Let’s Hear It For Barbie’s Non-Ken Kens

The Big Picture

• The early years of animated Barbie films lacked the presence of Ken, leading to various knock-off love interests with varying quality.
• Some of these knock-off Kens failed to measure up to the real Ken, often starting off as sexist or lacking memorable traits.
• While there were a few exceptional non-Kens with unique personalities, no one can compare to the original Ken, who is a lovable goof and a devoted friend to Barbie.

While Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film was a massive success in theaters this year, real Barbie fans know this is far from the character’s first movie rodeo, even if it is the doll’s first time on the big screen. Since the early 2000s, Mattel has been putting out animated Barbie films nearly every year. These films were retellings of classic fairytales, original stories, or sometimes somewhere in between and while they all (of course) starred our favorite plastic Swiss Army woman, there was a distinct lack of Ken in the early years of Barbie’s film career. So while we anxiously await Barbie and Ken’s big-screen debut, there’s no better time to look back at the not-Kens that came before.

The Great Ken Drought of the Aughts

You can’t have a Barbie movie without Barbie (Kelly Sheridan) but you can have one without Ken. There is a lot of animated Barbie content out there by now and while by Life in the Dreamhouse in 2012 Ken was getting back into the main Barbie stories, the early years of Barbie animated content were majorly lacking in Ken. Of course, Barbie still had love interests, each movie gave us an entirely new guy with a new personality but unlike the reliable Ken, these guys could vary in quality greatly. For basically 10 years, Barbie was going on adventures with some Ken-imitators. Some were nearly Ken-tastic, while others just weren’t up to the Ken task.

Lowly Ken Imitators Who Missed the Mark

Some of these love interests can’t even come close to holding a candle to Ken. It’s no coincidence that the least Ken-like love interests are also some of the worst overall. A Ken is only as good as he is to his Barbie and some of these knock-offs were just clearly not up to the task. Take the guys from Barbie and the Diamond Castle. They start off being cocky jerks to Barbie (Sheridan) and her friend Teresa (Cassidy Ladden). While they end up helping the girls in the end after becoming enamored with them, any Ken that starts off sexist is already failing his Ken test.

Most of the lowly Ken imitators are just Kens who don’t get very much to do. Some Barbie movies hone in much more on the friendships Barbie has with her female friends than they do on her romances, so sometimes Kens just don’t get enough screen time to make an impact. Barbie and the Three Musketeers has a damsel in distress type of Ken but the focus is so much more on the musketeers that he feels more like an afterthought. Similarly, Nalu (Alessandro Juliani) and Linden (Andrew Francis) from the Fairytopia movies are both classically handsome Kens (and Nalu gets extra points for being a merman) but the films barely touch on romance and so the Kens fall more to the wayside and become forgettable. These aren’t bad Kens by any means, they still help when it counts and still think Barbie is the coolest person ever as any Ken should, they just lack anything memorable to make them stand out among the many, many false Kens.

The Just OK Kens

Some of the non-Kens with the most Kenergy are guys who are just kind of there. These are usually the ones that spend most of the film clueless and getting rescued by Barbie. This category takes up a lot of the early Ken knock-offs like Prince Eric (Kirby Morrow) from Barbie in the Nutcracker, Prince Stefan (Mark Hildreth) from Barbie as Rapunzel, and Prince Daniel (also played by Mark Hildreth) from Barbie in Swan Lake. These guys are nice but generally pretty interchangeable. They often end up helping save Barbie in a key moment and are perhaps a little clumsy but don’t have much defining them outside the role they play in the story. These are functional Kens. They serve their purpose in the narrative, don’t overstay their welcome, but also never manage to leave a super strong impression.

Prince Antonio (also played by Alessandro Juliani) from Barbie as the Island Princess starts off with a strong connection to Barbie (though he loses points for being a colonizer) but descends into neutral Ken territory as he spends most of the film being successfully manipulated by the villain. Kens are usually pretty gullible and easy to dupe (Swan Lake relied on that as well) but sometimes it can make them feel flat. Kens will never overshadow their Barbie, but it’s un-Ken-like to be so inactive. Neutral Kens have few flaws but just as few virtues, they may seem undeserving of their Barbies, but they can still serve to remind us what makes a good non-Ken.

Could These Guys Be Better Than Ken?

Some of the best non-Kens are ones that take it a step further and have something extra in their personality. These are often Kens who get a lot of screen time and some unique flair to set him apart from other love interests. Julian (Alessandro Juliani, again) from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper is a fan favorite for a reason. He’s exceedingly kind and helpful to both Erika and Genevieve. He’s a bit more soft-spoken than most Kens, a little shy, but also Barbie’s right-hand man throughout the film. He’s got both personality and function within the story and manages to feel distinct from other Kens. King Dominick (Mark Luna) from the same film is slightly less memorable but still a distinct and slightly more nuanced Ken (though he lacks the blind devotion that makes Julian so beloved).

Another standout comes from Kevin (Matt Hill) from The Barbie Diaries. He’s another right-hand man Ken, constantly helping Barbie out with her pursuits, blindly in love with her but never getting in her way. He helps her pursue another guy and stays in her corner even when the rest of her friends aren’t. He’s like a loyal dog who always has Barbie’s back even when she’s clearly in the wrong. He feels a bit more grounded than most Kens and has a look that’s probably the furthest from Ken out of any of them yet his Kenergy shines through where it matters: being there for his Barbie.

Other notable exceptional non-Kens include Derek (Shawn MacDonald) from Barbie in the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Prince Carlos (guess who’s voicing a fourth character on this list) from Barbie Mariposa, and Aidan (Mark Hildreth, a third time) from Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus who stand out not only as some of the most Ken-looking Kens but also some of the most devoted of the bunch. Derek is a cobbler who makes shoes for all of Barbie’s sisters just because he loves her. Carlos is a little dim but ride or die for Barbie from minute one. Aidan and his Barbie stark off snarky with each other, but he gives up the chance to pay off his gambling debts just to save her. At the end of the day, they all know it’s a Barbie world and they’re just living in it. Each of them have a little something extra to them that makes them a little more memorable with a little bit more Kenergy.

We Love Ken, No Matter What

But no one is quite as Ken as Ken. Despite all the different love interests Barbie has had over the years, we always come back to Ken. And there’s a good reason for that! Ken is a lovable goof, incidentally intelligent, and (most importantly) a devoted friend and boyfriend to Barbie. He’s not extraordinary like Barbie, he’s just Ken and that’s why we love him. Being the golden retriever boyfriend and the gender-flipped damsel in distress to Barbie’s heroic antics is exactly what we want in a good Ken and though there are many imitators, no one does it quite like the original. It’s hard to be a Ken. Characters often need to be big players and make big moves to be memorable, but the key to a good Ken is just being some guy. He’s the arm candy for a formidable woman and that’s usually when he’s at his best. A Ken is a hype man, a confidant, a friend, sometimes a husband, but always, always in Barbie’s corner. At the end of the day, every one of these Kens was there for his Babrie when it counted. So while they’ll never be as beloved in our hearts as the original, they all have Kenergy in their own ways.

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