During an episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Dinklage applauded the Disney’s progressive approach to cast West Side Story star Rachel Zegler while equally expressing his frustrations around the tales derogatory nature. Dinklage’s Snow White comments held no punches, slamming the studio for its progressive imbalance. The casting of Zegler places a person of Latin descent in the shoes of the Disney princess, but Dinklage finds it hypocritical to be proud of such a move while equally telling a backward story about dwarfs living together in a cave. Dinklage feels his progress throughout his career has done enough to shatter the stereotypical box of the dwarfism community, but worries Disney may revert to familiar tropes to tell a narrative far removed from present times.
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Dinklage’s words must have struck a chord with Disney, who recently responded to the actor’s criticism of its upcoming live-action film. “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. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period,” stated a spokesperson from the studio. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is still years from finding its way into theaters, but Disney has indicated that it has been reexamining the dwarf characters since the film’s inception.
The Wrap has indicated that Disney will fill the seven roles with “magical creatures” instead, but it’s unclear what role they will play compared to the original animated film. In addition, the studio is currently on the hunt for voice actors to provide a unique personality to the characters, who may or may not share the personality traits of the original characters. Nevertheless, Dinklage’s comments have resonated, and the studio is taking steps to ensure that its upcoming live-action remake is progressive all around. However, despite his criticism, Dinklage doesn’t want Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs shelved but instead wants Disney to go all in progressively or not at all.
Marc Webb will direct the upcoming live-action film, starring Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. The film is said to have cultural consultants on board who will also help develop the story from a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. Disney hired similar consultants to help with the studio’s live-action remakes of Mulan and Aladdin. It’s no secret that some of Disney’s older animated films contain stereotypical images, which have been brought to light and discussed in recent times. The studio, for instance, needed to add a disclaimer to its animated classic Peter Pan on the Disney Plus platform due to its stereotypical illustrations of indigenous peoples. It’s clear that Disney is taking the necessary steps to avoid repeating past mistakes, but how their re-imaging will work is still uncertain.
It will be interesting to see what the studio can do with its upcoming live-action rendition of Snow White, especially if it can tell a familiar story in a brand-new manner. Of course, Dinklage has valid feelings and warranted comments about the film’s lack of universal progressiveness, but hopefully, first glimpses of the film will showcase Disney’s cultural awareness.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is currently in development.
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Source: The Wrap
