Live-action Snow White trailer looks intriguing, but Disney faces an uphill battle

Disney's controversial live-action Snow White movie finally debuted its teaser trailer and it has been met with mixed reactions. Really, though, this doesn't come as a surprise given all of the drama that has followed the film since it was first announced that Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) was cast as the titular Snow White.

As a teaser trailer, not much is actually shown. It really just gives us a general sense of idea of the film.

We hear a bar Rachel Zegler's incredible vocals. We get a glimpse of the CGI dwarfs. We hear the Queen's iconic line spoken by Gal Gadot. We see the infamous poison apple.

Truth be told, as a teaser, the first trailer for Disney's Snow White actually checks all the boxes. I'm intrigued, but I'm not yet sold.

Disney faces an uphill battle when it comes to marketing Snow White. For starters, anytime you take a classic animated film and turn it into live-action, you're going to get pushback. We've already seen that with comments like "why are you ruining the original."

Secondly, there's the whole casting of Rachel Zegler who, according to some racists, is too brown to play Snow White. Let's be perfectly clear, Zegler looks and sounds incredible in the role. She's amazingly talented and I have no doubt in her ability to portray the titular princess.

However, Zegler did herself no favors when describing the upcoming film. In an effort to explain the film's "modern edge," the actress angered both Disney fans and conservatives by describing the original movie.

In another interview with Extra TV, Zegler referred to the prince in the original film as a "stalker." She emphasized that a love story wasn't central to the new film, and even joked that her costar Andrew Burnap's scenes as Prince Charming may even be cut from the film entirely.

Look, I understand updating outdated tropes from a film made in the 1930s, but I feel there's a way to approach this conversation without completely dumping on the original movie that so many hold dear to their heart. Her general attitude and disparaging remarks toward the original film — which she admitted that she had only watched once in her life prior to being cast in the role — was just so off-putting for many that they refuse to give her a second chance now.

Respect the source material, in my opinion, even if it may not hold up to all of today's standards of the progressive movement.

At the same time, the movie faces backlash from the right side of the political spectrum who have now labeled the film as "woke." In addition to being mad about a biracial Latina actor playing Snow White, they are frustrated with changes to the traditional storyline. Just as all movies back in the day had the trope of the princess being saved by the prince, it's done a full pendulum swing to the point where even the lead actress is saying she doesn't need Prince Charming in the film. Even if she was joking, it's just an out-of-touch tone.

And finally, we get the last crucial point, bringing the seven dwarfs to life. According to reports, Disney's original plan was to replace the iconic dwarfs and instead have them exist as "magical creatures," played by normal sized actors. After considerable pushback, Disney reversed this creative decision and opted to go with CGI Dwarfs.

We get a glimpse of them in the trailer and if I'm being honest, it just looks creepy. There's definitely an uncanny valley issue going on here as it seems Disney couldn't decide whether to make the more realistic or cartoon-ish. Whatever this direction is, doesn't seem to be working.

All in all, it just feels like Disney is facing a massive uphill battle when it comes to marketing and selling this live-action remake of Snow White. And when taking into account the rumored price tag — reportedly between $200 and $300 million (without marketing) — I just don't see how this film will be profitible in the end.