Greta Gerwig's Barbie Is Banned In Vietnam Over Child-Like Map Drawing

Who could've foreseen Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" becoming the most politically controversial film of 2023? Okay, so it's not quite that, but it has joined Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq's milestone queer drama "Joyland" on the list of recent films to face bans in certain parts of the world due to its content.

Has Gerwig's much-hyped adaptation of the iconic Mattel, Inc. doll and multimedia franchise landed itself in hot water over Ryan Gosling's Ken and his customized underwear? Or have certain conservative clowns picked up on the subtext of the scene in the "Barbie" trailers where Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie implores Margot Robbie's Barbara Millicent Roberts to strap on a pair of Birkenstocks and journey to the real world to deal with her sudden existential crisis? No, it's another (albeit related) moment in the trailers that's caused a stir: a shot revealing the "Real World Map" that McKinnon's character provides to Robbie's Barbie to help her on her personal odyssey.

This map, which you can see in the below image, is about as accurate a representation of our planet's geography as Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is as a portrayal of deep-sea life. (Clearly, Gerwig and her production team should've consulted Cartographer Barbie on the matter.) Nevertheless, its depiction of the Asian continent has resulted in the film being banned in Vietnam. I'll leave it to Variety to explain the situation:

The drawing depicts what has been called a representation of the "nine-dash line," which reinforces China's territorial claims in the South China Sea (there are only eight lines in the "Barbie" map, and not in the shape dictated by actual global maps). Vietnam disputes those claims and believes it violates the country's sovereignty. Officials subsequently pulled the release of "Barbie" in the territory.

A spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Film Group has issued the following (yes this is actually real) statement to Variety regarding this "Barbie" controversy:

"The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing. 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."

While representatives for Greta Gerwig and Warner Bros. have yet to comment on how, precisely, this map figures into the film's plot, Variety's sources assure them that the filmmakers "are sensitive to the geopolitical issues raised by the map" and say the map is "simply the doll's own road to enlightenment." Adding to that, it seems part of the reason Gerwig and her "Barbie" co-writer Noah Baumbach were afforded so much creative freedom to make the film their own is that they steered clear of any dicey topics involving international politics. Instead, Gerwig's film appears to focus its social commentary on the "Barbie" brand itself, making it an exercise in self-reflexive storytelling that brings to mind the oeuvre of "The LEGO Movie" and "Spider-Verse" duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Alas, audiences in Vietnam will merely have to wonder exactly what Gerwig and company have cooked up here until further notice. The rest of us can see for ourselves when "Barbie" reaches theaters on July 21, 2023.