Hi everyone!

As you may be aware, the Beanie Bubble movie is now showing at selected cinemas and available to stream on Apple TV as well as Amazon Prime in the US!

I have now watched it and really enjoyed the movie but can safely say, that this movie is not intended for children.

The movie is based on the book, The Great Beanie Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette. This book is about the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby craze of the 90’s and can be purchased on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Be aware, this review may contain some spoilers if you haven’t already watched the movie.

(Photo: Apple TV)

What is the movie about?

The Beanie Bubble follows the lives of the three women that helped Ty gain the success he had during the Beanie craze of the 90’s.

Elizabeth Banks plays Robbie Jones, Ty’s business partner. They meet after the death of Ty’s Father and eventually set up Ty Inc. together.

Sarah Snook plays Sheila Harper, Ty’s long term girlfriend. Sheila and her two daughters move in to Ty’s house.

Geraldine Viswanathan plays Maya Kumar, “employee number 12” at Ty Inc. She came up with ideas for the company, such as the poems in hang tags and retiring Beanie Babies to make them more sought after. She also designed (along with her brother) the the first ever website that sold directly to consumers.

The Beanie Bubble is about the rise and fall of the Beanie Babies craze that sent everybody mad.  It is based around how these three women, who played such a huge part in Ty Warner’s life, never got a mention.

Are the events in the movie real?

As with all things in the film industry, not EVERYTHING is exactly how things played out. At the beginning of the movie, it even states “There are parts of the truth you can’t make up. The rest we did”. But from what I’ve learned there are some key events that did really happen.

The truck that overturned at the beginning of the movie sending thousands of Beanie Babies hurtling through the air actually happened. However, in reality it contained McDonald’s Teenie Beanie Babies not Beanie Babies.

(Photo: Apple TV)

McDonald’s really did run out of Teenie Beanie Babies, and one guy actually ordered 100 Happy Meals and told the cashier to “hold the food, just include the Beanies”.

People really were that crazy in the 90’s. I miss those days…

What about the women in the movie? Did they really exist?

Although their names have been changed for the Beanie Bubble movie, they are actually based on real people in Ty’s life.

Robbie Jones

Robbie is based on Ty’s real life former girlfriend, Patricia Roche. She did in fact help set up Ty Inc along with Ty Warner. However, the movie suggested she would never work for him again, but set up her own separate company that would become the exclusive wholesaler of Ty products in the UK. In reality, the didn’t set up a company and accepted Ty’s offer to directly run Ty UK. It was correct that was one of the highest paid executives in the UK though.

Sheila Harper

Sheila is really inspired by Faith McGowan, Ty’s long-term girlfriend. She has two daughters from a pervious relationship, and they all moved into Ty Warner’s house together. This really happened.

It is partially true about the Spooky hang tag name credit change. It is suggested in the movie that Sheila’s daughter came up with the Spooky design. She drew the design on a tablecloth and gave it to Ty and he credited her on the hang tag, saying it was designed by Ava Harper.

(Photo: Apple TV)

Apparently, Ty was having trouble with how the Beanie would fit with the Beanie Babies range. Faith’s daughter, Jenna Boldebuck, drew the design on a paper tablecloth (like in the movie). But instead of handing the drawing to him, Ty tore the sketch off and took it with him.

The original Beanie did indeed have Jenna’s name credited on it, but two months later disappeared.

Maya Kumar

Maya’s real-life inspiration is a woman named Lina Trivedi. In the movie, she came up with the idea of adding a poem and birthday to the hang tags and designed the Beanie Baby website. She even came up with the idea of retiring Beanie Babies.

In reality, she (along with her brother) did in fact design Ty.com and it really did become the first business to consumer website in the world.

However, she did not come up with the idea of retiring Beanie Babies. That credit goes to the King brothers, who were distributors for Ty Inc.

My thoughts on the movie…

Although, there is quite a lot that is definitely more fiction that fact, I did really enjoy the movie. It brought a sense of nostalgia for the 90’s that I really liked.

There are parts I found a bit cheesy, but overall I thought it was a great insight into the Beanie Baby craze.

I also loved the Beanie Babies that were made specifically for the movie and the crazy, colourful cats that I wish existed.

(Photo: Apple TV)

When I first saw the trailer I wasn’t sure if there would be much about actual Beanie Babies, but some names did have a mention which I was pleased about.

Would I watch it again? Of course I would!

If you would like to read The Great Beanie Bubble book, you can find it on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. 

The Beanie Bubble is available at selected cinemas, on Apple TV and through Amazon Prime in the US.

Have you seen The Beanie Bubble movie? What did you think of it? Leave a comment below!