The other day we told you about the photos from the set of the Disney live action remake of Snow White and the dragging that ensued, because those pictures legitimately didn’t look very good. Then we were told they were fakes. But now, the Daily Beast has a bit of an update:
The Daily Mail on Friday published photos from the set of Disney’s upcoming live-action 'Snow White,' sparking a storm of conservative backlash. Disney initially claimed the pictures from the live-action set were “fake” but later backtracked. https://t.co/IfHM8I83WH
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 14, 2023
From the article:
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that after Disney’s U.S. spokesperson initially declared the photos published by the Daily Mail were fake, the studio later said the photos were from the production but were not official photos.
In other words, either they were leaked or someone got the photos without the studio’s permission.
Now, let’s break this down a little bit. In terms of costuming, etc. it is very common to see on-set photos that look terrible compared to the final product.
But the other concerns were demographic. For better or worse, Charlie Kirk gives a pretty good example of the critiques while showing us the photos in question:
Welcome to some of the first images from Disney’s live action remake of Snow White and her DEI Dwarfs. Snow White is played by a Hispanic actress and there’s only one dwarf and 6 full gown adults. Disney says it’s taking the casting of the film in a “new direction” to “avoid… pic.twitter.com/sqiRHkyf97
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 14, 2023
The full tweet says:
Recommended
Welcome to some of the first images from Disney’s live action remake of Snow White and her DEI Dwarfs. Snow White is played by a Hispanic actress and there’s only one dwarf and 6 full gown adults. Disney says it’s taking the casting of the film in a ‘new direction’ to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes.’
Disney has lost $900 million at the box office on recent films, and something tells me that figure is only going to worse.
Snow White is set to release in March 2024.
So, we are seeing two issues. First, it has gone from being ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ to ‘Snow White and the Seven People of Random Sizes.’ Second, there is some concern about Snow White being played by a Latina and the veritable rainbow of ethnicities for the former dwarfs.
Regarding the elimination of six of the seven dwarfs, we know that this was all started because Peter Dinklage threw a snit over the remake, feeling that it would stereotype midgets and dwarfs. To be fair, this is a concern. But at the same time, the fact is midgets and dwarfs don’t get the same opportunities as actors as taller actors, and the Disney response seems to be instead to cut out almost all of them. Indeed, the fact they gave a single little person a role smacks of tokenism. It reminds us of the panic over allegedly stereotypical depictions of non-whites as mascots for various brands, such as Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, and the Native American woman on Land-o-Lakes packaging, where the solution was apparently to eliminate the non-whites. It seems to us that the better solution was to find more respectful ways to depict these people.
As for ethnicity, we don’t object to movies being more race-blind in casting, as long as it isn’t distracting. And it can be very distracting the way these modern, fan-baiting woke people do it. Take for instance, this publicity photoshop of Triton’s daughters in the recent Little Mermaid remake:
First Look King Triton's Daughters #littlemermaid pic.twitter.com/t01HpgNgd7
— Ato1 (@Ato198250754) April 25, 2023
The moment you look at it, you end up having questions. We can’t find the tweet now, but the funniest joke we heard about it was ‘Ariel’s mom has some explaining to do.’ That humor highlights the problem with this veritable rainbow of ethnicities with Ariel and her sisters. Triton is played by Javier Bardem. This is what he looked like in one of the better Bond movies:
Javier Bardem was Fantastic in Skyfall (2012) pic.twitter.com/0bUTE5jd81
— Cinema Connoisseur (@MovieEndorser) July 15, 2023
Even if King Triton had more lovers than Henry VIII, there is simply no way he could be the biological father of all of those daughters, at least if we assume mermaid genetics worked just like it did with humans. But we all know that the people behind these movies don’t think that deeply. Instead, they thought ‘let’s just sprinkle in some people of random ethnicities to be diverse and call it a day’ and the result is just distracting. A better approach would be that once you decide your Ariel is going to be black—something we never had a problem with—make sure the rest of the family looks like they could plausibly be related to her. Then you have diversity without it being too obviously forced—which is good because forced diversity takes people out of the story.
