'Barbie' actress Kate McKinnon claims film shows how 'gender roles deny people half their humanity'
While promoting the upcoming "Barbie" film, actress and "Saturday Night Live" alum Kate McKinnon praised it for showing that "gender roles deny people half their humanity."
Warner Bros. representatives pushed back Thursday on allegations their upcoming "Barbie" movie features a map displaying disputed Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
A spokesperson for the company claimed the dash lines featured in a cartoon-like drawing of a map of the world in the movie represent the title character’s "journey lines" through the "real world."
The studio denied the film was trying to make any sort of geopolitical statement. The claims come days after officials in Vietnam pulled the movie from being screened in the country because they perceived that it was capitulating to Chinese interests.
The drama started after trailers for the upcoming film starring Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (Ken) briefly revealed a cartoon map that depicted Barbie’s travels all over the "Real World" – the title of the human world in the film – after she leaves her paradise of "Barbie Land" to discover herself.
Warner Bros. representatives recently denied the allegations that the "Barbie" film depicts Chinas disputed claims to the South China Sea. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
The map, which briefly flashes on screen during a scene featuring Robbie’s character and comedian Kate McKinnon’s "Weird Barbie," shows a poorly drawn "Real World Map" including a cartoon of Asia.
The crude depiction of the continent features a line of dashes extending out into where the real South China Sea would approximately be on a globe.
To government officials in Vietnam, the Philippines and even some in the U.S., the depiction was similar enough to China’s disputed claims over territorial waters that they accused "Barbie" of promoting Chinese propaganda.
According to Variety, the director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department recently told the state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre, "We do not grant license for the movie 'Barbie' to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line."
The country’s National Film Evaluation Council banned the film, which debuts later this month.
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U.S. lawmakers and government officials in Taiwan and the Philippines have accused Warner Bros' "Barbie" movie of promoting China's disputed claims in the South China Sea. (Omar Zaghloul/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Lawmakers in the Philippines have also signaled disapproval of the map’s reported inclusion. Philippines Senator Francis Tolentino told CNN Philippines in recent days, "If the invalidated nine-dash line was indeed depicted in the movie ‘Barbie,’ then it is incumbent upon the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board of the Philippines to ban the same as it denigrates Philippine sovereignty."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blasted the film on Twitter Monday, quipping, "I guess ‘Barbie’ is made in China…" while retweeting American Foreign Policy Council fellow Michael Sobolik’s criticism of the Warner Bros. film. Sobolik accused Warner Bros. of "bend[ing] the knee to the genocidal CCP regime to make a buck."
However, Warner Bros. reps told Variety these accusations were off base as the dash lines were simply indicative of Barbie’s travels in the movie.
A Warner Bros. Film Group spokesperson said, "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."
The outlet said reps for the studio and film director Greta Gerwig insisted that the drawings are of Barbie’s "journey lines."
Variety added, "While filmmakers are sensitive to the geopolitical issues raised by the map (issues stoked by Senator Ted Cruz), said the sources, the drawing in ‘Barbie’ is simply the doll’s own road to enlightenment."
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Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Warner Bros.' defense.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Stanton and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.