In 1994, the British dance band and performance arts collective KLF decided to burn £1 million in a disused boathouse on Scotland’s Isle of Jura. The duo of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty filmed themselves throwing £50 notes into the fire. This economic sabotage is a far more productive and creative waste of money than Disney could have dreamed of.
Not content with losing a staggering $900 million across its last eight releases, Disney’s next project could see it rise above $1 billion, if the latest news is to be believed. Creatively bankrupt and with no new ideas, Disney raided their back catalogue of classic animated films and opted for yet another live-action remake revised for modern audiences. This would be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. More specifically, Snow White and the Seven Magical, Vertically Impaired, Gender-Fluid, Diverse Creatures.
Why have I chosen that name? Last week, the Daily Mail published exclusive photos from the set in Berkshire, England. The images showed an actress dressed in Snow White’s famous blue and yellow dress and red cloak, accompanied by seven people of various ethnicities, genders, and heights – six of whom were not even dwarfs.
Disney immediately determined the leak to be false. But hours later, they came back and admitted it was real. Although the actress playing the role of Snow White was confirmed to be a stand-in.
If there’s one thing that defines classic Disney, it’s Snow White. It was the company’s first feature-length animated film. This 1937 film was made by Walt himself under severe financial constraints – to finance the film, he had to sell his car and mortgage his house. Inspired by a 19th-century German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White tells the story of an orphaned young princess who is betrayed by her evil stepmother. While seeking solace in a forest, she befriends seven dwarfs, who risk their lives to protect her when her evil stepmother pursues her. She is rescued by Prince Charming, who saves her with her true love’s kiss. This is a timeless tale about loyalty, friendship, and the power of love.
Adjusted for inflation, it is the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Call me a cynic, but something tells me this new version won’t be as well received or attain the same legendary status as the original.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales describes Snow White as having ‘skin as white as snow’. Yet Disney is following in the footsteps of The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan, continuing with the fashionable and politically correct idea of swapping the main character’s race. Rachel Zegler, a Hispanic woman, was cast as Snow White. But who am I to judge, as long as it stays true to the themes and plot of the original?
Zegler told Yahoo Entertainment that she plans to give the character a modern update. Any thoughts of finding true love are gone, and she wants to find her own way. In her words, agency. It runs counter to the narrative of the original story. Disney’s obsession with strong, self-actualised female protagonists doing it all without a man has become a cliché. It’s nothing new or revolutionary and has been thoroughly done for years. It simply erases the classical notion of femininity and replaces it with a meaningless version of female empowerment. It sends young impressionable girls an ideological message: you don’t need men, you don’t need love, and you don’t need an emotional connection with anything or anyone meaningful. Just be strong.
What about true love’s kiss? Gone too, because it reinforces toxic masculinity.
As for the dwarfs, the original story has been criticised for being ableist and reinforcing stereotypes. In order to be more inclusive and better represent disadvantaged communities, Disney’s progressive wisdom deprived six people suffering from dwarfism of work. What’s more ableist than giving the roles to six able-bodied people? Instead of doing the sensible thing and giving the dwarfs a good character arc to challenge the stereotype, they removed the dwarfs entirely.
It’s like Disney is trying to destroy itself. Incorporating highly divisive 21st-century identity politics into classic storylines pushes people away. Financially, it’s a terrible business model. Disney is haemorrhaging money. The company’s streaming service, Disney+, lost four million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023, resulting in an overall loss of $800 million. To save money, they are creating an app that combines Disney+ and Hulu. For that to happen, Disney will have to buy Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu. As part of a massive cost-cutting and restructuring plan, they have laid off 20 on-air celebrities at ESPN, the US sports network majority owned by Disney. Since then, they have scaled back production on Marvel and Star Wars projects. So, some good has come of it. Maybe they will learn an equally new fancy phrase: ‘Go Woke, go broke.’ Well, hope springs eternal.
It would appear the dream factory is experiencing a nightmare of its own making.
