Live Action Snow White - too far a departure from the original?

[Karlk]

This actress comes off as one the most unlikable people I have seen, she alone will tank this movie, if they even release it at this point

 

[RaymOOOnd]

I find Zegler to be extremely unlikeable. To me she comes across as belittling and bitter and driven by money to an extent best kept to herself. In her interviews she seems to absolutely delight in having crushed the whole sentiment underlying a classic movie which she evidently hates.

If they'd wanted to make a movie about a stern unpleasant feminist on a quest to be a leader with a diverse group of seven full-grown people in tow, fine. That's fine. Go ahead Disney, I really don't mind. But for better or worse it isn't anything even resembling Snow White. And so naming it that is just a cash grab.

 

[Karin1984]

And we are going to continue for a while it seems. Below tiktok is at 10 million views, saying that criticizing Disney princesses is not feminist.
"Just because a woman values something different, does not make her any less valuable. Some women want a career and not marriage. Some women want a marriage or family and not a job. Some women want BOTH. All are to be heard, and seen, and valued. Write stories about ALL women and depict them ALL as valuable and worthy, instead of trying to mold them into one specific image of what you deem worthy. Thank you."

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7264830369759792391

And a son of a Director of the 1937 movie is not very thrilled with Disney either. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...te-remake-rachel-zegler-criticism-1235569835/

 

[JaxDad]

Maybe the ongoing writers’ strike is a good opportunity to add a “No more remakes” clause to their union contract …

 

[Disney Bobby]

Is it really cancelled? If so, probably the smartest decision by Disney in a while.

 

[kanerf]

Apparently there was to be a prequel to the Snow White film and that has been cancelled. Don't know the fate of the current remake, though it seems it should be cancelled.

 

[Mysterian]

Nobody's mentioned that the costume design for the dwa- or whatever they are, it's pretty bad. I never would have thought that was the work of a major film studio.

If live action Snow White is canned, now I kind of want to see it, just for the pure trainwreck appeal.

It's funny, Disney might be changing the direction of classic Disney princesses with some of their live action movies, but they will always continue to fiercely market all the animated princesses and their original movies.

There was a time when Disney wanted to try new things and be innovative, but at some point the only Disney entity working by that ethos has been the park Imagineers.

 

[TeamRiley]

If you want trainwreck appeal, just go see Haunted Mansion, or Seeing Red, or Strange World, or Lightyear, or Elemental, or the live action Lion King.... The list is almost endless now.

 

[Karin1984]

The only message I can find is a clickbait article from Inside the Magic. Based on Zegler saying something vague about the release date, but that was long before the recent quotes.

I can find a lot of news articles from Europe and Asia where Zegler's quotes are discussed.

I do think there is a group of people at Disney working on the question: "what do we do now?".

And probably all things are on the table,
1. Do/say nothing and go ahead pretending it is all fine, going all out trying to convince us it is a great modern movie,
2. Go ahead, but with no marketing at all and let it die a quiet death.
3. Pulling the movie and saying the time is not right.

The planned marketing budget is probably over 100 milllion dollar and they might want to save that money. I personally cannot imagine they will add a few million dollars to counter balance.

Based on how Mermaid did globally, I think Snow White, if released like normal... it is going to perform the same way. I also cannot imagine that it will do the same numbers as Lion King or Beauty. Snow White, while a classic princess has much less of a nostalgia feel for the kids who grew up in the 80s 90s and now want to take their own children to the movies.

 

[magik]

I have no idea if this movie is going to be a train wreck or not, but for everyone who is against it because of changes from the “original” — it’s based on a folk tale….one that there’s no way to know for sure what the “original” even is. The version most people are familiar with and the version the Disney animated feature most closely resembles is the Brothers Grimm version. Folk tales by their very nature evolve and change as they are passed around through the oral tradition. The oldest version of Cinderella we know about is Chinese, involved a magic fish rather than a fairy godmother, and there were golden slippers and no balls. Over time and as the story made it’s way to France eventually, it evolved into what most of us know from Disney with a fairy godmother and a ball and glass slippers. This is just another evolution of Snow White.

At the time the Brothers Grimm were collecting their stories, dwarfs in folk tales were not referring to people with dwarfism, they were magical creatures, like a type of fairy, sometimes associated with mountains and/or mining. If this new live action version has seven magical beings, I don’t think that’s straying too far from the source material. I always thought of the dwarfs in the animated classic as magical beings anyway (maybe because I grew up with Smurfs, I always thought of them as non-blue, bigger Smurf-type creatures….maybe it was the hat shape).

I haven’t been too impressed with most of the live action remakes so far, so I don’t have high hopes for this one either, but that has nothing to do with straying to far from the source material. One of my least favorite remakes is Lion King….it felt mostly like they remade exactly the same movie except CGI. What was even the point of making it? In my opinion, to make making a live action version of one of the animated classics worthwhile at all, they have to make it its own thing whether that’s by adding or changing or reinterpreting…any of those things could work for me if done well.

