TY ME UP, TY ME DOWN (THE BEANIE BUBBLE)

© Apple TV+

Fresh from one irreverent take in cinemas on a classic toy comes another, more conventional movie about a range of toys.

Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash Jr's 'The Beanie Bubble' focuses on a soft toy phenomenon of the 1990s.

The Ty corporation's Beanie Babies broke new ground by becoming more than just a stuffed toy.

It was an investment.

© Apple TV+

By producing limited quantities of specific designs, Beanie Babies became a very hot collectors item.

With the value of some designs increasing tenfold, Ty were able to capitalise on the emerging online market to the extent that at one stage sales of Beanie Babies reportedly accounted for 10 per cent of eBay's transactions.

Gore and Kulash Jr's movie doesn't just focus, however, on the online frenzy that built up over Ty's range soft toys.

The Apple TV+ film is interested in three women in the life of Zach Galifianakis' billionaire Ty Warner, who initially made stuffed cats before developing the Beanie Babies range.

© Apple TV+

Working from a script by Gore based on Zac Bissonette's 2015 book 'The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and The Dark Side of Cute,' the feature creates fictionalised versions of three actual women in Warner's life.

Elizabeth Banks' Robbie is a version of Patricia Roche, Warner's initial business partner and girlfriend who became a successful businesswoman in her own right.

Geraldine Viswanathan's Maya is based on Lina Trivedi, a Ty corporation employee who built one of the world's first e-commerce sites that helped fuel demand for rare Beanie Babies.

Sarah Snook's Sheila represents Faith McGowan, another ex-girlfriend whose young daughters inspired some of the designs.

© Apple TV+

Deploying a narrative that shuttles back and forth between three different time periods in Warner's life a la the Hulu and Disney+ series 'Dopesick,' we see how Warner sweet talks all three women into building and developing the business, only to eventually betray them.

Jumping between events in the 1980s and 90s, the film begins with a spectacular slow motion crash on a highway in which a Ty corporation lorry sheds its load.

As passing motorists pull over and scramble to grab as many valuable Beanie Babies as they can from the boxes that have been spewed onto the road, Gore and Kulash Jr are clearly conjuring up a heavy handed metaphor.

But this is typical of a film that competently tells a corporate story but never really ignites.

© Apple TV+

Beyond being a parable about how a businessman exploits the talents of women around him, the film suffers from being released so soon after Ben Affleck's clever heist movie approach to Nike's conquering of the basketball trainer market in 'Air' and Greta Gerwig's irreverent take on Mattell in 'Barbie'.

While unquestionably being a solid examination of the Beanie boom and the failings of the businessman who profited from it, 'The Beanie Bubble' just seems too conventional.

What it has going for it, though, are four decent central performances.

Banks delivers one of the best performances of her career as a businesswoman who sacrifices her own marriage to go into business with Warner, only to be shafted by him.

© Apple TV+

Viswanathan turns in a vibrant performance as an intern whose ability to forsee the potential for profits from limited editions of the toys and online sales dazzles Warner but is not properly rewarded.

Snook delivers a sturdy performance as a woman who is charmed into a relationship with Warner, only to realise just how vain and ruthless he is.

Shorn of his beard, Galifianakis has a lot of fun playing the larger than life Warner in a rich Nathan Lane style performance that trades on camp, ego and gaslighting.

There are shades of Jordan Belfort too from 'The Wolf of Wall Street' in the pumped up, self congratulatory motivational speeches he delivers to staff.

© Apple TV+

We're later told Warner ended up being sentenced to two years imprisonment for tax evasion.

Competently shot by Steven Meizler, there are occasional splashes of vibrant colour in Renee Ehrlich Kalfus' costumes and Molly Hughes' production design.

But even these splashes of pink and blue pale when viewed against the bombardment of pink in Gerwig's 'Barbie' movie.

And there's the rub.

© Apple TV+

Gore and Kulash Jr's film may be the victim of unfortunate scheduling.

The movie might have commanded more critical respect had its release preceded Gerwig's comedy in particular because it just doesn't sparkle in the same way.

'The Beanie Bubble' does enough to hold its viewers' interest for one hour and fifty minutes.

The problem is: you just wish it would do a lot more.

('The Beanie Bubble' received a limited cinema release on July 21, 2023 and was made available for streaming on Apple TV+ on July 28, 2023)