While the release of the new Snow White movie is still a year away, the son of the man who animated and directed the original version has called the new concept a "disgrace" and labeled the "woke things" they've made up as "insulting."
David Hand—son of the animator and director of the original version who was known by the same name—issued a harsh rebuke of the remake, telling the Telegraph on Aug. 18 that Disney's "woke" version is an insult to his father's work.
"It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it," Mr. Hand said.
He said he disagrees with the entire concept, calling it a "disgrace," suggesting that Disney is "trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier."
"Their thoughts are just so radical now," he said, noting how the Disney of today feels compelled to "change the stories" and "change the thought process of the characters."
Disney's live-version remake of the animated film, "The Little Mermaid," cast a black actress named Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel—originally portrayed as a white redhead became another box office flop that cost Disney $1 billion.
"They’re making up new woke things, and I’m just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit insulting," he added, suggesting that what Disney has done "with some of these classic films" provides evidence that there is "no respect" for what Walt's Disney and people like his father envisioned and created.
"I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves," Mr. Hand said.
The original film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," was released in 1937. It was Disney's first full-length feature film. Along with "Pinocchio," which was released in 1940, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is heralded as Disney’s greatest film achievement.
The Original Snow White
The original film was hailed as a masterpiece, drawing worldwide acclaim and winning several awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
The budget for the movie, initially set at $250 thousand, exploded to $1.5 million due to various delays. The film, which included over 2 million sketches and 250,000 drawings, took about three years to produce.
Ward Kimball, another animator, nearly quit after two of his main sequences were cut.
Certain of the film's demise, critics gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the nickname "Walt Disney's Folly."
In 1989, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was among the first 25 featured films to be preserved in the National Film Registry with the Library of Congress. In 2008, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was named the Greatest Animated Film of All Time by the American Film Institute.
The Story of Snow White
The storyline of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is loosely based on the famous fairy tale, which had been passed down orally long before it was set to paper by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 under the German title “Schneewittchen” or “Little Snow White.”
The plot of the story is set into motion when the heroine's stepmother—a vain, wicked queen—consults her magical mirror. For many years, the mirror tells the wicked queen that she is "the fairest in the land," until one day, the mirror tells her that Snow White now bears the title.
Hearing this, the wicked queen becomes angry. She calls upon a woodsman and orders him to kill Snow White. For proof, the queen ordered the woodsman to bring back her heart. But the woodsman is unable to commit the murder. Instead, he helps the princess escape by taking her deep into the forest where the wicked queen would never find her. To fool the queen, the woodsman returns with the heart of a pig.
Safe in the forest, Snow White discovers a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs—Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, and Sleepy—who earn their living as miners. After she offers to earn her keep by cleaning their home and cooking for them, the dwarfs offer her to stay.
The queen, however, learns that Snow White lives.
Assuming the guise of an old hag, the queen tricks her stepdaughter into taking a bite of a poisoned apple. Snow White then falls into a deep, death-like sleep. It is a spell which can only be broken by a kiss of true love.
When the dwarfs return from the mine they discover Snow White. Believing she is dead, they are heartbroken. They find the queen, who was attempting to flee back to her castle. They chase her to a cliff, where she falls to her death. To honor Snow White, they create a case to keep her body, standing guard over her. One day, a handsome prince comes upon Snow White and instantly falls in love. With a kiss of true love, he restored her to life and they lived "happily ever after."
The New Version
While the new version isn't expected to be released until March 2024, its plot and the actress cast to portray the new princess have already become sources of hot debate on social media.
One obvious difference between the new live-action version of Snow White film and its hand-drawn, animated predecessor is apparent in the title itself, which eliminates "the seven dwarfs." Moreover, those seven diminutive, white male characters—which have themselves become beloved, worldwide icons—have been replaced by a set of what Disney bills as "magical creatures" of varied colors, sizes, shapes, and genders.
Prince Charming is cast as a "bumbling idiot."
The new Snow White is no longer white. She's Cuban, played by Rachel Zegler, who also starred in Steven Spielberg's remake of "West Side Story," which was a massive flop.
Ms. Zegler has been publicly critical of the original version.
In a video on social media, Ms. Zegler dismissed the storyline of the classic version as old-fashioned, saying, "The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so."
"There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her," Ms. Zegler said. "Weird! Weird. So, we didn’t do that this time."
Instead, Ms. Zegler explained that the more progressive version took "a different approach to what a lot of people will, I'm sure, assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude."
Also gone is the romance between the pair. In fact, the prince has all but been eliminated from the story.
"It's really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful," Ms. Zegler shared. "And whether or not she finds love along the way is anybody's guess until 2024. All of Andrew's scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby."
