Warner Bros. explains what’s up with that controversial Barbie map
It turns out that nobody wanted to start a geopolitical controversy with Barbie
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Of all the summer movies that could’ve caused a geopolitical controversy, nobody would’ve put their money on Barbie being the first one to do it. And yet, earlier this week, Barbie was banned in Vietnam over a shot featuring a map of the world that showed a dotted line extending from the coast of China, which appeared to be a reference to the “nine-dash line”—a controversial mark on some maps that indicates that China controls a contested section of the South China Sea. Similar maps have caused other movies to be banned in the region, and Philippines Senator Risa Hontiveros argued yesterday that, “the movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line,” so theaters in the country should at least include a disclaimer indicating that the line is “a figment of China’s imagination.”
Now, unsurprisingly, Warner Bros. has shared a statement explaining that it did not generate an international controversy on purpose, with Variety sharing a statement from the studio about the map: “The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing. 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.” (By the way, “it was not intended to make any type of statement” is the national anthem of modern Hollywood.)
And, looking at the map in the movie (which you can see in one of the trailers), it’s hard to argue with that. It’s a silly drawing that isn’t accurate to the real world at all, with missing countries and little drawings all over it. But at the same time, the line on the map does have a similar shape to the nine-dash line, and it is extending out from a similar place. It would be weird for someone to have done it on purpose, but people have done weirder things on purpose while making movies.
Either way, Warner Bros. isn’t taking a stand on this, so it doesn’t seem like some hugely important thing that everyone involved with Barbie would die for. Of course, if the studio now removed it, that would probably trigger a different controversy. The lesson here is: Making movies is complicated.
34 Comments
The line on the map appears to be eight dashes. Problem solved!
Wow, who knew the Barbie movie would solve this contentious issue once and for all!
8, 9..hell, make it 10, they hate your dashes!
The funniest thing about this whole thing is that one of the many jokes on the map is that it very obviously has rotated Eurasia 90º. Which makes the line coming out of Russia, not China. It can still intentionally be a 9 Dash Line joke, and I think it probably is, but the entire map is clearly bonkers.Actually strike all of that, the funniest part of this situation will be when the movie actually comes out, and we can see the map in focus for the first time, and we’ll be able to see that one of those islands between Asia and Africa is labeled “Palestine Israel”
I’m also having a REALLY hard time squaring Barsanti’s claim it has a “similar shape” to the nine-dash line with what the actual line looks like. I.e. absolutely nothing like this one.
All lines look pretty similar according to Senior AV Club Writer Can Darcamti
All non intersecting lines have a similar shape, from a certain point of view.
Barbie is more interested in topology than cartography.
there’s a reason you got cut in half.
The funniest part is the phrase “banned the ‘Barbie’ movie.”
Either way, Warner Bros. isn’t taking a stand on this, so it doesn’t seem like some hugely important thing that everyone involved with Barbie would die for. I’d hope endorsing China’s control of the South China Sea isn’t a hill WB wants to die on.
Of course, if the studio now removed it, that would probably trigger a different controversy. Would it though? It might piss off a genocidal dictatorship by gently pushing back on their dreams of domination, but would China ban it for being neutral?
I’m kinda shocked at how appalled I am by this, but come on, China’s definitely going to sell it as an endorsement now. It’s straight up evil. They gotta remove them. Right?
I think you underestimate just how horny Hollywood is for the Chinese market and their 1.4 billion potential moviegoers. You also might underestimate just how petty the government of those 1.4 billion moviegoers is willing to be.
Yep. Nomadland was banned in China. And you’d think, why on Earth would China be upset about anything in Nomadland? Well, it wasn’t the film, it was one line the director had said years earlier in an interview for Filmmaker magazine about growing up in China where ‘there were lies everywhere.’ That’s it.
It’s not even a 9 dash line, China is just being amazingly douchy.
I’m more impressed that the child managed to spell “Grossdeutsches Reich” correctly.
Yeah, this is a stupid non-controversy. Look at the similarly-styled meandering dashed line going from what seems to be North America to the green-colored Greenland (the only landform that looks like its real-life map representation, oddly enough). They’re obviously itinerary/route lines a la old-timey/fictional pirate treasure maps.
The twist is Barbie takes place after the apocalypse
Wow that is surprisingly well done edit.
Um, we’re not going to talk about how fractured the world is, in Barbie’s universe? TF is going on with the continents? Why is America at the North Pole? WTH happened to Africa? Did it split into two continents like scientist are suggesting? Is Australia underwater? Are people living on boats? Does Barbie live in Waterworld?
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/is-africa-splitting-into-two-continents
The Scots, the Welsh and the Irish are gonna be pissed when they see that the whole of the UK is ‘England’ and that Ireland is just not there.
I don’t know, that large Greenland type mass might actually be Ireland. Maybe Barbie is an Irish Nationalist at heart, and is giving it its proper due.
Shouldn’t it also be banned in Scotland and Wales for labelling Great Britain as England?
Can I both love and hate the amount of news something like this is generating..Click to find out more.
Bull. China is a huge market and they don’t want to piss of (much bigger) market China than Vietnam or the Philippines.
Just get John Cena to apologize for it. It worked last time.
I came here for a John Cena joke, and was not let down.
The easy fix here would be to just remove it in post and update the digital distribution packages. They’ve got a couple weeks to fix it. Except with all the hullabaloo that might piss off China – a much bigger market.
In conclusion, Barbie is a land of contrasts.
I don’t understand why a movie based on a toy doll made for ten year old girls is generating so much advance interest/controversy/hype? Somehow it’s being touted as the movie of the summer. What demographic is this movie aimed at?
If you’re trying to approximate what a kid would do, you’re probably apt to add in a lot of symbols you’ve seen on a real map in what you think is a nonsensical way when they actually mean something.Still seems like this would be something executives would have zeroed in on more.
There’s no way on Earth that this isn’t 100% on purpose.
It’s not even 9 damn dashes.
There are other dashed lines on the map too. And they’re all nonsensical.