Warner Bros apologises to disabled for maimed villain
WARNER Bros has apologised for offending people with disabilities by giving a lead role hands with missing fingers in its adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches.
Dahl’s original children’s book said that witches wear gloves to hide the fact they have “thin curvy claws, like a cat”. But in the Hollywood film, Anne Hathaway, as the Grand High Witch, has two digits missing on each hand.
Critics included Alex Brooker, cohost of Channel 4’s The Last Leg, who said: “As someone with missing fingers, it’s made me so sad to see how this is portrayed as something to be scared of … I’ve been that kid who wanted to wear gloves to hide so it’s heartbreaking to see that stigma reinforced for other children who have different hands to everyone else.”
The Paralympic Games organisation also expressed disappointment, and said: “Limb difference is not scary.
“Differences should be celebrated and disability has to be normalised.”
A spokesman for Warner Bros said the studio was “deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities.
“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, nonhuman creatures were meant to represent them. It is our hope families and children can enjoy the film and embrace this empowering, love-filled theme.”
The heroes of The Witches are a young boy and his grandmother, who stumble upon a gathering of witches who plan to turn children into mice.