A new live-action version of Disney’s Snow White is on its way, but not everyone is happy about it.
In an interview with The Telegraph, David Hand — the son of one of the co-directors of 1937’s animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, who was also named David Hand — slammed the new movie as lacking “respect” for the original.
A trailer has not yet been released for the film, which is slated to be released in 2024 and is directed by Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) and co-written by Barbie writer/director Greta Gerwig.
Rachel Zegler, who will play Snow White opposite Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen in the film, previously said they updated the character to be “more independent.”
Hand, 91, told The Telegraph, per Entertainment Weekly, “It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it.” He called it a “disgrace” that the live-action treatment is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”
“Their thoughts are just so radical now. They change the stories, they change the thought process of the characters. … They’re making up new woke things, and I’m just not into any of that,” Hand said.
“I find it quite frankly a bit insulting [what] 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.”
A rep for the Walt Disney Company did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Zegler, 22, told PEOPLE at the D23 Expo back in September 2022 how the new movie will differ from the original.
“Most of my character does not work for today’s audience, I’ll just say it,” she said at the time. “We did a really deep dive into fixing and making a modern woman out of Snow White.”
To that end, the West Side Story actress said the filmmakers set out to “make a new version of the character.”
“I think she’s 13 in the original cartoon, so we started there and said, ‘No, she’s 18 in this one.’ She’s a bit more independent,” Zegler continued. “She’s also living in grief. I mean, there was a lot of complex emotion that we decided to deep-dive into. And understanding what it’s like to be a teenager on top of all that.”
The actress added, “It was really incredible to watch the cartoon and see, there’s no more waiting for a man, which is really nice. So a little bit more agency. We really see the journey she goes to become a really just and wonderful leader.”
There are no stars in this poorly thought-out fiasco. No money will be made. Hopefully Disney will see their leadership is worse than the Titanic.
Another movie and my money I won’t support. Additionally, Zegler has a massive arrogance about her and clearly 100% woke. Nothing that she does or promotes will I be patronizing. As far as I am concerned she is comparable to a straight Dylan Mulvaney whose ideas and character are majorly messed up. Time for her to start acting like a responsible adult. As long as Disney keeps producing garbage and 100% woke we have boycotted Disney and anything they own.
If Disney wanted to create a new movie with new content – great.
But Disney should NOT name the movie “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs”.
Because the movie in no way resembles the original story.
To remove all but 1 Dwarf from the movie, just because 1 actor had an issue with the way Dwarfs were portrayed (living in a forest and working in a mine) (rather than Dwarfs with another storyline) was a poor choice by Disney.
Disney should name the movie something like “Woke Gypsies in the Kingdom’s Forest” or something.