In case you're wondering how the idea for this crazy crossover came about, I'd been thinking of writing a Barbie crossover ever since after I watched the movie, but I wasn't quite sure how I'd do it. Then I saw a short list on Letterboxd which was dedicated to movies that feature characters looking back on their lives with past owners as a sad song is played in which the only films featured were Barbie and Toy Story 2. Not long after I saw this list, I thought about how the movie Snoopy Come Home could have included on that list too, since it also features at least two scenes that are somewhat similar to those from the two movies. One thing led to another, and I ended up coming up with the idea for a Barbie and Peanuts crossover. Peanuts may not be the first franchise that comes to mind when thinking of a crossover for Barbie, but the two franchises do have some similarities, including getting their start in the 1950s, the inclusion of black characters in 1968, an emphasis on space travel on a few occasions, and making comebacks of sorts through successful movies that some might forget weren't the first films ever made for the franchises. I also have yet to read many stories where Barbie encounters worlds similar to Barbieland, and I thought this story could serve as a way to experiment with this idea.
Now before I get started, I want to make all readers aware of two things I'll try to avoid doing in this story. First of all, I won't have any of the Peanuts character go completely into what I'll call "Ken Mode", where they change so drastically that they end up betraying the other characters in a major way. This isn't to say that they will remain angels throughout the story, or that their friendships won't be challenged from time to time. They just won't change to the point where their personality is completely different, or they'll turn against those that matter the most to them. Also, I won't be putting too much emphasis on romantic relationships in this story. Yes, some characters will develop crushes and become a little too fixated on them, as is the case in the comics and cartoons, and some might bring up questions related to sexual orientation, but you won't really see any characters start dating or getting serious about anyone here. After all, the kids will remain kids when entering the Real World.
And for those wondering about when the story takes place, it's set almost a year after the events of the Barbie movie and about a month after the recent short Peanuts special One of a Kind Marcie, which came out on Apple TV + in August and dealt with the challenges Marcie faces when running for school president.
I hope you'll enjoy this story and give me any feedback on whether you think this crossover could work.
When Barbie Roberts decided to remain in the Real World, she was instantly told that certain terms and conditions applied to her situation.
Yes, Ruth told her, they could have simply allowed her to live as a human in California, getting a normal job at an office, store, or salon, and settling down in a studio apartment with some roommates, like other young women did. But Barbie wasn't just any normal young woman. She was a former doll who'd come from a world where everyone had settled roles and was allowed to live happily and safely, but remained heavily shielded from the harsh realities that were a part of the Real World. You couldn't leave such a world and be allowed complete freedom right away.
Therefore, Ruth said she had to prove that she still had the courage and wisdom to move on, that she'd truly learned from her time in the Real World and could pass on what she'd learned to anyone else that needed it. Her experiences preventing Barbieland from being taken over by the Kens proved much about her hidden strengths, and now she would have to take several steps to further build on those strengths.
It turned out Barbieland wasn't the only established world that played a key role in the Real World's pop culture and entertainment. There were about a hundred others, and many followed similar rules and norms as Barbieland did. At first, these worlds were rather small and easier to keep under control, with most of them centered around ancient mythology, fairy tales, and novels. But during the 20th century, thanks to the increase in various popular media, there'd been an explosion in the creation of such worlds. For every artist that was willing to create their own world through their imagination, there were entrepreneurs and other influential figures who were willing to make that world a reality through their wallets.
Barbie's new job was as a mentor to characters living in these other worlds. An organization known as the Corporation for Creative Worlds, or the CCW, hired her to go to visit these worlds. Due to what happened at Barbieland, they'd decided the inhabitants of certain worlds could now have more freedom to explore their options and visit the Real World, especially if they were going through a similar identity crisis as Barbie had. She would be given one month before departing for each world to do all necessary research on that world and the characters that inhabited it, then she'd go visit the world for about a week before bringing the characters into the Real World
And that's what Barbie had been doing for the past five months. So far, she'd only visited two worlds. The first had been Cinderellaland, where every inhabitant came from the various versions of the Cinderella story, including the earliest version from China where the character was known as Yeh-Shen, the 1950 Disney film, and the 2004 romantic comedy and its various copycats. It was much more depressing than Barbieland because all the Cinderellas led difficult lives where they were controlled by their stepmothers in some way. Some got to briefly escape their situations when they went to the ball or the prom, but they always found themselves back home afterwards, with only a few of them being allowed to remain with their prince or boyfriend for good. And unlike the Barbies and Kens of Barbieland, the Cinderellas rarely got to meet each other, with each one part of a different community that was cut off from all surrounding communities, with some remaining stuck in the 16th century while others remained in the early 2000s.
