we’re here to make art.
You rarely hear about execs committed to "making art", but in fairness to Mattel, the pitch sounds intriguing. It will attract an all together different audience than a "standard" Barney film would, and it will no doubt struggle to make as much profit, but this has potential to be a genuinely good film.
What do you think about this approach to Barney? Is it refreshing and exciting, or do you just want to indulge in nostalgia?