THE BEANIE BUBBLE

Name: THE BEANIE BUBBLE
Item: THE BEANIE BUBBLE
Author: Cooper Dowd

"Revealing the Crazy Behind the Craze"

Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE BEANIE BUBBLE is a very loose recounting on Apple TV+ of the insane frenzy surrounding the Beanie Baby plush toy craze in the 1990s. It focuses on the oddball inventor, Ty Warner, who took all the credit for the toy dolls. It also focuses on the three women that Ty used along the way.

THE BEANIE BUBBLE is sometimes confusing in its first half, but the final hour is a fun look at how crazy American pop culture can get. It finds plenty of fun, zippy ways to explain not only the story of Beanie Babies, but also the dawn of the internet and other odd corners of capitalism. Zach Galifianakis is terrific as Ty Warner. He masterfully balances the comic side of his character’s incredible arrogance, with nuanced revelations about the man’s greedy, manipulative side. The three lead actresses, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan, bring unique energy to the story. However, THE BEANIE BUBBLE has excessive foul language, including 16 “f” words and three strong profanities. It also has references to Ty Warner’s philandering. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Content:

(PaPa, B, CapCap, PP, LLL, V, SS, N, A, MM)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong, slightly mixed worldview about a self-centered and self-indulgent toy inventor in both his business and personal relationships, his mistress becomes pretty ruthless when she turns the tables on him, but he does finally face consequences, as Ty’s empire collapses, and he’s later imprisoned for tax evasion, plus the movie portrays American capitalism as a system where creativity can reap rich rewards, and the movie makes a point that the lead male character always stood by his principles that all his dolls must be American-made and sold in mom and pop stores

Foul Language:

At least 29 obscenities (including 16 “f” words), one Jesus profanity, two GD profanities, and three light profanities

Violence:

A woman comically punches her unfaithful husband in the nose, but no blood is shown, and there’s a spectacular slow-motion jackknife crash of a truck carrying small toys that becomes visual metaphor for the movie’s plot

Sex:

Implied fornication and adultery includes a man and woman are seen lying in bed after sex (the man is shirtless and the woman implied nude under the sheets with only her bare shoulders are shown), another man and woman kiss passionately while clothed and standing, the lead male character says he and his dad shared the same woman as their girlfriend for years and sometimes had threesomes; the lead male also is clearly a womanizer (the fact is discussed briefly and implied by his looking at numerous women, and married man’s mistress briefly taunts the wife about their affair

Nudity:

A man is seen shirtless in bed with a woman, while the woman’s bare shoulders are seen, implying nudity under the bed sheets

Alcohol Use:

Social drinking of alcohol is scattered throughout movie Smoking and/or Drug Use/Abuse: No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Man vastly underpays and

More Detail:

THE BEANIE BUBBLE is a very loose recounting on Apple TV+ of the insane frenzy surrounding the Beanie Baby plush toy craze in the 1990s and focuses on the oddball inventor who took all the credit for the toy and on the three women he tried to step on along his way. THE BEANIE BUBBLE is the latest in a recent string of movies telling the story behind the biggest crazes of the last few decades.

The movie stars Zach Galifianakis as Ty Warner, an incredibly vain man-child who was obsessed with plush animal dolls. The movie frequently jumps between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. This establishes Warner as a raging egotist from the start of his career in the 1980s running a normal-size doll business with his girlfriend, Robbie, played by Elizabeth Banks. Robbie was the sharp business mind while Ty was the creative force.

Ty and Robbie found solid success together with full-size animals. The tiny Beanie Babies were inspired a decade later by the daughter of Ty’s 1990s girlfriend, Sheila (played by Sarah Snook). Sheila’s daughter said that having tiny dolls would make them easier to take everywhere. So, Ty scaled down his toy dolls, only to blow up his company Ty Inc. into a billion-dollar corporation.

The shifting timeframes help show the parallels between Ty’s relationships and business dealings across both decades. As Ty gets wealthier, he finds ways to cheat Robbie out of fair credit and

rewards for her enormous contributions, while also taking his vanity to absurd heights. The movie also reveals the myriad romantic entanglements that made his personal life a circus.

At the center of the company’s explosion is a young woman named Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan), who shirked medical school to become Ty’s internet wizard in the 1990s. Maya narrates the movie, showing the shady side of Ty Warner in all respects from her perch as the right-hand woman behind the Beanie Baby explosion.

How crazy will Ty’s ego get? Is he destined to wreak personal havoc upon all three of these women, or will they find a way to stand up for themselves and teach him a lesson?

THE BEANIE BUBBLE is confusing at times in its first half, until viewers can get used to the jumpy pacing of its two-decade timeframes. However, the movie’s final hour is a fun look at how crazy American pop culture can get. It finds plenty of fun, zippy ways to explain not only the story of the Beanie Babies, but also to tell the dawn of the internet and other odd corners of capitalism.

Zach Galifianakis is terrific as Ty Warner, masterfully balancing the comic side of his incredible arrogance with nuanced revelations of his greedy, manipulative side. The three lead actresses each bring unique energy to the story, especially as they each catch on to just how bad a guy Warner actually is. They are easy to root for as they figure out how to take back control of their lives.

Another plus is the fact the movie portrays American capitalism as a system where creativity can reap rich rewards. Also, the movie makes a point that Warner always stood by his principles that all his dolls be American-made and sold in mom and pop stores.

THE BEANIE BUBBLE is rated R, however, mostly for its strong foul language, which contains 16 “f” words and three strong profanities scattered throughout the movie. It only has a few quick seconds of comical violence. The movie keeps nearly all Warner’s sexual affairs non-graphically discussed or implied. There is one brief bedroom scene where Ty is shirtless but his girlfriend, Robbie, is seen with bare shoulders under sheets.

THE BEANIE BUBBLE may be viewed by mature adults and older teenagers, but only with extreme caution.