The production house Warner Bros issued an apology after people with disabilities pointed out that the depiction of Anne Hathaway's character in the remake of The Witches was offensive.
A spokesperson represented the company issued a statement and said, that they were "deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities," adding that it "regretted any offence caused" by the film.
"In adapting the original story, we worked with designers and artists to come up with a new interpretation of the cat-like claws that are described in the book. It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them. This film is about the power of kindness and friendship. It is our hope that families and children can enjoy the film and embrace this empowering, love-filled theme," the statement mentioned.
The Witches, Anne Hathaway's character has missing fingers
In The Witches, Anne Hathaway plays the Grand High Witch, where her character is seen with missing fingers, due to certain kind of abnormality. The certain physical condition also leads to the absence of more than one fingers and toes on the hand or foot.
A Britain based Paralympic swimmer Amy Marren was one of the first people to express her disappointment. "Disappointed in the new Warner Bros film The Witches...I myself am a huge advocate of celebrating differences and especially limb differences. It's not unusual for surgeons to try and build hands like this for children/adults with certain limb differences and it's upsetting to something that makes a person different being represented as something scary," she tweeted.
Please educate yourself on #LimbDifferences and the support the idea that you are #NotAWitch because you look different!
— Amy Marren (@amy_marren) November 3, 2020
You can also actively support the limb difference community by using words that describe us as PEOPLE, as it’s not the difference that defines us. pic.twitter.com/JHz3uSPWWa
The official account of Paralympics Games also called out the team from their Twitter account.
Limb difference is not scary. Differences should be celebrated and disability has to be normalised. #NotAWitch calls out ‘#TheWitches’ movie for portrayal of disability ? https://t.co/aSY1U6TymE pic.twitter.com/UCU87bUeV8
— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) November 3, 2020
The Witches released on October 22 on HBO Max. The Anne Hathaway starrer is a remake of the 1990 movie and based on Roald Dahl's 1983 book of the same name, where the author had described the titular characters as having "square feet with no toes" and "claws instead of fingernails."
"The Dark Knight" actress has not yet issued a statement or apology.
