After Mickey Mouse, the next most iconic character in Disney’s extensive lore might actually be Snow White.
The Grimm fairy-tale-character-turned-Disney Princess was the first feature-length animated film put out by the studio and thus holds a special place in the annals of Disney history.
So imagine the consternation from Disney executives, fans and shareholders alike when the new reboot of its beloved “Snow White” was largely met with derision and outright disdain — largely due to the raw unlikability of its lead actress, Rachel Zegler.
You see, Zegler apparently felt that the best way to show gratitude for this iconic role she just secured was to … vomit all over the character for not being feminist enough, or some similar-minded nonsense.
Further causing headaches for the House of Mouse, a leaked photo from the movie’s early filming showed that the live-action movie was also re-casting the iconic roles of Snow White’s seven dwarfs in the name of some misguided sense of “inclusivity.”
Hilariously, Disney denied that those set photos were real, only to backtrack and later admit that those photos were, in fact, real.
So yes, Disney has had a rough time purely in optics (never mind the bulging budgets and the various strikes that have delayed the movie) when it comes to its live reboot of this iconic movie.
When it rains, it pours, so of course The Daily Wire came around with its own version of the iconic movie (Snow White, despite her long association with Disney, is technically in the public domain. Disney owns the rights to their specific aesthetic look of Snow White, as well as the names of the seven dwarfs) in October.
Disney, in the face of all this wrath and sudden competition, has apparently tucked its tail between its legs and decided discretion is the better part of valor — or, at the very least, it sure seems that way.
Do you think these changes will draw more viewers?
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The House of Mouse dropped two new pieces of information about this beleaguered Snow White reboot, one of which was a bit more stealthily dropped than the other.
First, the obvious and stealthy update: The movie has been delayed for almost a year.
Disney announced that the movie would be released on March 21, 2025, despite an earlier advertised release date of March 22, 2024. Disney curiously failed to mention the original release date.
The Hollywood Reporter speculated that the writers’ and actors’ strike that has rocked Hollywood was the reason for the year-long delay, but more cynical observers on social media assumed that Disney was scrambling to re-write and re-shoot the movie to assuage some of those aforementioned criticisms.
And the people assuming that the movie was being re-written/re-shot were given fodder when, alongside the new release date, they were given a new glimpse of the iconic seven dwarfs, who suddenly looked much more in line with their dwarfish origins.
One intrepid social media user posted a side-by-side comparison of the then-and-now dwarfs:
BREAKING: Disney is delaying Snow White until 2025 following backlash against the woke remake
It also appears that Disney has scrapped their “diversity creatures” in favor of CGI dwarves that look similar to the original pic.twitter.com/czTsNllpJF
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 27, 2023
Look, maybe Disney really was rocked by the strikes and needed a year to readjust. The company has a laundry list of issues it’s currently dealing with, and a firestorm of speculation surrounding one of its most iconic characters isn’t what the studio probably wants.
Or is it?
One could certainly make an argument that this beleaguered movie could absolutely use another year to let the heat dissipate in the kitchen.
Whatever the truth of the situation may be, Disney certainly won’t divulge it — they have to keep up appearances, after all — but it’s pretty clear all is not well in the House of Mouse.
