The new trailer for Disney’s “live action” adaptation of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” has reawakened the many controversies that have already surrounded this film. This is one of the most prominent examples of the series of challenges faced by studios in the modern era when they come to tell a seemingly simple story. The new Snow White knew plenty of controversies since its announcement, and from a number of fronts: the image of Snow White, the representation of short people (dwarves), political tensions. It seems that it is simply impossible for everyone to be satisfied with the artistic and commercial choices, and the answers to the questions that arise regarding the adaptation of classic fairy tales to the present day become more difficult from time to time.
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Although 1996’s 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella de Ville was Disney’s first live-action remake of its classic film, the incorporation of these remakes as a strategy at Disney only began a little over a decade ago. The goal is to reintroduce the beloved characters and familiar stories to new generations, and of course to capitalize on the nostalgic affection of the generations that grew up on the classic films. The success of this strategy so far has been mixed. Along with great successes such as “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin” and “The Lion King”, which even surpassed (at least at the box office) the original works, there were also quite a few relative failures such as “Dumbo”, “Pinocchio”, “Mulan” and “The Little Mermaid” the little one”. These failed not only commercially, but also in recreating the magic that made the original films the classics they are. Critics and audiences alike have raised the obvious question: Are these remakes driven by creative ambition, or are they simply an opportunity for Disney to easily generate safe revenue? The ongoing backlash against Snow White only adds fuel to the fire and demonstrates the risks the studio takes when adapting ancient fairy tales to the present without a cohesive artistic vision.
Snow White is “not white enough” and the stereotypical dwarfs
It all started with the announcement of the casting of Rachel Ziegler for the main role. Ziegler, who made her film debut in Spielberg’s 2021 remake of Suburban Story, is an actress of Colombian-Polish descent with Latin looks and appeal. Racist-tinged reviews against her flooded the network claiming that she was “not white enough” to play a character described as having “snow white skin”.
Of course, criticisms of the criticism were not slow to come, and Ziegler herself actually responded elegantly when she emphasized the global appeal of the character, and the great sympathy for her, especially among Latino communities. She uploaded pictures of herself online as a girl dressed as a bunch of Disney princesses, and tried to bring the audience closer instead of pushing them away. When rumors spread that in the new film Disney tried to tone down the romantic storyline and focus on Snow White’s journey to become a leader, the unrest only increased.
Another point of contention was revealed immediately afterwards when the actor Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister in “Game of Thrones”), who is also what is known as short, criticized the decision to tell the story and perpetuate the existing stereotypes about dwarves. He claimed that Disney is being hypocritical in its progressive casting of Ziegler, but still chooses to portray dwarfs in an old-fashioned way. In response, Disney did some thinking and announced that they will change the way the dwarfs will be portrayed in the film. After consultations with members of the gnome community, it was decided at Disney that the characters would not be played by actors, but would be animated using computer graphics (CGI). Of course, this decision has also been criticized as “depriving other midget actors of work”, including a vocal statement from community member, midget wrestler Hornswoggle, who said: “Who put him (Dinklage) to be the sole voice of the community? It’s taking a dream role from midget actors “.
Gal Gadot against boycotts, Ziegler is pro-Palestinian
The involvement of politically conscious actors can always be a problem for studios. In this case Gal Gadot, who was cast as the evil queen, became the target of boycotts due to her extroverted support for Israel. Her tweet of support for Israel on 8.10 and the screening she organized of the videos of the atrocities in the USA generated a wave of network reviews from the BDS campaign (she specifically tweeted on the subject) and a pro-Palestinian audience, in a much larger volume compared to other hits in which she participated, such as “Wonder Woman” .
Disney must have known where they were getting into when they cast her, but they didn’t take into account the current war, and they certainly didn’t think that the discourse about it would get a significant boost from a surprising direction: the second star of the film, Ziegler, expressed vocal support for the Palestinians. She even tweeted “free palestine” as a follow-up to her tweet about the new trailer of the film and received millions of exposures. Although there were no significant public clashes between the two, in their joint appearances together to promote the film, at the last Disney convention for example, Ziegler seemed like someone who just wanted to get away from the place as quickly as possible.
And while Disney continues to try and adapt its classic fairy tales to the modern age, the controversies surrounding Snow White serve as a reminder of the complexity of trying to combine tradition, innovation and modernity, as well as of the risks that a studio takes on even in a project that on paper looks like a sure success. The conclusion should be clear: setting out without a specific and defined artistic vision is a mistake. The intention behind the renderings should be more than an easy chance to make a jackpot. When you leave an audience with the feeling that you are trying to sell them a used product rather than making a significant contribution to the cultural landscape, then even the most iconic story can collapse under everyone’s expectations.
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