Disney’s ‘Snow White’ teaser trailer backfires as it renews CGI controversy

Disney’s live-action Snow White woes just keep piling up. The studio finally released the official teaser trailer for the movie during D23, but it only served to resurface the seven dwarfs CGI controversy.

Snow White has been riddled with controversy, both legitimate and manufactured. The decision to cast Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen raised some eyebrows, given that the actress has been embroiled in controversy after her statements about the Israel-Palestine crisis. However, vocal bigots, including some prominent conservative media figures, were enraged about Rachel Zegler being cast as Snow White. The Latina actress received tons of racist backlash as “anti-woke” right-wing pundits began throwing the same temper tantrums they always do when a non-white actress is cast in practically any role.

Another controversy that arose was regarding the dwarfs. The original fairy tale hasn’t aged well, as the dwarfs were depicted as having lower intelligence and living in a cave together, with Snow White treating them as if they were children. Peter Dinklage criticized the fact that Disney was revisiting this story at all when it featured such a “backwards” depiction of dwarfs. However, there was hope that Disney would modernize the story to avoid offending the dwarf community. Instead, the studio’s solution was to not hire actors with dwarfism and to make all the dwarfs terrible CGI.

What is going on with Snow White‘s CGI dwarfs?

Disney’s release of the Snow White teaser trailer renewed discussions of the studio’s controversial decision to use CGI for the dwarfs.

In the trailer, the dwarfs are only briefly shown, but what we see does not look good. The CGI is terrible and gives the dwarfs a very unnatural appearance. Online, users described the dwarfs’ appearances as “uncanny valley” and “the stuff of nightmares.” CGI has not reached the point where it can create photo-realistic humans, so even the best CGI job would look unsettling. Given that Disney also did a terrible CGI job, the result is truly embarrassing.

Many are blaming Dinklage’s comments for Disney’s decision to use CGI, although that doesn’t make sense. Dinklage never suggested that the problem was casting dwarfs in the movie. The problem was always about how Disney would handle the depiction of the dwarfs. If Disney had simply fixed the depiction, it could’ve actually done much good. There aren’t many roles in Hollywood for individuals with dwarfism, so it would’ve been impactful for the movie to cast seven dwarfs. Not only would it have been authentic casting, but the actors could’ve also provided feedback to the studio to help avoid the inclusion of any stereotypes or ableist sentiments.

For some reason, though, Disney thought the solution was to almost wholly exclude dwarfs from the production and waste numerous roles on CGI. While Martin Klebba is reportedly providing the voice of Grumpy, no other individuals with dwarfism are confirmed to be involved in the project. As a result, it’s not just the CGI’s terrible appearance that is sparking criticism but the fact that Disney’s CGI took away roles from a community that is already underrepresented in Hollywood.

Although online conservatives are blaming “wokeness” and Dinklage for the CGI dwarfs, it was ultimately Disney’s choice to go this route. In fact, the studio likely had already made this decision before Dinklage spoke out, and there’s nothing “woke” about it. Yet, Disney seems oddly comfortable letting Dinklage be the scapegoat for its own controversial decision not to hire actors and multiple consultants with dwarfism for a movie with seven dwarfs.