‘The Beanie Bubble’ Charts the Rise and Fall of a ‘90s Toy Craze

Sandra Miska

While it might be hard for those who do not remember the ‘90s to believe, there was a few-year stretch where a certain line of small stuffed animals were hot commodities that, arguably, helped usher in the popularity of the auction website Ebay. “The Beanie Bubble” tells the story of the Beanie Babies’ rise and fall through the eyes of three women who were closely associated with toy manufacturer Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis).

When Ty, a thirtysomething single man obsessed with plush toys, is first introduced, he does not appear at all to be the type of person one would expect to find taking control in a boardroom. Shortly after the death of his father in 1983, he finds a kindred spirit in Robbie (Elizabeth Banks), a neighbor in his Chicago apartment building who is working a dead-end job and is stuck in an even deader marriage. During a night of drunken shenanigans, he comes up with the idea of them starting their own company selling stuffed cats. Most of the time, ideas like these are forgotten by the next morning, but this one not only sticks, but Ty, Inc. goes on to become a successful toy company, in no small part due to Robbie. She and Ty become a couple, and the only thing more tumultuous than their personal relationship is their professional one.

In 1993, two new women enter Ty’s life: His girlfriend, single mother Sheila (Sarah Snook), and Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan), the bright-eyed receptionist at Ty, Inc. Although Sheila never works with Ty, She and her two daughters, Ava (Madison Johnson) and Maren (Delaney Quinn), play a pivotal role in the development of his signature toy, the Beanie Baby. Unfortunately for them, Ty can only play the role of happy family man for only so long before his mask starts to slip.

Maya, meanwhile, proves herself to be more than invaluable to Ty. Her plot is the most timely and relatable, because despite everything she does for the company – write the raps that appear on the Beanie Baby tags, start the world’s first business to consumer website, come up with the concept of limited edition Beanies — she never rises above having an assistant title. While Ty becomes a billionaire, she makes a measly $12 an hour.

As for Ty himself, he is alarmingly short-sighted, and refuses to acknowledge the role Beanie Baby collectors play in his success. As is the case in many corporate biopics, his hubris leads to the beginning of the end. In recent months, the public has been pulling back the curtains more and more on so-called genius business people (mostly men), and this film certainly makes the case that it takes a village to achieve professional success on the scale that Ty, Inc. did in the nineties.

News clips of key moments in Bill Clinton’s presidency are used as timestamps in “The Beanie Bubble,” something that is made all the more interesting by the fact that the film was co-directed and written by Kristina Gore, the daughter of Clinton’s vice-president, Al Gore. The other director is Gore’s husband, Ok Go frontman Damian Kulash, and we can probably thank him for the fun needledrops. As for Clinton, one could surmise that Gore is trying to subtly draw comparisons between Ty and the former president, who was famously impeached around the time the beanie bubble burst. Unfortunately, the viewer never gets to know Ty all that well; we just get to know parts of him through the eyes of the women around him. He’s called a womanizer, but we only get a few glimpses of him actually scoring ladies on the side.

Banks, Snook and Viswanathan all deliver fine performances, and although their characters have minimal interactions with each other, they compliment each other well with their differences. One weakness the film has is its structure, as it bounces between timelines, which often feels disorienting. 

Finally, real new clips pertaining to Beanie Babies transport the viewer back to this zany moment in time, when fully-grown adults went looney for toys. Yes, a couple really did have to divide up their Beanie Baby collection in divorce court, and delivery people were forced to paint over the Ty, Inc. logo on boxes in order for them to transport the goods without being attacked.

“The Beanie Bubble” begins streaming July 28 on Apple TV+.