With films like Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the soon-to-be-released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninja Mayhem seemingly reviving the box office this year, studios are quickly learning that the average movie-goer loves a good dose of nostalgia every once in a while. It’s no wonder that Apple TV+ is jumping into the game with The Beanie Bubble, which releases on July 28, but the studio says that film goes far beyond the stuffed animal craze of the 1990s.
Based on the book “The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute” by Zac Bissonette, the movie tells the story of Beanie Baby founder, Ty Warner, and the women who helped him invent the toys but received no credit. It will tell the story of the notion of the American Dream and how women fit into it, particularly through the lens of women in capitalism.
“In [the women’s] stories, we found fascinating underdog stories that helped us explore why we value what we value in our culture and what the female relationship to the American dream really is,” said Kristin Gore, the director of the movie. Although Gore and her co-director and husband, Damian Kulash, never met any of the real life people involved in the events portrayed in the movie, they used the book as source material.
As for The Beanie Bubble and its tie-in with the current trend of nostalgia films, Kulash said, “we can’t ignore that there is a big pattern here, but we so did not mean to be a part of it.”
The Beanie Bubble is now streaming on Apple TV+.