Disney has been a part of our lives and culture for exactly 100 years, going all the way back to 1923. It wasn’t until 1937 that the first ever movie was released by the brand. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is a cult classic and has struck many hearts since it was released.
With live actions being more popular than ever before, many remakes have been done and are in the process of being created. One that was in the works was actually “Snow White.” This rework was very controversial due to the fact that the movie didn’t have the original storyline. In a Variety interview, lead actress Rachel Zegler said, “I just mean it’s no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White that is not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love, she’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.” This sparked a lot of emotions among people because many watched the animated princess movies to feel that sense of true love or to see that there is a prince out there for them. This live-action made it so there wasn’t any of that. Zegler also stated that the original movie “creeped her out.” However, there is already a different version of “Snow White” out there, and it would have been better if it had the same storyline as the original and just a different style. Changing the whole vibe of the movie has been a common occurrence with many of the new remakes. The same thing happened with the 2020 live-action “Mulan” where they changed the whole story, left out many of the favorite characters, and created a whole new piece.
With one of the more recent live actions, there has been a lot of conflict between the original style of the movie and the cast actress. Halle Bailey, an African-American, was cast to be Ariel in the 2023 rework of “The Little Mermaid.” While she projected the emotion and initial feeling of the princess, others believed she didn’t really fit the original art style of the character. Not only was this different from the cartoon, but Scuttle, the seagull, was changed into a Northern Gannet, an aquatic ocean bird. Many were surprised by these changes because it was so different.
So, was Disney just lacking in ideas, or just recreating the movies that previously got the most hype? None of this can be for certain, but many new remakes are in the works and people are getting skeptical about how the movies will actually play out. With as many of the live actions that have been made, only a few have been similar to the animated film. Disney has gotten a lot of backlash from many of their movies because they didn’t include enough diversity.
Even though Disney has been with us for so long, I think that they’re just trying to make something different out of something already loved. While this isn’t always the right move, sometimes it’s not a bad choice. Disney still plans to make new versions of the classics, but hopefully they realize that it’s the storyline of the original that made us fall in love with it and not the different spins they put on the stories.
