'Artemis Fowl': Angry fans slam Disney for taking feminism out of story, getting 'characterization all wrong'
Spoilers for 'Artemis Fowl'
Why is it that whenever Hollywood adapts a young adult novel, it almost invariably ends up ticking off the entire fanbase? Sure, you've got your 'Lord of the Rings' and your 'Harry Potter' but those are more the exception than the rule. We were hoping 'Artemis Fowl' might be a faithful adaptation of the books. Even after we found out it isn't, we were hoping the movie could still appeal to some of the audience. Unfortunately, it looks like the fans disagree, and quite strongly at that.
One of the biggest criticisms about the movie that has emerged online is its treatment of important female characters from the novels. And Artemis Fowl's (Ferdia Shaw) mother is the first casualty. "Disney killed Artemis Fowl's mom off in the first 10 minutes and I am furious about it. It happens so early I can't even call it a spoiler," one fan wrote on Twitter.
Another angry fan tweeted, "I'm 10 minutes into #ArtemisFowl and I'm already annoyed because they've killed off his mom and replaced her with the dad whose disappearance is the focus of an entire book!" "They also got #ArtemisFowl's characterization very wrong," the fan added in the same thread. "He isn't an outgoing aggressive kid. He's a frustratingly calm, superior little s***. Surfing? He would never."
We're guessing Disney hoped that having Dame Judi Dench in a genderswapped role as Commander Root (who is the epitome of fairy testosterone in the books) would help appeal to the franchise's female fans. However, it looks like that just had the opposite effect because it takes away from Holly Short's (Lara McDonnell) powerful arc of fighting a patriarchal institution as the lone female officer in LEPrecon.
"There are so many girls in recon. Holly is supposed to be the first female captain," said one outraged fan who attempted to livetweet the movie. "She works against sexist commanders and a discriminatory institution and proves herself by being better than all the men. This is an important arc. And now it’s gone. Commander Root’s a girl." And it gets worse. Turns out, instead of trying to prove her sexist detractors wrong, the film Holly's entire arc is wrapped around a man, her father.
"HOLLY’S FIGHT AGAINST THE PATRIARCHY IS NOW A TREASURE HUNT TO FIND HER FATHER I CANT BELIEVE THIS," the same fan tweeted. The fan wrote a few more tweets but eventually gave up and declared, "I’m done live-tweeting #ArtemisFowlMovie it’s too bad and making me too angry." Finally, we have this one fan who summed it all up nicely writing, "And you thought Percy Jackson was a bad YA adaptation, huh? Yeah, not anymore. #ArtemisFowl"
Sorry, Artemis. Guess they really did "Fowl" you up. 'Artemis Fowl' was released on Disney+ on June 12.