Over the past sixty years, Barbie has gotten a lot of grief from certain folks. Yes, she might be into hot pink a tad too much, but our girl has been a teacher, a soldier, a doctor, and an astronaut. She’s literally done it all, ok? And now, thanks to a Barbie fan and pop culture enthusiast named Warren Wright, she’s a YouTube star. For the past year or so, Wright has made incredibly accurate stop motion videos using Barbie and Ken dolls. And these “Dollmation” videos are all based on iconic movie and music moments.
Horror enthusiasts will especially love Wright’s transformation of Barbie into Laurie Strode, from the last harrowing act of the original Halloween. We are pretty sure that is a Michael Myers action figure who is stalking her, but part of me wants to believe it’s actually Ken in a William Shatner mask. To create Barbie’s Jamie Lee Curtis-accurate outfit, Wright reconstructed a Ken doll shirt, and found the bellbottoms on Etsy.
Of course, Halloween gives birth to a whole genre of slashers, most notably Scream. Wright recreated the iconic opening of Wes Craven’s original film. Drew Barrymore’s character was created using a vintage Barbie head, which works remarkably well.
The real Barbie would never hold a cigarette, but she does when playing Uma Thurman’s character Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction. Luckily, Wright found a John Travolta doll as well, so he was able to recreate the film’s famous dance scene from Jack Rabbit Slim’s. We think Quentin Tarantino would approve of Plastic Fiction.
Perhaps Wright’s latest video though is his crowning achievement. And we don’t say “crowning” achievement lightly, since it celebrates the Queen of Pop, Madonna. Wright recreated Madonna’s entire 1990 MTV VMA performance of “Vogue.” He recreated the stage, the 18th-century costumes, and all of her dancer’s choreography. Barbie never struck a pose quite like this before:
Wright goes into detail in this Behind-the-Scenes video on the making of “Vogue.” It turns out it was all done during the early months of the pandemic when he was sheltering at home. With fabric stores closed, Wright had to improvise on creating Madonna’s Marie Antoinette-inspired outfit, using fabric for drapes! This one took a long time to finish, but the results speak for themselves.
To see more of Wright’s videos, be sure to head on over to his YouTube channel, as well as his Instagram account.
Featured Image: Warren Wright