The son of one of the directors of Disney's original 'Snow White' film is calling the live-action remake starring Rachel Zegler "insulting." The live-action remake of 1937's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' doesn't come out until next year, but a culture war surrounding the film — titled simply 'Snow White' — is already at full boil.
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00:00 The son of one of the directors of Disney's original Snow White film is calling the live-action remake
00:05 starring Rachel Zegler "insulting." The live-action remake of the 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven
00:11 Dwarfs doesn't come out until next year, but a culture war surrounding the film, simply titled
00:16 Snow White, is already at full boil. First, conservative critics took issue with the casting
00:20 of Latina star Zegler as a character described in the original Brothers Grimm story as having
00:25 "skin as white as snow," as well as the production changing the seven dwarfs into a diverse collection
00:30 of magical creatures of varying sizes. Then, an interview Zegler did at Disney's D23 Expo in
00:35 September of last year recently resurfaced and caused a major stir online. While speaking to
00:41 Variety, the 22-year-old actress suggested that the new movie would take a very different approach
00:45 to the iconic character. "She's not going to be saved by the prince and she's not going to be dreaming about
00:50 true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be." Since those nearly a year
00:54 old comments went viral, the internet has also resurfaced other old interviews with Zegler,
00:59 like this one where she shared similar thoughts on the original 1937 film with Extra. "There's a
01:04 big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird, weird. So we didn't do that this time."
01:13 Now, David Hand, whose father, also named David Hand, was one of the directors of the original film,
01:18 is sharing his thoughts on the live-action remake in a new interview with The Telegraph. The 91-year-old
01:23 who also worked as a designer for Disney in the 1990s said, "It's a whole different concept and I
01:28 just totally disagree with it. And I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it."
01:32 Hand went on to call the film a "disgrace" and say of Disney, "Their thoughts are just so radical now.
01:38 They're making up new woke things and I'm just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit
01:42 insulting what they may have done with some of these classic films." He continued, "There's no
01:47 respect for what Disney did and what my dad did. I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves."
01:52 Disney has not responded to the controversy and did not have a comment about this latest turn.
01:56 Snow White, starring Zegler and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, which has not yet been seen by anyone
02:01 outside the studio, even in trailer form, has completed filming and is slated to open March 22,
02:06 2024. For more on this story, go to THR.com. This is The Hollywood Reporter News.