◎ Dong Ming

Disney's much-anticipated and controversial live-action version of Snow White has finally reached a global audience. Sure enough, it failed to escape the fate of the "double collapse" of box office word-of-mouth. From the earliest "Alice in Wonderland" to the later "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", "Mulan" and "The Little Mermaid", Disney live-action animation has been controversial along the way, facing the old problem of how to balance tradition and innovation.

　　Fairy tales are too ancient, and it is difficult to escape the fate of magic change

　　從縮水的首映禮，到“交口稱讚”後的光速打臉，《白雪公主》（2025）無論是票房還是口碑，都遠低於迪士尼產品的平均水準。上映首週末票房僅4220萬美元，還不及2019年的《小飛象》；爛番茄網上41%的新鮮度，比前年那部吵翻天的《小美人魚》還要低一大截；國內的豆瓣網站也給出了超低的4分，可見影片真的冒犯到了部分觀眾。

Why is this "Snow White" (2025) so angry with the public? Aside from off-site factors, there are many debatable points in the production level of the film itself, plot advancement, actors' performances, CG special effects and other aspects. Disney and director Mark Webb seem to have lost sight of how the work would now be adapted to meet the needs of different groups at the same time.

Now that the medieval fairy tale of "Snow White" is being filmed, there is actually a lot of room for recreation. In addition to the princess, other supporting characters such as the prince, the hunter, the princess's parents, and the evil queen as the villain can be filled with plump in the live-action version, after all, the animated version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (83) 0 years ago is only 0 minutes, and many details have not had time to unfold. Looking back at the works of that year, we recognize its innovation in animation techniques and modeling design, as well as its groundbreaking in the form of "feature-length animated films"; But the cartoons at that time were weak in terms of character creation and plot structure, and Snow White, as the protagonist, was not outstanding in addition to being kind and simple, and her passive fate of "waiting for the prince to save" was also criticized.

As a classic fairy tale, there are countless movies and animations adapted from "Snow White", and Hollywood also filmed "Snow White: The Magic Mirror" (2019) and "Snow White and the Hunter" (0) more than ten years ago. Snow White in these two films is either smart and clever, or brave and sassy, and the two villains and queens are played by superactresses such as Julia Roberts and Charlize Theron. Not to mention the "modern version" of French female director Anne Fontaine "Snow White" (0), which puts the story in modern society, with Isabelle Huppert playing the "villain" stepmother, and the seven dwarfs have also been "magically changed", even if this subverts the fairy tale, the stepmother's jealous motives and Huppert's performance are also convincing.

　　The timid adaptation is difficult for the logic to be self-consistent

In contrast, Disney's remake of its own animation is the most "timid", just like the blue and yellow dress that will not be changed when it is soaked, and tradition has become a kind of constraint. After all, Snow White is too important to Disney, if Mickey Mouse is Disney's mascot, then Snow White is the real "founder", and it is the origin of Disney's positioning of family fun, princess themes and animation layout. Therefore, it is difficult for Disney to make drastic changes to the IP at the bottom of the box like other film manufacturers. The main line of the live-action story is still that the princess is jealous of her stepmother, the queen, flees to the forest and meets seven dwarfs, eats a poisoned apple by mistake, and is finally rescued by the "kiss of true love" - doesn't that sound old-fashioned?

But it can't be said that Disney is completely "unenterprising" and has not made changes in line with the times. The Caucasian German-born princess in fairy tales and animations has been changed to star Latino brown-skinned actress Rachel Ziegler. For this reason, Disney had to "magically change" the original book, changing the well-known "skin as white as snow" to the so-called "baby born in Blizzard", which was ridiculed by netizens as "Blizzard Princess". What's even more surprising is that Ziegler, as the heroine, can't even watch "Snow White", mocking it as an outdated story between a "girl and the man who follows her", which caused dissatisfaction among fans of the original book before its release. In fact, although the new version of the film changed the prince to a thief, giving him more opportunities to contact and interact with Snow White, Ziegler's performance is not aura, and he can regain his confidence when singing.

