As the release date draws closer, the hype continues to grow for the pinkest movie of the summer, or most likely the year, or ever. Barbie has brought together some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and in music, for a very brightly-colored, comedic homage to the iconic Mattel fashion doll. Naturally, given the means, the premiere of a toy-centered film is going to come with the release of relevant collectible merchandise, and that's already started to happen with Barbie. Mattel has already gone and done it with two unique dolls created in the likeness of Margot Robbie's Barbie and Ryan Gosling's Ken, and of course opinions of them are abuzz. Per a report from Variety, fans are growing rather divided on the look of Gosling's Ken doll, with some hilarious responses popping up on social media and the doll's Amazon product page.
Ironically, not too long at all ago, the internet was in a heated debate about Ryan Gosling's casting as the one-and-only Ken in Greta Gerwig's Barbie adaptation. Some people took to social media to judge the otherwise popular and talented actor being picked for the role, trying to make it a point that he was too old to play Ken at 42 years old. While this became yet another fated installment of the eternal public discourse around the double standards of casting older actors in fictitious character roles, Ryan Gosling himself didn't take the criticism lying down. He called out those who suddenly seemed to care about who played Ken in the film, claiming that no one really thought about Ken as a character before now.
Backlash Over Ryan Gosling's Ken Doll
Now, in a ridiculous about-face (pun perhaps intended), some other people are calling out Mattel, claiming that the promotional Ken doll they've released ahead of the film's premiere looks nothing like Ryan Gosling. The doll itself comes in the classic pink packaging, with Ken shown inside sporting clothes straight from the film, and swept-back, platinum blonde hair. However, that's where the similarities seem to end for the most part. One customer who purchased the doll on Amazon remarked:
“I only bought this Ken doll because the hair is advertised as ‘snowcat white’ but this is far from it...And the top of his hair is super thin.”
The face of the doll certainly doesn't hearken to Gosling's features much at all, but there are still plenty of people buying it for the sentimentality. In fact, the whole collection of nine dolls has already been blowing up both Amazon and Mattel's retail websites, and some claim Gosling's doll looks "better in person".
Either way, the dolls have proven to be yet another profitable marketing boost for the Barbie film, which is set to premiere in theaters everywhere on July 21st. You can check out the trailer for a little more Ken goodness below.