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Credit: DisneyWith her reported comments and behavior on and off set, Rachel Zegler certainly isn’t making many fans among the Disney crowd. However, the House of Mouse might still need her controversial take on Snow White in order to rebuild its once-magical reputation.
Not since the Splash Mountain scandal has a Disney property been so steeped in controversy. After the overwhelming backlash online and on social media, it feels like the production of Snow White (2025) has been doomed since day one. Even without its leading actress causing drama in recent reports, such as heavily criticizing the Walt Disney original and dubbing the fairytale love story as problematic, Disney still has far too much invested in the project to pull out now.
“Recently disclosed financial statements reveal that over the three-year period leading up to July 31, 2022, Disney invested a gargantuan $209.3 million (£150.5 million) in the film’s production.”
That means that the studio would lose much more by cutting its losses and canceling the film where even poor box office performance could at least earn a portion of its funding back. Based on the current backlash that the film has received, it would take nothing short of a magic spell to make that outcome a grounded reality.
Snow White Needs to Be Put to Sleep
Never has a Disney movie been so utterly despised as this reimagining of the studio’s original fairytale. Given the factors that have surrounded its production, however, there’s definitely room for a little understanding.
Related: Cinderella and Prince Charming Take Massive Fall During Disney Performance
Even without Zegler’s behavior in the mix, described by the user simply known as @EndWokeness in the tweet below as a “walking PR disaster” for Disney, the movie already has much more stacked against it than when filming first began. From cutting the dwarves to changing them to CGI “Magical Creatures” to reportedly rewriting the classic fairytale narrative, to say the film has an identity problem is just the tip of the iceberg.
It just gets worse and worse….
The new Snow White says that the Prince was a creepy stalker and suggests that all scenes of the Prince could be cut
She’s a walking PR disaster for Disney
It just gets worse and worse….
The new Snow White says that the Prince was a creepy stalker and suggests that all scenes of the Prince could be cut
She’s a walking PR disaster for Disney pic.twitter.com/7QJGDIx5er
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 13, 2023
The go-woke-go-broke argument is thrown around so much that many would argue that it has little ground to stand on. However, one of the biggest issues surrounding the remake is the complete lack of connection to the original Walt Disney story. While many of the Disney remakes undoubtedly have a certain stigma against them, most at least have a resemblence to the classics that inspired them.
Related: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Divides Critics, Rachel Zegler Delivers “Powerhouse Performance”
The Snow White story has been retold and reinterpreted many times before, and everyone from Amanda Bynes to Chris Hemsworth has played a part in some variant, but because this is a reimagining of the classic Disney story, its being held to a higher standard. Based on what audiences have seen, it’s not doing a very good job, as one of Disney’s original designers came out as being appalled by the movie.
David Hand, son of the original Snow White’s director, told The Telegraph that Walt Disney would undoubtedly not approve of the reinterpretation. Hand said,
“They change the stories, they change the thought processes of the characters, they just aren’t the original stories anymore. They’re making up new woke things and I’m just not into any of that…”
The casting, the story, and the direction of the much-maligned Snow White remake have earned it one of the worst reputations for a Disney movie since Strange World (2022). Even so, the project is still happening, and the studio simply needs to release it and get it over with so that Disney and its audience can move on.
Related: Disney Responds to Recent ‘Snow White’ Backlash From Peter Dinklage
The new version of Disney’s Snow White is reportedly dropping the traditional romance arc, as well as replacing her love interest with Andrew Burnap’s not-Prince-Charming stand in and providing him with an entourage of seven bandits that essentially mirror Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, and so on. Pair that with the fact that audience reception reportedly delaying the film back to 2025, and it doesn’t take a magic mirror to predict just how it will fare.
Rising from Snow White’s Ashes
Disney has already invested over $200 million in the project and according to Forbes, the film will have to make a gross of $340 million just to break even. With a fan base that has proven to be united by hatred in a front to send Disney a message, that’s not going to be an easy feat.
The report from Forbes reads,
“If Disney retains around 50% of the takings from Snow White, the movie will need to gross $336.4 million just to cover its baseline spending of $168.2 million. This is far from guaranteed.”
The Snow White remake is predicted to be yet another Disney flop by fans, but it also may be the end of the Disney remakes as we know it. Despite the studio already announcing a live-action version of Lilo and Stitch (2002), Moana (2016), and a prequel to The Lion King (2019), Snow White might be the wake-up call Disney needs for a massive reconstruction.
It should also be noted that while Snow White has the potential to be the biggest live-action remake flop, it won’t be the first. Several of Disney’s more recent remakes, such as 2015’s Cinderella and the controversial Little Mermaid (2023), failed to pass the $1 billion mark with Cinderella bringing in $542,358,331 worldwide and The Little Mermaid at $569,626,289
Related: Say Goodbye to Disney’s Flop Era, ‘Wish’ Praised by Critics
It’s fair to say that once Disney releases this predicted disaster and undoubtedly sweeps it under the rug (like it has Wish (2023)), the studio will essentially have nowhere to go but up. With any luck, the results of Snow White will be the catalyst Disney needs to pull it back to the familiar fairytales and fantasies that served as its cornerstone for the past 100 years.
Do you think Disney will be able to recover from Snow White? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!