There’s a Barbie movie coming this summer. While some were busy reacting to the second trailer for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling's plastic adventure, a talented artist made her own unique Barbie model that combines Mattel's prized doll with the anime legend Akira.Since Barbie was first announced, many have been puzzled by how Greta Gerwig will put together a movie in this bizarre toy world packed with spray-tanned people, a question not necessarily answered by either of the two trailers. Nevertheless, it’s worth admitting that over the years, Mattel has ensured the Barbie cinematic universe is brimming with more films than most kids and teens can handle.For Indonesian-Canadian artist, Alex Louise H. (@alx_egg), who has been working on Barbie animation for a while, having the blonde doll take up headlines presented her with the perfect opportunity to get creative. She’s an anime fan, and that's why Louise suited up Barbie in pink racing leather to create an Akira poster that gives the world’s most famous doll a matching pink Ducati-style motorbike. Suffice it to say people on Twitter loved the Akira-Barbie crossover.
Created by Katsuhiro Otomo in 1982, the Akira manga would make it big six years later when the eponymous film was released and quickly earned a place among the greatest anime films of all time. Blending Barbie with Akira is a bit of a left-field play. However, given the former’s versatile nature, it’s not difficult to imagine a special edition model that looks like this.
Louise's gorgeous artwork came with perfect timing, as Barbie's promotional efforts included a web app that allows people to make their own Barbie film posters. That said, for Robbie, the high-risk bet that is Barbie could also represent her third high-profile movie bust after the disappointment that followed Amsterdam and Babylon.
To this day, Akira is a top-notch cyberpunk anime, and it remains one of the quintessential works that helped Japanese animation become popular in other parts of the world. So at least in that sense, Akira and Barbie have a lot in common.
Barbie is scheduled for release in theaters on July 21, 2023.
Source: @alx_egg | Twitter