On October 2020, the premiere of the film "Witches" based on the work of Roald Dahl took place on the network.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future", "Forrest Gump"), among the producers of the project - Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro.

Anne Hathaway played the central negative role.

She appeared in the form of the Greatest Most Important Witch.

Some Internet users criticized the appearance of this heroine and other sorceresses.

So, netizens did not like the fact that in the new film the witches have three fingers on their hands.

“Have you thought well there how such an approach to depicting special variants of the limb structure will affect the community of people with a special limb structure?”

- turned to the production studio Warner Bros.

on Twitter, one of the critics, 2016 Paralympic bronze medalist, swimmer Amy Marren.

Marren provided the recording with screenshots of her own Instagram post.

In it, the athlete claims that watching a movie can allegedly form children's misconceptions about people with disabilities.

At the same time, the tape corresponds to the PG rating according to the American Film Association, that is, young viewers should watch The Witches in the presence of their parents.

In the Russian box office, the picture is recommended to an audience of 12 years and older.

  • © Still from the film "Witches"

“Yes, I understand perfectly well that this is a film, and they are witches.

But witches are essentially monsters.

I am afraid that this film will be watched by children who do not know that it greatly exaggerates what was inherent in the original work of Roald Dahl, and that the features of the structure of the limbs will start to cause fear, ”says Marren.

Marren and her associates point out that there was no mention of limbs with three fingers in Roald Dahl's book.

The athlete attached to the post an illustration for the publication, where witches are described as bald creatures with a bizarre nose shape, blue tongue and no toes.

The witches have five fingers on their hands with claws, which they hide under gloves.

Representatives of the Paralympic movement drew attention to the post of Marren and joined in the attacks on the film.

“The features of the limbs are not scary.

Specifics must be accepted, and disabilities must be perceived as the norm, ”the organization said on its official Twitter account.

Limb difference is not scary.

Differences should be celebrated and disability has to be normalized.

#NotAWitch calls out '#TheWitches' movie for portrayal of disability 👉 https://t.co/aSY1U6TymEpic.twitter.com/UCU87bUeV8

- Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) November 3, 2020

The Paralympic Movement urged netizens to spread the hashtag #NotAWitch (not a witch) directed against the film.

Thus, it is expected to attract as much attention as possible to the position of viewers with disabilities who consider themselves insulted.

Another Paralympian swimmer claimed that the film allegedly creates a frightening image of people with a special structure of the limbs.

“I'm asking you, what message do we convey to children?

It's not about costumes and makeup!

The fact is that the features of the limbs are presented in a negative light.

I have devoted my whole life to fighting stereotypes ... just for the sake of Hollywood poking them in my face again, ”she says on Facebook.

According to the Deadline edition, the hands of the witches from the new film may resemble the appearance of the hands of a person suffering from ectrodactyly - a malformation of the limbs.

Amid such attacks, Warner Bros.

had to apologize.

A company spokesman told Deadline that the filmmakers are “extremely saddened to learn that the approach to portraying fictional characters in The Witches may have upset people with disabilities,” and regret if anyone was offended.

He also described how the work on the image of the witches went: “In the process of adapting the original story, the designers and artists and I developed a new variation on the cat-like claws, which are described in the book.

By no means did we want to impress the viewers that those fantastic, non-human creatures were supposed to portray them. "

For the majority of viewers and bloggers, the appearance of the heroine did not prevent them from enjoying the viewing.

We went to see the new movie from Robert Zemeckis - #TheWitches.


Hathaway did her best as the Head Witch (especially the Norwegian accent is different in the original).

The picture itself is beautiful too.

The color scheme is milk-caramel.

Unlike the 1990 film, the eye is happy here.

- Kirill Kovalevsky (@KiraKovalevsky) October 31, 2020

Previously, the characters of many cartoons and even fiction films were depicted with four fingers - including, for example, the Na'Vi tribe from James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar" or the heroes of the famous animated series "The Simpsons".

And this feature did not cause rejection from the audience.