From Israel to dwarfism, the ‘Snow White’ controversies, explained
Donald Trump was running for president — for the first time — when Disney confirmed it would make a live-action version of the children’s classic movie “Snow White.” Eight years later, the film has yet to be released, and it’s racked up a list of controversies, many stemming from its branding by some on the political right as a “Woke Snow White.”
Here’s a look at some of the issues that have dogged the film, which is now scheduled to open March 21, 2025.
The casting of Rachel Zegler as the titular character drew criticism from people who thought the “West Side Story” actress didn’t have the right complexion to play a character named “Snow White” because her skin was “white as snow,” according to earliest versions of the story, believed to have originated with the Brothers Grimm. Zegler’s mother is of Colombian heritage; her father, Polish.
Disney has struggled with what to do about the “seven dwarfs” of the original story, given cultural sensitivity about the portrayal of people with dwarfism, and affection for the characters in the story. The title has been shortened to simply “Snow White,” and original plans to represent the Snow White’s friends — one character with dwarfism and the others a range of ethnicities — provoked outrage on social media after a British tabloid published photos showing the cast on set. Disney then decided to make the characters CGI, which didn’t go over well either, with some saying that the CGI characters are not “progressive,” per Reason magazine.
Zegler has repeatedly angered fans of the original film by being critical of it. Her comments, per Forbes, include saying she was “scared” of the original version, that Prince Charming seemed like a stalker and the character could be cut from the film. In addition, she told an interviewer for Variety “it’s no longer 1937″ and that her Snow White is “not going to be saved by the prince” and is “not going to be dreaming about true love.“ She’s dreaming about “becoming the leader she knows she can be,” Zegler said, and will be “fearless, fair, brave and true.”
More recently, Zegler has been in the news because she holds a different position than her co-star regarding the Israel-Hamas war. As Eric Berger reported for The Guardian, “Zegler is an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, is a high-profile Israeli actor.” Now some people are calling for a boycott of the film because of Gadot’s support of Israel.
And finally, the release of ‘Snow White’ is sure to reignite discussion about whether Disney should be re-imagining beloved classics at all, or just let them stand on their own. Some people have called the company lazy for going back to the original well instead of producing new material — one writer for Forbes called the remakes “millennial nostalgia-bait” — and the live-action versions of classics have not been well-received by critics.
“Critically, Disney’s remakes have consistently been given a lukewarm reception besides the odd few. From a cinematic powerhouse like Disney, the run of critically average movies should arguably not be accepted or continued. However, the critical opinion has not impacted the box office of the Disney remakes and most have still done well financially. Especially since four managed to break $1 billion, with ‘The Jungle Book’ not being far off. The last five remakes have been the poorest performing, but the success of earlier ones has meant Disney has been able to largely ignore them,” Jessica Smith wrote for Screen Rant last year.
And Caralynn Matassa wrote for Business Insider, “... there’s no winning for Disney here, no matter whether they bring the story up to appropriately modern levels of inclusivity or leave in the outdated, now offensive elements. So they may as well just cut it out with the remakes.”
You can watch the trailer for the film here.
But as controversial as “Snow White” is, it’s not Disney’s most controversial movie — yet. By some accounts, that would be “Song of the South,” with “Bambi,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Peter Pan,” “Dumbo” and “Pocahontas” also making Screen Rant’s Top 10 list.
