Snow White and the Seven — animated — Dwarfs?

Disney is again mired in controversy in its star-crossed effort to produce a live action update of its 1937 animated classic, “Snow White”, after a new trailer for the film revealed the studio has opted for  computer-generated dwarfs rather than casting living and breathing little people for the roles.  

The“Snow White” remake, starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, won’t be in theaters until March of 2025 after Disney pushed back the release by more than a year. The production has been bedeviled – or bewitched – by multiple controversies regarding the representation of women, treatment of people with dwarfism and, most recently, the war in Gaza.  

Viewers just got their first look at the computer-generated dwarfs (other than a single publicity still released last fall) in the first trailer for the film, which showed a live action Snow White, played by Ms. Zegler, cavorting with obviously computer-animated dwarves. The technique recalls a method successfully employed in children’s movies such as “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” in which overtly animated creatures interact on film with actual actors.

This will be the first of Disney’s live action remakes of its classic fairy tale films – there have been several in the last decade – to incorporate overtly animated creatures. The use of animated dwarfs appears to be an attempt to short circuit  the pressure placed on Disney by the “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage, who criticized the producers for touting progressivism by casting Ms. Zegler, who is Hispanic, as the film’s famously “snow white” heroine, while keeping a plotline which offers an insulting representation of dwarfism. 

“It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the fuck are you doing, man?” Mr. Dinklage said during a podcast interview back in 2022. The celebrated actor has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia and has used his celebrity status to raise awareness about issues related to dwarfism. 

His searing comments were picked up quickly online and prompted Disney to release a cryptic statement. 

“To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,” a spokesman said in 2021. “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”

Fast forward to 2023, and Disney was facing a PR crisis after Ms. Zegler made a series of comments denigrating the character of Snow White as a sexist trope.

During one interview she described the dynamic between Snow White and Prince Charming as “weird” and lambasted the original plotline for being focused on “a love story with a guy who literally stalks her.” In another interview she called the Brothers Grimm plot line “extremely outdated” and claimed that the story’s famous phrase, “the fairest of them all,” will refer to the most “just” as opposed to simply the most “beautiful.” 

While some viewed her comments as empowering and pro-feminist, others were irked by what they took as a slight of their beloved fairytale.  Ms. Zegler, perhaps after getting a talking-to from Disney, issued a widely-panned video apology.

At the same time as the studio was being besieged by rabid “Snow White” fans concerned that their cherished story was being “woke-ified,”  production photos, leaked to the Daily Mail, appeared to show full-sized adult men, of various heights and ethnicities, in fairy tale costumes playing the famed dwarf characters. Disney initially denied that the photos were real and requested that the Daily Mail issue a retraction. Then, less than a day later, Disney recanted its prior statement and claimed that the photos were simply not official. 

The just-released trailer, revealing the computer generated dwarfs, appears to have satisfied no one.  

“Replacing the seven dwarfs in ‘Snow White’ with CGI is not ‘progressive’,” wrote Billy Binion in Reason magazine. “Disney said they wanted to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes.’ The company’s solution was to take away roles from a group that has almost no opportunity in Hollywood.”

Writing in Forbes, Erik Kain described the CGI dwarfs as “one huge little problem … Of course the dark irony here is that there are many little people actors who would love to get roles in movies like ‘Snow White’.”

“Peter Dinklage spoke against stereotypes and offensive dwarf roles,” wrote one commenter on Reddit. “Therefore. he robbed seven  actors from the chance to appear in a high profile Disney movie and ensured he remains the only popular dwarf actor in Hollywood.”

The dwarf imbroglio is not the last “Snow White” controversy to cause headaches for Disney. Just this week, Ms. Zegler again came under fire for seemingly egging on the antisemitic backlash to the film — which is facing calls for a boycott over its casting of Ms.  Gadot, who is Israeli  — by telling her fans to “always remember, free palestine,” in a post on X.  

That particular controversy is still ongoing. Disney is believed to be spending more than $200 million to make the film.