Before Barbie got meta, there was Life In The Dreamhouse

By all accounts, the new live-action Barbie film has a delightfully subversive edge to it, simultaneously poking fun at and paying homage to the iconic fashion doll and the toy line based around her. It’s a clever approach courtesy of filmmaker Greta Gerwig and her co-writing partner Noah Baumbach, but it’s not the first project to make the most of a self-aware Barbie.

Barbie has starred in quite a few movies, but up until the last decade they were mainly direct-to-video releases aimed at a younger audience with titles like Barbie In A Mermaid Tale and Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale. These simple fantasy stories often cast Barbie and her friends in the roles of princesses or fairies who would interact with magical creatures in far-off lands. They had everything toy executives could imagine little girls might be into, but their primary goal wasn’t to entertain; it was to sell more toys. These movies didn’t end up doing much to improve declining Barbie sales, though, and may have contributed to an overall sentiment among savvy kids that Barbie just wasn’t cool anymore.

It was time for a radical change. Barbie: Life In The Dreamhouse premiered on YouTube and the official Barbie website in 2012. Launching as a series of animated shorts between three and four minutes in length, the series broke away from the straightforward, kid-targeted approach of previous official Barbie content. It had more in common with the versions of Barbie and Ken from the Toy Story franchise than it did with any of the previous Barbie movies. Hell, it might even have had more in common with The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills (there’s even a Bravo-style reunion special that recaps the first season). It turns out there’s room in the Barbie cinematic universe for fanciful children’s movies as well as thoughtful projects that cater to grown-ups with a sense of humor and nostalgia for the toys of their past.

A Barbie who breaks the fourth wall

Life In The Dreamhouse centers on Barbie (voiced by Kate Higgins) and her three younger sisters: tech-savvy Skipper (voiced by Paula Rhodes), athletic Stacy (also voiced by Rhodes), and little Chelsea (voiced by Laura Gerow), whose cute and wholesome appearance hides a diabolical mind. The characters have free will but they’re always fully aware that they’re toys. They talk about their plastic skin and how their joints move. And although we never see any humans in the show, the characters sometimes interact with objects of human scale, like a giant credit card or a massive bottle of nail polish. The show never lets you forget that this world is a polyvinyl chloride fabrication, constantly breaking the fourth wall in smart and funny ways. Perhaps the most modern and meta touch is the use of confessional interviews in the style of shows like The Office and Abbott Elementary.

Much of the humor of the show is based on the history of Barbie and her toy line. Some of the gags are obvious and some are Easter eggs that only true fans will get. It’s a running joke that Barbie has been around for a really long time—one of her oldest friends, Midge, arrives in Malibu in black and white after traveling from Barbie’s hometown of Willows, Wisconsin—and there are lots of references to Barbie’s many careers, with outfits to match. In one episode, Barbie’s friends have a trivia contest to prove who knows her best with questions like “When did Barbie first get a belly button?” In another, she models some of her actual fashions from the past (much like Margot Robbie on her Barbie press tour), including the famous black-and-white striped bathing suit.

The Roberts sisters live together in the titular Malibu Dreamhouse, a candy-colored mansion full of shiny plastic furniture and accessories that hearken back to the toys that inspired them. There are panels that change the look of a piece when they’re flipped around, decals for redecorating, and pump-action hoses for water features like showers and sinks. All of the vehicles and pets Barbie’s had over the years get a turn in the spotlight, too. Anyone who grew up playing with Barbie is likely to have a “Hey, I had that!” moment of recognition at some point in this series.

A Ken who may be too sensitive

Ken (voiced by Sean Hankinson) is a constant fixture too, of course. He’s a talented and sensitive guy (maybe too sensitive—he faints at the sight of cute puppies) and completely devoted to Barbie, but he’s often insecure in their relationship. He’d definitely relate to Ryan Gosling’s version of Ken lamenting his status as “Just Ken.” Most of the other characters—like Nikki, Midge, and Teresa—are inspired by dolls sold at one time or another, with a couple of major exceptions.

The show introduces raven-haired twins Raquelle (Haviland Stillwell) and Ryan (Charlie Bowden), who previously had no retail counterparts (although they do now). They are dark mirror images of Barbie and Ken, consumed by vanity and envy, constantly scheming to either outdo or impress them. Naturally, they usually fail, often in silly and humiliating ways. The whole series is unabashedly silly, in fact. That’s one of the best things about it.

If you’re intrigued by the ideas and creativity that clearly went into creating the new Barbie movie, you might find that Life In The Dreamhouse makes a great appetizer. It ended its run in 2015, but the minisodes are still available on Netflix and YouTube (you won’t find it on the official Barbie site anymore, sadly). There are around 75 shorts in total, with most running less than 4 minutes long, so you can watch them in bite-sized chunks. With the film just days away from finally hitting the big screen and the buzz surrounding it reaching a deafening roar, maybe it’s time to consider that we’re the ones living in a Barbie world and not the other way around.