Amala Ekpunobi

Disney Snow White: New Trailer, Same Woke Feminist Disaster

Disney delayed their live-action remake of Snow White after a disastrous round of PR from lead actress Rachel Zegler and massive backlash about the film’s apparent replacing of dwarves with magical diversity creatures. Now, despite months of re-shoots and edits, the newly released trailer and a leaked song from the film confirm what we’ve known all along: Disney is still prioritizing its agenda over classic storytelling. Let’s talk about it.

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Duration:: 10m
Broadcast on:: 16 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I hope, I hope, it's home from Mexico! I hope, I hope, I work for Disney's show. Strong female lead is what we need. Hi, hope! Hi, hope, hi, hope, hi, hope. A new trailer is out for Smell White. Uh-uh, and if you thought that Disney was going to salvage this film after all the backlash that it received about the direction it was going in remaking the 1937 classic You Are Wrong. Let's talk about it. Yeah, you're better. Guys, before we get into today's video, please like and subscribe. You know we've been talking about Snow White on this channel for quite some time, following the never-ending saga with Disney's new remake of the film starring Rachel Zegler. And it all really started with the casting of Rachel Zegler. We all know in the 1937 original version of Snow White that Snow White is the fairest of them all. And while that pertains to our personality, it also may pertain to other things. And when they casted Hispanic actress Rachel Zegler as Snow White, I think we all heard some alarm bells that maybe this was going to be a woke retelling of the Snow White story. Then Rachel Zegler went out speaking to press about this remake, and we had that confirmed for us. Rachel emphasized that in this new retelling, it wasn't 1937 anymore. You said you were bringing a modern edge to it on stage. What do you mean by that? I just mean that it's no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White that is- She's not going to be saved by the prince. She's not going to be saved by the prince, and she's not going to be dreaming about true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be. She also referred to the old film as Extremely Dated. The cartoon was made 85 years ago, and therefore it's extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world. And so when we came to reimagining the actual role of Snow White, it became about the ferris of the mall, meaning who is the most just. And she left us all wondering, is this lucky girl who ended up being casted as Snow White even a fan of Snow White? And then we got photos of what was going on with Snow White during filming, and we got a look at the Seven Dwarves, except they weren't the Seven Dwarves anymore. They were the seven magical creatures, or as I like to refer to them, the seven magical diversity hires. Among those seven magical creatures was actually one token actor with dwarfism, which I guess Disney thought was a good thing, considering there had been a little bit of backlash about the Seven Dwarves, and many had told Disney that this was offensive. But upon getting these images out to the public, many people with dwarfism actually spoke up and gave Disney backlash for not allowing six other actors with dwarfism the opportunity to star in a film like this. "They're remaking the movie, they just got rid of the dwarves." Okay, but what do they call them? Why would they call them? They call them magical creatures. Regarding the Snow White remake, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as if there's lots of opportunities in the acting industry for little people, let's just go ahead and make six of the Seven Dwarves tall, average height. There seemed to be misstep after misstep in the recreation of this iconic Disney classic. People didn't want the diversity hiring. They didn't want Snow White to be retold through a feminist lens. They wanted their prints back in the film, and Rachel Ziegler even alluded to in an interview that the prints might be cut entirely from the movie, because who cares about him? And on top of that, people wanted the Seven Dwarves. We all knew Snow White as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so mistake after mistake was made by Disney. And upon hearing all this backlash, Disney decided to pause the rollout of this movie and rightfully so. They actually moved the release date to 2025. And I'm sure what was happening is that all of their editors were working over time, trying to cut together a new version of this film that would work for an audience that wanted to see the classics Snow White brought to life in live action. They even decided to cut the Seven Magical Creatures and add back in the Seven Dwarves through CGI. And now we have a trailer for this new version of Snow White that is supposedly coming out next year, and it's leaving much to be desired. It looks like Rachel Ziegler is just running around this CGI world with fake animals and fake dwarves dancing and seeing to herself, essentially. And it makes you question how this can be called live action when it seems like the majority of the film was made in post. And if you thought that somehow in this new editing process, Disney was going to be able to make a cut that was less feminist girl boss. I don't think they did because a clip of the Whistle While You Work song that is featured in Snow White has been released and compared to the 1937 version, let's listen to it. Are you washed the dishes? No, you washed the dishes. You're tidy up the room. You're tidy up the room. You clean the fireplace. You clean those house. And I'll use the roof. You, you, you, you. Now, if nothing seeped off in the