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The remake Snow White has been criticized for its "woke" take on the original movie by its actors and political voices.
The backstory: "The cartoon was made 85 years ago, and therefore it's extremely dated when it comes to ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world," Actor Rachel Zegler said.
Go deeper...to read more on what has been said about the new trailer...
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to online uproar factory we go. The first teaser trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of Disney's Snow White is here.
Starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, the pair introduced the highly anticipated teaser at Disney’s D23 Expo Friday evening, with a release scheduled for March 21, 2025. Featuring first glimpses of Zegler singing "Whistle While You Work" and Gadot talking to her mirror, mirror, the trailer also showcased seven CGI dwarfs.
Written by Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train) and directed by Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man), the people behind the film have emphasized that this latest adaptation features several 'modern' twists, alongside new songs from the duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman).
Could this update to the 1937 classic be the — erm — fairest of them all? It may be a tough sell for Disney fans and other extremely online critics, whose scrutiny of the latest adaptation began years before today's trailer drop.
Here is a brief overview of their grievances, explained.
When news broke in 2021 that Zegler, who had her breakout role as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, would be playing the titular character, it provoked a string of racist comments on social media. People questioned why an actress of Latin descent would be playing a character with "skin white as snow."
Zegler, who is of Polish-Colombian background, responded to the comments on X by saying she didn’t want to be dragged into the "nonsensical discourse"about her casting.
"I really, truly do not want to see it," Zegler wrote in a post that included photos of her as a child dressed as a princess. "I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what."
In another interview with Variety in 2022, Zegler and Gadot talked about how the story of Snow White was being adapted with a "modern edge" — one that would nix the part about Snow White being saved by a prince.
"She’s the proactive one," Gadot said. "She's the one who sets the terms. It's [these factors] that make it so relevant to today."
"She's not going to be dreaming about true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be, and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true," Zegler said.
In another interview, Zegler referred to the prince as a "stalker" and said the messaging would be updated to reference a woman's power in the modern world.
"The cartoon was made 85 years ago, and therefore it's extremely dated when it comes to ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world," Zegler said. "So, when we came to reimagining the actual role of Snow White, it became about the 'fairest of them all' meaning who is the most just and who can become a fantastic leader, and the reality is Snow White has to learn a lot of lessons about coming in to her own power before she can come into power over a kingdom."
The comments provoked a wave of backlash on social media, notably from "anti-woke" accounts and from several conservative media outlets including the Daily Wire, which responded by saying it was producing its own version of the classic that would be written "in line with the values in which it was written."
It just gets worse and worse....
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 13, 2023
The new Snow White says that the Prince was a creepy stalker and suggests that all scenes of the Prince could be cut
She’s a walking PR disaster for Disney pic.twitter.com/7QJGDIx5er
Others, like TikTok user @reubenwoodall, criticized Disney's attempt to turn Snow White into a "girl boss."
"The point of Snow White's fairytale isn't that she's going to try and become a leader," Woodall said in a video that amassed more than 1.3 million likes. "She's not supposed to be this girl boss, leader, queen, feminist icon. And I don't know why every reimagining, it has to be that the woman is in a position of power, otherwise it's not feminist."
In an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph in 2023, David Hand — the son of the 1937 animation’s original director — told the paper he felt it was a "disgrace" that Disney was "trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier."
"There's no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did … I think Walt [Disney] and he would be turning in their graves," Hand said.
In a 2022 interview, the actor Peter Dinklage criticized Disney over its plan to release the live-action remake, stating he was "taken aback" by the studio's celebration of casting Zegler as a Latina lead while revisiting a story with an unflattering representation of dwarfs.
“It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f—ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f— are you doing, man?" said Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, during an interview on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast.
Dinklage’s comments prompted Disney to release a statement saying it had decided to take a "different approach" with the seven character. "To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we ... have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community," a Disney spokesperson told Variety.
Copyright NPR 2024
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Playa Baby, the fish taco truck run by husband-and-wife team Amanda Rios and Red Feather, has spent the past year operating out of a Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Westminster. The truck has quietly become one of the most distinctive food spots in Orange County.
Why it matters: Two specific food traditions converge in one menu — Nayarit-style beer-battered fish, learned from Red Feather's mother, married with the seasoning philosophy and radical hospitality Rios brings from her upbringing in Southwest Georgia.
Why now: The truck just marked one year at this location, after building an accessible, community-first model — and they're already eyeing how to scale it without losing what makes it work.
Just off the Beach Boulevard exit of the 22 Freeway in Westminster, you'll find a Walmart Supercenter. Make your way through the busy parking lot, and you'll spot a retired school bus parked near the entrance, painted in psychedelic purples and blues. This is Playa Baby, and they're quietly making some of the most interesting tacos in Orange County right now.
The name Playa Baby holds double significance for husband-and-wife team Amanda Rios and Red Feather — two people who came to this parking lot from very different places.
