In 2023, Disney released a live action version of The Little Mermaid and last month did the same for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is now simply titled Snow White. Both of these movies faced backlash in part due to the casting decisions for the female leads, yet other problems left people wondering what the point is with these new movies.
Arguably the biggest problems people have with Snow White are the “dwarfs” (if you can even call them that) and Rachel Zegler, who plays the title character. In 2021, Disney and Ms. Zegler faced criticism online when the casting decision was announced, with many people saying the Latina actress should not play a character whose name is Snow White, because, well, Ms. Zegler is not white. That discourse died down after a few months, but a lot was still to follow.
According to The New York Times, Disney hired three people with dwarfism as consultants for the movie, yet the studio failed to hire actors with dwarfism to play the roles, and the characters ended up being rendered with CGI. The dwarfs in the original film were depicted as living in a little cottage and working in a cave, which many people in the dwarfism community were worried about, because it reinforces what they call stereotypes that the community has to fight against.
“I was a little taken aback when they were proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” said actor Peter Dinklage, who has dwarfism, on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast in January 2022. “You’re progressive in one way, and you’re still making that backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox?”
The Little Mermaid also faced criticism on social media for the casting of Halle Bailey, who is black, as Ariel. The response was intense but relatively short lived, as defenders of Ms. Bailey were plentiful.
It was clear that The Little Mermaid also tried to right some of the wrongs of the original film, changing some of the lyrics of the song “Kiss the Girl” so as not to suggest that the prince should force himself onto Ariel.
Disney didn’t have a bad history with live action remakes until the release of The Little Mermaid, and most of the reactions from audiences until then were very positive.
The company’s first remakes were The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmations, which were relatively successful, but the success of Alice in Wonderland in 2010, which earned more than a billion dollars worldwide at the box office, kicked off the obsession.
The release of Beauty and the Beast set Disney firmly on the path of fashioning live action remakes of its animated catalogue. Studio officials clearly wanted to stay close to the plot of the original movies, while changing things that could be seen as problematic in today’s fraught cultural landscape and maybe adding a few songs here and there.
This trend isn’t ending anytime soon. Lilo & Stitch is set to release in May, followed by Moana in July. Plans are in the works for a live action Tangled, with Hercules and Robin Hood following. There are more than a half dozen others either confirmed or in the planning stages.
Why? Because they make money, and cinema is in a very uncertain financial age. Animation used to be a way for movie makers to capture the magic and otherworldliness that live action could not achieve, but these live action remakes pair technology and CGI in a way that fails to capture that sense of wonder.
Today’s technology has the capability to bring that same sense of magic that animation once brought, but it is largely stilted. In live action remakes, characters made by CGI have to match the realism of their human counterparts, which leads to limited range of movement and expression. If it ends up just looking realistic, it defeats the purpose of using CGI and making remakes in the first place.
According to analysts who cite declining returns at the box office, audiences may be tiring of this cycle. Reviews for Snow White were 43 percent positive according to Rotten Tomatoes, showing that critics and filmgoers alike aren’t feeling the magic anymore.
There is arguably a general lack of creative thought and original ideas in the film industry at the moment. Disney used to be a company noted for innovation, and although the concepts used in its original princess movies were taken from old fairy tales, animators modified them and made them something new, especially because they used animation to bring alive these stories in a way that was never seen before.
Although movies like Snow White and The Little Mermaid strive to right the supposed wrongs of the originals and hope to focus more on female independence, they don’t bring the same excitement and nostalgia.
In the meantime, moviegoers can hope that someday a revitalized film industry will again regularly send new and exciting movies to the theater, but considering the current financial landscape, that day might not come for a very long time.
