Once upon a time, the live-action remakes of Disney classics were guaranteed box office gold. The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, and Alice in Wonderland were all huge hits. Most assumed the much-hyped The Little Mermaid would join them, though Ariel wasn’t a nimble enough swimmer to navigate the choppy waters of the 2023 summer box office.
Now all eyes are on Snow White, a reworking of the all-time 1937 cinematic classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the movie that cemented Disney as a Hollywood powerhouse.
Let’s just say it’s been a bumpy ride so far: racists have criticized the casting of Latina Rachel Zegler in the lead role (claiming the character having “skin as white as snow” is crucial to the plot) and Zegler didn’t exactly calm things down when she said the 1937 movie is “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world.”
Bubbling under all that is a lingering controversy of the dwarfs themselves. Peter Dinklage said:
“You are progressive in one way, but then you are still making that f**king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f**k are you doing, man?”
Disney responded by making the dwarfs much more diverse, which has inevitably led to wails that Snow White has gone “woke.”
The rage is burning, so much so that rumors are building that Disney is going to cancel the movie altogether. A report from Inside the Magic says”proof rises” that the film is going to be pulled. A read of the article quickly reveals that their “proof” is primarily people being angry online about Disney being “woke.”
If Disney thinks it has a potential PR disaster on its hands now, that’d pale in comparison to the anger if it decided to cancel its first live-action Latina princess. It’s always worth remembering that these movies take place in fantasy worlds full of mythological creatures and no-kidding magic. If you can accept that but can’t accept a Latina Snow White, maybe take a look in the mirror and figure out how to fix your heart.