Well, it looks like Disney‘s planned live-action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs already has a critic in the form of Peter Dinklage. While the film is nowhere near ready for release, Dinklage’s comments, are entirely justified.

Snow White And The Peter Dinklage Scandal?

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 22: Peter Dinklage attends the 71st Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Disney, you done screwed up.

To give you all some background, 4 Time Emmy Award Winning Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Avengers: Infinity War) recently did an interview on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast. The interview was initially to promote Dinklage’s starring role in his latest film Cyrano film, the topic shifted to Disney‘s planned live-action adaptation of the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs animated film. And boy, Dinklage is not happy about it. These are Dinklage’s exact words to Maron below:

“I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White. You’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together! 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.”

– Peter Dinklage “WTF” Podcast

Yeah, needless to say, Peter Dinklage raises some very good points. Yes, Disney has Rachel Zegler, a Latine actress, playing Snow White. Yes, Disney has Gal Gadot playing the Evil Queen. However, there’s still the matter of the dwarves. Fortunately, Disney didn’t wait long to reply.

Disney Apologizes For Mishandling Of Dwarf Depiction (Maybe?)

As it turns out, films from 1937 don’t age well. Who’d have thought?

A mere day after Peter Dinklage’s scathing criticism on that podcast, a Disney spokesperson gives us this reply on The Hollywood Reporter:

“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 way Disney words this reply, it almost but not quite an apology or explanation for the way they had planned to depict dwarfs in their Live-Action Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs adaptation. It seems as though they had planned to be faithful to the original, only to do a 180 in response to Peter Dinklage’s criticisms. It’s good to know that Disney is possibly willing to change its mind though with enough force behind it.

Stay Tuned to THS for more updates!

Source: IndieWire, WTF With Marc Maron, The Hollywood Reporter