The two got married in 2022 at Burning Man, on a dried lakebed known as the playa. And in Spanish, playa means beach — a nod to the region Red Feather's family is from in Nayarit, a state in west-central Mexico next to the Pacific. The state itself takes its name from Red Feather's people, the Naayeri.
Red Feather grew up in the mountains of Nayarit with his grandmother after losing both his father and grandfather in a car accident. His mother, known as Chicha, had already immigrated to California and was working to send for her children. He lived in an indigenous community largely untouched by colonization — matriarchal and connected to the land. When Chicha finally sent for him, the family settled in Santa Ana, where he grew up working alongside her, selling tamales and other food from small shops — and learning to cook in the process. He eventually went to art school, became an industrial designer, and found it so unsatisfying that he walked away, instead launching a fish taco truck in 2020 under the name School Fish Taco.
Amanda is originally from Bayan, Georgia, a small town she describes as "an hour from anything" — the kind of place where food isn't casual, it's communal, and you cook for everyone who comes through the door. She dropped out of the University of Georgia to start a small catering operation from her apartment, then enrolled at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte before working her way through kitchens across the South. In 2016, she moved to California and eventually became a private chef, including cooking alongside Chef Nikki Stewart on Dave Chappelle's team — events like his 50th birthday, Summer Camp, and the Blue Note Jazz Fest in Napa.
It was during that time she crossed paths with Red Feather. She came on as a consultant to his food truck business — and never left.
For a while, she treated Playa Baby like a side hustle, balancing the truck with her work on Chappelle's team. Then she started to notice something. "I was still on the road and I was watching our numbers uptick," said Rios. So she decided to come home and focus on the business, rounding out the menu to include the lemonade program that would become one of its biggest draws.
When you go, start with the OG Combo — three tacos (fish, shrimp, Mixto), elote on a stick, and a Playa Punch.
The fish is tilapia, marinated in lime before it's battered. The batter itself is seasoned and thinned out, resulting in a crisp, delicate exterior that's the opposite of the puffy cloud you'd get from classic fish and chips — citrusy and light, a technique Red Feather learned from his mother.
The shrimp is more traditional than you might expect from a shrimp taco, yet still manages to stand out. Seasoned before and after, it comes out plumper and crisper, leaning closer to a classic tempura. Both tacos arrive topped with red and green cabbage slaw, crema, chipotle mayo, and Cotija cheese. The tortillas come from Ranchera Tortilleria in Garden Grove — lime, salt, corn, no preservatives — and taste handmade, holding their own against the stuffed contents. The fish itself comes from D&D Seafood in Westminster.
The elote is loaded — Cotija, chipotle drizzle, cilantro, crema — and the corn is fresh enough to pop with each bite.
At Playa Baby, the lemonades — Amanda calls them Buckets — are as central to the menu's identity as the tacos. Each one starts with fresh-pressed lemonade or limeade and handmade ginger syrup, then gets dressed up with fruit and herbs: Georgia Girl (peach, mint) is a nod to her own roots; Florida Boi leans blackberry and coconut; O.C. Gworl goes tropical with lychee and passionfruit.
The idea came together in 2023 at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago, where in-house beverage was the buzzword of the year. After seeing a woman on TikTok fund pharmacy school by selling lemonade, Amanda tracked down the man in Alabama who builds pneumatic lemon smashers and spent a month testing 50 combinations before landing on the menu they have now.
Despite Amanda's imprint on the food, she's quick to point out that this isn't a Black fish fry. In her home state of Georgia, fish fry means catfish. What she's bringing to Playa Baby is a philosophy — season everything before it hits the batter, never leave a taco unfinished, treat the food like a gift rather than a transaction.
That philosophy extends to how the business is run. The truck has spent the past year parked at this Walmart Supercenter after years of working Taco Alley in Santa Ana, a move Amanda made after finding a vendor program through a Facebook group for women food truckers. The new spot opened the truck up to people who couldn't easily get to them before — families with strollers, older customers, anyone in a wheelchair.
There's no brick-and-mortar in the plan. The goal, eventually, is to franchise the truck model — without losing what makes it work. As Amanda puts it: "I gave you everything I got in this tiny menu, so it all hits."
What Playa Baby teaches us is that good food doesn't need to rely on rigid technique or even the "right" ingredients — sometimes it just needs to be an honest expression of the people behind it and the story they're telling. That feels significant and worth the trip.
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For more than 50 years, the Education Department's Civil Rights Data Collection was intended to help keep schools accountable. The latest information, collected about the 2023-24 school year, was supposed to be published last December, according to the Education Department's own deadline.
What data is collected: The agency has tracked a host of realities about how students are being treated in every public school across America: which kids are being bullied, which ones are being harassed and which students can access the internet, among other things. One of the questions the delayed dataset was also set to answer is which students have access to the internet as AI plays a bigger role in education.
