The spectacular success of the Barbie movie has led Mattel to plan more than a dozen movies based on its brands, including Hot Wheels, Barney, Polly Pocket, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and American Girl — not to mention a full-blown theme park (with a Barbie Beach, Hot Wheels rides, and a massive He-Man and the Masters of the Universe laser tag arena. Mattel’s competitors are also making plans for movie versions of its products. Movies based on toys are nothing new (we’ve seen multiple Transformers movies, GI Joe movies, and a He-Man flick). But Barbie raised the bar. Will the inevitable flood of toy-branded movies rise to that level or just be the schlock we’ve come to expect? Neville and Shel dissect the possibilities in this short midweek episode.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, October 2 (but it will be the September episode).

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Link from this report:

• Stepping into Barbie’s heels: is a branded content renaissance coming?

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