Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has already been mired by a series of controversies before its theatrical release. The film has been banned in Vietnam, with the Philippines also threatening to follow.
The trailer for Barbie featured a controversial map that, according to Vietnam officials, represents the “nine-dash line”, a disputed territorial marking that violates Vietnamese sovereignty. As a result, the film will not be allowed in theaters across the country. The Philippines announced that it will be reviewing the movie after several senators called out the controversial map.
For context, several countries including Vietnam and the Philippines, are embroiled in a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. China’s historic-rights claim in the contested waters is represented by the “nine-dash line”.
Warner Bros has defended the movie saying that the map in question is a “child-like” drawing. The company said that the map represents a make-believe journey by the titular character.
“The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing,” Warner Bros Pictures said in a statement to Variety. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.”
The map in question features various arrows and dashes as Barbie prepares for a journey in the human world. A representation of Asia can be found on the left-hand side of the map and does feature dash markings. There are several other dashed lines found on the controversial map.
In the film, Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie encourages Margot Robbie’s character to go on a journey of self-discovery and is handed a map of “the Real World”. The controversial dashed lines have been described by a source as “journey lines.” Many animated movies feature such dashed lines to visualize a character’s journey.
US Senator Ted Cruz also raised concerns about the film. The Texas Senator tweeted, “I guess Barbie is made in China.”
I guess Barbie is made in China…. https://t.co/CDB1IzZcvm
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 3, 2023
A spokesperson for Senator Cruz doubled down on the criticism of the movie saying, “China wants to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think, and they leverage their massive film markets to coerce American companies into pushing CCP propaganda—just like the way the Barbie film seems to have done with the map. Sen. Cruz deserves credit for reversing these trends.”
It will be interesting to see how much the controversy will affect the box office performance of Barbie. Experts predict that the film will have an $80 million opening weekend while Warner Bros has a more conservative $60 million projection.
Barbie is coming to theaters on July 21.