And the multi-ethic Seven People of Random Sizes (formerly the Seven Dwarfs) also raises questions we doubt the movie will attempt to answer. It is common in modern pseudo-medieval fantasy to ignore the reality that in actual medieval times, no part of the planet was very diverse. For instance, until about two hundred years ago, most Japanese people lived their entire lives without seeing a black person. There were notable exceptions, the most famous being Yasuke who started as an African slave and became a samurai (a seriously interesting story we can’t believe hasn’t become a Hollywood movie), but such incidents were the exception, not the rule. What we know of history, human nature and transportation in relation to medieval times says that you are not likely to see such an ethnically diverse Seven People of Random Sizes come together unless there is a story behind it and you get the feeling Disney will not even think to tell us that story. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a distraction that takes you out of the movie—one more thing to drag the experience down.
Furthermore, some object to Zegler, who is Latina, playing Snow White. We don’t have an inherent problem with that casting, but we suspect that Disney will make no effort to make the world around her make sense. If Snow White was part of a kingdom where the royal family and most of the people are Latinos, then that makes a modicum of sense. It wouldn’t be human history as we know it, but many of these fantasy stories don’t even take place on Earth, anyway (the world in Game of Thrones is probably the most famous example of that). Or maybe even make it a kingdom (still not on Earth) where the aristocracy is Latino, but the people are another ethnicity, suggesting that they are descendants of foreign invaders—much like how the Ptolemaic line of Egyptian Pharaohs (including Cleopatra) were basically Greek invaders. So either of those approaches could work and be logical if it doesn't take place on Earth. But we all know Disney will not do something so logical or interesting.
Of course, all of this is wrapped up in a general feeling of ‘oh God, Disney, will you please stop it with the remakes?’ We think audiences are starting to get sick of them, too, but we all know Disney won’t stop making them until they stop making money.
Anyway, there have been reactions to the update:
This is pretty hilarious. Photos from Disney’s woke Snow White remake leaked. They were mocked so heavily that Disney panicked and claimed the pictures were fake. A day later they had to admit that the photos are real just “not official.” pic.twitter.com/zS8XzZCR97
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 16, 2023
The Daily Beast called them "obviously fake." Turns out that the obviously fake photos are completely real. https://t.co/bYLz409pOm
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 16, 2023
The sad thing is maybe a Disney exec really thought those Snow White photos were fake and had to be informed that they were in fact real.
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) July 16, 2023
Wait were they real?
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) July 16, 2023
They really do look like pix of extras from the “Safety Dance” video.
— Hopalong Ginsberg (@HopalongAsks) July 16, 2023
This is one of the conceptual renderings for the film... pic.twitter.com/JkVeh4IhMW
— FJB_LGB_2023 (@RogueWarrior24) July 16, 2023
They hired the anheuser busch marketing lady huh
— Sam Rogers (@RealSamRogers) July 16, 2023
Hahaha, I thought they were fake photos from the get go because they were bad thrift store costumes. I cannot believe that’s real lmfao https://t.co/5LuDwGF1AC
— Brock Landers (@Brock_Landers_) July 16, 2023
Let these companies destroy themselves. Don’t try to save them. https://t.co/DPTt0WY9F2
— Muscle Sultan of Abu Dhabi (@MECCA_velli) July 16, 2023
It’ll be interesting to see if this now has any impact on final release, and if Disney will learn that not everything needs to tick a hundred woke boxes.#SnowWhite #Disney https://t.co/OdPTQBQRUY
— Verity Vigilante (@VerityVigilante) July 16, 2023
Naturally, The Babylon Bee is there to deliver the killing blow:
'Snow White' Producers Circumvent Actors' Strike By Casting 7 Random Hobos From San Francisco https://t.co/FpKRt6DauW
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 16, 2023
Was that before the picture was taken, or after?
***
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Twitchy's conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join Twitchy VIP and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get 40% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member