Margot Robbie to play Barbie in doll's first live-action film

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Australian actress Margot Robbie is to play Barbie in the first live-action feature movie about the iconic and controversial doll, who has enjoyed multiple careers in her 60-year lifetime.

Toymaker Mattel and movie studio Warner Bros on Tuesday announced they were partnering to make the film, which will star the Oscar-nominated actress. Robbie, 28, will also co-produce the film, the companies said in a statement

No plot, title or release date was announced for the film, which comes 60 years after the adult-figured Barbie fashion doll was launched in March 1959.

Robbie, who was Oscar-nominated for her starring role in the 2017 ice-skating movie “I, Tonya” and who appeared in the 2016 superhero movie “Suicide Squad,” said she hoped the film would “have a tremendously positive impact on children and audiences worldwide.”

“Barbie has empowered kids to imagine themselves in aspirational roles from a princess to president,” the actress said in a statement.

Barbie has adopted more than 200 careers in her lifetime, including robotics engineer, astronaut and teacher.

She is the best-known doll in the world and a cultural icon celebrated by the likes of Andy Warhol, the Paris Louvre museum, and the 1997 satirical song “Barbie Girl” by Scandinavian pop group Aqua.

But critics said her curvy body promoted an unrealistic image for young girls, and sales began dropping in 2014, leading California-based Mattel to add a wider variety of skin tones, body shapes, hijab-wearing dolls and science kits to make the products more educational.

The live-action Barbie film is the first venture from the recently established Mattel Films unit set up in September to develop the franchise of Barbie and other toys, such as Hot Wheels and American Girl.

Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leslie Adler

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Barbie maker Mattel scraps plan for artificial intelligence speaker

WASHINGTON - US toy giant Mattel said Thursday it was cancelling its plan to deliver an artificial intelligence-infused digital speaker for children, following complaints from privacy groups and lawmakers.

The device called Aristotle was announced in January during the Consumer Electronics Show as a kid-friendly alternative to digital assistants such as Amazon's Alexa-powered speakers and Google Home, and which could also be used as a baby monitor.


But several activist groups and at least 2 US lawmakers said Aristotle threatened to undermine privacy and could open up children to marketers, hackers and other threats.

Mattel said in an email to AFP that its new chief technical officer Sven Gerjets, who joined the company in July, "conducted an extensive review of the Aristotle product and decided that it did not fully align with Mattel's new technology strategy."

"The decision was then made not to bring Aristotle to the marketplace as part of an ongoing effort to deliver the best possible connected product experience to the consumer," the statement said.

Last month, US Senator Ed Markey and Representative Joe Barton sent a letter to Mattel chief executive Margaret Georgiadis warning of privacy issues with the device.

The lawmakers said Aristotle was capable of "transmitting personal and sensitive information" about children to Mattel, and raised privacy fears because it could "build an in-depth profile of children and their family."

Meanwhile the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sent a letter and 15,000 petition signatures asking Mattel to scrap Aristotle.

"Aristotle would inject corporate surveillance and marketing into the most intimate and important moments of young children's lives," said the group's executive director Josh Golin.

The dust-up was the latest over toys and devices for children which are connected to the internet cloud.

Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission said it would require toy makers to respect a law protecting children's online privacy, and the FBI warned that devices such as Mattel's "Hello Barbie" could "put the privacy and safety of children at risk due to the large amount of personal information that may be unwittingly disclosed."

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Star Wars overtakes Barbie with $5-B US toy sales

NEW YORK - Spiderman, Thor and Princess Leia are ganging up on Barbie in a battle for America's increasingly tech-focused toy industry playground.

Hasbro, long a distant second to Mattel, maker of the iconic Barbie dolls, passed $5 billion in annual revenues for the first time in 2016 and topped its rival in first-quarter sales.

Hasbro's surge is due in large part to snatching Disney's lucrative "Princess" and "Frozen" franchises from Mattel in 2016 in a shift that was announced in 2014.

