If you’ve seen the teaser trailers and you’re as intrigued as us then you’ll want to know the Barbie movie UK release date and age rating certificate. We’ll take you through everything we know about the rating, along with the news on the plot, cast and runtime.
The 2023 Barbie movie has got Margot Robbie in the lead role as one of the many Barbies alongside Ryan Gosling as the main Ken, it’s got a lot of star power, which you can read more about in the cast and crew section below. However, this is clearly going to be a Barbie movie like no other.
AdvertisementIt’s got a relatively high age rating considering it’s about a kids doll, so if you’re wondering whether or not it’s for kids or adults, you can check out the link in the rating section. The Barbie movie is still shaping up to be one of the biggest releases of the summer, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it does for reviews.
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What is the Barbie movie UK release date
The Barbie movie UK release date will be the same as in North America, where the film has been scheduled for July 21st 2023. In recent years we’ve had the same release date on both sides of the Atlantic for big blockbusters like this, so it kind of makes sense.
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The problem is that over winter 2022/23 there have been a few films with split dates, which could have an impact on the Barbie movie. Puss In Boots The Last Wish, The Fabelmans and Babylon have all come out in the America much earlier than in the UK, which is a bit of a return to the bad old days.
AdvertisementIt seems to be a blip and things have gotten back to similar release schedules now that summer is here. There’s definitely more of a winter movie tradition in the US than in the UK, and there were a lot of films hitting the big screen over in the States, so maybe it was just a case of tailoring things to the different audiences.
If anything, it’s possible that we might get to see the film in the UK a little earlier than in America with Wednesday May 19th a possible date. We’d had similar Wednesday releases for The Flash, Transformers Rise of the Beasts and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, so it’s definitely a possibility.
If Barbie does go on to come out in the UK on in July then it should then get a DVD, Blu-ray and standard digital release in time for the autumn mid-term holiday. That would put it around November 2023, so it should also get a little attention for the big Christmas gift buying season.
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What is the Barbie movie age rating certificate
The new Barbie movie age rating has now been confirmed by the British Board of Film Classification for the UK with the release date fast approaching. It’s been given a rating of 12A in the UK following on from the PG-13 certificate it had already received in the US. The two are pretty much equivalent, so it’s as expected.
AdvertisementThe trailer and general audience for Barbie dolls has left a lot of fans wondering whether or not the movie is for kids or adults, which you can read more about with the link below. The PG-13 age rating certificate in the US is probably enough to mean it’s the latter.
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A U for Universal classification is probably not much of a possibility with it being live action, but a PG was quite likely looking at everything in the teaser trailer. However, now that we know what it is in North America it means that even a PG certificate in the UK is doubtful. We’re not sure if Ken breaks into full action hero fisty-cuffs or Barbie gets a-gosh with romantic affection, but a 12 certificate is now in the frame.
Initially, a good comparison was the Disney live-action remakes like Aladdin in 2019, which was a PG and had parental advisory notes of mild fantasy threat. We’re not expecting much in the way of threat in the Barbie movie, but clearly there’s going to be a few things that push it up to PG-13 in the US.
Runtime
The Barbie movie runtime has now been confirmed to be 1 hour and 54 minutes and with the PG-13 age rating in North America there’s clearly going to be a lot more complexity packed into the film. That makes it a little under the 2 hour mark, but with Greta Gerwig in the director’s chair there was always a chance of layers within layers.
AdvertisementGoing back to the Aladdin example, that was 2 hours and 3 minutes, so the Barbie movie is definitely in the same ball park. We’ll update you with more details in terms of the mid and/or post credits if there is one.
Story
The Barbie movie story focuses a lot on the dramatic reveal of the lead character herself in Barbie Land with her Malibu beach house and party lifestyle. However, she starts to have an existential crisis and visits and visits a less Barbie-like Barbie who tell her that she has to go to the real world to figure things out.
You can check out the trailers below to see how all of this will play out a little and why it has added up to the higher age rating. Ken joins her, but he’s just as unprepared for the real world as she is, so there’s going to be a lot of carnage along the way.
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It looks like they get arrested a couple of times – once for Barbie punching someone who clearly deserved a punch, and again for a complete lack of knowledge about the fiscal nature of things. They’ve also got Will Ferrel’s character out to stop them, so it’s going to build to a huge barnstorm of an ending.
Cast and crew
AdvertisementIn a move of absolute genius on the part of director Greta Gerwig, the lead role for the Barbie movie will be played by Margot Robbie. If that isn’t enough, Ryan Gosling has been cast as Ken with support from the likes of Simu Lui (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education, Doctor Who), and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Secret Invasion) as other versions of Ken.
The other Barbie characters will include Emma Mackay (Sex Education), Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie and Issa Rae (Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse) as President Barbie. The cast also includes Will Ferrel as the boss of Mattel and America Ferrera as an employee at the kids toys company.
The story for the film has been written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, so we’re expecting it to be fairly nuanced. Gerwig’s last two films were Little Women and Lady Bird and Baumbach’s credits include The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr Fox, Greenberg and Madagascar 3, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how it all comes together.
The Barbie movie trailers
For the most part the teaser trailer for the new Barbie movie features an over-sized reveal of Margot Robbie in the lead role. It gives a slightly more positive spin on the doll as the savior in the face of years of baby doll horror.
AdvertisementAfter that you get a few fleeting glimpses of the film, which includes a scene with Margot as Barbie on the top of her Dream House overlooking Malibu. After that we get to see Ryan Gosling as Ken alongside the 14th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
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There’s also a dance number featuring Shang-Chi star, Simu Liu, and a cheering Issa Rae dressed in a princess pink outfit. We then get a final view of Margot Robbie dancing it out as Barbie in a scene that could easily have been from Birds of Prey, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood or Babylon.
It didn’t take too long for the full trailer to land with the July 2023 release date fast approaching, which gave us more to go on in terms of story and cast members. You can see it with the video below, which reinforces the higher age rating certificate that it has picked up.
We’ll update you with more details on the Barbie movie age rating, release, story, cast, runtime and trailers as they get confirmed. To keep tabs on the latest upcoming films you can check out our movie news section. There’s also more on the Barbie movie at the Warner Bros. website, www.warnerbros.co.uk.
