Meet the voice of all your favorite Barbie toys and games
Super Talk Barbie, dressed from head to toe in denim and gold, has a lot to say. The computer chip inside her chest picks and chooses from a mix-and-match set of phrases — Let’s get together and… go dancing with Ken,get ice cream with friends, or sit around and watch videos. Put all those lines together and Super Talk Barbie has 100,000 different phrases, according to Mattel’s 1994 commercial.
Float into our DreamHouse: Barbie World is Polygon’s dive into everything Barbie, from her legacy as an iconic toy to her presence in games and movies.
It’s no wonder why Chris Anthony Lansdowne was in Mattel’s California studio every day for years; she’s the voice not only of Super Talk Barbie but of all ’90s products where you hear Barbie’s voice. From Barbie Fashion Designer and Barbie Riding Clubto a Barbie flip phone and boombox, Lansdowne’s voice is embedded in all things Barbie. For so many kids who grew up in the ’90s, Lansdowne is Barbie, the voice of their childhood.
Polygon spoke to Lansdowne in June to discuss her iconic role, particularly in Barbie Fashion Designer, the first mass-market “game for girls.” Lansdowne spoke about getting the job to voice Barbie, the role’s legacy, and about how she told her kid — in Barbie’s target demographic — that she voices her favorite doll.
Polygon: Barbie Fashion Designer is the first Barbie video game you voiced, but how did you start in the role?
Chris Anthony Lansdowne: I had been doing voice-over work for many years. I was first an on-camera [actor]. You could see me in commercials and I was always a goofy blonde and a funny bank teller. It became so limited for me because I was this blond, blue-eyed girl and couldn’t do old women or crazy characters, which I’m really known
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