The Beanie Bubble (2023)

The Beanie Bubble review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

After witnessing the recent Beanie Baby documentary, Beanie Mania, watching a dramatized version of the Beanie Baby mania through The Beanie Bubble was…weird. Despite an attempt to evoke some drama from the popular toy of the 1990s, this biopic plays more like an exaggerated version of the true story that comes off lighter than it should. Maybe the film was trying too hard, or maybe there just wasn’t enough to this story to warrant some slick drama. However you slice it, this film just doesn’t work at trying to make this toy craze sound even crazier than it was.

The film does have a solid cast, considering how beardless Zach Galifianakis melts into the role of Ty Warner. As a toy developer, he obsessed over his products in a way that fluctuated between caring about how kids love toys and being an egotistical CEO. His sweeter moments come when he connects with children by letting them play with his toy ideas and slowly forming the idea for the Beanie Baby. Although his toy company soared into the sky when the Beanie Babies took hold of the consumer market, he wasn’t the brains of the operation. The film centers more on the struggles of Robbie (Elizabeth Banks), Sheila (Sarah Snook), and Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan), women who played a more integral role in making Beanie Babies that stuff of riches and the subject of multiple movies. These characters are based on real women, though their names have been changed for the sake of drama in this tale.

Among the standout characters is Maya, whom Geraldine Viswanathan plays with a plucky nature. Her story of only slowly climbing the Beanie chain despite her many accomplishments makes a fascinating tale. The problem is that her involvement gets lost amid the stories of Robbie and Shiela, who crowd the screen amid Ty’s nature to be cheap and greedy. Corporate corruption becomes more like a peppering for the Beanie Baby story than a core component. Loaded up with zippy editing and a mild sensation of dark humor, the theatrics overtake whatever message is trying to be evoked from the Beanie Baby biography.

What makes the film even less effective is how it slathers on that 1990s nostalgia, where it highlights key pop culture moments more than integrating them. Remember when Beanie Babies were sold at McDonald’s in a smaller form? The film will slow down to highlight how easy it was to convince Ty of the tie-in. Remember when that truck full of Beanie Babies spilled all over the road, and consumers swarmed it like crazed vultures? The film will showcase this scene twice, even showing it in slow motion for the opening. So much of the Beanie movement is reduced to the level of a Millenial recounting events in a meandering manner, where thoughts get lost in “Hey, remember when the Internet was first starting?”

The Beanie Bubble is a film that seems to spend so much time recounting the events of Beanie Mania that it forgets to say anything with its decent staging. The film might suffice as a cliff-notes version of explaining Beanie Babies to the generation who didn’t live through it. But considering Beanie Mania is a better documentary, this film offers so little beyond its okay performances and brisk pacing. Consider skipping the dramatization and going straight for the documentary. Or ask your parents, kids. They’ll probably paint a better picture.