'Barbie' BTS Photos Show How Travel Montages Were Done Without CGI

Jul 25, 2023

Fans of the new "Barbie" film have likely noticed that some scenes showing the characters traveling from Barbie Land to the Real World don't appear to be shot using CGI.

In a behind-the-scenes video recently shared to the film's Twitter account, Greta Gerwig, the film's director, as well as various other cast and crew members, spoke about the practical effects used in some of the transportation sequences.

Here's how some of the film's most iconic sequences came together without using digital effects.

"The transition between Barbie Land and the Real World is a series of transportation vehicles that get us there," Margot Robbie, who stars as Barbie, said in the clip. "Kind of like in this 2D, endless tracking shot."

The car in the scene wasn't actually driving. Instead, background and foreground scenery was pulled by crew members using conveyor belts to create a sense of motion, much like techniques used in vintage films and stage plays.

"We looked at theatrical methods of making things work," the production designer Sarah Greenwood said in the video.

"I settled on wanting it to look like a diorama in the Natural History Museum," Gerwig said in the clip. "Each box contains a scene, and I wanted them to sort of move through that scene and come out, and then move through the next scene."

Gerwig's dedication to the diorama look meant that planets in the space scene were held up by invisible wires and clouds were moved using conveyor belts.

At first glance, it appears as though the characters are biking through the tulips.

"None of it's CGI. It's just presentational, as if you were watching a play," Will Ferrell, who plays the CEO of Mattel in the film, said in the video.

"It's all very flat and 2D, so you might have a boat that's moving while the water's moving, and that's literally like our crew members pulling a rope," Robbie said in the video. "And putting little bits of cellophane on the water to make it look like it's twinkling like water."

"Barbie" is currently playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.