First ‘Snow White’, Now ‘Lilo & Stitch’: Disney’s Casting Drama Continues

Disney’s latest live action remake of Snow White faced a slew of negative PR

Long before it ever hit theaters, the film most notably received backlash from the dwarfism community, where actors like Peter Dinklage felt the film reinforced “backwards” stereotypes, and Jason Acuña felt that the choice to animate characters took work away from actors with dwarfism.

My hot take? If you can’t avoid offending a community, you can avoid making a movie altogether. We’re talking about IP so old it can’t be officially dated, though the Brother’s Grimm story published in 1812 serves as a decent road marker.

The Snow White of 1937 exists within the context in which it was made. We can deconstruct it and shine light on all the ways in which it was problematic, and even slap a disclaimer on it for streaming platforms, but our expectations for how to respect members of a group that has historically been marginalized, exploited, and stereotyped have greatly changed. Anyone who’s watched TLC and has half a brain could tell you that.

The Lilo & Stitch remake faces casting backlash of its own.

Ahead of Disney’s scheduled Memorial Day release, fans are taking to the internet in protest of another casting decision for the live action version of Lilo & Stitch. Their main complaint is the choice of actress Sydney Agudong, for the role of Lilo’s older sister, Nani.

Although Agudong was born and raised in Hawaii, fans feel the animated version of the character provided a very specific and under-represented depiction of dark-skinned Native Hawaiians, as well as women with curvy body types. And while Disney’s stylistic approach to drawing women hasn’t always been so grounded in reality, this is one occasion where I say if you can draw women from the real world, you should be able cast them too.

The debate surrounding Agudong’s ethnicity feels a little more problematic, with many drawing their own conclusions based on her physical appearance alone, and others referencing an older interview of her sister, Siena, in which she states she is Caucasian, Filipino, and Polynesian.

While it’s worth distinguishing that Native Hawaiians can be more broadly categorized as Polynesian, but not all Polynesians are Native Hawaiian, I think we run into dangerous territory when the internet becomes the speculative ethnicity police. The best way to understand anyone’s background or identity is to ask them directly.

That being said, Disney is remaking a story that is centered in Native Hawaiian identity and culture, which includes a long history of colonization, dispossession, and suppression, as well as the banning of Hawaiian language from public schools in 1896 that almost led to its extinction.

If there are parts of the original film the Native Hawaiian community feels Disney got right, it would be a mistake to cast them aside in a live action remake. When aiming to tell the story of a group of people, it’s necessary to include those people in the story, otherwise you’re dealing with a completely different narrative.