Snow Whiteis one of the most beloved projects in Disney’s long history of classic animated films, but the company’s more modern take on the legendary piece of cinema history has seen far less success, and its trailer highlights this contrast.
Snow Whiteis one of the hallmarks of animation history, widely regarded as the first feature-length animation and believed across generations. This prominence made it an obvious choice for the ongoing live-action conversion going on at Disney, with the project first reported on in 2016 and would go on to cast actress Rachel Zegler in the lead role alongside Gal Gadot as the film’s antagonist. There was some initial pushback against the casting of Zegler, who didn’t possess the titular snow-white skin that gave the original character her moniker. Furthermore, the project would garner even more negative press whenGame of Thronesstar and Hollywood mainstayPeter Dinklage slammed Disney’sSnow Whiteremake as a ‘backwards story,‘undercutting any attempts to make the reimagining more palatable to more sensitive audiences by highlighting the project as inherently problematic.
Following this rough start and a slew of statements by the film’s lead that rubbed many the wrong way,Zegler’sSnow Whitemovie was called a disgrace by an ex-Disney designer, among others, and the sentiment hasn’t died down since that initial wave of disapproval. This is shown most clearly in the teaser trailer for the film posted to the officialWalt Disney StudiosYouTube channel, which has hit a new negative milestone by amassing more than a million dislikes in less than a month on the site. This is in stark contrast to less than 90,000 likes, painting a bleak picture of the split between positive and negative attitudes toward the film, which is less than a year away from its theatrical release. The teaser first premiered at D23, and has been at the center of a maelstrom of discussion since then with none of it being particularly good.
In addition to the backlash stemming from Zeglar’s casting and her comments and perceived attitude towards the original Disney class, there are other concerns at play with the negative response. Part of the hate (likely most of it) stems fromDisney’s response to Peter Dinklage’sSnow Whiteremake criticism, which amounted to a public statement containing vague promises to do better and amounted to little more than replacing the planned castings for the seven dwarves with rough CGI adaptations of the cartoon characters. There has been a pretty loud pushback in recent times about the abundance of CGI in projects, especially when practical effects and real actors could net a much better, less uncanny effect. This is exacerbated by the general fatigue with remakes and adaptations, especially from Disney’s classic backlog. It’s hard to figure out the exact ratio of faults here, but the only things that can be addressed are the widespread and earnest criticisms concerning the project itself.
Despite the long list of controversies with these sorts of projects,Alan WakeandControlare set to get movie and TV adaptationsin the near future, and the trend is also still going strong at Disney, with a live-action adaptation of the successful animated featureMoanaalso in the development stage. It’s clear that the outcry won’t deter Disney from putting out the adaptation or making more, so fans can only really wait and see if the company is able to salvage the film before it releases in theaters.
Snow Whiteis currently set for theatrical release on Jul 02, 2025.
