Walt Disney’s live-action remake of 1937 Classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarf began in cinemas on Friday and was taken over by a controversy that dragged the company into the culture war.
Snow White actress Rachel Zegler is facing online attacks from people who said her Colombian heritage made her inappropriate for the role. She drew criticism for saying the original film was outdated and later provided ammunition to Disney critics “woke up” for an online post about US President Donald Trump and his supporters.
Meanwhile, Israeli actresses Zegler and Gal Gadot, who play the evil queen, are on the other side of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, creating an air of tension around the film.
The controversy appears to have dented Snow White’s box office prospects. “Early, weekend forecasts were much higher, but now they’ve fallen from about $45 million in the US to $50 million and $100 million worldwide for their debut,” said Paul Delgalavedian, senior media analyst at ComScore.
After a brief retirement, Igar returned to Disney in 2022 amid a conflict with the Florida governor over gay and transgender issues. Since then, he has tried to mitigate the company’s political risks, such as by telling filmmakers to make social messaging easier. However, the Grimm story of the Princess’s Destiny Brothers at the hands of an evil Queen revives a controversy that dates back to the beginning of the film almost a decade ago.
Disney is in damage control mode. The company restricted media access to the film’s stars at its Hollywood premiere last weekend, choosing northern Spain instead of flashy places like London’s Leicester Square for its European rollout.
Rachel Zegler on the left and Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress who plays the evil queen, is on the other side of the Israeli-Gaza conflict.
They tried to build early talk by promoting it twice at the Disney Superfan’s D23 conference, a safe space. Zegler also made a publicity trip to Tokyo. There, big fans aren’t too worried about “waking up” politics.
“We can’t fight culture wars,” said a Disney executive. “No one would see this movie when everyone criticized it. Disney is not going to change their minds.”
Disney has begun plans for the updated live action version of Snow White in 2016. The company has achieved success by refreshing other titles from the library, including 101 Dalmatians, Aladdin, and the Jungle Book, introducing old characters to new audiences and capitalizing proven stories they own. Some were blockbusters, such as Alice in Wonderland in 2010 and Beauty and the Beast in 2017.
However, when the “awakening” repulsion gained strength in recent years, another Disney remake received a repulsion that looks like Zegler and Snow White are now looking at them. Black actress Halle Bailey, who appeared in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid released in 2023, faced racist taunts from fans who were angry that Ariel’s role was not played by a white actress.
The company has long targeted positions on social issues. Southern Baptists launched a Disney boycott in 1997 after providing insurance benefits to same-sex partner employees. However, in the “not saying gay” debate in Florida, pressure reached a new level of intensity in 2022.
The company came out against laws restricting debate on the issue of gay people in public schools after protests from employees in the state where Walt Disney World Theme Parks are Florida’s biggest employer. In response, Governor Ron Desantis, who labeled the company “Woke Disney,” as he did since the 1960s, took away the ability to manage the area around the theme park.
Since then, Iger has been trying to lower the political temperature. “We have to enjoy ourselves first. It’s not about the message,” he told the 2023 meeting.
Some people in the company have seen the connection between dramatic social changes in recent years, from #MeToo and Black Lives Matter to Woke Dicklash, and the controversy that engulfed Snow White. Disney executives say that “culture has shifted under our feet” because the film was green light.
Given the era of Snow White’s Tale and the sensitivity of having a comical dwarves as a central character, the remake has always had a risk. However, the film had a strong cast. Zegler showed off her voice in the well-received 2021 version of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, while Gadot was Wonder Woman and other box office stars.
Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen ©2024 Disney Enterprises
In a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, Zegler said he had heard a joke about being in the “political correct” version of Snow White. “It’s an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has more features than ‘One day My Prince’ will come,'” she said, referring to the 1937 version of the song. Her comment is that the prince “literally creeps up” in the 1937 film also ranked older fans.
In the same year, actor Peter Dinklege, who has a kind of dwarfism, attacked the project.
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He said the filmmaker “is extremely proud to cast a Latina actress” as Snow White. The filmmakers were still making “the back story of seven dwarfs who live in a cave together,” he said on WTF on the Marc Maron Podcast. (Disney said it had consulted “with members of the dwarf community” and planned a “different approach.”
Then there is the Israeli conflict. Gadot, who served in the Israeli Defense Forces, has been publicly supporting the country since it was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Zegler expressed his support for Palestine.
Reviews are mixed. New York Times critic Manora Dalgis called it “completely appropriate” while labelling it as “an involuntary familiar sight of prejudice and nonsense.” The New York Post declared it “Hiho Ham” and gave it two stars. Financial Times reviewer Danny Leigh awards The, with Zegler bringing “Wit and Zip,” but the film is “risk aversion to bland points.”
