Controversy surrounding the live-action version of Snow White, which is released on Friday, suggests there is little likelihood of a happy ever after for Disney studios bosses. The £210 million remake of the beloved 1937 cartoon classic has been branded too woke and labelled ‘2025’s most divisive film’. It could be a recipe for disaster at the box office.
The accusation that Snow White is playing politics is hard to avoid. From the casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler in the lead role, despite the character being described in the book on which the film is based as having ‘skin as white as snow’, to replacing dwarfs with CGI ‘magical creatures’ in order to avoid stereotyping, some decisions taken by Snow White’s producers reveal a doctrinaire, politically correct approach to filmmaking.
Decisions taken by Snow White’s producers indicate a doctrinaire and overly progressive approach
But for your time-poor, exhausted, menopausal correspondent, one particular aspect of supposedly progressive orthodoxy really rankles: the trashing of the dynamic on which fairy tales are based, namely that women need saving by men.
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