Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall... Who’s the Most Hated of Them all?

Do people really want more live action movies? If Disney needed a clear answer, the public reaction to Snow White (2025) could not have been more so. From controversial casting to creative pitfalls, this movie brought in awful press. Produced and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the corporation prides itself on the quality of its family films. However, the press generated from the Snow White movie has been a public disaster. It earned an IMDb rating of 1.6/10 stars, and even less social media excitement. The box office revenue further reflected Snow White’s shortcomings: it has only grossed around $147 million so far—representing $225 million in losses behind the film’s massive $370 million price tag. 

At the core of Disney’s monetary flop rests a failure to correctly balance maintaining aspects of the original 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie with updating the film for a modern-day audience.

One major catalyst of the media frenzy involved the casting of Rachel Zegler as “Snow White” in the new film. Critics argue that Zegler’s Hispanic heritage and darker complexion clashes with the original character’s very identity, noting the 1937 version’s complexion that “white as snow” and arguing that Disney’s casting undercuts the authenticity of paying homage to the original movie. 

Zegler herself has sparked controversy throughout the coverage of the movie, from an alleged falling out with co-star Gal Gadot over the Israel-Palestine conflict, to a range of bold comments on social media. A Variety interview with Zegler and Gadot from September 2022 rubbed many Snow White fans the wrong way. In the interview, Rachel Zegler responded to a question regarding the “modern edge” of the film that the studio mentioned taking by explaining that “it's no longer 1937, and [they] absolutely wrote a Snow White that is not gonna be saved by the prince.” Not only did the actress come across as condescending to many, but fans of the original movie felt robbed by the change. Viewers wondered whether the revamp was truly essential, or if it simply removed the magic from the classic tale. 

As if it couldn't get worse, a plethora of other issues surfaced through the drawn-out wait for the movie’s release. Disney originally chose to replace the seven dwarfs with “magical creatures,” in order to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes.” The public raged, and arguably so— the seven dwarfs play an integral part in Snow White’s story. Additionally, Famous representatives of the “little people” community such as Peter Dinklage have spoken out, expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of representation of real-life actors with dwarfism, with the studios having replaced the seven dwarfs with CGI counterparts.  

Certainly, the comments stem partly from preconceived biases against the film. However, these grumpy viewers petition an essential point, one which studios continuously fail to acknowledge: fans don’t want their movies “taken away” from them. The live action appeals to only a sliver of nit-picky viewers, because it failed to fulfill the desires of the majority. By changing the race of Snow White, Disney seemingly attempted to rectify their past lack of representation. However, if Disney wants to create films inclusive of minority groups, it must  give minorities the chance to build their own spaces, instead of stuffing them into an older fairytale as a quota-filing afterthought. Despite its simplicity, or perhaps in light of it, the 1937 film draws out nostalgia and emotion from viewers—a sense of childish innocence that cuts through the increasingly cynical media of today. There is value to a feel-good film, especially in their growing scarcity.