Warner Bros. Has Apologized After ‘The Witches’ Remake Received Backlash From The Disability Community

Following the HBO Max release of its remake of The Witches, Warner Bros. became the target of intense criticism from the disability community, which took issue with the way the film starring Anne Hathaway depicted limb deformities. Disability advocates and organizations like the Paralympic Games called out the studio and director Robert Zemeckis for stigmatizing ectrodactyly, a limb abnormality more commonly known as “split hands.” In the film, when Hathaway’s character’s true witch form is revealed, she only has three fingers, and the disability community did not appreciate this aesthetic choice being used to signify evil.

European Paralympic swimmer Amy Marren is one of the more vocal critics who called out Warner Bros. studio for the offensive depiction. Via Twitter:

It’s not unusual for surgeons to try and build hands like this for children/adults with certain limb differences and it’s upsetting something that makes a person different being represented as something scary. Yes, I am fully aware that this is a film, and these are Witches. But Witches are essentially monsters. My fear is that children will watch this film, unaware that it massively exaggerates the Roald Dahl original and that limbs differences begin to be feared.

You can see Marren’s tweet below along with criticism from disability advocate Melissa Johns:

— Amy Marren (@amy_marren) November 2, 2020

Why missing fingers

Here we go again…

Using disability as a costume and to highlight a character as a “baddie”.

Children with limb differences rarely get to see themselves represented truthfully. But instead get shown as scary monsters