In the fairy tale of Snow White, the evil queen tries again and again to kill her stepdaughter, who is the most beautiful of the two. Towards the end of the Brothers Grimm’s version, the queen is invited to Snow White’s wedding. She is reluctant, but finally decides to go, driven by curiosity. When she gets there, two red-hot shoes are carried in with large tongs and set before her. Then she is forced to dance in them until she falls over and dies. It is perhaps not so surprising that this scene was not included when Disney made his classic, based on the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, in 1937. By then it had become more common to think that children should be shielded from hearing or seeing people being tortured to death , if they had never been so mean. TORTURED TO DEATH: In the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, the evil queen must dance in red-hot shoes. In Disney’s film, she also suffers an unpleasant fate, but it is not quite so macabre. Photo: Everett Collection There has also been no public demand that this scene should be included again when the story of Snow White is retold. But when Disney is now going to make a remake of its own “Snow White” film, the debate rages about which changes it is okay to make to the story. Some of the reactions have been of the inhuman kind. When the role of Snow White went to 22-year-old Rachel Zegler, who is half-Colombian, some complained that the new Snow White was not completely white. But Zegler has also managed to cause a stir all on his own. The actor with the sparkling clear soprano has said something unmusical about the original film. In interviews, Zegler has rolled his eyes at the love story with the prince, who is “an actual stalker”. She has called the film from 1937 extremely old-fashioned. About her own Snow White, Zegler says: “She is not going to be saved by the film. She doesn’t dream of great love, she dreams of being the leader she knows she can be.” IN HARD WEATHER: Rachel Zegler will play Snow White in the remake of Disney’s classic, and has spoken out critically about the original. It provoked strong reactions. Photo: AP This tugged at the heartstrings of many of those who loved the old film, who questioned why Zegler would even be part of a story she seemed to really dislike. Others believed that what Zegler said was a failed feminism, and that there was nothing wrong with longing for love. Not all girls must dream of being leaders either. Stories that live in culture for generations, such as the fairy tale of Snow White, will always be changing. They will always be a mirror of their time. Online culture warriors who dismiss all the new Disney movies as woke tyranny forget that there is no such thing as a neutral version. When new narrators think they should cut and paste in the story, it is always based on the fact that values, expectations and ways of telling have changed. Casting a Latino actress as a vaguely European princess is no different than cutting out the glowing shoes that kill the Evil Queen. NEW INTERPRETATIONS: Several recent films have tried to make Snow White more powerful, including “Snow White and the Huntsman” with Kristin Stewart. Photo: Reuters But if the changes become too violent, suddenly the fairy tale is unrecognizable – and then what is the point of retelling it? The heated debates about many of Disney’s remakes involve a fundamental question: What is really the core of the story being told? Which elements are necessary for Snow White to still feel like Snow White, and what can be dispensed with? On the way towards the finished film, Disney found out, for example, that it was no longer appropriate to make a film with seven dwarfs, and instead has Snow White meet seven “magical creatures”. It’s an understandable argument, but at the same time one can wonder why they don’t rather make a story from scratch, which doesn’t have so many characters from before that they have to change or remove. FAMOUS: Statues of the seven dwarfs in the original Snow White film, here by “Doc”, have a prominent place in Disney World. But in the new film, the dwarves are replaced by “magical creatures”. Photo: AP But no. And the answer to why not is actually quite depressing. The American film industry, which has always been nervous, is today in a state of almost constant panic. The cinema is no longer the rallying point it used to be, and people have too much else to choose from. Anyone who wants to make expensive, adventurous films today is almost obliged to use an established IP, or “intellectual property”. This is a story, a role gallery, a narrative universe, which the audience already knows and likes. If they paid to see it before, they will pay to see it again. That’s the logic. In the case of Disney, they are also afraid that new generations will hitch a ride on their adventures because they are not inclusive enough of minorities, or up-to-date in their views on gender and love. But it is a balancing act. THE ORIGINAL: Many of those who are happy with the original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” from 1937, have been irritated by the statements of Rachel Zegler, the new Snow White. Photo: AP It is possible to be so inclusive that you become exclusionary. It is possible to become so concerned that girls should be able to see themselves as leaders, that you forget that it is also okay to be completely ordinary. It is possible to become so concerned with becoming modern that you frown upon old films that many people out there have fond memories of. And because values are constantly changing, it is easy to become outdated if you are too concerned with what the customers are thinking right here and now. The road into a new era is always bumpy. It is not always so easy to know when to run and when to slow down. Rachel Zegler was running, and tripped. But the internet also came pulling with the red-hot shoes rather quickly.
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