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The pendulum of reaction to remakes of classic movies can swing in two extreme directions; both stem from the same sentiment. A reaction is often “did we need this?” and the second is “I’m so excited, but only if everything about the original stays intact.”
In a vacuum, neither opinion is bad or, for lack of a better word, problematic. First, there are plenty of examples of classic stories that don’t cry out for reimaginings or adaptations: take Psycho, remade shot for shot in color, or the recent photorealistic remake of The Lion King, with those dead-behind-the- eyed cats.
The idea of redoing something without changing, well, anything, is harder to refute because it’s so steeped in personal feelings and, often, ownership of those classic, beloved stories. Fans consider themselves to have the rights to any further reimaginings of their favorite movies and books (although every fanfic writer on Earth would oppose it) because of their love.
Changes to the sex, race and sexuality of classic characters, especially irritating; and yet it is a trend that has not stopped, which is both good and bad. The live-action Little Mermaid cast Halle Bailey, a young black woman, as Ariel, and there’s been more (but not much) queer representation in movies like Beauty and the Beast.
More recently, the Snow White adaptation tapped Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress who made her West Side Story debut, and it looked like Disney had patted themselves on the back for a wake-up call. Fundamentally, however, there is one flaw that Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage eloquently pointed out.
He said: “You’re progressive in a way, but you always do this backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave. They were so proud of it. [Zegler’s casting]and all my love and respect to the actress and the people who thought they were doing the right thing, but I’m just like, ‘What are you doing?
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Disney’s response did little to allay concerns, and it’s easy to see why. What “different approach” could they possibly take to this nefarious narrative shortcut?
But it also raises a larger question: where to draw the line? As we ‘update’ classic stories for a modern audience, whose sensitivity to what is not just ‘wrong’, but actively harmful, has matured? Are there any stories that don’t deserve to be told again?
Netflix recently came under the same microscope for their deal with Roald Dahl’s estate for the rights to his stories. There’s no denying that elements of his work often feature the triumph of the marginalized, which seems like the perfect progressive remake.
Warner Bros.
But Dahl’s work is also fraught with anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism. As is often the case when anti-Semitic tropes are used in fiction, they are visual signifiers that denote both their Jewishness and their wickedness. The attire and facial features of The Child Catcher misrepresented the conniving Jew in the role of a Nazi; Witches are a cabal of wig-wearing women with big noses who control the world and are hungry for money.
Both of these act as visual narrative shortcuts for villainy, the same way facial scars and disfigurement can. And in the case of Snow White, dwarfism becomes narrative shorthand for comic and magical creatures; this shortcut isn’t just used by Disney – let’s not forget that Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompas were originally depicted as black pygmy dwarfs.
Yet we’ve seen remake after remake that simply ignores these issues. Likewise, Disney chose to ignore the racist elements of its classic movies (and, you know, its forebear): Lady and the Tramp (2020) denied Siamese cats entirely, and the wildly racist southern song will never see probably never do it again.
Primordial
Classic Disney films bring with them an element of nostalgia that few of us are immune to, which makes them particularly difficult to examine through this lens. It’s hard to see the stories we love change because it suggests that our childhood was somehow lessened or tarnished and needed a re-release.
And the truth is that they were. These stories were created by people who had clear and obvious biases, and this is the world we live in.
Even movies that just catch up, rather than change their makeup, hit the mark. Star Wars sequel trilogy star Kelly Marie Tran has faced online harassment and abuse simply for being a woman of color in a Star Wars movie.
LucasfilmDisney
This brings us back to Dinklage’s original point: we need to constantly question our motives for why we choose certain stories to update. What is it about Snow White that begs for a remake, and if you need to alter so much of the original work to be actively anti-bias, maybe this original work does not deserve to be told again?
It’s always hard to challenge someone to think critically about the things they love, and asking a mega-corporation to consider any iota of critical thinking when profit margins are in mind is even more difficult. The belief that you have to sacrifice money to be more progressive or diverse, or just plain less damaging, has obviously been debunked time and time again, but it still feels like studios act out of fear of that pendulum. .
As such, Disney lands on these two questions, the connection between money and sentiment. Yes, it makes for contentious conversation on both a micro and macro level, but it also makes Disney remakes the perfect touchstone for examining how we interact with the film and how every decision has a ripple worth exploring. . All this to do better next time.
Snow White is available to watch on Disney+.
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