For days now, the Internet has been looking like a continuation of Mattel. Trailer for the upcoming blockbuster “Barbie”, that is, a live-action adaptation of the story of the most famous doll of all time. Greta Gerwig reproduced as is, but of course also in countless memes, with probably the best of all reactions, her insanity Chrissy Teigen for this frame:

I need to know everything about this shot. How many takes, was she holding on to something, was she harnessed, was the landing mark sticky, was it her feet, who did the pedicure, really just a documentary about this shot pic.twitter.com/8a87KsFtXP

— Chrissy Teigen (@chrissyteigen) April 5, 2023

And like any self-respecting promo, this one for the movie “Barbie” came out with its own filter. Somehow, entire timelines now consist of variations of the poster with a blonde doll, not with Margot Robbie, aka Barbie, or Ryan Gosling, aka Ken, but with copycat dolls and dolls… next door.

All this in the same week as the movie Super Mario Bros. Movie” hit theaters and rocked the box office. In Greece, an animated film with the brothers Mario and Luigi was found in the debut to cuti 44 811 tickets and open like this number 1, which simply reflects his global success: he managed to make the most successful animated film opening of all time in the world (which I think he didn’t achieve with only secondary audiences).

After all, the video game-turned-movie project is what the entertainment industry has fueled: it’s not just The Last of Us, but upcoming movies like “Mine craft”, even “Pac Man” as a live action is currently in development by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Do you see a pattern here? We are talking about childhood heroes many of us, and while it’s been decades since we’ve held a Barbie doll or a Game Boy with a Super Mario cassette, that doesn’t stop the internet from worshiping movies as shown above, even if the memes, posts, and reactions come from people , whose age precedes the number 3, even 4.

Childhood, adult edition

One way the heroes of our childhood return to the adult version of themselves enjoy them, but above all, consume them again. OUR nostalgia this is nothing new in pop culture, for which, as you know, the only way to move forward is in a roundabout way.

As we all mature, we are constantly striving to return to what is familiar to us and usually comes from our childhood or adolescence. And this visit to the past does not manifest itself, for example, only in the form of 80s synthesizers in the music of the Weeknd, it is not bursts of pop-punk in the songs of twenty-year-old Olivia Rodrigo, or a denim bell with a strong Y2K aura. It also draws on two-dimensional or plastic heroes from a “forgotten” era. Sometimes we just want feel children; which may lead us to the entrance to the dark room to see The Super Mario Bros. Cinema” or send the ball to Disney+ in one of her films pixar (admit it, one of the good reasons that even without children you have a subscription to the platform).

We need others adult alibi. Therefore, we are in a hurry to see “Barbie” – this is not just a “movie about a doll”, but a new directorial work of the respected director of recent years, Greta Gerwig, in the project of which her husband is involved. Noah Baubach in the script – we recall that he filmed “Marriage Story” by Bergman, among others, but also tried last year to transfer the difficult Don DeLillo and his book “White Noise” to the screen. Fast way to get through the distance between childhood and cinephilia.

My love, I killed Christopher Robin

Childhood can also return not as a dream, but like a nightmare. So did the British Rhys Frake-Waterfield when the copyright restrictions of “Winnie the Pooh” ceased to operate (Attention! The first book by A. A. Soapy and not the later versions of the bear hero) and decided to make Winnie and Piglet not only a feature film, but also sad serial killers, horrified where they are prey on Christopher Robin and any young woman who gets in their way.

Film may “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” which was released at the beginning of the year may seem like a joke – and it is very similar if you watch it – however, despite the fact that critics were especially harsh on it, the film did not take long to go viral and turn a $100,000 budget into over $4 million in revenue at the register. It is doubtful that such a second-rate horror would have achieved this, if not for Vinnie’s find. No wonder, too, that its creator announced his intention to turn his story into a horror movie. Peter Pan but also his baby little deer.

In a galaxy very nice (and distant)

Of course, it’s not just that we’re “fighting” things we’re familiar with. Suffice it to recall that in recent years, Lucasfilm has seen a sharp rise in the popularity of the Star Wars universe. “The Mandalorian”. Actually, because of the small grog, or otherwise, about “baby Yoda”, who was “adopted” by the eponymous hero-father Pedro Pascal. The creature is so cutely crafted that it’s almost impossible not to love it – some so much that they complain if Grog isn’t given enough time on an episode of the show. That’s why he’s really been everywhere in recent years: in memes as well as merchandise that put his cute little face on all sorts of things.

The advance of “cute” is undeniable. For some, this isn’t limited to the movie or TV series they’ll be watching, let alone a Mandalorian t-shirt or keychain, but becomes an obsession or even a madness. As we recently read in the New York Times in an article entitled “Why do people love this tiny doll?”dolls Sonny Angel, the figurines, which are a cross between babies, Cabbage Babies and Teletubbies, come from Japan (the quintessence of the country of “cute”), the corresponding hashtag on tik tak ended 95 million views and they’ve been so successful that in Manhattan, adult Sonny Angel fans meet to sell, buy, and trade their (sometimes rare) dolls.

Are we finally “adult children”?

Check out this post on Instagram.

This post was shared by Kenny (@kennysgifs)

But let’s zoom in a bit and see how we’re bending over our mobile phones. What do we do with them? We usually watch feeds that contain, to a greater or lesser extent, memes and gifs with children’s heroes, we see videos with cute figures, we consume visual content that often looks like it originated in candy land rather than the real world.

And most of the time we get caught up in it. We pause from real life, laugh at the code language of memes that we share with friends. As cynical as it may sound, there is a friendship based mainly on the exchange of cute and funny memes and videos. You will definitely find such a chat if you look through your chats.

The conversation has been opened too many times about it if Millennials and, hopefully, Generation Z grow slowly, to what extent economic factors and the late abandonment of the parental “nest” play a role in this, but also to look at it from a psychoanalytic point of view, the older we get, the more we miss and idealize what we experienced in our youth, childhood keeps coming back in one form or another. Dumbfounded in his article “Everyone needs to grow up” Another factor is added to the equation: the marketing factor. As he explains, a consumer who feels small and cute ends up being a much easier target.

And it is precisely the way we have remained in the digital “magic” that reminds a small child that you left him his toys, which for a while become the whole world for him. Especially when the constant scrolling screams #cute on almost every corner, when we press the play button more and more often in movies and TV shows, which allows the heroes of our best and most innocent years to guide us.