Why are there so many controversies around Snow White?

Disney released its live-action remake of Snow White today. This iteration of the beloved classic has been mired in controversies since the announcement of the film, from its casting and depiction of little people, to casting Rachel Zegler as Snow White, to the politics of both Zegler and her evil stepmother co-star, Gal Gadot. 

Today on Commotion, culture critics Cristina Escobar and Adam Nayman join guest host Rad Simonpillai to break down the controversies and give their opinion on the merit of the film itself.  

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Rad: Even before the reviews started rolling in, this movie has been weighed down by so much controversy. And really, it began with just casting Rachel Zegler as Snow White because she is of Colombian descent on her mother's side. And of course, there's been a lot of racist voices online that took issue with that. Cristina, what did you take away from that conversation around her casting? 

Cristina: So first of all, obviously there's a pattern, where Disney does these live-action remakes, they put women of colour in the star roles, and then they leave them up there to fry. more or less. They do not provide additional support, they don't back up their actresses, and we've seen this for a long, long time in their studio, down to the original release of Star Wars and [Kelly Marie] Tran, she got a ton of hate. Mark Hamill spoke up for her, but Disney didn't say anything. And so this is their pattern. 

What I believe they're trying to do is have their cake and eat it too. They want to appeal to younger audiences who are more diverse, who want to see people of colour in roles — and that's a proven recipe for success at the box office, as we see in the UCLA [Hollywood] Diversity Report. So we know that that works. But they also don't want to anger these loud, vocal minority of racist folks who are offended by women of colour stepping into these roles. And so then they don't say anything. And it creates this truly unfair situation for, often, the young women who are taking these roles. And also sets up a very frustrating cultural conversation where no matter what pinnacle you get to, no matter how far you go — I mean, you're starring in Snow White, the film that launched Walt Disney — the studio is not going to protect you. You are on your own as a Latina, as a Black woman, as an Asian woman. And that sucks. 

Rad: [This is] bringing up a tension we keep seeing every time Disney does these live-action remakes because they're trying to harness the fantasies of these 90-year-old, 50-year-old properties and update them to a modern world. But the tension is in harnessing the fantasies and the progressive values they then try to project onto them. How is that tension playing out in this movie? 

Adam: The tension is playing out in a way that's completely incoherent. Because you want to replicate the texture, you want to copy the costumes, you want to take some of the songs, you want to add worse songs to the good old songs. You want to hide and disguise yourself in the iconography of that 90-year-old movie, which is absolutely subject to critique — not just for 80 years, for hundreds of years, people have been critiquing the sexual politics and the implications of these fairy tales. But again, I agree with what was said. Disney wants to have it both ways.

But also in addressing this within the movie, because it's such a broken movie, there's nothing rousing or compelling about the Snow White character. Rachel Zegler's social media is more compelling than the character she plays within the movie. The movie doesn't manifest as any kind of coherent statement about fascism or power or resistance or femininity or anything, because as a movie, it's sort of a mess. So the movie becomes a battleground or becomes a talking point, whereas the movie itself is probably going to be seen mostly by kids who are under the age of 10, who are going to be outside of the context of all this stuff. I don't know if this is going to affect its box office, or even if box office matters when Disney Plus is so much about streaming. But I will say, looking at $250 million being spent on something that is just that poor and that it's just constantly business as usual for a company that has no aspirations towards "art." This is very depressing.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Rowan Fleary.