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For a movie as wholesome and fun as Barbie looks, it has certainly been marred in controversies lately. Vietnam recently banned the film for depicting the “nine-dash line” while the Philippines was on the fence about it. Warner Bros. has come out and responded to those controversies.
A Warner Bros. rep spoke to Variety and said, “The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing.”
They continued, “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.”
So there you have it — the line depicted in Barbie is not meant to resemble the “nine-dash line” (Variety's report noted that the child-like map only has eight lines, anyway). It's unclear if this explanation will do the film any favors when it comes to international markets determining whether or not to ban the film. At least they gave it the good old college try.
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Barbie is Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig's latest project coming off her Oscar-winning Little Women adaptation. She co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach. Margot Robbie stars as the main version of the titular doll and goes on a journey of self-discovery with Ken (Ryan Gosling). Additionally, Dua Lipa, Kate McKinnon, Emma Mackey, Kinglsey Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, and John Cena star in the film as various variants of the dolls. The film's soundtrack just got an added boost to an already star-studded lineup as Billie Eilish announced her song that will be on the album.
Barbie will be released on July 21.
