Culture uncritic

• 1 March 2025 18:24 UTC+01:00
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BBC

I do wonder how culture scribes can declare ten upcoming must-watch whatevers when they haven't seen those whatevers themselves. I guess they simply have to put food on the table, just like those of us with real jobs.

So, it comes to pass that one of the BBC's film buffs, Nicholas Barber, presents us with ten of the best films coming to the big or small screen this month. And first up is Disney's eagerly anticipated live-action Snow White.

Barber describes it as a remake of Walt's 1937 animated classic; an undeserved compliment, given that it deviates significantly from both that and the Grimm Bros' short story, and possibly born of Disney's recent marketing push which attempts to obfuscate the divide through a nostalgic callback to the original. No matter, there are bigger problems to chew over, as he notes:

Disney's Snow White is a live-action/ CGI remake of Walt Disney's first ever feature-length cartoon, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but it's proven to be more controversial than the studio's other remakes. Some bigoted social-media posters objected to the casting of Rachel Zegler, an actress with Colombian heritage, as Snow White; Zegler was hit by another backlash when she described the prince in the original cartoon as a "stalker"; Peter Dinklage said that the portrayal of the dwarves was "backwards"; and Stuart Heritage in the Guardian slated the trailer as "arguably the ugliest thing ever committed to screen", adding that "the design of the new dwarves feels like something that would be deliberately shown to prisoners of war to break their spirit". On the other hand, Disney's Snow White boasts new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman) and a screenplay co-written by Greta Gerwig (Barbie), so its modern take on a classic fairy tale could still be a gold mine, or even a diamond mine.

Nicholas Barber, Disney's Snow White to Mickey 17: 10 of the best films to watch this March, BBC Culture

So, anyone objecting to a European fairytale character being race-swapped and played by an entitled Colombian gimme is bigoted. That's nice, and not at all judgemental. I wonder whose playbook that comes from: Disney's marketing machine, the PRPP, or Barber himself.

Although he references her unfortunate representation of the prince, he kindly overlooks her many other bigoted, entitled, and flat out tone deaf faux pas that have plagued the production as it has limped towards its theatrical debut. And while he mentions The Guardian's Stuart Heritage's less than flattering comments on the trailer, he makes it sound like this was an isolated opinion.

Never mind. I very much look forward to reading his ★★★★★ review backing all this up.