The Snow White remake....

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AuroraSaab

Legendary Member
I think it would be pretty hard to do a sensitive live action remake. It does seem that disability and being disfigured are the things it's still acceptable to stereotype in films. The equating of scarring or disfigurement with being a bad guy is still a big trope, eg. No Time to Die.

Paralympic swimmer Will Perry's view:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.da...ds-Disneys-live-action-remake-Snow-White.html
 

Beebo

Veteran
Educate me please. I am genuinely interested on what the concern is.

The new Lord of the Rings Amazon series will feature Dwarfs. Presumably played by normal actors like John Rhys Davis did in the films. Has there been any uproar?
Is it ok to portray a mythical dwarf but not a human one?
And are the dwarfs in Snow White humans with disabilities or another species? I haven’t watched the film for over 35 years.
 

AuroraSaab

Legendary Member
Yes, I think that's the gist of it. Dwarves in LOTR and dungeons and dragons games or video games are more akin to fantasy creatures. The ones in Snow White are human and in a live action remake would presumably be played by actors with achondoplasia or similar conditions. Could be cgi, I suppose. Maybe Disney will redo it with the Seven Dwarves as mythological creatures, with a total character redesign, to avoid the fuss.

Wonder if they'll keep the 'ugly old woman = evil witch' bit.
 

Beebo

Veteran
So it’s ok for a normal height actor to play a fantasy dwarf. But its not alright for a dwarf actor to play an actual dwarf.
I’m confused.
 

qigong chimp

Settler of gobby hash.
Yes, I think that's the gist of it. Dwarves in LOTR and dungeons and dragons games or video games are more akin to fantasy creatures. The ones in Snow White are human...

Are you sure about this? Snow White's a fairy tale and the dwarfs in the original are folkloric miners and delvers like Gimli's bloodline in LOTR.
 

AuroraSaab

Legendary Member
I don't know the origins of Snow White but the Seven Dwarves have certainly become associated with achondoplasia over the years due to panto etc. Plus there's the whole thing of such characters usually being included as either comic relief or oddities, eg Umpa Loopahs. Even the term 'dwarf' is an issue for some people.

I think you could do a sensitive live action remake. Just call it 'Snow White' and cgi it with fantasy creatures.
 

BoldonLad

Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
Location
South Tyneside
I don't know the origins of Snow White but the Seven Dwarves have certainly become associated with achondoplasia over the years due to panto etc. Plus there's the whole thing of such characters usually being included as either comic relief or oddities, eg Umpa Loopahs. Even the term 'dwarf' is an issue for some people.

I think you could do a sensitive live action remake. Just call it 'Snow White' and cgi it with fantasy creatures.

Snow White, is, I believe. A Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

Guru
I posted the thread because I hear conflicting stuff about this remake, it seems on the one hand an potential ethical disaster, but done 'properly' could be a triumph. Also one should make some distance between the Disney animation (Hitler's favourite film apparently, even though good overcomes evil) and the original story - which I confess to have never read except in resume. At a time where cultural appropriation is much in debate as well as the portray of minorities and those with 'disabilities' on stage/screen it seems that Disney are either incredibly brave and knowing, or foolhardy.

At the beginning of the story, a queen sits sewing at an open window during a winter snowfall when she pricks her finger with her needle, causing three drops of red blood to drip onto the freshly fallen white snow on the black windowsill. Then, she says to herself, "How I wish that I had a daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony." Sometime later, the queen gives birth to a baby daughter whom she names Snow White, but the queen dies in childbirth....

Disney have cast a Latino woman in the lead role, odd seeing that the whiteness of Snow White seems a bit intrinsic to the story (one might argue that white is also interpreted as a sign of purity). But then, does that matter if the story is fictional?
The 7 Dwarves are the good guys, they take SW into their house and protect her (ok in return for housekeeping duties). They have a house, they are not 'Cave Dwellers' as I heard depicted by an interview on the radio. So surely, played straight and sensitively by dwarf actors, this could send very positive signals about equality and 'disability' for want of a better word.
It could also be a train-wreck....
 

Milkfloat

Active Member
My take is that Dinklage is having a moan before he even knows what Disney are doing with the story. Although it could also just be he media grabbing his complaints and running a story - after all he does say "If you tell the story of "Snow White" with the most f***ed up, progressive spin on it? Let's do it. All in".

It is probably best to reserve judgement until Disney make it clear what their plan is.
 

BoldonLad

Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
Location
South Tyneside
My take is that Dinklage is having a moan before he even knows what Disney are doing with the story. Although it could also just be he media grabbing his complaints and running a story - after all he does say "If you tell the story of "Snow White" with the most f***ed up, progressive spin on it? Let's do it. All in".

It is probably best to reserve judgement until Disney make it clear what their plan is.

How totally reasonable..... no fun, or click bait, in that however.....
 

AuroraSaab

Legendary Member
The writer of that article makes some valid points. Part of the issue is that we don't see disabled people represented on tv and in films very much at all - so when they are in films, that performance becomes the only thing people know. Imagine having people shout 'Hi ho, Hi ho..' at you in the street because Snow White is the only thing that comes to mind when they see someone with achondroplasia (or similar).
 
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