The company also amassed a large advantage in toys connected to upcoming movie releases including the latest installments in the blockbuster "Transformers," "Thor" and "Spiderman" series.

The movie juggernaut culminates in December with "The Last Jedi," part of the iconic "Star Wars" series, a reliable cash cow, not only because of its cross-generational appeal, but because it features prominent male and female characters.

"They just have blockbuster after blockbuster," Keith Snyder, an equity analyst at CFRA, said about Hasbro.

He noted that smartphones and other technology allow toymakers to monetize the franchises far beyond the limits of old-fashioned action figures.

"They're playing with the 'Star Wars' figures, watching the 'Star Wars' movie, seeing the 'Clone Wars' cartoon and then playing 'Star Wars' on their mobile phone," Snyder said. "Keeping them tied into 'Star Wars' drives more sales."

Mattel's movie-linked offerings, which include "Cars 3" and "Wonder Woman," are fewer and less lucrative, analysts say.

MORE GADGETRY IN TOYS

Hasbro, whose best-known brands include "Play-Doh" and "My Little Pony," also is introducing more toys that incorporate newer gadgetry, such as a Nerf blaster drone that carries a camera and lets kids monitor movements on a screen and fire darts from remote locations.

Another new toy is the "Furreal" a ready-to-assemble puppy robot that permits children to select fur color and bark sound among other commands through a downloaded app.

The toy also incorporates coding programs, another selling-point in today's high-tech market.

"Tech-oriented toys and unplugging are not mutually exclusive," Hasbro president John Frascotti said in response to written questions.

"Our mission is to deliver the world's best play experiences, and that often involves both technology and untethered creative play."

Mattel also has boosted its emphasis on technology, partnering with the ABC broadcast network on a reality competition series in which innovators pitch ideas to a panel of children judges.

And the company introduced digital elements to its best known franchises, which include the "Thomas and Friends" choo choos and "Barbie," now available in about two dozen multi-cultural versions.

Barbie, which had been in a slump a few years back, notched a seven percent rise in sales in 2016 to nearly $1 billion, in a year that included its introduction of three new body types, "petite," "curvy" and "tall."

Mattel signaled an even greater focus on technology in January when it named Google Americas president Margaret Georgiadis as its new chief executive.

The appointment raised expectations that Mattel will introduce more toys that traverse the virtual and real worlds, perhaps by including a free "webisode" or another downloaded item with purchase.

"Analog toys don't have the same staying power as they once did," said Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz. Moving across channels means "people can play with it in the way choose to."

Georgiadis is expected to lay out her strategy for turning Mattel around at a June 14 analyst day in New York. Mattel did not respond to emailed questions or interview requests.

Speculation that Hasbro and Mattel could merge has surfaced from time to time, but analysts do not consider that likely.

The two companies, along with Lego, control about 30 percent of the fragmented US toy market.

SOME WANT TO UNPLUG

While tech-oriented toys are in demand, some of the hottest categories in 2016 were more old-fashioned items, including puzzles and games (up 18 percent from 2015) and outdoor and sports toys (up 10 percent), according to data from the NPD Group.

NPD estimated the US toy market at $26 billion in 2016, about the same as in 2015.

"It goes in ebbs and flows," said Robert Kracinovich, a senior buyer at Learning Express, a chain with about 120 stores in the US.

Kracinovich said board games are now back strong after a weak stretch while active toys have been "terrific" the last four or five years.

The company's core customer is the parent interested in "getting kids to disconnect and have more creative play time," he said.

Analyst Snyder also sees greater demand for old-fashioned toys as a countervailing trend to the tech surge.

"Parents want to share a disconnected experience with their children," Snyder said. "What better way to do that what with a game of Monopoly?"

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Reality check: Barbie now tall, curvy and petite too

NEW YORK - Barbie, long the stereotypical blue-eyed blonde bombshell, has been given a makeover. The iconic doll will now be available in three new body types -- tall, petite and curvy.