 

[PezRuth]

If you want trainwreck appeal, just go see Haunted Mansion, or Seeing Red, or Strange World, or Lightyear, or Elemental, or the live action Lion King.... The list is almost endless now.

I really enjoyed ( as did my kids - Seeing Red and Strange World). Granted I am also the person who absolutely hates the original Snow White.

 

[Karin1984]

Anyone familiar with Mr Thomas on social media?

 

[croschek05]

Well I kinda agree with her. I strongly dislike the original movie because I hate how Snow White is portrayed. I agree with her on the Prince. But these things were a product of the time. I appreciate that the original movie has a very important piece in animation and cinema history but if it is going to be remade I think that the character needs a major rework. So the real question is does it need to be remade - my answer would be no.

You think the prince is a stalker?? You agree with that?? I gotta rewatch this movie because I don't remember that at all

 

[croschek05]

The stupid Snow White remake might have had a fighting chance if:

1. the lead actress had kept her mouth shut about her personal opinions about the original movie
2. the lead actress had actually WATCHED the original movie more than once
3. the movie studio had actually kept the 7 dwarves as, you know, actual dwarves instead of 'magical creatures that are actually 'normal'-sized actors shrunk down thanks to CGI.'
4. the lead actress had actually had white skin

Disney should have just come up with a brand new story line. You know...done something creative for a change instead of this stupidity.

The lead actress right now is coming across as an ignorant fool.

I will never ever watch this garbage

 

[Buzz Rules]

You think the prince is a stalker?? You agree with that?? I gotta rewatch this movie because I don't remember that at all

Didn't he only even see her twice in the whole movie?

 

[Karin1984]

You think the prince is a stalker?? You agree with that?? I gotta rewatch this movie because I don't remember that at all

The prince has 2 scenes (I say by heart).

1. He got lured by Snow White's singing and he went to see who it was. Not that much different from Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty. Except here the Prince just sings.

2. Snow asleep in the glass coffin, he wakes her up and they live happily ever after.

The role isn't big. Based on Snow's reactions in the first scene, she first runs away from him, but then you can she is at least curious about him. So when he is the first thing she sees when she wakes up again, I can understand why she is happy to see him.

But if you want, you can see it as stalking.

 

[BrianL]

The prince has 2 scenes (I say by heart).

1. He got lured by Snow White's singing and he went to see who it was. Not that much different from Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty. Except here the Prince just sings.

2. Snow asleep in the glass coffin, he wakes her up and they live happily ever after.

The role isn't big. Based on Snow's reactions in the first scene, she first runs away from him, but then you can she is at least curious about him. So when he is the first thing she sees when she wakes up again, I can understand why she is happy to see him.

But if you want, you can see it as stalking.

Yeah, I mean, they don't flesh it out much, but he's hardly a "stalker" by any means. He MEETS her. Then later, he comes to pay respects to her at her memorail - a full year later. Now, why he kisses a corpse that's been dead for a year, well, that's maybe a different story.

 

[Disneychick13]

Yeah I mean the stalker idea makes no sense. And as far as her needing to be saved by a man or whatever…..there was a spell….the only thing that could save her was true love’s kiss. Was it far fetched that the prince fell in love with her (at first sight I suppose?) and then found her again and then knew he needed to kiss his dead true love? Well obviously. But I mean the alternative was that she would be in that dang glass coffin forever. I’m pretty sure she was just fine with not being dead!

 

[Karin1984]

There are theories that the first scene isn't the first time the Prince and Snow meet. Maybe we should focus on how women in Disney movies lure men with their voices, making them into obsessed (and slightly boring ) characters. Who is the problem here?!

Joking aside, a few years ago in uni, I had to give a presentation, Ted Talk style. You could pick the subject as long as you weaved in the theory of the marketing class. I chose Disney Princesses and image.

One of my closing conclusions was that now it is not the Princess who has an image problem, but the men. All strong women in the recent releases are great, but the men are sidelined. They are either villain, comic relief / funny sidekick, even Kristoff didn't get to rescue Anna in Frozen 2.

 

[TeamRiley]

To anyone that is worked up about the original story line, you are adding your own bias. Basic story goes like this:

1. Snow White and the Prince fall in love at their first meeting.
2. Out in the forest, running from the Evil Queen, she originally thinks the cabin is used by orphaned children so she cleans it up for them. She ends up staying with the Dwarves so they can protect her. They protect her, she keeps house for them.
3. The Evil Queen knows that a kiss from her true love could awaken her, but is betting on the fact that she will be burried alive and forgotten before that can happen.
4. Once she is cursed, the Dwarves can't bring themselves to bury her, so they put her in a glass coffin in the forest. The dwarves and the animals keep watch over it. It is an entire year before the Prince happens to find her. He sadly kisses her to say goodbye becuase he thinks she is dead.

No stalker, no creepiness, no big deal. You all need to watch it again before rambling off on all these tangents. Quit whining about how it is outdated etc.