I Hate How She Talks About Snow White
"People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is − because it needed that. It's an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond 'Someday My Prince Will Come. "
Let me tell you a little something's about that "85-year-old cartoon," miss Zegler.
- It was the first-ever cel-animated feature-length full-color film. Ever. Ever. EVER. I'm worried that you're not hearing me. This movie was Disney inventing the modern animated film. Spirited Away, Into the Spider-Verse, Tangled, you don't get to have any of these without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937.)
- It was praised, not just for its technical marvels, not just for its synchronized craft of sound and action, but primarily and enduringly because people felt like the characters were real. They felt more like they were watching something true to life than they did watching silent, live-action films with real actors and actresses. They couldn't believe that an animated character could make kids wet their pants as she flees, frightened, through the forest, or grown adults cry with grieving Dwarves. Consistently.
- Walt Disney Studios was built on this movie. No no; you're not understanding me. Literally, the studio in Burbank, out of which has come legends of this craft of animated filmmaking, was literally built on the incredible, odds-defying, record-breaking profits of just Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, specifically.
- Speaking of record-breaking profits, this movie is the highest-grossing animated film in history. Still. TO THIS DAY.
- In fact, it made four times as much money than any other film, in any other genre, released during that time period. It was actually THE highest-grossing film of all time, in any genre, until nothing less than Gone With the Wind, herself, came along to take the throne.
- It was the first-ever animated movie to be selected for the National Film Registry. Actually, it was one of the first movies, period, to ever go into the registry at all. You know what else is in the NFR? The original West Side Story, the remake of which is responsible for Rachel Ziegler's widespread fame.
- Walt Disney sacrificed for this movie to be invented. Literally, he took out a mortgage on his house and screened the movie to banks for loans to finish paying for it, because everyone from the media to his own wife and brother told him he was crazy to make this movie. And you want to tell me it's just an 85-year-old cartoon that needs the most meaningless of updates, with your tender 8 years in the business?
- Speaking of sacrifice, this movie employed over 750 people, and they worked immeasurable hours of overtime, and invented--literally invented--so many new techniques that are still used in filmmaking today, that Walt Disney, in a move that NO OTHER STUDIO IN HOLLYWOOD was doing in the 30's, put this in the opening credits: "My sincere appreciation to the members of my staff whose loyalty and creative endeavor made possible this production." Not the end credits, like movies love to do today as a virtue-signal. The opening credits.
It's legacy endures. Your little "85-year-old cartoon" sold more than 1 million DVD copies upon re-release. Just on its first day. The Beatles quoted Snow White in one of their songs. Legacy directors call it "the greatest film ever made." Everything from Rolling Stones to the American Film Institute call this move one of the most influential masterpieces of our culture.
This movie doesn't need anything from anybody. This movie is a cultural juggernaut for America. It's a staple in the art of filmmaking--and art, in general. It is the foundation of the Walt Disney Company, of modern children's media in the West, and of modern adaptations of classical fairy tales in the West.
When you think only in the base, low, mean terms of "race" and "progressivism" you start taking things that are actually worlds-away from being in your league to judge, and you relegate them to silly ignorant phrases like "85-year-old cartoon" to explain why what you're doing is somehow better.
Sit down and be humble. Who the heck are you?
And just to add, Zegler summarizing Snow White as a “young woman who doesn’t have a function beyond Someday My Prince Will Come” implies she’s never seen the original film or she’s too dense to comprehend the character, which is another reason she shouldn’t be playing her.
There is so much more to Snow White than that one song. She’s literally like 14 years old and escapes an abusive situation and then is able to pick herself up by her bootstraps and take care of herself and seven others. Sure, she also dreams about romance, but that’s not bad? Young women tend to do that.
And I hate how she and Gal Gadot say “oh she’s not going to be saved by the Prince in this one.” Are we supposed to be pleased by that?? Like oh thank god we can’t have a man helping her out in any capacity. She was laying there dead and he kissed her and that created the iconic idea of true love’s kiss so thank god you’re tossing that right out!
It makes me upset that Zegler and Gadot can’t seem to promote this film without shitting on the original and if they hate it so much why are they remaking it?? Leave it alone.
I wasn’t planning on watching this in the first place but if I was someone who generally tried to watch these bastardized remakes Rachel Zegler alone would be enough for me to avoid this remake at all costs.
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) dir. Garry Marshall
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