The change in skin color has collapsed the character of Snow White, and the appearance and pretense make the logic of the film more difficult to be self-consistent. The queen in the fairy tale was originally jealous of Snow White's beauty, but in the live-action version, the queen is Gal Gadot, who was born in "Miss Israel", even if she looks weird, her appearance and aura are enough to crush Ziegler. As a result, the new script can only make a fuss about "inner beauty" and use morality to add points to Snow White, but why should the already evil queen care about moral scores? At the same time, Gadot can't find her performance status in "Wonder Woman" at all, the character seems thin and stupid, and the only moving thing is the change in her face when she incarnates as an old witch, after all, "face anxiety" is the queen's real heart disease.

As for how the thieves escaped from the castle, how Snow White fought with him and the army, and how she counterattacked back to regain power, the film is handled like child's play, which may be tolerable in the animated version, but it is especially perfunctory in the live-action movie. Although the live-action princess has more courage than in the anime, and finally returns to the kingdom to get back everything that belongs to her, it is also naïve and almost ridiculous to rebel against soldiers and shout names to seize power with just one mouth. The whole movie seems naïve and simple, the kingdom is like a small village, there are few people in the castle, all the dramatic conflicts and fights are like playing at home, and the biggest scene is actually the final "Indian-style awkward dance".

　　當然，真人版也並非一無是處，至少森林裡的小動物、七個小矮人還是花了心思的，且最符合原著設定。因為遭到著名侏儒演員彼特·丁拉基的吐槽，真人版中小矮人全部改用CG生成，倒是讓影片多了份童話才有的奇幻感，尤其是他們唱起那首著名的小矮人主題曲時，讓人不禁想起其他同類西方經典，甚至是迪士尼樂園的專案，而這種感覺在真人演員身上反而尋找不到。或許迪士尼高達2.7億美元的製作成本大部分都用在了小矮人身上，所以才讓森林的故事比王國和城堡的故事更可愛。

　　Disney fried cold rice, how far can "change skin tone" go

　　按照現在的票房走勢，這部《白雪公主》的全球收益大概在4億美元左右，算上1億美元的營銷預算，迪士尼這次恐怕要折本了。作為一家“百年老字型大小”，如今已是好萊塢領頭羊的迪士尼在項目開發上一直是“兩手抓，兩手都想賺”。在前總裁鮑勃·艾格回歸掌舵後，一方面要規整旗下動畫製作部門，保證每年產出至少一部動畫電影（不包括“皮克斯工作室”顯示）；另一方面則是繼續將經典動畫片翻拍成真人版，從《睡美人》《灰姑娘》《美女與野獸》《阿拉丁》《花木蘭》到《小飛象》《獅子王》《木偶奇遇記》和《小美人魚》，無論是公主還是動物，都不放過。其中，既有像《美女與野獸》《獅子王》這樣複刻動畫版，照樣全球票房破10億美元的奇跡；也有《小飛象》《木偶奇遇記》這種即使有蒂姆·伯頓、羅伯特·澤米基斯、湯姆·漢克斯等名導明星加盟，但票房仍然慘敗的案例。

What bothers Disney the most and makes the global media and fans can't help but complain is the significance of these live-action remakes of animated classics. If it's just to stir up a wave of cold rice, arouse the feelings of the "millennials", and then make money from the "Generation Z" audience, then "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Lion King" almost do not make any changes in setting and composition, and "frame-by-frame remake" is enough. But this kind of seemingly safe work is really easy to make people aesthetically fatigued, after all, it is a work from decades ago, even if the theme and main line remain the same, there will be some novelty that keeps pace with the times. However, Disney chose the simplest and most "radical" work - changing skin color, the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" in 69 years, insisting on using African-American actress Hayley Bailey to play the role of "white skin and red hair" from Northern Europe written by Andersen, the subversive image of black skin and black hair has set off heated discussions since the establishment of the project, and various ridicule stalks on the Internet continued, and finally only won a global box office of 00 million US dollars.

If Princess Jasmine in "Aladdin" (played by Naomi Scott has Ugandan and Indian roots) is somewhat close to the "Oriental impression" in the original book, then "The Little Mermaid" and "Snow White" insist on using the African-American Bailey and the Latino Ziegler to play, and the reasons behind it must be complex, and it is not just as simple as the heroine "singing well". As for how this trend of "changing skin color" will evolve in the future, it remains to be seen, and the word-of-mouth and box office of "Snow White" may bring some inspiration. Thankfully, Disney's next live-action princess film, Moana, starring Katherine Rajaaia and Dwayne Johnson of Hawaiian descent, was lucky enough to skip such controversy.

Source: Beijing Youth Daily