Barbie Is Not What She Used To Be

I played with Barbie's when I was growing up. Barbie was pretty much a regular girl. Albeit, a somewhat glamorous and well endowed regular girl, but a regular girl just the same. She played in a house, drove a nice car, and always had an exciting career as an astronaut or veterinarian. Now she is pretty much a princess. Well, I guess really, she is an actress.

If you are not familiar with the current line of Barbie movies, you are missing out on an entire little girl subculture and thriving merchandising market. There is essentially an "acting troupe" of ...well, um, people. They are all animated, but they are animated people, so for the sake of argument we will call them people. Anyway, there are all of these movies with all the same people in them playing different characters. Barbie is always the lead character and frequently a princess.

Today the girl and I went to a sneak preview of the latest Barbie movie, Barbie as the Island Princess. While the event in and of itself was rather disappointing all around, we did get to share a private moment with Barbie herself. She was kind and sweet and told my angel how pretty she was. That has to count for something.

Here is what we choose to remember about our morning.