Plan B Forum

Peter Dinklage criticises Disney for ‘backwards’ remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage has taken aim at Disney for what he called its “fucking backwards” forthcoming live action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Dinklage, who stars in Joe Wright’s new film, Cyrano, accused the studio of double standards by attending to racial diversity in its cast but falling back on other damaging stereotypes.

“I was a little taken aback by [the fact] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” Dinklage told podcaster Marc Maron, “but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, continued by saying Disney should have stepped back and reassessed the project.

“You’re progressive in one way but you’re still making that fucking backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave. (they lived in a cottage) What the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.

“They were so proud of that, and all 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?’”

Dinklage added that had a “cool, progressive spin” been put on the fairytale, he would have been “all in”.

Disney has since responded in a statement. “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.”

The remake stars Rachel Zegler, fresh from her acclaimed debut in West Side Story, with Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Directed by Marc Webb, the film is said to be an adaptation and an extension of the 1937 Disney animated classic – itself taken from a Brothers Grimm story.

An updated version, Snow White and the Huntsman, starring Kristen Stewart, met with a backlash on release a decade ago after the dwarves were played by actors of average height – including Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane – whose faces were digitally transmuted on to small bodies.

The actor Danny Woodburn likened this technique to “blackface”, while the LA dwarf theatre group Beacher’s Madhouse threatened a “100-midget march” to the offices of distributors Universal in protest against “injustice and prejudice”.

Aside from central roles, casting on the new Disney film, including that of the dwarves, has not yet been announced.

A girl who is beautiful because her skin is ‘WHITE as snow,’ who is persecuted by an evil STEPMOTHER, runs away to the forest where she is taken in by seven dwarves who are stereotypes mostly of low intelligence and questionable character, and who is ultimately rescued not by her own wits or strength, but of course by a charming Prince.

Yes this story from the 1800s is full of crap and nothing we should be shoveling into the minds of our little girls and boys. Please Disney, with all the stories in the world can you just stop with the sexist ableist misogynistic princess/prince CRAP?! It is long past time to do away with the whole concept of monarchy anyway, NOBODY is better just by virtue of an accident of birth if we didn’t already know that we have the pedophile Prince Andrew to put the kibosh on the notion once and for all.

And girls/women don’t need boys/men to rescue them - whether those men are short or tall. Nor should boys/men be raised to think girls/women need rescuing; they should be raised to appreciate strong minded capable girls/women who are their equals.

Peter Dinklage is a fantastic actor who proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that people with dwarfism are just regular people with shorter limbs etc. Long past time we stopped lauding entertainment that makes light of physical or mental differences.

Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, "If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame."

Soon afterward she had a little daughter whose skin was as white as snow, her lips as red as blood, and her hair as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little Snow-White.

BoSoxGal wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:45 am

Here’s the comment I posted to the New York Times Facebook page about this story:

A girl who is beautiful because her skin is ‘WHITE as snow,’ who is persecuted by an evil STEPMOTHER, runs away to the forest where she is taken in by seven dwarves who are stereotypes mostly of low intelligence and questionable character, and who is ultimately rescued not by her own wits or strength, but of course by a charming Prince.

Yes this story from the 1800s is full of crap and nothing we should be shoveling into the minds of our little girls and boys. Please Disney, with all the stories in the world can you just stop with the sexist ableist misogynistic princess/prince CRAP?! It is long past time to do away with the whole concept of monarchy anyway, NOBODY is better just by virtue of an accident of birth if we didn’t already know that we have the pedophile Prince Andrew to put the kibosh on the notion once and for all.

And girls/women don’t need boys/men to rescue them - whether those men are short or tall. Nor should boys/men be raised to think girls/women need rescuing; they should be raised to appreciate strong minded capable girls/women who are their equals.

Peter Dinklage is a fantastic actor who proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that people with dwarfism are just regular people with shorter limbs etc. Long past time we stopped lauding entertainment that makes light of physical or mental differences.

who is persecuted by an evil STEPMOTHER, runs away to the forest

Joe Guy wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:11 am

I don't see any problem with the movie being remade with humans. It's a fairy tale. An imaginary story. Nobody is forcing anyone to go and watch it. Let the market decide whether or not it succeeds.

As an aside, I saw the movie "Cruella" a couple months ago and I thought it was a great movie.

Please tell me what it is in the story of Snow White that you find redeeming? What values incorporated in the story are really worth inculcating in today's children in today's culture?

...my point was that the story perpetuates disgusting stereotypes including the stereotype that stepmothers are evil people. In a time when so very many children have stepparents I don’t see how this is at all an acceptable stereotype to perpetuate to children. Yes some stepparents are terrible but some parents are terrible too. The point is that a story that makes a stepmother out to be an evil murderous villain is going to make a lot of young kids sick with fear when their parents split and dad remarries.

Please tell me what it is in the story of Snow White that you find redeeming? What values incorporated in the story are really worth inculcating in today's children in today's culture? White skinned women are the most beautiful? Nope. Little people are laughable? Nope. Girls and women are either helpless beauties or evil nefarious uglies? Nope. Helpless beautiful girls need men to rescue them? NOPE!

There are plenty of beautiful and even magical stories that don’t revolve around so many ugly stereotypes and unhealthy messages. I maintain that Snow White has very little redeeming value - her kindness to woodland animals is about the only good thing in the story.

BoSoxGal wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:18 am

And this is how the patriarchy churns on and on and on and on . . .

t isn’t even a story of finding true love there is more solid basis for an actual loving relationship set forth in the average Harlequin romance novel than in Snow White and of course the average Harlequin romance novel is no model for how to establish a solid loving relationship with good communication skills etc.