comparison that you just watched in the original 1937 version of Snow White, Snow White imposes herself into the space of the seven dwarves by being in their home. And as a sort of kind gesture, she decides to clean up their house with all the animals as they're helping her. And that's how you get this Whistle While You Work song. Now, in this new version, Rachel Ziegler's Snow White is, I guess, entering their home and making them work. And you'll remember that the seven dwarves already have work to do. They're miners that work all day. So it would have been nice of her to come and clean their house considering she is a guest in their house. But instead, since a girl boss can do no work around the house, she gives them the broom and teaches them how to do all the cleaning in their own home. God forbid she does something nice, like a little bit of laundry, or cleaning the floors, or cleaning up a dish or two, after she essentially breaks and enters into their humble abode and stays there. You'll also remember, if you're a fan of the classic version, that upon Snow White entering their home, she does decide to cook and bake for them. And this is, again, another kind gesture that she does for the seven dwarves for allowing her to stay in their place. And Snow White is a balancer within the home. You have seven men of all these different personalities, very masculine in nature, very untidy, and this feminine girl comes in and brings balance. But that reinforces sexist stereotypes and simply isn't feminist enough, so I guess we can't allow that in a 2025 version of Snow White. She must show the men how to clean and sit back as she stays in their home, uninvited while they do so. So while the seven unrealistic-looking CGI dwarves take on the more traditionally feminine roles, I guess Rachel Zegler is still going to take on that traditional masculine role and save herself, for the girl boss can never be a damsel in distress. That'll be interesting. Now, in seeing this new trailer, you can obviously tell that Disney has made some tweaks, and these tweaks are obviously in response to the backlash that Disney has received over the comments made about this new version of Snow White. But is there really anything they can do to salvage a story that was made with the wrong intent in the first place? I'm not so sure, and watching this new trailer reinforces the idea that I'm not sure. It seems as though Disney ate the poison apple in the retelling of this iconic story, and trust there is no prince coming to save it, 'cause a girl pause never gets saved. And herein lies the problem with modern Disney. They are more obsessed with their own narrative and agenda than they are with the actual telling of classic stories, and we've known this for quite some time now. So is this story revivable, given that we know the lens through which it's been rewritten? Probably not. The original Snow White was Walt Disney's vision. He actually went into debt to create this now classic animated film. It was about a young girl who was faced with a terrifying task of going ahead to head with an evil witch who wanted her dead, and this young girl was terrified, but she forged ahead. And with her femininity and softness, she won the hearts of people who came across her. The Seven Dwarves, the Prince, and these men who are masculine in nature, balance her femininity and end up helping her by saving her by the end of the film. And make no mistake, the original Snow White, while soft and feminine, was no pushover. She dominated the Seven Dwarves house when she initially showed up there, and she did not take no for an answer. You can have femininity and softness, and an ending that results in you being saved by a man without being a total pushover who lacks any sort of moral or character. Walt Disney knew that, and our current version of Disney, whoever it's being run by, has lost that. This was the animated film that made Disney what it is today, and that's sort of an unfortunate thing to say given that we know what Disney is today. The original 37 version of Snow White was made with a budget of $1.5 million, and now today has grossed over $400 million. Meanwhile, this new iteration of Snow White has an over $200 million budget. And how much money is it going to bring in? I don't know. After seeing the trailer, it looks like a flop, and I have a feeling it's going to flop the box office as well. The reality is that true storytelling and deeper human truths are what make a project a classic. And since Disney has lost its way when it comes to both of those things, and is more subservient to their political agenda, no classic's gonna be maybe, girl. Maybe we give this a third pass of editing, or we just let this project go all together. This won't be the first time you guys have lost over $200 million on a remake. And maybe just maybe we go back and take a look at some old Disney classics, and instead of picking through them trying to figure out what you can criticize, or figure out where they're not feminist enough, maybe we should try to find out what made them classics, why people love them, and why they will continue to love them. That's the message that you need in your new films. But those are my thoughts. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below. Are you hopeful that this new Snow White film is going to be good? Are you looking forward to it? Will you be seeing it in theaters? Let me know in the comments down below. As always, if you disagree with anything I said in this video, I encourage healthy debates, so do get out but do so respectfully. And if you like this video, like, subscribe, click the notification bell to be notified every single time I post a video for you guys, which is every day, and I will see you next time. Bye guys! [Music]