An actor and comedian with dwarfism has explained perfectly why people with her condition feel “erased” as entertainment giant Disney prepares to release its Snow White movie with computer generated characters replacing real, human actors for its depiction of the seven dwarfs.
Comedian, model, and social media creator Fats Timbo recently posted a video in which she explains how Disney so badly dropped the ball for people with dwarfism by eliminating an opportunity to hire seven actors with her condition for the movie that is on the verge of release.
“I used to get made fun of all the time. [Kids would be] saying ‘You’re one of the dwarves from Snow White,’ that kind of thing,” Timbo says in her video. “I think now when somebody sees a little person, they’re not going to believe it’s real. They’re going to see that CGI version on Snow White instead of seeing a real little person that has real character with real depth.”
“Our representation is already small as it is — no pun intended,” she said. “It’s already limited. To erase that and use CGI, like we’re mythical creatures or people that could be made on computers, it’s disregarding us in general.”
She also noted that refusing to use human actors in such roles could be confusing for children.
“Let’s say kids have never seen somebody that has my condition and they’ve seen a CGI version of me. It’s going to be a bit baffling to children. It could have been a real educational piece to have actors that have the condition and give them the role they deserve,” she said.
Disney’s newest attempt to bring the Snow White story to the big screen has already experienced a long and troublesome process.
Early in its production, it was reported that the creators of the film imagined having a “diverse” cast for the seven dwarf characters. A pre-production photo was released showing six actors of various races and genders, along with one dwarf actor being depicted as the seven dwarfs. The photo immediately drew accusations of wokeness and Disney faced heavy ridicule over the plans.
At first, Disney denied that the photo represented the real cast, but soon enough producers admitted that it was, indeed, their plan. And they dumped the whole idea after the backlash.
After that, the studio reported that the seven dwarfs would be handled by computer animation, instead of real-life actors. That, too, drew criticism, especially from actors with dwarfism.
Now that the film is finished and on the verge of its March 21 release date, more protests are planned upon its opening.
The film has suffered problems in other areas, too. For instance, all of its trailers were hit was a massive wave of down votes on Youtube.
Star Rachel Zegler has also brought a huge amount of negative publicity to the production with her hateful comments about the film, its fans, Trump and his voters, Israel, and a host of other topics.
It has also been reported that the budget for Snow White has ballooned upwards to $300 million or more as it has suffered multiple reboots and reshoots, meaning it would have to make a huge amount of money to start earning back its production costs, a prospect that seems increasingly remote
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