14 DAY TRIAL // With children as young as 10 now thinking of going on a diet or daily worrying about their weight, the messages included in cartoons can have a devastating effect on them. So no wonder that Warner Bros. is now coming under serious fire for “cursing” Daphne in the new “Scooby Doo” movie to go from a size 2 to a “dreaded” size 8.
In “Scooby-Doo: Frankencreepy,” the famous gang (Fred, Velma, Daphne, Scooby and Shaggy) travel to Transylvania, Pennsylvania, to check out a house that Velma inherited from her great-great-uncle Dr. Von Dinkenstein.
They get into trouble as per usual, and at one point, they’re cursed to lose that which they each hold most dear. Daphne loses her good figure and great hair and is transformed from a slim girl into a “fat” one, as you can also see in the photo attached to this article.
The movie claims that, once cursed, Daphne is a size 8, but if you know anything about dress sizes, she looks way heavier than that. A size 8 is not even the average weight of a woman in the US, as per the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, so, even if “cursed,” Daphne would still be healthy. The average of clothes sizes for American women is a size 14, with anything over 12 being a plus-size.
Reactions to this plot twist have been mostly negative, because the message is that girls should fear losing their looks more than anything in life and thus do whatever they can to not lose them, even if that means risking their health and even their life.
Angry voices are criticizing Warner Bros. for fat-shaming Daphne and, at the same time, making the latest “Scooby Doo” movie unsuitable for young girls but, according to the studio, they should first see the film and criticize after.
It’s true that Daphne is made fat by the curse and it’s true that she, at first, considers it the worst thing in the whole wide world that could have happened to her. But the message at the end is actually a positive one, Warners says in a statement to the Huffington Post.
“While Daphne is at first upset by the sudden change, there is a touching moment where Fred points out that he didn't even notice a change and that she always looks great to him. At the end, when Velma explains how they figured out the mystery, she points out that the curse actually DIDN'T take away what means the most to each of them: their friendship,” the studio says.
“The loss of Daphne's regular appearance is proven to be a superficial thing, and not what actually matters the most to her,” Warners adds, saying that they’ve always been very careful about the kind of imagery and messages they put in their movies, especially in those meant for kids.