To say that dealing with all these young women was tough would have been the understatement of the 21st century. It wasn't because they were all helpless or simple (as some people who didn't know better often dismissed them as being) rather than the challenges of having to adapt to a more modern world in half of their cases or overcoming some serious trauma or trust issues after years of being abused by some form of a stepmother. There had also been some strange experiences with the anthropomorphic animals from the older stories, notably Jaq and Gus Gus from Disney's version of Cinderella, who'd all become human upon entering the Real World.
It got a little stressful for Barbie at times, but at the end of the day, she still liked this work. Thanks to her guidance, many of them managed to find both boyfriends that truly cared about them and interests of their own that motivated them to go above the low standards that had been set up for them by their stepmothers. Barbie became very close with some of them, including Ella from Disney's version of the story and Sam from the Hilary Duff movie. She'd even managed to bond with the animals-turned-humans once she'd helped them adapt to living as humans, something which she'd managed with some help from Sasha, who worked surprisingly well with them thanks to her old love of animal stories, even though she still bickered a little too much with them.
Next, she and Sasha (who got special permission to join Barbie on her assignments whenever she could thanks to her help with the former animals) had gone to Toy Story Land, which had been a wild adventure. It was one thing to get an old-fashioned girl to adapt to the Real World, but getting a bunch of toys like herself to adapt was a completely different story. Given Buzz Lightyear and Woody's backgrounds as popular toys in their own world, finding out they were beloved movie characters in the Real World had left them mesmerized, but it didn't do much to improve their identity crises, which had started shortly after Woody ran away with Bo Peep to join the Lost Toys, nor their lack of judgement when it came to certain situations humans faced.
Add to that dealing with Zurg and his unclear relationship with Buzz, Barbie trying to look after Bonnie and bond with a now moody Andy, who was trying to overcome an identity crisis of his own, an encounter with Sid Phillips, and dealing with another version of herself and Ken, they'd all had their hands full with them.
Yet as with the Cinderellas, Barbie, Sasha, and Gloria had grown to love the former toys just as much as they loved them in their movies. Barbie successfully got the toys to reconsider their situations and see how they could let themselves have more freedom while remaining loyal to their owners, got Zurg to leave Buzz alone, had Andy back in college in better terms with his mom and sister, realized that Sid had more going on than the first film had been willing to show and did a few things with him that helped me realize he had changed for the better since then, and even managed to get the other Barbie and Ken to visit Barbieland -with special permission from Ruth and the CCW, of course. At the end though, only Bo decided to remain permanently in the Real World, which Ruth later told Barbie was probably for the best; having too many of these characters remaining could have risked causing permanent disorder in both worlds.
So that had been what Barbie had been doing to maintain her place in the Real World. It was overwhelming work for sure, and it sometimes made her become distressed over her own situation, but overall, she was growing to enjoy what she did. She realized she was good at helping people who were facing problems similar to her own, and that she was usually able to guide them towards the right solutions. Those she worked with always found her to be friendly and warm, and both Ella and Bo had even called her wise once. When their mission with Toy Story Land had ended, Sasha had said, "I don't think anyone can call you Stereotypical Barbie anymore after everything you've just done," and Barbie found she couldn't argue with that. She'd found a purpose now, and she was determined to fulfill it to the best of her ability.
And although there were still nights when Barbie couldn't sleep and she'd find herself sitting alone in the dining room table of her new apartment, looking longing of old pictures of herself in Barbieland, she'd always remind herself of all the characters she'd helped since becoming a mediator of worlds, the friends she'd made and accomplishments she'd gained here in the Real World, and how she could now accept flaws just as easily as she could perfection within herself, her friends, and the world around her, which allowed her to put any thoughts about her past aside and focus on the present only.
This is what she told herself on the days before she was to receive her third assignment.