DreamWorks Animation’s “Abominable” won’t be released in Malaysia as the film’s distributor decided against censoring a map of China that appears in the movie showing maritime borders that are disputed by the Southeast Asian country.
The movie has caused uproar across the region, with Vietnam ordering a halt to its screenings and the Philippines’ foreign secretary calling for a boycott of all DreamWorks films. Malaysia’s censors had ordered the removal of the scene with the map, which has the “nine-dash line” showing Beijing’s claim over about 80% of the South China Sea.
“Universal has decided not to make the censor cut required by the Malaysian censor board and as such will not be able to release the film in Malaysia,” a spokeswoman for United International Pictures, a partnership with Dreamworks Animation distributor Universal Pictures, said by email.
Malaysia, one of the territorial claimants in South China Sea, is too small to stand up against China, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has called for all sides to reduce the presence of battleships in the area.
“Abominable” tells the story of a girl named Yi, who finds a yeti on her roof in Shanghai. She names him “Everest” and sets off to help him get home to his family in the Himalayas. The movie opened in U.S. theaters late last month and in China on Oct. 1.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur at araghu3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Yudith Ho at yho35@bloomberg.net, Dave McCombs
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