The Snow White Remake is in Trouble, and Disney is Scrambling to Save It

Movies

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder” is true everywhere except Hollywood. They’ve cracked the maxim’s code by becoming so unappealing that the rest of us can’t forget whatever they’ve done this time, no matter how long their latest impending cultural desecration has gone away. Take Snow White, for example; this is Disney’s newest live-action remake of an animated classic. This time, they’re remaking the animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated film and the one that put Disney on the movie map. From the start, this movie engendered nothing but ill will from the audience it seemed determined to insult.

Much of this came from the remake’s star, Rachel Zegler; there were other factors, like fatigue over these live-action remakes – especially because they tend to be awful – some dreadful images from the set, and the virtue signal of removing the Seven Dwarfs and replacing them with a bunch of forest-dwelling Starbucks baristas because Peter Dinklage said they were racist or something. But Zegler really got people to root for this movie’s demise. Her interviews as Snow White filmed were smug, condescending, disrespectful of what pretty much anyone would agree is one of the most beloved and important movies in cinema history, and perhaps worst of all, promising anyone who saw the eventual film that they’d have a bad time. Do you want to see the original Disney Princess turned into an angry college campus feminist who wags her finger at the notion of being cared for and protected by someone who loves her? Do you want to see themes of beauty and femininity and generosity and the folly of jealousy and the strengths of both sexes replaced with another insufferable girlboss who don’t need no man? Do you want to see another classic “fixed” as it’s updated for modern audiences? According to the reactions to the new trailer, you probably don’t. Disney released the first look at Snow White at the D23 expo. If you missed it, you can see it below:

As you can see, Disney did some retooling over the past year. Nobody liked the look of those pirate hippies who replaced the Seven Dwarfs, which was mystifying to no one except the idiots at Disney – and that includes Peter Dinklage – so they’ve been scrapped, and in their stead are some CGI Dwarfs that look… strange, and frankly, a little creepy. They look almost like puppets in the jerky, stilted way they move, which is not what you expect from computer animation. And they’re not alone; the rest of the movie, outside of Zegler, Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen, and I guess Prince Charming, is CGI, from the woodland critters that befriend Snow White to the locations themselves. Why bother with a live-action remake if you’re just going to animate 90% of it in a lower quality than the original? They also do that weird thing where they take an upbeat song and slow it down so it sounds foreboding; in this case, it’s “Whistle While You Work,” the jaunty housework tune. Finally (and this is a little mean, but Zegler is such a jerk that I don’t feel bad), I agree with everyone who says it’s ludicrous to think that Gal Gadot is jealous of Rachel Zegler’s looks. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but at a certain point, you’re asking too much of the audience.

And the audience seems to agree because the Snow White trailer is taking a thumping. YouTube now hides dislikes (for occasions such as this, I’m sure), but out of 6.7 million views as of this writing, the trailer has 69,000 likes, which is a drop in the bucket. Conversely, according to John Nolte at Breitbart, it has 735,000 dislikes, more than ten times the number of likes. That’s sort of astonishing; as Nolte points out, even The Marvels had a more balanced number of likes and dislikes – 537,000 to 570,000, respectively – and that was a massive bomb that many assume is what led to Marvel trying to right their wokeward ship. And there are other problems that arose after the trailer hit YouTube; a scene from the movie that was screened at D23 leaked, the one in which Snow White sings “Whistle While You Work” as she and her animal friends clean the Dwarfs’ house as a thank-you for letting her stay with them. Except, that’s not what happens in the new and improved feminist Snow White for modern audiences that never show up to the theater; this time, Snow White orders the Dwarfs to clean their own house, and she condescendingly tells them how through song, treating them like babies instead of new friends who gave her a place to stay. You can see it below and compare it to the original film, courtesy of That Star Wars Girl:

What makes me laugh is that this is essentially the mirror of a gag from Saved by the Bell (and if you don’t know what that is, get off my lawn), where Jessie – the uptight feminist played by future Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley, because the universe loves irony – has a school production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs turned into a feminist screed where Snow White does exactly what Zegler’s version does in the new one:

The difference is that Saved by the Bell did this as a joke; the absurdity of the situation is why it’s funny – note the incredulous look of the drama teacher. But Disney thinks this is how Snow White should have always been, and unlike Saved by the Bell, they don’t understand why everybody is laughing at them.

Then, there’s Rachel Zegler, who’s once again doing her damndest to turn people off of her and her movie. After thanking her fans for watching the Snow White trailer, she left the most divisive message she possibly could have:

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, a Snow White movie isn’t the place for this, and she had to know nobody would appreciate her politicizing the movie even more. Many, including Midnight’s Edge, think this was an intentional swipe at Gal Gadot, who is Israeli and served in the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF. I wonder if she saw all the people expressing their doubts about Gadot coveting Zegler’s beauty. Or maybe she posted it because she’s a shit-stirrer who wanted attention. Whatever the case, it’s more bad press Disney didn’t need for a film that has to be a hit. I can’t imagine how much this movie cost to make; last year, Forbes reported that it had a $209.3 million budget, but that was before the CGI Dwarf switcheroo, plus the delayed release date, which causes the various investments that fund a movie to accrue interest. I think it’s safe to assume Snow White will have a budget at least approaching $300 million when it finally hits theaters next year, if not one that blows past that figure.

So, Disney is in trouble, and like all cornered animals, they’re lashing out. Geeks + Gamers’ own Tuggs shared the “Whistle While You Work” scene on X and got locked out of her account for a DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) violation. This was soon fixed, and her account was restored, although the video was deleted. But Disney appears to be trying to keep this leaked scene under wraps.

LOL Disney is BIG MAD!! Locked out of my account due to a DMCA.

Whatcha gonna do, @Support, take down THOUSANDS of posts?? Get bent.

Anyone else get this? Or is it only me because I reached over 400k triggered ppl?@elonmusk come on now, seriously?#SnowWhite pic.twitter.com/WtCr1k0xaR

— Tuggs✝️ (@thattugglife) August 15, 2024

It’s a little late for that; everyone has either seen it or heard about it by now. But they have to know what a disaster this is for them, how much the audience they’ve steadily lost until Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine promised actual fun. The goodwill those two films generated – which wasn’t much, as they were seen as anomalies that people enjoyed despite Disney, not because of it – is gone, at least for Snow White. And they deserve it for thinking anyone wanted this, and for spitting in the face of the movie that made them.

Let us know what you think of the Snow White fracas in the comments!