Barbara The Witch: Mediacorp's Very Own Barbie Movie from 1997
When the Barbie movie came out in the middle of last year, my memories brought me back to a Channel 8 about witches back in my childhood. The key messages were quite similar, albeit with worse storytelling, aesthetics not as great, but all in all a somewhat close, vintage Halloween counterpart to the summer-themed Barbie. I never had a Barbie doll in my childhood, but I did have a small affinity for witches. When I was old enough to critically think about the fairytales I was read to as a child, I questioned why the witch couldn't win for once- they deserved a chance too! For something produced by Mediacorp in the 1990s, this show was surprisingly progressive for its time. Of course by 2024 standards it is still problematic, but bear in mind this was a time in TV history when blackfacing was common, fat-shaming was portrayed as comedy, and you hear characters denigrating women all the time, from calling women "sl*ts and b****es" in the show's actual dialogue to advoc...
