A Wrinkle In Time Barbie Dolls

Director and onetime Barbie doll, Ava DuVernay has crafted what looks to be a lush masterpiece with her live action adaptation of ‘A Wrinkle In Time’, the famous YA novel by Madeleine L’Engle.  One byproduct of big blockbuster movies is merchandising and in this case, Mattel has added three stunning new dolls to their Barbie line based on the likenesses of Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who, Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Which and Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit.  Mattel’s celebrity dolls are celebrated for their high quality and spot-on likenesses and that definitely seems to continue with these.

The director shared a glimpse of the new dolls on Twitter, with her ringing endorsement, saying “When Disney makes Barbies of your movie’s characters and you just want to stare at them all day in disbelief because you loved Barbies as a girl but never had any like these”:

In L’Engle’s original novel, the immortals tended to favor the depiction of traditional witches, basically old crones, complete with pointed black hats, except for Mrs. Whatsit who was described as a shimmering light.  DuVernay has obviously taken liberties with these descriptions. Not only are they multiracial, but they are younger, ornate and larger-than-life, as envisioned by costume designer  Paco Delgado.

The ‘Wrinkle In Time’ dolls are available to pre-order from Mattel.  They are intended for adult collectors and priced accordingly at $50 each.

DuVernay herself was immortalized as a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll in 2015 as part of the ‘Shero’ line, which paid tribute to real women of note.  The one and only Ava doll was meant to be auctioned off for charity (others who have received this honor include Janet Jackson and Katy Perry).  But strong fan reaction to DuVernay’s doll led to Mattel producing additional dolls for sale to the public.  Proceeds from the sale of these went to benefit WomenofChangeandWitness.org.

Personally, I find the designs of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Whatsit to be absolutely dazzling!  Immortalizing them in doll form only makes sense and even though $50 is steep for a child’s doll, it’s downright reasonable when it comes to adult collector dolls.  What do you think?

‘A Wrinkle In Time’ directed by DuVernay and also starring Storm Reid, Chris Pine (who had his own Mattel doll made twice, as Captain Kirk from ‘Star Trek’ and Steve Trevor from ‘Wonder Woman’), Zach Galifianakis and Michael Peña hits theaters on March 9.

Source: Entertainment Weekly