If Netflix plans to unveil many original films at the end of the year, recently released feature films also regularly manage to find a second audience with subscribers to the streaming platform. This is the case of holy witches, a fantastic comedy by Robert Zemeckis released in 2020 at the cinema. Barely added to the Netflix catalog, it is already number 1 in the top, ahead of Mia and the white lion And My brothers and me. This is the re-reading of a 1990 film with Anjelica Huston in the role of the big bad, itself based on the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s book by Roald Dahl published in 1983. If, on paper, Holy Witches with Anne Hathaway in the main role and Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci as well as Chris Rock in the seconds, had everything to please, the feature film created a lively controversy during its broadcast.

Holy Witches number 1 of the top Netflix: what is it about?

In the adaptation of the youth novel, we follow Bruno, a young orphan. In 1967, he came to live with his lovely grandmother in the small rural town of Demopolis, Alabama. While the little boy and his grandmother cross paths with witches as attractive as they are fearsome, the grandmother takes our budding hero to a sumptuous seaside resort. Unfortunately, they arrive at the very moment when the Chief Witch gathers her henchmen from all over the world to implement her sinister plans… The latter are determined to eliminate all the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren and Bruno will have to find a solution to prevent them from carrying out their plan. to execution.

For what Holy Witches created a lively controversy

In Holy Witches on Netflix, as in the book, the key sequence is that of the moment when all the witches meet in the large reception room of the hotel. Out of sight, they can finally reveal their true face and get rid of the wigs and other accessories that allowed them to go incognito. A transformation that required no less than 5 hours of work by the make-up and prosthetics team on Anne Hathaway. It is then that it is discovered that witches, in their true form, have hands and feet of two or three fingers. And it is precisely this element that has aroused a lively controversy among people with disabilities. Some people have accused the production, as well as Anne Hathaway, of having conveyed a negative image of people whose limbs, lower or upper, experience malformations. Holy Witches would thus contribute to prejudice and the demonization of a physical handicap.

Anne Hathaway deeply embarrassed by the controversy created by the film

The controversy was such that Anne Hathaway couldn’t help but react to the controversy on his social networks. The actress flatly apologized to people with disabilities who might have felt offended: “Let me start by saying that I do my best to be sensitive to the feelings and experiences of others, not out of politically correct fear, but because not hurting others seems to me to be the basis decency that we should all strive for. As someone who truly believes in inclusiveness, and who hates cruelty, I owe you an apology for the pain I have caused.” In this posted message in caption of a video of the Lucky Fin Project (a non-profit project to raise awareness, support and celebrate those 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 with symbrachydactyly or limb difference), she added that“She was especially keen to apologize to 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren with limb differences.” She concluded that she was now aware of the harm she had caused, promising to do better in the future.