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Official Trailer for 'Billion Dollar Babies' Doc About Cabbage Patch Kids

by Alex Billington
September 20, 2023
Source: YouTube

"What are we supposed to say? 'You've been good, but Santa ran short.'" Abramorama has debuted a trailer for a documentary film called Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids, made by filmmaker Andrew Jenks. It premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, with a "theatrical-only extended version" out this fall. Doll hospitals, cabbage "births," a four-year legal battle over the origin of the idea and a BILLION-dollar toy brand that put the wheels of modern-day Black Friday shopping riots into motion. The unbelievable true story you never knew about the toy craze that started it all, the Cabbage Patch Kids. Narrated and executive produced by Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris, the film features the first interview with Cabbage Patch Kids creator Xavier Roberts in over 20 years as well as interviews with journalist Connie Chung, and former Coleco marketing head Al Kahan. They just released Beanie Babies movies (a doc + a movie), and there's a doc about the dark sides of the Barbie doll, now here's another totally insane toy-craze doc to enjoy. Or maybe to be scared by…! Did any of you have one as a kid?

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Andrew Jenks' doc Billion Dollar Babies, direct from YouTube:

Before the Cabbage Patch Kids, no one could have imagined a world where police would need to break up fights between rampaging adults in toy stores. But after the Cabbage Patch Kids, every manufacturer in the world was desperate for their own "riot-worthy" toy. Everything had changed, and we were never going back. Andrew Jenks' Billion Dollar Babies documentary is the evolution of that change, told through the lens of what is arguably the most beloved toy of the 1980s. Filled with doll hospitals with delightfully attentive staff tending to every need of the "babies" birthed from a cabbage patch before their adoptions, dangerous counterfeit dolls and intense U.S. Customs raids, inevitable black-market sales, a glut of spin-off products, severe doll shortages and a rabid media frenzy that gave rise to a BILLION-dollar toy brand unlike anything the world had ever seen. Oh, and did we mention the "custody battle" over the origin of the idea? An unassuming and relatively unknown artist from rural Kentucky filed suit claiming she was the true creator of the dolls, setting off a contentious four-year legal battle over the Kids. This is the story you never knew about the dolls that stole America’s heart and turned us all into total maniacs. Official site.

Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids is directed by doc producer / filmmaker Andrew Jenks, director of the doc films Andrew Jenks / Room 335, The Zen of Bobby V, It's Not Over, Dream/Killer, and Metta previously. It's produced by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Believe Ent. Group. Executive produced by Dan Goodman, Brian Hunt, William H. Masterson III, Neil Patrick Harris. This initially premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival last year. Abramorama will release Billion Dollar Babies in select US theaters starting November 24th, 2023, which is also "Black Friday", later this fall.

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