‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ viewers forget over 35 years ago, we had another atomic war double feature

Releasing Oppenheimer and Barbie as a double feature seems to have worked like a charm as far as box-office numbers are concerned, but what many people seem to forget is that this isn’t the first time in the history of our medium that such an incongruous juxtaposition has been attempted.

Indeed, that innovation might well trace its roots back to the Japanese anime industry, even if unbeknownst to Warner Bros. and Universal. And interestingly enough, the other double feature in question also involved the brutal World War II period and the utter devastation it wrought on mankind.

When Hayao Miyazaki was working on My Neighbor Totoro — one of the most acclaimed movies in history — his contemporary Isao Takahata was also developing the hauntingly tragic Grave of the Fireflies. While the former was lively, jovial, and full of the so-called good feels, the latter left you a sobbing mess, so it was a wonder why Studio Ghibli decided to release both movies at the same time.

The contrast of Grave‘s war-torn backdrop to Totoro‘s good-hearted humor was too much to handle for a lot of people, but it soon brought about the intended effect when audiences started changing the watching order, first catching Grave and then going off to a more hopeful adventure in the form of Totoro.

Isn’t that basically what people are now doing with Barbie and Oppenheimer? And hey, it does seem to reinforce the definitive watch order you should pick if you intend to catch both on the same day. History repeats itself… in more ways than one.