Disney’s live-action “Snow White” has been a topic of controversy for years leading up to its release, warranting differing opinions about the film.
Disney announced in June 2021 that Rachel Zegler, of West Side Story, had been cast as Snow White in their upcoming live-action remake of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” This news sparked an uproar among Disney fans who opposed the casting of the Latina actress due to the original Brothers Grimm fairytale describing the character as having “skin as white as snow” and being the “fairest of them all,” according to Vulture.
“Obviously there is the initial thought of ‘it’s not following the original’ because she’s obviously not white, but I think it’s cool to have more diversity in the princesses,” said junior Mayah D.
It was announced a few months later in November 2021 that Gal Gadot had been cast in the role of the Evil Queen, which stirred less of a response than when the lead actress of the film was cast.
Months later, in January 2022, actor Peter Dinklage, who has dwarfism, criticized Disney for hypocrisy. “I was a little taken aback by [the fact that] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You’re progressive in one way but you’re still making that backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave,” said Dinklage, in a podcast with Marc Maron.
This critique from Dinklage later prompted Disney to make a statement later in January 2022. “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,” stated the Walt Disney Company in a press release.
Following the critiques of Disney’s plans for the movie came the infamous D23 Extra interview with Rachel Zegler in September 2022.
“The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird. So we didn’t do that this time,” said Zegler.
Once again, she faced backlash– this time for criticizing the original film and offending fans of the original.
“When I watched [the original Snow White], I remember thinking afterwards, ‘it really is very straightforward and […] there’s just not much there to begin with.’ I think it’s nice that they added more and developed the plot and that Snow White actually had a relationship with the prince-like character … in the new Snow White,” said Mayah.
Months after the D23 backlash in July 2023, Dylan Postl, a WWE wrestler with dwarfism, disagreed with Dinklage’s stance that “Snow White” perpetuates negative stereotypes about little people. He wrote an article for Daily Mail about the changes to the characters. At the time, Daily Mail had just exclusively released set photos of the film featuring a Snow White body double followed by one actor with dwarfism, and six “normies” as Postl referenced.
“Far from ‘reinforcing stereotypes’, this timeless cartoon teaches children that height doesn’t matter so much. Everybody is different — that’s the message, and the true meaning of diversity. We’re all trying to build a more progressive culture,” said Postl, in an article from the Daily Mail.
Insiders reported that the seven dwarves were being replaced with seven bandits, but this change was poorly received by fans. The backlash against these changes led to major reshoots for the movie in order to restore the seven dwarves to the story.
“I think it was a weird way of doing [the seven dwarves] where they were very cartoonish but then also had scarily realistic faces, but I don’t think they were bad. I think that was the most consistent thing from the original movie and I thought they were good characters,” said junior Grace D.
Many critiques that stemmed from the movie included not only poor reviews of the costumes, but also from some of the performances in the movie.
“Gal Gadot wasn’t as great as she could have been. […] She was very straight faced and wasn’t really acting as much as she could have,” said Mayah.
Aside from the poor ratings the movie has received on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, the movie did manage to appeal to some viewers.
“[On its own], I think it was a good movie. I mean, you could tell that there were definitely things that they added to fit better to our time period, but still, it works because we are watching it from our current viewpoint,” said junior Logan B.
The live-action adaptation of Disney’s Snow White is available to rent or purchase on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies & TV.◼️