The best-selling doll's manufacturer Mattel announced the new looks Thursday, ending a 56-year-old tradition of Barbie having just one physique: unrealistically perfect.

The new dolls join Barbie's Fashionista line, which will now feature four body types. It will also have seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles -- an acknowledgement, belated for some, that women come in many sizes and shapes.

"Barbie reflects the world girls see around them. Her ability to evolve and grow with the times, while staying true to her spirit, is central to why Barbie is the number one fashion doll in the world," Mattel President and CEO Richard Dickson said in a statement.

"We believe we have a responsibility to girls and parents to reflect a broader view of beauty," added Evelyn Mazzocco, senior vice president and global general manager of the Barbie brand.

NEW DOLLS COULD BOOST SALES

Mattel is not the first doll maker to shatter the mold of what pretty means.

In late 2014, graphic artist Nickolay Lamm introduced a doll named Lammily, which features what the company calls standard human body proportions.

In 2002, Tonner Doll came out with one called Emme, after the plus-size model who went by that name.

The new Barbie looks should help Mattel boost declining sales of the doll -- down for three straight years and by 16 percent in the first half of 2015.

Last year, Mattel launched "Hello Barbie": a version that uses WiFi and voice recognition technology so kids can actually hold conversations with the toy.

This is not the first time Mattel has released Barbies with different looks, although the body types are new.

In 1980, Mattel marketed Black Barbie, who had an afro-style hair-do.

Mattel's failure to change Barbie's body size had drawn a lot of criticism, but the company long defended the design.

"Barbie's body was never designed to be realistic. She was designed for girls to easily dress and undress," Kimberly Culmone, vice president of Barbie Global Creative, explained in 2014 in an interview with the website Fast Company.

Culmone challenged the notion that Barbie dolls could play a role in how little girls might perceive women's bodies and their own.

"Clearly, the influences for girls on those types of issues, whether it's body image or anything else, it's proven, it's peers, moms, parents. It's their social circles," Culmone said.

However, a British study in 2006 of girls aged five to eight found that those exposed to Barbie had a less favorable view of their own bodies.

These girls ended up wanting a thinner body than did girls not exposed to the doll.

After the new Barbie body types were announced on Thursday, social media lit up with messages of praise.

The stock market greeted the move with cautious optimism. Shares in Mattel were up 0.65 percent to $27.15 at around 1830 GMT.

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LOOK: Mattel releases new Filipina Barbie

MANILA – A new Filipina Barbie doll has been released by Mattel as part of its Global Glamour collection.

Only 4,400 units of the Mutya Barbie were released last February 2. The Filipina doll has tanned skin and black hair, and wears a terno inspired by the sampaguita flower and the sun icon from the Philippine flag.

For accessories, the Mutya Barbie has golden-tone earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and a golden lace fabric fan.

“Mutya means pearl or beauty or muse; it’s a girl’s name, and is also used in the titles of pageants in the Philippines,” said designer Carlyle Nuera. “Mutya Barbie will have the Kira face sculpt. I know a lot of collectors have a lot of love and nostalgia for that face sculpt, as do I, since that was a face sculpt I grew up with!”

“Her organza overdress is a take on the terno, with the unmistakable butterfly sleeves. The organza’s print references textiles of the different tribes in the Philippines as well as the sun from the flag. The embroidery on the hem is inspired by the sampaguita, a jasmine flower that is the national flower of the Philippines,” Nuera added.

The Mutya Barbie is available online for $100, with collectors allowed to order only up to five dolls.

Other dolls included in Mattel’s Global Glamour Collection include the Tribal Beauty, which wears a feathered midriff top, and Venetian Muse, which dons a black ball gown.

A number of Filipina Barbie dolls have been released over the years, with inspirations from Santacruzan, ethnic groups, weddings and traditions in the country.

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