Society hit “peak woke” sometime before 2025—but Disney’s new live-action Snow White missed the memo. This remake of the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a tribute to inclusivity, girl power, quirky “theater kids”—really anything but the original’s spirit or plot—and audiences are not enchanted.

For those who enjoy a classic princess love story, expect to feel stupid. Lead actress Rachel Zegler considers such plots outdated. In a now-infamous 2022 interview with Extra TV, she slammed the 1937 version, saying, “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird!” The new film, she bragged, is “really not about the love story at all,” calling the shift “really, really wonderful.” Instead, it’s an “inner journey” about Snow White finding her “true self.”

Even before these comments, Zegler was considered controversial. Critics questioned why an actress of Colombian descent was playing a character famously described as having “skin as white as snow”—a debate reminiscent of that surrounding Halle Bailey’s casting as Ariel in Disney’s 2023 live-action Little Mermaid.

But setting the race debate aside, Zegler’s comments alienated not just nostalgic Disney fans, but also anyone who still appreciates traditional gender roles—a contingent that might actually be growing in the “soft-girl era.” This online movement celebrates ultra-femininity, emotional vulnerability, and self-care, often as a gentle rebellion against hustle culture and hyper-independence—and aligns well with the doe-eyed version of Snow White in the original. In contrast, Disney’s postmodernism downplays the concepts of royalty or hierarchy, emphasizes characters’ “relatability,” and deconstructs traditional patriarchal narrative structures—promoting strong, independent women who don’t need a prince or long-lost father to save them. 

And Snow White’s love interest reflects this shift, too. Gone is the stoic, chivalrous prince. Instead, we get Jonathan: an irreverent peasant who leads a merry band of misfits. He’s less Prince Charming and more Lin-Manual Miranda, the living embodiment of Kyle Gordon’s new song “We Will Never Die.” To top it off, he delivers most of his lines with the smug cadence of millennial catchphrases like “we did a thing.” All he’s missing is an inscribed graphic t-shirt: “I’ll save the princess. But first, coffee.”

Then there’s the music. Where the 1937 Snow White featured unique songs tailored to an operatic soprano (Adriana Caselotti), giving the film a timeless fairytale quality, the 2025 version opts for bland, hyper-produced pop engineered for a Spotify playlist of girl-power anthems. While Zegler does have a beautiful voice, the songs feel like they were born in a corporate focus group. Hollow and generic, they’re the audio equivalent of stock imagery.

And while the film touts its inclusiveness, there’s one glaring omission. Despite casting actors of every race and background—even in roles where they don’t align with the original character descriptions—it declined to cast actual human beings to play the iconic seven dwarfs. Instead, the roles were filled by CGI characters, a move that erased a rare opportunity for actors with dwarfism to land major, visible roles in a blockbuster film.

This decision followed comments from actor Peter Dinklage, who criticized the remake in 2022, calling it a “f***ing backward story about seven dwarves living in a cave together.” But not everyone in the dwarfism community agreed. Dylan Postl, a professional wrestler and actor with dwarfism, pushed back, questioning how the seven dwarfs differed from Dinklage’s role in Elf and writing, “I don’t get why he hates to see other short actors take similar roles, especially in a Disney film that comes with guaranteed success.”

In trying to avoid offense, Disney ended up excluding the very community the original story spotlighted and bowing to Dinklage’s “privilege,” to borrow the woke language of the very people the film hoped to please.

That miscalculation didn’t just cost seven actors a job; it also cost Disney a shot at a cohesive, well-paced film. In response to Dinklage’s criticism, Disney initially scrapped the classic seven dwarves and replaced them with Jonathan’s diverse, ragtag band of forest-dwelling outcasts. But that move provoked backlash, and Disney appeared to pivot once again—hastily re-adding scenes with CGI-rendered dwarves. The result? Two overlapping groups of seven supporting characters, each competing for narrative space. The structure feels lopsided and disjointed, the product of a studio caught between two irreconcilable visions.

Young audiences are unimpressed by all of this. On TikTok, the reaction has been swift and brutal. “Hey so let’s just keep the same plot,” one commenter wrote. “If [Zegler] hated snow white, why did she sign up?” another asked. The box office numbers reflect this antipathy: the $250 million film which was projected to make $50 million during opening weekend fell short by $7 million, drawing lukewarm reviews.

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And the fact that the film lost revenue wasn’t missed by those behind the scenes either. Zegler’s remarks didn’t just spark fan backlash—they also stirred frustration within the industry. Jonah Platt, son of Snow White producer Marc Platt, publicly criticized the actress for prioritizing personal politics over professional responsibility. In a now-deleted post, he wrote: “Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew…. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.” His point hits harder than most internet outrage: in trying to position herself as morally superior, Zegler may have compromised the very project she was hired to uplift.

The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of 1937 will stand the test of time for its operatic grandeur, its timeless depiction of innocence and vulnerability, and its scintillating embrace of gender polarity. But the Snow White of 2025 is millennial-coded to a cringe-inducing degree. Already dated by the time it hit theaters, this movie should have accepted the rise of the soft-girl era. Instead, it will go the way of skinny jeans, side parts, and millennial burger joints.

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to include the comments from Jon Platt.