Earlier than Cody was introduced in to supply a transparent route for this specific Barbie film, the venture suffered from a scarcity of clear imaginative and prescient as a number of storylines for the central thought existed, with little progress being made. Cody’s earlier work speaks for itself – she had established herself as a contemporary and intriguing voice as a author with feminist leanings and understanding of gender politics versus societal notion. Nevertheless, Cody deserted the venture with out handing over a single draft, telling Display screen Crush in 2018 (through GQ):
“I failed so badly on this venture. (…) I used to be actually unable to render a draft of Barbie. God is aware of I attempted.”
Talking to GQ lately, Cody defined why she thinks the venture failed, saying “the tradition (on the time) hadn’t but embraced the lady or the bimbo as legitimate feminist archetypes.” Cody additionally cited the current revitalization of the Barbiecore subculture on websites like TikTok, saying the “celebration) of the female” in terms of Barbie wasn’t as widespread in 2014 as it’s now, making an attempt to launch a film in regards to the iconic doll “a measurement order.”
There was additionally some confusion concerning the movie’s precise artistic route, with the central idea being Barbie’s expulsion from Barbieland for failing to realize anticipated beliefs of perfection. Cody additionally informed GQ that “there was numerous stress to not write the dramatic equal of ‘math is difficult,'” as a result of the objective was to ship a take that diverged from the anticipated norm. Whereas “unconventional” was the key phrase Cody needed to infuse into the venture, these competent concepts did not translate nicely right into a workable script on the time.