SNL‘s American Girl movie trailer is a spot-on parody of the upcoming live-action Barbie movie
If you are a human who has a pulse and lives on Planet Earth, you’ve seen the trailer for Margot Robbie and Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming live action Barbie movie. It’s getting a lot of hype (and for good reason, because it looks absolutely hilarious). But you know something can’t be talked about this much without getting the Saturday Night Live treatment, and so, of course, SNL spoofed the Barbie trailer with a live-action doll movie of their own, based on American Girl.
While the trailer for the Barbie movie is all technicolor, sunshine, and positivity, SNL‘s American Girl takes a different route: one that’s as dark and tragic as those historically accurate books could be sometimes. The SNL trailer, starring Heidi Gardner, Molly Kearney, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, and host Ana De Armas, portrayed dolls with “harrowing” backstories: an orphan from Victorian times, a doll suffering from cholera, one whose dad was a prisoner of war, and one who was a runaway slave.
“Not all dolls live in a dream,” a voice-over explains at the beginning of the trailer. “Some are bigger… younger… sadder. Some dolls are American Girls.”
In a suitably dark twist, the voice-over adds, “Did all their family members die of old-timey diseases? Absolutely.”
The hilarious thing is actually how accurate the trailer is. If you grew up on American Girl—and read the historical fiction books that told the stories of Kristen, Samantha, Molly, and other dolls—you know that American Girl has never shied away from certain (true yet dark) elements of the time periods it portrays. Sure, SNL is exaggerating a bit for comic effect, but the spirit is there. Now, in case you need a palate cleanser so you don’t have to start your Monday morning with that, here’s the Barbie trailer again. You’re welcome.
