With "Barbie" still raking it in at the box office, Mattel fans might be wondering what's next for the burgeoning film studio. As it turns out, fans of the grotesque suffering from '80s nostalgia might be in for a treat.
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00:00 With Barbie still raking it in at the box office, Mattel fans might be wondering what's
00:05 next for the burgeoning film studio. As it turns out, fans of the grotesque suffering
00:09 from '80s nostalgia might be in for a treat. While the massive anticipation built up around
00:13 the Barbie movie will probably never be recreated, the incredible success of the film raises
00:17 the question, what other products could toy conglomerate Mattel capitalize on via the
00:21 film medium?
00:22 With the Mattel Cinematic Universe already being built, high-profile properties like
00:26 Masters of the Universe will certainly be bringing He-Man and his skull-faced adversary
00:30 Skeletor to the big screen for the first time since the 1980s. But what about some of Mattel's
00:35 other holdovers that would be better suited to the horror genre? It turns out, Mattel
00:39 has already devised a horror comedy based around the magic eight ball. While that idea
00:43 has plenty of potential given the success of projects like Hasbro's film Ouija, there's
00:47 one toy-based creature feature that nostalgic fans are really holding out for.
00:51 "Hi, I'm a Boglin! Me and my buddies wanna be your friend!"
00:54 The Boglins, introduced during the tiny monster craze of the mid-1980s that resulted from
00:59 Joe Dante's Gremlins, were marketed as frightening rubber hand puppets that appealed to kids
01:03 of all ages. With fairly ridiculous names like Dwork, Vlob, and Drool, they could be
01:07 squished and squeezed to create all kinds of bizarre facial expressions. They also featured
01:11 glow-in-the-dark eyes that could be controlled with a finger-operated lever located inside
01:15 the head.
01:16 Outside of the OG Boglins, Mattel also produced Small Boglins, Mini Boglins, Soggy Boglins,
01:21 and even Hairy Boglins that looked like warped versions of trolls that got left out in the
01:25 sun too long.
01:26 Developed by Tim Clark, Maureen Trotto, and Larry Mass in 1987, Boglins eventually went
01:31 out of production in 1994. It was mostly the clever, cage-like packaging that made them
01:36 stand out on toy store shelves. Kids ransacking the aisles wanted nothing more than to break
01:40 them out of their cardboard prison.
01:41 After being largely forgotten about, aside from eBay collectors and a hilarious horror
01:45 short called Boglins Return, the brand has stayed mostly dormant until now. In potentially
01:50 exciting news for horror fans, Mattel recently secured control of the property after almost
01:54 a year of negotiations. Having gone to so much trouble to get the rights, it's clear
01:58 Mattel wants back in on the Boglins business.
02:01 However, don't expect a lot of bloodshed in the potential Boglins movie. In a recent report
02:05 by The New Yorker about the company's future, Barbie producer Robbie Brenner made it clear
02:09 that any move into the horror genre will stay completely on-brand. She explained,
02:13 "We're not going to make any rated-R movies. We're not going to make anything that feels
02:16 violent or that is alienating to families. We want to stay within the parameters of what
02:20 Mattel is."
02:22 After the success of IPs like Trolls and The Lego Movie, which were originally looked at
02:26 as hollow cash grabs, Mattel has a blueprint for how to make a Boglins movie work. There
02:30 are countless characters, with varying degrees of grossness, that could easily populate a
02:34 horror fantasy world akin to Jim Henson's Labyrinth.
02:37 After the successful attempt by Margot Robbie and Mattel Films to get Greta Gerwig to direct
02:41 Barbie, Robbie Brenner has her eye on another visionary director, Guillermo del Toro. According
02:46 to The New Yorker, directors and screenwriters alike have expressed interest in a Boglins
02:50 movie, but getting another one of the greatest filmmakers alive today to take a meeting would
02:54 be a major asset to Mattel Films.
02:56 After adding to his Oscar Gold collection with his rapturous stop-motion adaptation
03:00 of Pinocchio, del Toro may be particularly hard to get. At the Ansi Animation Festival
03:05 this year, the filmmaker announced that he wants to focus on doing animation exclusively
03:09 after a couple more live-action films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, del Toro also expressed
03:14 his continued frustration with the current studio system while speaking at the festival,
03:18 saying that in just a few months, he had a total of five ideas for films shut down by
03:22 producers.
03:23 Imagine the beautiful irony, then, if del Toro managed to bypass the Hollywood system
03:27 in favor of Mattel Films to create something truly original and macabre with a horror property
03:32 like the Boglins. Considering that Mattel executive Kevin McKeon told The New Yorker
03:36 they're hoping Boglins will make up their next big Halloween film, it could be a match
03:40 made in heaven.
03:41 (upbeat music)
03:43 (upbeat music)