‘WHIMSICAL’

Warner Bros. Explains Map That Got ‘Barbie’ Banned in Vietnam

“It was not intended to make any type of statement.”

Warner Bros. on Thursday said a map featured in its forthcoming Barbie movie was not “intended” to be making a political statement. Vietnam banned the film because of the map, which an official in the country alleged to show an “offending image of the nine-dash line”—a marking used by China to illustrate its internationally disputed claim over a large area of the South China Sea. “The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing,” Warner Bros said. “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 studio’s comments come after Vietnamese authorities also started an investigation after the tour organizer for K-pop group Blackpink used a map featuring the controversial line on its website.