THERE'S* GOING TO BE A HUNGER GAMES BARBIE.
*head explodes*
I got so shrill while going on and on and on about The Nerve of Creating a Hunger Games Barbie that Josh threatened to buy me one if I didn't simmer down.
Harumph.
________________________
*Supposedly.
Every single bit of merchandise they put out strikes me as something that could conceivably have been on sale in the books in the Capitol, and I'm not really comfortable with these attempts to turn Hunger Games readers/moviegoers into Capitol roleplayers. It reminds me of a dream I had, where they did a special choose-your-own-adventure type release of the Hunger Games movie. As the movie played, audience members paid a little extra money in order to vote for whoever they'd like to see survive, as though they were sponsors from the books. People's votes changed which ending would show. It was a creepy dream.
Posted by: LG | 27 February 2012 at 08:40 PM
For the rest of my life, whenever I teach a children's-YA writing workshop, this will be my example of irony.
Posted by: Cynthia Leitich Smith | 27 February 2012 at 08:52 PM
Move over, Justin Bieber electric toothbrush. There's a new Yankee Swap gift in town.
Posted by: Shoshana | 27 February 2012 at 09:52 PM
That was pretty much my reaction when I saw this on Tor this morning. I am pretty confused as to how Collins can be okay with the way this movie is being marketed!
Posted by: Michelle | 28 February 2012 at 12:01 AM
My immediate gut feeling -- of *course* there is. What better way to trivialize the social commentary?
Posted by: willaful | 28 February 2012 at 02:18 AM
I wonder if Collins IS okay with this - seeing as she kept locked-down editorial control over everything in the movie - maybe the advertising isn't what she can control, so she controls what she can?
Posted by: tanita | 28 February 2012 at 04:41 AM
I had to laugh at this quote from the article:
"It’s hard to imagine little kids reenacting the bloody combat of the Hunger Games in Barbie’s Malibu dream house."
Has this author SEEN the way kids play with Barbies?!?
I still remember the day from my own childhood when all of my Barbies marched into battle against my brothers' G.I. Joes. 'Twas a day that shall live in infamy.
Posted by: Brooke Shirts | 28 February 2012 at 10:59 AM
Ummmm.... my 10 year old is really excited about the Hunger Games Barbie.
She wants to put Katniss up on her shelf with the Wonder Woman and Batgirl Barbies, as kind of a "girls who kick a$$" hall of fame.
Posted by: Merideth Jenson-Benjamin | 28 February 2012 at 11:25 AM
@Merideth: It's always good to get a gentle reminder that despite my lurrrve of it all, I'm not exactly in the target demographic.
(That said, whenever my sister and I find ourselves in a store with a decent selection of Barbies, we always end up spending a really, really long time in the Special Edition Barbie section. She's currently coveting the samurai Ken doll.)
Posted by: Leila | 28 February 2012 at 11:40 AM
I'm not going to lie. I kinda want it. Depends how it looks. The same reason Merideth's 10 year old does.
Posted by: Allie | 29 February 2012 at 12:24 AM
There are already action figures. That seems OK to me for putting up as examples of amazing strong women. but a Barbie just seems so WRONG. (but no aspersions on your 10-year-old, Merideth -- since her other kicka$$ women are already Barbies, maybe that seems right to her and that's OK - it's not the kids I'm complaining about for doing this, it's Mattel)
Posted by: Genevieve | 29 February 2012 at 05:30 PM