The first trailer for upcoming Apple TV+ movie The Beanie Bubble has a lot of fun with the Beanie Babies fad of the 1990s.
“Witness the crazy … behind the craze,” shout title screens in all caps between scenes. And Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks, as the partners behind the bean-filled-stuffed-animal business, do a good job of showing it.
Trailer for The Beanie Bubble: ‘Witness the crazy behind the craze’
The trailer for The Beanie Bubble, below, promises laughs at the absurdity and improbability of Beanie Babies‘ rising popularity in the 1990s. Apple TV+ lists the movie as a drama, but the trailer definitely plays up the humor surrounding the toy collectibles.
It stars Galifianakis (The Hangover, Between Two Ferns) as Ty Warner, a struggling toy salesman and founder of Ty Inc., which produced the pellet-filled toys. He and Banks (Cocaine Bear, Pitch Perfect), who plays Robbie, joust throughout the trailer over her status as his partner in the skyrocketing business that had a slow start.
From slow start to first internet sensation
Photo: Apple TV+
In an early scene, the two are pitching the idea in a modest-looking office.
“You want to sell high-end stuffed Himalayan cats,” the serious business guy seated behind the desk says, doubtfully.
“Under-stuffed, actually. For greater pose-ability,” Warner corrects, with a pompous self-importance that Galifianakis pulls off with glee.
“We’re professionals,” Banks adds, deadpan. “We’re giving the people what they need.”
The joke being, of course, that nobody ever needed Beanie Babies. And yet the toys became collectibles so hugely popular that people considered them investments. Later, amid skyrocketing financials, Warner yells, “We broke the entire internet thing.”
The Beanie Bubble trailer, which Apple released Thursday, sticks more title screens between scenes as it goes along, spelling out: “Fortune, fame, betrayal, greed — collect them all.”
Here’s how the streaming service describes the movie:
Why did the world suddenly treat stuffed animals like gold? Ty Warner was a frustrated toy salesman until his collaboration with three women grew his masterstroke of an idea into the biggest toy craze in history. “The Beanie Bubble” is an inventive story about what and who we value, and the unsung heroes whose names didn’t appear on the heart-shaped tag.
The description refers to three women, one of whom must be Banks as Robbie. The other two women in the trailer are Sarah Snook (Succession, Steve Jobs) as Sheila, who appears to be Warner’s romantic partner, and Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers, Refinery29) as Maya, who works in finance for the company and warns at one point that the business might go down the tubes.
Watch the trailer
The trailer has another good line in it toward the end.
“I have the perfect partners lined up,” Warner declares to a skeptical Robbie. “Jehovah’s Witnesses. The greatest one-on-one salesmen in the world. How brilliant is that?”
Brilliant or not, The Beanie Bubble premieres July 28 on Apple TV+ and will also run in theaters.
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