Disney's remake problem

By Samantha Zellers

Disney has a remake problem, which is showcased with the upcoming Snow White movie. The rewriting of original fairy tales is not only disrespectful to the cultures from which they come, it’s downright harmful, and achieves the opposite of their intent.

The upcoming Snow White remake has made waves on the internet for many of the same reasons as The Little Mermaid. It disrespects its source material in every way, shape, and form possible, from character appearance to character species to storyline.

Snow White no longer has lips red as blood, hair black as ebony, and skin white as snow, as her mother in the original fairy tale wished. Disney is also keeping the name Snow White for the movie. 

Besides being confusing, placing an ethnically different actor in the place of a character literally named Snow White takes resources away from potential movies that could better represent the ethnicities and cultures from which the actors come. When characters’ ethnicities are changed, people tend to talk more about the change in ethnicity than the quality of the movie, or the actual skill of the actor. It becomes a controversial topic, rather than a positive representation of marginalized groups.

Rachel Zegler, who was cast as Snow White in the upcoming movie, has commented that her intent is to make her character more of a girlboss type, and has made jokes about cutting the prince from the movie entirely. 

In the original, Snow White was a beautiful girl on the inside and out. She was kind, caring, and yes, a bit naive. Despite several warnings from the dwarves she lived with, she kept being tricked into trusting the crones, all her stepmother in disguise, when they offered her cursed gifts of a comb, a dress, and finally an apple. She was trusting and believed the best of people, which is a kind of strength in its own way.

Instead of portraying that kind of quiet strength, creating a nuanced character who can be related to by many people who have had to suffer through hardships and come out the other side determined to not perpetuate the behaviors that hurt them, Disney has chosen to remake Snow White into a titan: strong, independent, and, with She-Hulk lurking in the back of one’s mind, entirely unoriginal.

The seven dwarves are no longer dwarves, except for Peter Dinklage, who criticized Disney over the term being used at all. The legends behind dwarves are numerous and varied, but in the original movie the dwarves lived in a picturesque though messy cottage, and worked in a mine processing gemstones. 

The dwarves weren’t portrayed as backwards or lesser because of their species. They were rich enough and skilled enough to make Snow White a coffin out of glass, gold, and gemstones. In the original fairytale, they saved Snow several times from her stepmother’s schemes. 

Given the fact that the roles are literally made for people with dwarfism, the fact that the representation there has been removed has upset many people, with good reason. The film is an excellent place to display the challenges that dwarfism brings, as well as a way to portray those with dwarfism in a positive light. 

Turning the seven dwarfs into seven creatures means that instead of having more representation, we have less. The seven creatures appear to be humans, and while they’re ethnically diverse, that diversity would be necessarily overshadowed by the fact that they’re “Magical Creatures”.