“Snow White” is one of the most controversial movies of the year. From the use of CGI for dwarves to the lack of racial differences, people have found issues with almost every aspect of the movie. All of these problems are the beginning of the end for the movie.
The biggest problem of the movie in our opinion is the way the movie tried to promote diversity. There is no reason that the dwarves should have been CGI. The whole point of having a movie to increase diversity is casting people who are different from the norm. Actress Katrina Kemp, a frequent advocate for the inclusion of people with disabilities, said that Disney missed out on the chance to normalize dwarfism in an interview with MovieWeb.
“It’s a missed opportunity to make a movie with seven little people where they actually have intended characters,” Kemp said.
For a movie focused on trying to increase diversity, it is a massive fail. “Snow White” is played by Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian and Polish ancestry. The “prince”, the Evil Queen, and all seven dwarves are white. The only other prominent character of color is the Huntsman, who is played by Ansu Kabia. He is mixed, with his father being African and his mother being white. Considering there are thousands of talented actors who aren’t white, there is no reason that the cast should be overwhelmingly white.
Here in Palo Alto, a community is filled with people of different cultures and backgrounds diversity is just a part of everyday life. However, that’s not a reality for many people in the United States. Because of that, movies are how most people get exposed to different cultures. “Snow White,” for all the promotion it did on the importance of diversity, fails to represent different cultures and only reinforced the idea that the majority of “qualified” actors were white.
Now, if that were the only issue with the movie, it would have just been a mediocre movie. Alas, that was the tip of the iceberg. Another failure is the overall storyline doesn’t live up to the original.
To many people, “Snow White” and other Disney princess movies are their childhood. They do not want to see Disney producing these movies for the sake of having an economic claim. Disney is trying to replicate its past storylines but for the purpose of trying to rein in more money. This exploitation of the past lacks luster and is not working. It does not incentivize people to watch the movies, in fact it does the opposite. Nobody wants to watch movies that feel as though they were just made for money.
These movies should be reproduced to replicate the feelings they felt for the newer generations. Instead, we get a watered down version of the magic of the originals. The new movie takes away from the magic of the old one. Instead of people thinking of the original “Snow White” with the animated birds flying across the screen and the colorful flowers, they will think of the live-action movie that tried too hard to be good and became an utter failure.
Hopefully Disney sees the backlash from this movie and doesn’t rush into making the next one. The “Snow White” live-action movie is one that the people and the characters do not deserve. Instead of trying to replace the magic of the original with a subpar substitution, the live-action movies should strive to create new experiences for the future generations.
