Does anyone have a link to the Barbie stop-motion animated version of The Karen Carpenter Story?
I have a friend who is dying to see this…
I believe it’s called Superstar and was a student film made by a now-famous director.
I’m dying to see it too. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s available online.
I saw it online once, I forget the site. It was part of a collection of things that shirked copyright law or something, one of the most memorable being a drawing called “Notmickey” that poked fun at Disney’s and other company’s uber-protection of their intellectual property. The idea was that “Notmickey” was to be used on websites as a replacement for the real thing, since it is obviously not Mickey. (Notmickey is a mouse-like character with three ears saying “Don’t sue!”)
Superstar was part of the collection since it was forced out of normal circulation by the Karen Carpeter estate since the filmmaker didn’t pay for the rights to her songs (though I imagine if he did, Mattel would have been pissed off too, since they protect Barbie’s image pretty well).
Here. Enjoy.
That’s the site I was thinking of.
Thank you! I bookmarked that in case I someday actually have a fast enough computer/modem/connection to enjoy it. Sigh.
(I’m tempted to buy the DVD - I’ve been wanting to see this for like 10 years now.)
There’s no way I can download that on my dial-up. I may have to fork over the 30 bones.
Director Todd Haynes followed Superstar with underground favorites Poison and Safe. He gained wider attention with Velvet Goldmine (Ewan McGregor, Eddie Izzard) and some mainstream success with Far From Heaven which received 4 Oscar nominations including Best Actress for Julianne Moore and Best Original Screenplay for Haynes.
Superstar was an extremely effective thoughtful movie. Several friends and I watched it in college about ten years ago. It might not be what you expect it to be. It took us by surprise.
I’m a big fan of dark humor. I’m also happen to be one of those “alarmists” who does believe that Barbie is a horrible toy to give a young girl, that Barbie really does hold a strong influence at such a young age as to how young girls accept that kind of standard of body image.
So I sat down to watch this film thinking it was going to be so funny (very dark humor but funny nonetheless) in how it would indict the Barbie symbol for dangerously unhealthy choices made by young girls and women in our Barbie-standard society.
Forget funny, folks. This film was deeply disturbing, such as to have a deep effect on me, someone who was already very well educated about eating disorders. It was very difficult to watch at several points and finally brought me to tears (in front of my college guy buddies who were just as deeply affected.)
This should be standard viewing in junior high health classes.