Robert Zemeckis' new take on The Witches recently debuted on HBO Max, and the divisive re-adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's tale has now come in for a sizable amount of backlash from disability rights campaigners.
The movie makes a significant change to the source material in regards to the witches' taloned hands. In the book, the villainous women are described as having five clawed fingers, but the film depicts them with missing middle fingers on each hand, similar to the limb abnormality ectrodactyly.
The issue stems from the perception that The Witches is "linking disability or physical impairments to evil characters."
Warner Bros. issued a response to Deadline, stating that they are “deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in The Witches could upset people with disabilities” and “regretted any offense caused”.
“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,” they added. “It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them.”
What do you guys make of this? Is the backlash justified, or are people making too much out of the depiction of a fictional, non-human character? Let us know in the comments.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.