News/Commentary

Son of original ‘Snow White’ director slams ‘insulting’ remake: ‘My father and Walt would be turning in their graves’

August 18, 2023 | | Print Article

The son of the original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” director thrashed Disney’s upcoming “woke,” “insulting,” and “pathetic” remake of the 1937 classic.

David Hand, 91, claimed the do-over would have his father and Walt Disney “turning in their graves.”

He gave an interview to the Telegraph and told the outlet that Walt Disney Studios’ upcoming adaptation was “insulting” and “woke.” The live-action remake has already been hammered for being “politically correct” after leaked images showed the seven dwarfs reimagined as “magical creatures” of all sizes and genders.

“I mean, it’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” he candidly told the Telegraph.

Hand went on to accuse studio bosses of destroying his father’s creation.

The original film was based on the 1812 Brothers Grimm fairytale. That doesn’t give the House of Mouse any pause though. They are replacing Prince Charming with a character named “Jonathan,” Rachel Zegler, a 22-year-old Hispanic actress, will play Snow White, and the dwarfs will morph into characters that will “avoid reinforcing stereotypes.”

Rumor has it that Disney may even nix the film’s classic song, “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

“I think it’s pathetic that people feel that way… these are art forms in the world of film today,” Hand commented, which he claims will make young viewers who “have never seen the original” misunderstand the film.

Zegler has been trashing the original storyline at every turn. She called it “extremely outdated” with a prince whose behavior is similar to that of a “stalker.”

“The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with the guy who literally stalks her. Weird, weird,” she remarked during a red-carpet interview with entertainment news outlet Extra TV.

“So we didn’t do that this time,” she quipped, defending the changes to the new, woke “Snow White.”

“She’s not going to be dreaming about true love,” Zegler asserted. “She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true.”

“People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is because it needed that,” she told Vanity Fair in October during an interview.

Unsurprisingly, the remake was written by “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig and directed by Marc Webb.

Hand contended that the original film was done “with good taste when it was written… and I disagree with this whole new concept… but I know Disney’s getting into that mode.”

Hand also called it a “disgrace” that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”

“They change the stories, they change the thought processes of the characters, they just aren’t the original stories anymore. They’re making up new woke things and I’m just not into any of that,” he asserted, calling the changes “radical.”

“I find it quite frankly, a bit insulting that they may have done with some of these classic films. There’s no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did… I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves,” Hand bluntly surmised.

Hand’s father was an animation pioneer for Walt Disney Productions. He created a ton of Disney shorts in the 1930s before serving as supervising director on the original “Snow White” and “Bambi” animations, which debuted in 1937 and 1942, respectively.

As the classic films approach their centennial anniversaries, Hand told the Telegraph that studio bosses should be coming up with new film ideas rather than reimagining old hits and making them more politically correct.

They “shouldn’t be taking a classic and rewriting it in their own image. Pick on something else… create new characters, if you’re gonna do this, but don’t destroy or try to destroy something that is, that is a classic and is a beautiful piece,” he noted.

Hand recounted how Adriana Caselotti, who was the original voice of “Snow White” and passed away in 1997, would be “terrified” to find out her character one day wouldn’t be “saved by the prince” or “dreaming about true love.”

He told the Telegraph in his interview that Caselotti was “very proud of her role in Snow White. So lovely… she lived that role for all her life.”

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Latest posts by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles