The Real-Life Inspiration for Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House in ‘Barbie’

When Barbie production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer first set out to create Margot Robbie’s Malibu mansion, they were coming into the world as fresh as, well, Barbie herself. They’d never owned one of the dolls or her Dream House. Their first inspiration was director Greta Gerwig’s script, and then came their shared love for vintage Americana—its simplicity and joy, as applied to a pink, toyetic wonderland. They based their paradise on the great dream houses, like the famous Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, and placed this idyllic paradise inside the dot on Barbie’s “I.”

One of Barbie’s greatest feats is the immersive world that its production team created. From the nostalgic, eye-popping costumes to the candy-colored world that Barbie and her friends call home, the movie is a delicious feast for the eyes. Everything in Barbie Land had to look a little bit like a toy, so Greenwood and Spencer scaled everything down by 23 percent to make the human actors look just a bit oversized. There were also no walls in Barbie Land’s houses, allowing viewers to see from one place to another. As Spencer put it during an interview with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, “Barbies have no self awareness. They have no embarrassment. They have nothing like that.” Greenwood likened their purity to an “Adam and Eve quality.”

… And then, the Kens moved in, and it all had to come crashing down.

Read more at The Daily Beast.