There’s more than onetoy movieout there.

“The Beanie Bubble,” however, tells the very human story behind the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990s. The latest in a slew ofbusiness docudramascertainly has its hot pink moments (not to mention electric blue and other bright, plaything hues), but it’s mainly focused on the darker aspects of how miniature beanbag critters became a billion dollar enterprise and the first big investment chimera of the internet age.

It’s also a slick but deeply compelling character study of the toy’s inventor, H. Ty Warner (an often manic but never more believableZach Galifianakis), and three women who, as they all claim in narrating voice-overs, were the real brains behind Ty Inc.

Unhappily married car mechanic Robbie Jones (Elizabeth Banks) started the company with her neighbor, drinking buddy and eventual lover Ty in the 1980s. As the next decade dawned, Ty’s single mom fiancée Sheila Harper (Sarah Snook) says her young daughters sparked the idea for and even designed some of the plastic pellets-stuffed animals. Then Maya Kumar (Geraldine Viswanathan), a 17-year-old pre-med student who started as a receptionist at the company, figured out how to exploit this new online thingamajig, invented the product promotion website and pioneered the collector frenzy potential of eBay.

Jumping back and forth between the two decades, “The Beanie Bubble” does an admirable, if overlong, job of charting the creative, corporate and cultural rise and fall of Beanie Babies while richly examining its four main characters.

Ty is at times needy, tyrannical, genuinely as charming as congenital salesmen can be, generous and a total rat. Under increasingly noticeable makeup — Ty was really into plastic surgery — Galifianakis goes on great patriotic/capitalist rants that his character immediately contradicts (“No sales to big retailers! Mom and Pop toy stores only!” to “McDonald’s wants a cross-promotion? I love McDonald’s!”). He’s even better when befuddled by technology and others’ marketing ingenuity.

Banks, an American Conservatory Theater alum, does a marvelous job of making a mercenary character understandable and appealing. A natural girl boss if there ever was one, Robbie is out for herself as much as Ty is for him, but she still gets all our sympathy when he screws her out of what’s rightfully hers. Robbie’s final encounter with Ty is a marvel of amoral understatement; we can only cheer her wicked pragmatism.

Snook brings all of her familiar Shiv Roy characteristics to Sheila, despite this lady being far nicer and less-conflicted than her indelible “Succession” role. She gets the subtle complexity in there where it counts, though; we’re never quite sure if Sheila loves Ty or just loves how he relates to her two girls (Madison Johnson and Delaney Quinn are remarkably adorable yet natural as the daughters). When Sheila finally falls, it’s too late, and Snook locates all the hurt a narcissist like Ty can stir in someone.

Viswanathan radiates excited intelligence as Maya, along with a witty disregard for the character’s demanding Indian parents and, ultimately, defiant anger over professional betrayal. The Australian actress has been a bright presence in forgettable rom-coms, but takes the opportunity here to channel her massive screen charisma to a confident, full-bodied characterization.

It could be said that Kristin Gore’s script addresses all of these formidable women through their relationships to the big male baby. There’s a disclaimer at the start that a lot of the movie is made up. But however much of it is true, it’s hard to argue Ty did not have a major impact on these women’s lives.

Gore, who’s written for “Saturday Night Live” and “Futurama,” co-directed the film with her husband, OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash, Jr. It’s the first feature for both of them, and it’s marked by a polished balance of humor, searing emotion, all the information about the toy business you’d ever want to know, and cautionary advice concerning investments in something silly like stuffed animals — or, by extension, NFTs.

“Beanie Bubble” also feels like it could use a half-hour trim. But we rarely get this much well-written and -acted business in one place, so why not go a little crazy?

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer.