by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
Beanie Babies bring out some of the most incredible parts of nostalgia for anyone old enough to remember the ‘90s. I would wager most people remember their first Beanie Baby (mine was Bongo the monkey). These half-foot tall/long stuffed animals had to have been the hottest toy in the late ‘90s. But one day, the fad just disappeared. We as a nation almost altogether… stopped caring. But there is still a special place in our heart whenever we think back to our collections. The Beanie Bubble tells the story of three incredible women behind the rise of a pop culture phenomenon.
We are introduced to the three women most responsible for the rise over the under stuffed toys. First, Robbie (Elizabeth Banks), who had befriended the founder of Beanie Babies, Ty (Zach Galifianakis), well before he started his stuffed animal empire. They would eventually get together romantically to almost instant turmoil, in an on again, off again relationship.
Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan) is an intern who made a good impression on Ty to get her foot in the door, and who has a keen eye on the untapped potential of the internet. While going to school to become a doctor at her family’s behest, she only applied as a receptionist to make a little extra money. Maya quickly becomes invested in the creation of the new toy and notices that a limited run and a secondhand market has made Beanie Babies Ty Inc.’s most popular commodity.
Sheila (Sarah Snook) plays the new love interest who is supposed to meet with Ty, but gets stood up. He becomes smitten when Sheila tells him off, and he is able to convince her that she should go on a date, and just to show how great of a person he is, she should bring her two daughters. Ty is charming. He is great with kids, and when he turns it on, he is irresistible. The Beanie Baby is invented because Sheila’s daughter wants a smaller version of the stuffed animal, he initially woos them with. This leads to a brainstorming session on what to name the little frog. I guess we are led to believe that an eight-year-old is actually the catalyst for Beanie Babies. This becomes a major sticking point for Ty and Sheila as the business grows.
After our heroines are introduced, we are woven throughout time as the movie progresses. Maya is shown to be the inspiration behind some key features of the beloved toys. Robbie is slowly pushed out of the company, and Sheila continues to fall deeper in love. Wash, rinse and repeat for the two-hour runtime. If I could make a comparison, it would be to the Michael Fassbender biopic Steve Jobs. A large part of the different timelines take place in the same location(s), depending on whose story we are watching. And the problem is, I wanted to avoid making any comparisons to other biopics, but the Beanie Bubble is pretty run-of-the-mill. You see the rise of the company, the charming architect behind it all is shown slowly going mad, and pushes away all of those close to him. But the story is not the biggest selling point here; sure the story of Beanie Babies is interesting, but there are better documentaries if you want a deep dive.
The strengths of this film come from the performances. Galifianakis melts into the role with a shaved beard and charming personality, at his introduction anyway. He plays against anything I have ever seen him play. He is tasked with carrying the movie and slowly unraveling as small decisions don’t pan out the way he has envisioned. He even shows his frustration differently than what I have come to expect from a Galifianakis role. The real standout, though, is Viswanathan. With just a limited filmography behind her, she has quickly shot up to the “see everything she’s in” category. The confidence she brings to the table is astounding, and it is enjoyable to watch her both as an actor holding her own against powerhouses, and the way she brings forth the confidence that her character is based on.
But on the other side of the strong performances, Sarah Snook is criminally underused. She is let loose in a couple of scenes, but towards the film’s big climax when I was ready for Shiv Roy to let loose, it didn’t come. Snook was the big selling point for me, as the Successiondrought was beginning to set in. Anybody familiar with her work is going to feel a sense of missed opportunity. She deserved more. Hopefully this is just an outlier for the future of Snook.
What you can count on, though, is the humor being on point. There are plenty of times when I laughed out loud or gave a hardy chuckle. Maya arguing with her family comes in just the right amount of bursts to be fun interludes to the scummy business practices she fights against. And as much as Galifianakis plays against type, the eccentric side still comes out at times. A dance number between him and his two daughters-to-be is especially sweet. Sure, there are jokes that feel forced because we are talking about the ‘90s, like making fun of the early days of the internet, but most of the time we steer clear of too many jokes about the time period.
Meanwhile, the breakneck pace at which we move around can be a bit confusing if you look away from the screen when it shows the year, and sometimes it doesn’t even give you the year. The movie assumes you’re smart enough to put together what timeline we are in, but to be honest, I wasn’t. It just left me confused for a whole scene trying to remember how we got here. I think if this was told a bit more straightforwardly, we would be left with a better experience, but there are just one too many times where it tries to be a bit cleverer than it needs to be. There are some choices that land, like the voiceover of Banks, Snook, and Viswanathan, but when it plays with what we are seeing and when, it misses the mark.
The Beanie Bubble was made for a specific type of people with a specific type of nostalgia, or at least that is how it feels marketed. The reality of the film is that it is more about filling in the gaps with a creative license to attempt at an entertaining biopic, rather than the behind-the-scenes decision-making in creating a billion dollar company. For the most part, it succeeds at creating something entertaining, but just enough for me to tell you that it’s worth your time, and that’s only if you can remember the name of your first Beanie baby.
Rating: It’s Just Okay
The Beanie Bubble is currently streaming on Apple TV+
You can read more from Scott Batchelor, and follow him on Letterboxd and Twitter