This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
As I’ve mentioned before, and as many have no doubt noted, the corporate biopic continues its surge in 2023 across Hollywood. On one hand, movies like Air have significantly raised the bar in what these films can be. However, for every great example, we get a movie like The Beanie Bubble. A misguided, unnecessary film that really has no place being a movie anyways.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the concept of a movie that totally dives in to the “beanie babies craze” of the late 90’s is very interesting. Had we been able to see more of that, I believe the film could – and would – have been much more successful. However, the substance of The Beanie Bubble just feels wrong. It felt like the focus of the film was not placed in the correct area.
What started as an interesting look at the origins of the company and the eventual creation and craze of the beanie babies devolved into what was basically “The Life and Times of Ty Warner and The Women He Manipulated into Making Him a Billionaire”. Which is wholly less interesting of a concept. I can honestly say I never cared about Ty Warner, the man behind Ty Inc. and Beanie Babies. This movie proved that to be true.
The Beanie Bubble shows us the story of Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis), and more specifically, the women that uplifted him from lowly man with stuffed animals to a hugely successful billionaire toy tycoon. These three women are based on real life figures in Warner’s life. I give credit to the film for actually showing us that side of the story. It makes the film a little more interesting seeing how AND who help to create the massive success Ty Inc. was.
However, I really did hate how the film dealt with Ty’s character. While Galifianakis does a good job portraying the flawed billionaire, his story isn’t great. He starts out as a sweet, caring person that devolves over the course of the film into just a cruel, dimwitted, rude business owner. I guess it’s in an attempt to show what wealth does to someone, but in reality, the 180 heel-turn in his personality is just jarring.
I also credit the film for being just fun and unserious enough to make things interesting and not boring. The movie didn’t feel like it was dragging on most of the time, even though the runtime is absurdly long for a film of this caliber. It hits almost 2 hours long, but it really didn’t need it. Yet, I didn’t find myself counting the minutes until credits rolled. Unfortunately for the film, it didn’t do enough that was interesting or even beyond the typical biopic cliches to make me feel engaged with the story.
However, the film did suffer from some serious editing issues that really broke up the flow of the film. There were a numerous amount of time jumps between different eras of the company and Ty’s life. It really didn’t flow well, and it broke up any momentum the film had. You could even tell the editors were sick of it by the end, as they initially used a fun graphic to show the years changing during these time jumps, but by the end of the film – and after a whole host of these – the movie just abandoned this graphic for the last few times jumps as if it never existed.
Final Thoughts
The Beanie Bubble, when you really get down to it, is a misguided and misfocused biopic that offers nothing new to the genre that’s already so saturated with films from just this year. The film is essentially one-part corporate motivational video, one-part hallmark movie, and one-part biopic with every stereotype in the book. While it’s fun enough to keep your attention, it doesn’t do anything to make you remember it immediately after you finish it.