What's causing the delay: The agency hasn't responded to multiple requests from NPR asking what's behind the delay. Federal bureaucracy can be slow, and delays aren't always cause for concern, but advocates are on edge in the midst of recent plans the Trump administration announced to move the Office for Civil Rights — which houses the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) team — from the Education Department to the Department of Justice. That planned transfer follows months of federal action that upends the way students' civil rights have been protected in the past: The Trump administration has cracked down on initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion, for example, and prioritized investigating schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports.
For more than 50 years, the Education Department has revealed a host of realities about how students are being treated in every public school across America: which kids are being bullied, which ones are being harassed and which students can access the internet, among other things. The agency's Civil Rights Data Collection is intended to do just that — help keep schools accountable.
The latest information, collected about the 2023-24 school year, was supposed to be published last December, according to the Education Department's own deadline.
But it hasn't been.
The agency hasn't responded to multiple requests from NPR asking what's behind the delay.
Federal bureaucracy can be slow, and delays aren't always cause for concern, but advocates are on edge in the midst of recent plans the Trump administration announced to move the Office for Civil Rights — which houses the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) team — from the Education Department to the Department of Justice.
That planned transfer follows months of federal action that upends the way students' civil rights have been protected in the past: The Trump administration has cracked down on initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion, for example, and prioritized investigating schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports.
"This administration has repeatedly applied civil rights law in ways that ignore or dismiss the very real inequities that persist in our education system," says Denise Forte, president and CEO of EdTrust, a think tank focused on addressing education inequity. The delay in releasing the CRDC data, she says, "raises serious concerns, particularly as this administration seeks to downplay the impacts of racism and economic inequality in public education."
A former Education Department employee who worked on the CRDC tells NPR the team is still intact. However, its future is unclear: While the Trump administration has announced the Office for Civil Rights is moving to the Justice Department, the process could take months, like other plans to outsource parts of the Education Department's work. The former employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of professional repercussions, said part of the delay may have to do with the 2025 government shutdown that affected operations at the Education Department for over six weeks, including work on the CRDC.
The department also has been winding down its operations since the Trump administration took office, cutting about half the department's overall staff last year.
Lindsay Kubatzky, director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, agrees with Forte's assessment that a delay in this data may have to do with the Trump administration's chipping away at systems that have historically helped hold schools accountable for protecting students' civil rights. "This administration unfortunately has proposed a lot of policies that would make it less transparent on how students with disabilities in particular are being served in public schools," he says.
For example, Kubatzky points to how the Trump administration has proposed eliminating a requirement for states to track which students are being identified as having disabilities based on race and ethnicity. Historically, Black and brown students are more often wrongly identified as needing special education than their peers.
While that disability data is not directly tied to the CRDC, Kubatzky says it's an example of the administration working to undo federal civil rights accountability tools. The CRDC, he says, also plays a key role in helping advocates show where "schools are not serving students and it also gives us a lever to push for policies that are more inclusive and less negative toward students."
For example, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of N.J. and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas used findings from CRDC data to craft a bill proposing the expansion of access to Advanced Placement courses for underrepresented students, including minority and disabled students, whom the data found had unequal access to these classes. A spokesperson for Booker's team said the bill would be reintroduced in the coming days.
One of the questions the delayed dataset was set to answer is which students have access to the internet as AI plays a bigger role in education, according to the former CRDC staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Like, are our schools ready to usher in this wave of AI? Will all students have equal access to devices and internet capabilities?" the person said. "How do we know if the CRDC doesn't come out?"
The former staffer described the CRDC team as a deeply committed group of people who are focused on ensuring "access and opportunity" for the nation's most marginalized students. "We can't make the right decisions for students if we don't have insight into their current realities."
Edited by: Nirvi Shah
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson
Copyright 2026 NPR
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We put together a list of the best places to spend the Fourth of July for people with sensory issues, young kids and pets who want to avoid illegal fireworks.
For the beach: Malibu and Bolsa Chica State Beach are good respites from illegal fireworks, while also offering views of nearby beach cities’ official displays.
For the mountains: Idyllwild or any of the national forests near L.A. tend to be pretty quiet. Idyllwild in particular offers festive vibes while still maintaining its peace. And Big Bear does offer a controversial fireworks show.
For the desert: Joshua Tree National Park or any nearby desert area are always good places to seek peace and quiet, and July 4 is no exception.
Read on... for more recommendations.
Most Fourth of July guides focus on how to see fireworks shows. This one offers something a little different.
There are lots of reasons why you might seek out some peace and quiet on the Fourth of July. Whether you can’t deal with fireworks because of your pets, sensory or mental health reasons, or, in my case, because you’re just trying to chill in your apartment at midnight.
