“Snow White”: The Most Shameful of Disney’s Live Actions
An empowered princess, terrible CGI, and bad songs. The remake of the beloved classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that turned into a freak show.
If you were following the entertainment news a few years ago, I’m sure you are aware of the backlash this particular Snow White live-action has received almost from the get-go. The bad decisions made by Disney with this production have been heavily documented online, producing a hilarious amount of memes.
The controversies started with the casting of actress Rachel Zegler, a “latina” in the title role, even though she does not physically resemble the character in the slightest. By this point, Disney already had a history of doing similar things. The previous live actions featured a black Tinker Bell in Peter Pan & Wendy, a black Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, and the infamous black Ariel in The Little Mermaid, just to name a few. The decision to change the skin tone of a character who got her name precisely because her skin was white as snow is next-level stupidity, but that’s Hollywood.
Throughout the following years, Disney also got cancelled for hiring real dwarfs to play the seven iconic characters. And then for not hiring dwarfs. That is how we ended up with seven CGI abominations. The movie went through reshoots that skyrocketed the production’s cost, making it one of the most expensive live actions on their list. If that was not enough, some pro-Palestine activists wanted to boycott the film for including Israeli actress Gal Gadot, in a move that some media outlets tried to echo to save the ass of the only really problematic public figure in the production: Rachel Zegler.
Rachel Zegler: The Poisoned Apple
Instead of keeping a low profile and trying to win over the audience’s sympathy by expressing love for the character and projecting a positive attitude, much like Haley Bailey did while promoting The Little Mermaid, Rachel Zegler seemed to be adamant in antagonizing everyone.
Rachel qualified the animated Snow White film, a foundational rock for Disney as a company, as “extremely dated” when it came to its treatment of women. She talked enthusiastically about how her Snow White was going to focus on “becoming a leader” and how she was “not going to be saved by the prince”. In fact, she labeled the prince as a “stalker”. She even said that she was scared of the film as a child and did not watch it until she was an adult.
Once the clips of her saying those things went viral online, instead of owning her lack of professionalism, Rachel took the Hollywood approach of putting the blame on the rest of the world. According to her, the backlash was due to people being racist and hateful towards her.
The whole situation escalated when she made a point of mixing her political views into the promotion of the movie, posting about her contempt for Trump voters, her take on racism and colorism, and even some pro-Palestinian statements that seemed to be directed to her co-star Gal Gadot. This is the context in which Snow White hit theaters at the end of March.
Butchering a Classic for “Modern Audiences”
As strange as it may seem, the first observation that must be made is that the film has what I can only describe as socialist undertones: “The land is of those who work it” the King says to young Snow White, an idea that the princess brings back throughout the story. In the amusingly diverse kingdom, the people share what they have. At least until the evil queen takes control and becomes a tyrant.
The name Snow White now comes from the princess being born during a big snowstorm, instead of the color of her skin. She does not wish to find love, but to become the leader that restores the kingdom to prosperity. And she is “the fairest of them all” because of her inner beauty. This is more understandable, as Disney cast Gal Gadot in the queen’s role, and even they could not pretend that Rachel Zegler was the prettiest.
In short, this film has nothing to do with what the original Snow White stood for. Instead of a kind, motherly, and hard-working girl, whose sweetness wins her the favor of those around her, Rachel’s version is a revolutionary and empowered girl boss who needs no men, and is superior to everyone.
Underwhelming At Best
Visually, the film is quite dark and depressing. Even though the original animation has some darker sequences, like when the princess escapes and runs through the forest, or the death of the queen, most of the film is warm and cheerful. The live-action washes away almost all the magic out of the dwarfs’ cottage and the animals with the questionable CGI. The costumes and make-up look cheap, and Rachel was the main victim of that, with a hairstyle that does her no favor, and a version of the classic yellow and blue dress that looks like it can be bought online for a few dollars.
The musical numbers are boring and way too long. The big ones, that feature all the ensemble cast, are a mess of people dancing around, following no apparent direction. They ignored all the original songs except for two, which were modified, and replaced them with generic and forgettable pieces. Because singing “Someday My Prince Will Come” would be too dated. Modern women don’t want a prince anymore, that’s so backwards!
The Non-Consensual Kiss
In the original story, the prince kisses Snow White while she sleeps, breaking the curse and saving her life. A magical and romantic moment in the film, the classic happy ending. But to modern sensibilities, the innocent kiss is wrong and predatory. Snow White did not consent to be kissed! How dare the prince help her?
Disney’s politically correct branding and Rachel’s promise that her character was not going to be saved by the prince made me curious as to how they would handle the situation. Would they risk being story accurate and show a kiss? Or would the princess save herself to appease the woke mob?
The company found a way out—something they believed would make everybody happy: Snow White is kissed by Jonathan (who is no longer a prince; he is a bandit now), but she gave her consent beforehand. And how did she do that, you may wonder? In one of the lame original songs performed by Snow White and Jonathan, they included a verse that goes something like “If you find me asleep, wake me up with a kiss.” It made me roll my eyes.
Competing for the Worst Acting
I have complained multiple times about actors who get showered with praise for offering the same flat performance in every single film, but when it comes to bad acting, Snow White is something else.
I’ve never considered Rachel Zegler to be a particularly good actress, and after hearing her talk for the past three years, it would be impossible to convince me that she is sweet and mindful like Snow White. However, her performance was even worse than I expected.
While the script featuring an “independent girl boss” has already set her up for failure, Rachel’s disposition and airs are more fit for a Disney villain than for a princess—proof that even if we ignore the race swap, she was a terrible miscast. She delivers her lines in a monotonous tone that contrasts awfully with her exaggerated facial expressions. The girl can’t act to save her life, which may be the only thing Rachel has in common with Gal Gadot.
To be fair, as much as I dislike her, Rachel Zegler has a beautiful voice. Gal Gadot does not even have that. She had less screen time than I anticipated, but her scenes are arguably some of the worst in the entire film. Her musical number in Snow White is so bad that it made me uncomfortable.
The Box Office Bomb of the Year
To no one’s surprise, the live-action Snow White crashed and burned at the box office, with an opening weekend that was worse than the lowest predictions. The movie has been in theaters for three weekends and still has not reached the $100.000.000 in the domestic market, achieving only a humiliating $79.120.880 so far. The international reception has not been much better, and it is right now sitting at $91.274.915. Not even $200.000.000 with all the markets combined.
It may seem like a lot of money, but let us not forget how expensive it was to make: The Numbers reports that the production budget was $269.400.000, while some rumors state the cost to be over $300.000.000 due to the multiple reshoots and changes. In short, Disney lost a ton of money.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
The audience was already annoyed by all the problems and by Rachel Zegler’s attitude, so most of the potential consumers were ready to tear it to pieces as soon as it came out. In fact, Snow White has established a new record as the worst-rated IMDb movie, dethroning Dragonball Evolution, which is hilarious. Some critics tried to salvage the situation with their reviews, but it was no use: the film’s destiny was already sealed. Any glimmer of hope for the project was destroyed with the release of A Minecraft Movie last weekend, robbing Snow White of the tiny amount of people willing to pay a ticket.
Disney has faced public criticism for her live-actions before, but the rejection from the audience has never been so overwhelming. The situation is so bad that the House of Mouse has announced that they are pausing development of the Tangled live action remake that was already in production, and appears to be seriously questioning their approach to stories. So, looking on the bright side, there is the chance that some good comes out of it.
