You love to see it.
The new Disney live-action movie “Snow White” has had nothing but controversy attached to it from the get-go, and in no small part thanks to its lead actress, Rachel Zegler, whose talents do not include keeping her mouth shut and not being absolutely insufferable about her opinions.
But before we take that trip down memory lane, let’s talk about this new trailer.
More is revealed about the movie, and it follows a lot of the same story beats of the original 1937 animated film, but clearly it’s been updated with a few modern quirks, such as line deliveries and jokes. As Disney does, they’ve also included a new original song that seems to center around Zegler’s Snow White singing about finding who she’s meant to be.
The animated Mulan would like a word. It’s hard to call it an original song when we’ve heard a song very similar to it before.
We also get a very good look at the dwarves now, a CGI mess of wasted casting as they could have employed actual dwarfs. However, Peter “pull the ladder up behind me” Dinklage made a stink about casting actual dwarfs to play the part of the dwarves, indicating it would be offensive to do so. Never mind that he played one in the live-action “The Chronicles of Narnia” when he was getting his start.
I can tell that the dwarves are going to be the only redeeming part of this film already, and the trailer does a good job of building them up, namely with their famous “hi-ho” call being heard through the trailer, but their look is just disappointing. The dwarves were distinct in the OG film, but now they tend to look like copy/paste versions of one another. Perhaps this will flesh out more in the film with their personalities, but I’m not exactly a fan of the designs here.
Just getting around to watching the new Snow White trailer. I can already tell the dwarves are going to be the only good part about this movie, but one thing I’m disappointed in is that they used to be distinct in their look. Outside of Doc, I have no idea who is who here now. pic.twitter.com/eyRIT28kQV
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) December 4, 2024
But let’s cut to the chase. Rachel Zegler was entirely miscast as Snow White. People are going to make it about her skin color, which in this case is entirely fair, seeing as how she was called such because her skin was white as snow, but let’s even put that aside for a moment. What bothers me about this casting is that Zegler just doesn’t have the acting ability to give off that sense of purity. Her real-life abrasiveness just comes through in this film, and it feels like a mean girl trying to play a nice girl. Moreover, she’s supposed to convey some kind of power as well, and she doesn’t even have the capability to do that.
But I think what really kills Zegler as Snow White is that Zegler clearly hates the character, and you can’t do that if you want to play a character well. Zegler’s expressed her disdain for the original Snow White movie, as she sees the character as weak. She bragged that this time around, Snow White is going to be a strong, independent woman whose heroes journey involves realizing the power she’s had all along.
Rachel Zegler is single-handedly destroying this movie.
My TikTok feed is full of ppl on all sides posting about her holier-than-thou crappy attitude is not okay & Snow doesn’t need to be modern.
It’s impressive how many people she’s turned against seeing Snow White.
Bravo👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/EUdli8mh1v
— Tuggs🎄🍷🥩🧈✝️ (@thattugglife) August 11, 2023
“It’s no longer 1937… She’s not gonna be saved by the prince.”
How many billions will this Snow White remake cost Disney? pic.twitter.com/b6MTmhynS9
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 23, 2023
In other words, every feminist-centric movie we’ve seen over the past decade.
(READ: Feminism Will Keep Disney’s Snow White Reboot Asleep at the Box Office)
Moreover, not to be shallow, but let’s be very real about something here. Zegler is not as pretty as Gal Gadot, and when Gadot’s evil queen approaches the mirror to ask “who is the fairest,” if the movie was being honest, the mirror would just respond “you.” Roll credits.
Zegler’s casting was a massive miss by Disney, and if they had cast someone else, they would have avoided a lot of the drama attached to it as they would have had an actress that not only embodied beauty and grace, but also had the ability to not be an insufferable person.
Just off the top of my head…
Clearly, Disney missed big on its casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White. Oh, what could have been… pic.twitter.com/O6JCetLm9X
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) December 4, 2024
Sydney Sweeney would have been perfect, but let’s face facts, modern Disney wouldn’t have put her in this role for fear of upsetting their ESG lords and masters. If they had cast someone like her, however, the film would be far better off, and not just because she looks like a more fitting Snow White, but because she wouldn’t have badmouthed the film, the audience, and Disney’s legacy.
But if you need any more proof that this movie is going to bomb, we can look no further than the numbers it’s putting up. Though YouTube attempts to hide the dislike ratio, there are plug-ins for browsers that bring it back. As of this writing, the trailer currently has 17k likes… and 215k dislikes.
Big ouch.
Moreover, if you scroll down to the comments section — which Disney is surprisingly leaving open, though I suspect they’re going to use some of them as ammo to show how hateful people are — you’ll find they’re all negative. I’ve been scrolling for a little while and haven’t found one positive one, in fact.
Hilariously, most of them are just people rotting for Gadot’s queen to defeat Zegler’s Snow White.
Congrats Disney. You finally succeeded in getting people to want to sympathize with the villain. Well done.
