MOSCOW, 7 Jul. Warner Brothers has said that the internationally scandalous depiction of a geographical map in the film «Barbie» imitates a child's drawing and has nothing to do with politics, according to Variety magazine.
On Monday, the Vietnam Film Department announced a ban on the film's distribution in the country. The Vietnamese authorities were outraged by the episode with the map, on which there is an image of the so-called «cow tongue line» — the designations by which China determines its claims in the South China Sea, including Vietnamese territories. The Philippine Film and Television Council later announced a possible ban.
«The map in Barbieland is children's crayon drawings. These drawings depict Barbie's imaginary journey from Barbieland to the real world. They were not intended to make any kind of statement,» the studio said in a statement.
China's claim to the South China Sea was marked on a map with nine dotted lines in 1946. In 2016, a court in The Hague invalidated Beijing's claims and granted the Philippines' protest over its exclusive economic zone. Beijing did not participate in the trial.