The trailer for Disney’s Snow White remake has been released, and – surprise! – everyone hates it. Or at least the loudest responses online have been profoundly negative. How negative? Well, over on YouTube, one person says they would walk out if the movie were shown on an plane.
Inevitably, most of the comments appear to come from people who grew up with the original 1937 film and who had already decided that they were going to hate a live-action with CGI Snow White no matter what it looked like. The reality? The trailer looks just fine.
Disney’s Snow White | Official Trailer | In Theaters March 21 – YouTube
One of the complaints about the new Snow White is that the photorealistic vermin and CGI dwarfs are scary. ‘Nightmare fuel’ is a phrase being thrown about. This is a story from the Brothers Grimm, we’re talking about: a pair of German brothers who made it their mission to compile folk tales that were crafted over decades with the sole objective of giving children nightmares. Shock news, but Snow White as not created to give kids pretty dresses to wear to birthday parties or to encourage them to see animals as friends.
But is it even scary? In the long history of gothic fantasy in children’s tales, this seems pretty mild. I loathe the term ‘snowflake generation’, but I’m starting to think there may be something in it. I just showed the trailer to a seven-year-old, and it managed to hold his attention for the entire two minutes 20 seconds, which is hugely impressive these days. Scared he was not.
Who’s afraid of the 7 dwarfs? (Image credit: Disney)
Another area of complaint is about remakes as a whole. Here things get a bit contradictory. Some people are saying that Snow White’s been done so many times that there isn’t anything new to bring to it. Others are complaining for the exact opposite reason, taking offence at the idea that Snow White is, apparently, now a heroine who doesn’t need a prince to save her. Sigh.
Again, let’s remember that this is a tale that was passed down orally through generations and was represented over and over again in multiple forms of art long before Disney got its hands on it. The original Disney film was hardly faithful to the original dark tale. Let’s also remember that most of the target audience today was not alive when Disney’s first film was released.
Of course, there’s also artistic taste. The reaction to the Snow White trailer echoes the reaction to most of the other Disney live-action remakes, including Mufasa: The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. Sure, CGI animation can looks uncanny, but this is a fairy tale: the very embodiment of the uncanny.
Personally, I too would take traditional animation over CGI animation any day, but would people pay for a ticket to see a re-release of the 1937 film? Or even any Disney movie made in the style of the 1937 film? I think Disney would be on it if it thought they would.
