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Mild spoilers for The Beanie Bubble<\/em> ahead.<\/p>\n One week after the pop cultural dominance of Barbenheimer<\/a>, we\u2019re getting a new film about both a beloved toy<\/a> and a man whose invention leads to unforeseen fallout<\/a>. At the center of that Venn diagram is The Beanie Bubble,<\/em> which follows the boom-and-bust of the \u201990s Beanie Baby craze, and is now streaming on AppleTV+. \u201cThere are parts of the truth you just can\u2019t make up. The rest, we did,\u201d reads a cheeky disclaimer at the start of the film, which is based on Zac Bissonnette<\/strong>\u2019s 2015 book, The Great Beanie Baby Battle: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute<\/em>.<\/p>\n Founder Ty Warner<\/strong>\u2019s first name graces each heart-shaped Beanie Baby tag. But the toy\u2019s story is told through the perspective of three women who figured prominently in its rise. Robbie (Elizabeth Banks<\/strong>), Sheila (Sarah Snook<\/strong>), and Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan<\/strong>) are fictional characters, broadly based on three women in the life of Ty Warner, played in the film by Zach Galifianakis.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the film, Warner\u2019s first business is selling stuffed Himalayan cats with Robbie, who is inspired by<\/a> his real-life ex-girlfriend and business partner Patricia Roche<\/strong>\u2014also known as<\/a> the namesake for Beanie Baby \u201cPatti the Platypus.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheila, meanwhile, was inspired by lighting designer Faith McGowan, another of Warner\u2019s former girlfriends. In the film, she gives their relationship a shot only after he bonds with her two children. As McGowan\u2019s daughter Lauren Boldebuck<\/strong> told Chicago Magazine<\/em><\/a> in 2014, her mother really \u201cdidn\u2019t really like [Warner] at first.\u201d<\/p>\n Screenwriter Kristin Gore<\/strong> (daughter of Al<\/strong>) not only adapted the screenplay, but codirected the film with her husband, OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash Jr.<\/strong> She shows Warner conceiving of Beanie Babies when Sheila\u2019s daughters request \u201csofter\u201d stuffed animals that are small enough to fit in their backpacks. \u201cLegs the Frog,\u201d Ty Inc.\u2019s first official Beanie Baby<\/a>, was born in 1993. But the animals, which were intentionally under-stuffed to increase posability, gathered dust on shelves and at trade shows. \u201cTheir big launch was a total flop\u2014couldn\u2019t sell Beanies for two years,\u201d says Maya, a college freshman initially hired to \u201cbrush and tweeze the display cats\u201d and answer phones at Ty Inc. In the film, interest piques only when she suggests to a buyer that a certain animal is a limited edition. Maya is a proxy for Lina Trivedi,<\/strong> described<\/a> in Bissonnette\u2019s book as \u201cthe $12-per-hour sociology major who made Ty Warner a billionaire.\u201d Only the 12th employee ever at the company, Trivedi, like Maya, is credited<\/a> with launching the product line\u2019s website, writing custom poems for each Beanie (she once penned 86 in only three days), and introducing Warner to the lucrative world of eBay.<\/p>\n The business model of Beanie was built on the illusion of scarcity. Warner would limit the number of Beanie Babies any seller was allowed to purchase and \u201cretire\u201d certain models at his whim. Soon, word spread about the stuffed animal, from Ty Inc.\u2019s Chicago headquarters throughout the Midwest. Because of the perception that demand exceeded supply, Beanies\u2014which were sold for $5 in stores\u2014would fetch on average six times that on eBay, where collectors hoarding the product could command a pretty penny.<\/p>\n Within five years of its creation, the Beanie Baby brand had surpassed $1.4 billion<\/a> in its annual sales and comprised 10% of all purchases on eBay. Profits soared, in part, because Warner only sold to smaller gift shops\u2014retailers with less competing toy product and the ability to prominently display the Beanies. \u201cBy keeping them in the mom-and-pops, you kept them really loyal to Ty,\u201d Bill Harlow<\/strong> of Ty Canada told Bissonnette<\/a> in his book. In the film, we see Warner refusing to meet with Wal-Mart and Toys \u201cR\u201d Us. He also turns down a Barbie tie-in with Mattel and a call from Steven Spielberg<\/strong>\u2019s office because he\u2019s \u201cnot a sellout.\u201d McDonald\u2019s, however, proved to be an exception to Warner\u2019s rule, in both real life and the film.<\/p>\n Maya tells Warner that such a partnership could backfire: \u201cIt would be like a Super Bowl ad for a bake sale,\u201d she says. Undeterred, in 1997, McDonald\u2019s produces 100 million Teenie Beanie Babies as part of an exclusive Happy Meals promotion. Consumers flock to the golden arches in droves. That part is factual: \u201cSome customers ordered a hundred Happy Meals and asked the cashier to keep the food,\u201d wrote<\/a> Bissonnette. One Ohio location had employees answer the phones with a status update, \u201cGood morning, McDonald\u2019s. We have the moose and the lamb.\u201d One McDonald\u2019s employee was arrested for stealing $6,000 worth of Teenie Beanies.<\/p>\n