A new Mattel initiative wants us to lighten up on Barbie.

The toymaker launched "The Barbie Project," in which kids supposedly are left to play with their Barbies, free from adult judgment and interference. And it's all captured on film.

"Don't tell kids how to play with Barbies," a launch video for the project tells viewers. "Let them show us."

The clip attempts to illustrate that kids left to their own devices let their imaginations soar and don't really think about Barbie's unrealistic dimensions the way some grownups do.

Could it be that the debate over Barbie's proportions has grown way out of ... proportion?

In one sense, the Barbie Project seems to remind that Barbie's just a toy. Yet she's important enough to warrant a PR drive to get her back in detractors' good graces.