Netflix has apologized after a wave of outrage over the upcoming French film Cuties dropped online in response to the film's marketing. According to Entertainment Tonight, the poster for the film dropped ahead of the film's release on Netflix on Sept. 9 and caught some off-guard. The film follows an 11-year-old girl who joins a school dance group called "the cuties," and the poster shows the girls in their uniforms.
Many accused the poster and film of "sexualizing children" The furor continued into Thursday when Netflix apologized for the film's art and promotional materials. The company tweeted an apology to all users and also released a statement according to ET.
"We're sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for this film," Netflix's statement to the outlet says. "This was not an accurate representation of the film so the image and description has been updated."
The apology tweeted by the company echoed this statement and added the posted they released wasn't a proper representation of the French film that became an award winner at Sundance. The original description of the film from Netflix didn't help matters.
"Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family's traditions," it read until Netflix changed it to the following. "Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family's traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew."
The apology didn't do much to stem the wave of angry responses from accounts on social media, with some claiming the streamer was still exploiting children and making the company trending with the term "pedophilia" next to it. Scroll down to see some of the angry responses.