Rachel Zegler Hating On 'Snow White' Compared to Halle Bailey's Love for Ariel

Rachel Zegler has shown what many are calling a deep disdain for the story of 'Snow White' -- morphing one controversy into a new one ... and now, Halle Bailey's getting dragged in.

Here's the deal ... we already know folks have been outraged about the forthcoming Disney reimagining for months now, whether it's because of Zegler's race ... or 'cause they didn't cast many "dwarfs." On all fronts, the live-action remake has been called "woke" by some.

Now, a new anger is taking shape this weekend ... and it all has to do with resurfaced press remarks Zegler made back in September (almost a year ago) while promoting the film, alongside her costar Gal Gadot. No, not the blue carpet Variety interview ... the EW one.

In this Q&A -- which, again, is several months old at this point -- Zegler confesses to having only seen the OG 'Snow White' once as a child ... and not liking it because she thought it was scary. She says she never watched it again -- at least, not until she was cast.

After seeing it anew ... it sounds like Zegler was turned off by what she saw -- the way she's described the cartoon, it comes across as dated and, perhaps, even regressive for women ... that's certainly how Zegler views it anyway, and she's made that clear in fierce terms.

The problem ... it seems her attitude toward the old 'Snow White' -- kinda bashing it -- has turned a lot of people off ... and not just conservatives either! There are a good handful of (seemingly) normal women who are speaking up and rolling their eyes over Zegler's take.

As one user put it ... some of the elements of the 1937 film (not to mention the original German fairy tale) are still appealing to certain women, even today. As you can see above, she laments the "girl boss" trend that some feel is being pushed by Hollywood these days. In short, this woman argues that some ladies still wanna be saved by Prince Charming. 😆

Enter Halle Bailey ... press interviews she was doing last year in the lead-up to 'Little Mermaid' are also being resurfaced right now, and they're being compared to Zegler's clips.

There are a lot of interviews Halle did at the time where she's talked about how much she loved "The Little Mermaid" growing up ... and how much influence Ariel, specifically, had on her as a Disney princess. Basically, Halle was a big fan of the IP and sounded grateful to give her own portrayal -- which, by and large, has been praised ... despite the loud haters.

The point of all this is that a question is now being rhetorically asked of Zegler ... if you hated the movie and the character of 'Snow White,' why sign on for this role at all?

She's recently said she wants nothing to do with all the chatter that's taken shape, but she'll undoubtedly do more press as the movie release date nears -- so we'll what she says then.