To be clear, we’re not talking about the big fireworks shows, which are mostly over by bedtime — some of these locations even have their own official fireworks shows. We’re talking about illegal fireworks that regularly light up skies and eardrums in SoCal neighborhoods.
But as any illegal firework-hating Angeleno should know, you can’t win against the booms. Even if you convince one neighbor to stop, you can’t convince them all. To me, the only solution is to steal a moment away for yourself and get out of Dodge.
I’ve been avoiding the Fourth of July in L.A. for years now — though admittedly not every year, especially when friends with rooftop grills invite me over — and I put together a list of recommendations that should be calm and firework-free at night.
Of course, there are no guarantees that people still won’t light fireworks illegally in these places, like what led to the tragic El Dorado Fire in 2020. But you can probably see a theme emerge here: areas in or near state and national parks, mountains, the beach and anywhere that’s wildfire-prone will likely provide a reprieve.
Though a few towns make this list, going into nature is going to be your best bet. State parks like Chino Hills and Crystal Cove close at sunset, but you can stay as long as you want in national forests. And if you park your car in the right turnout, you’ll enjoy a pretty nice panorama. Controversially, there will still be a fireworks show in Big Bear, so you can sneak a peek if you so choose.
This is where I spent the last Fourth of July. It was exactly what I was looking for: very festive with plenty of activity during the day, but there wasn’t a firework to be heard around this forested mountain town when the sun set.
Fireworks are strictly banned for visitors to U.S. national parks, as well as on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. It’s a federal offense that could carry up to six months in jail. Joshua Tree is obviously the closest national park you can drive to, but Sequoia and Kings Canyon also have a strict ban on pyrotechnics and other fires. Bonus: National park entry is free this July 4.
The farther you get into Malibu, the farther from your neighbors’ fireworks. I’ve found Zuma Beach to be a pretty good place to park, especially since it’s surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, but everyone has their spot (or you’ll find one). If Malibu’s too far, try somewhere like Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach. You can likely catch neighboring beach cities’ fireworks shows from afar there, too, at least until the park closes at 10 p.m.
This is a good place to go if you want to split the difference between seeing official fireworks shows in places like Ventura, Ojai and Oxnard and having peace and quiet after they end. Ventura County has seen its fair share of wildfires recently, and the more mountainous, rural areas in and around Ojai tend to be pretty peaceful later at night as nearby cities embrace the chaos.
I’ve never done it, but I imagine the open ocean is a pretty good place to avoid Fourth of July fireworks. Like Ojai, Avalon also has its own firework show at night, but the ferries back to land run until 11:15 p.m. and last about an hour. Sadly, all of the late ferries are currently booked, but if staying overnight is an option, you’re unlikely to hear any illegal fireworks in fire-prone Avalon, let alone the rest of Catalina Island.
Generations of Southern Californians have gone to the desert to find peace and quiet. And if you’re just looking for a respite from fireworks, you can even get it at places like the Salton Sea. Just brace yourself for those 85+ degree nighttime temperatures.
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If you’re looking for a way to join the July 4 festivities in Inglewood and South L.A., we’ve got you covered.
Music fest: Inglewood is hosting its 4th Annual Music Festival on Saturday at Darby Park (3400 W. Arbor Vitae St.) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Doors open at 10 a.m. and KJLH radio personality Adai Lamar will host the show. Performers include Cameo and Klymaxx featuring Cheryl Cooley. Tickets are free.
Why now: Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday.
Read on... for more celebrations this weekend.
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this Saturday.
If you’re looking for a way to join the festivities in Inglewood and South L.A., we’ve got you covered.
Inglewood is hosting its 4th Annual Music Festival on Saturday, July 4 at Darby Park (3400 W. Arbor Vitae St.) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Doors open at 10 a.m. and KJLH radio personality Adai Lamar will host the show. Performers include Cameo and Klymaxx featuring Cheryl Cooley. Tickets are free.
DJ Starboy is hosting his annual pool party on Saturday, July 4 at 9321 South Van Ness Ave. in Inglewood from 4 p.m. to midnight. There’ll be food and drinks for sale, games and activities, and multiple DJs bringing the Afrobeats, dancehall and hip-hop vibes. Tickets are $17.85 each. The event is for those age 21 and older.
America 250 will host a July 4 Benefit Show at the LA Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, July 4. Gates open at 3 p.m. and the show starts at 6 p.m. Queen Latifah is hosting and performers include Chris Stapleton and The Smashing Pumpkins. Legendary singer Chaka Khan will also be a special guest at the show. Tickets are $17.76 and 5,000 complimentary tickets will be donated for first responders, veterans and service members, organizers say.
LA County is hosting free World Cup watch parties on Saturday, July 4 and Sunday, July 5 at Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park (12552 Avalon Blvd.) in South L.A., from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fan event will feature live music, food trucks, a community marketplace, resources and family fun.
