The Adaptation Station.com

This is a continuation of Part 1. If you haven’t read it already and you want to understand this, you’d better do so.

CCC 3: The Movie is Anti-Man/Anti-Romance

I can’t blame people for expecting this since Rachel Zegler’s infamous remarks pretty much told them to expect it. But, after all the rewrites and reshoots, it turned out to be untrue.^[1]I suspect it may have always been untrue and that Zegler was just emphasizing the aspects that resonated with her personally. The character of Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) may not be a literal prince but he’s definitely Snow White’s love interest and their relationship is actually developed more-though perhaps not necessarily developed better-than it was in the 1937 movie in which the prince had only two scenes. He was more of a symbol of romantic fulfillment than an actual character though when the movie was at its most emotional, he was a potent symbol. The remake also makes him more actively heroic. When Snow White first meets him, he’s risking the queen’s wrath, getting food for his starving friends. After she defends him to the queen and helps him escape, he encourages her to run away from the castle where she’s a slave. Later, he actually takes an arrow in the chest for Snow White! It’s true that Jonathan also stupidly falls into a trap when the story requires it, but Snow White is also easily tricked by the queen in almost the very next scene, so you can’t say it’s a gender thing. While Zegler’s criticism of the 1937 movie implied that this remake wouldn’t have Snow White be awakened by a kiss, I’m guessing this was one of the things Disney reshot in response to fan backlash because that is indeed what happens in it.^[2]Ironically, if the filmmakers really wanted to avoid a nonconsensual kiss, they could have just followed the original Grimm fairy tale in which Snow White is revived by being jogged in her coffin, … Continue reading If it sounds like I’m about to argue there was some brilliant feminist version of this movie that we’ll never see because of angry fans, no, I’d actually argue that giving in to fan backlash made the movie relatively better. The scene of Snow White’s resurrection is one of the more effective emotional ones in the movie if you ask me. If the film had just done a better job of getting me invested in the characters prior to it, it could have been a great scene. That’s largely because of the music which uses the theme of A Hand Meets a Hand, the love duet which is the one song from this movie I really like.

If I were to criticize the romance, it’d be for its genericness^[3]That or Andrew Burnap not making much of an impression. Maybe the real feminist agenda in this movie came from the casting director since the women are all better cast than the men., mainly the part where they’re irritated by each other before they fall in love. Of course, fairy tale romances are supposed to be generic and the kind of love-hate relationship the remake attempts can be done well. The thing is it has been done well many times. Jonathan and Snow White’s bickering and bantering isn’t badly written per se. But viewers have seen so many identically written romances that it needs some quality or other to make it more than not badly written. Not helping is the fact that the story doesn’t really have time to make it convincing for the characters to go from being mildly antagonistic towards each other to deeply in love. I’m reminded that Cinderella (2015) didn’t bother having the romantic leads start out disliking each other and was the better for that. I wouldn’t describe them as falling in love at first sight, but they didn’t have any significant disagreements. In theory, that should have made the relationship less interesting but lovers being angry at each other and in denial of their attraction has been the convention for so long that forgoing it actually felt refreshing and different.^[4]Disney’s 2023 Little Mermaid remake also didn’t bother with the whole bickering lovers thing and I recall that being the best thing about it.

Some have objected to the prince’s character being downgraded to a common outlaw but that’s no different from what Disney did to Rapunzel’s prince in Tangled. Rightly or wrongly, I imagine the filmmakers believed they were making him a cooler character by doing so. The movie has also been accused of teaching kids an ends-justify-the-means morality with the theft he and (it’s implied) his band of rebels commit. But I don’t remember the same criticism being made of Disney’s Aladdin which gave its main character the same justification for being a thief. Neither do I see Robin Hood, the character whom Jonathan was clearly made to resemble, treated with the same concern. (If you are someone who objects to all three equally, I applaud your consistency and I don’t mean that as a joke.) It’s true that the way Doc (voiced by Jeremy Swift) explains this is annoyingly “woke” (“They’re actually a band of erstwhile actors whose sustenance was made unstable by the queen’s greedy economic policies, which forced them into a liminal space where ethics and motives are ill defined.”) but, to its credit, the movie kind of mocks him for it. Grumpy groans and rolls his eyes in response.^[5]Or maybe I’m just projecting my view onto the movie since that kind of talk makes me groan and roll my eyes.

Jonathan isn’t the only positive or helpful male character in the movie. Not only is Snow White’s goodness inspired by the example set by her biological mother (Lorena Andrea) but also by the one set by her father (Hadley Fraser.)^[6]A West End star who had a memorable cameo in Les Misérables (2012.) In fact, the script hearkens back to him more often than to her mother.^[7]Here’s another point of comparison between this remake and Cinderella (2015.) That one gave its heroine a similar relationship with her doomed parents, but it did a much better job of … Continue reading There’s also the huntsman who not only spares Snow White’s life at risk to himself but later helps Jonathan escape the queen’s dungeon so he can break the spell upon her.^[8]According to the book Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs & The Making of the Classic Film by Richard Hollis and Brian Sibley, the animated movie was also going to have the queen … Continue reading While Snow White defeats the queen peacefully by convincing all her guards to side with her, the queen would then kill her herself were it not for the intervention of Jonathan’s men.^[9]His band contains a token woman (Dujonna Gift) but, for whatever reason, she’s not involved in the movie’s climax. She also ends up being a love interest to another member of the band … Continue reading And that’s not even mentioning the seven dwarfs. Some men may object that the male characters in this movie only exist to help the heroine just as some women object that female characters in certain other movies only exist to help the heroes. I’m sympathetic to both criticisms in a broad sense. If that’s the only kind of story that can be told, we have a problem. But condemning individual stories is trickier. It’s nice when both the hero and the heroine can have their own goals, struggles and character journeys but it doesn’t always feel natural. If we sense that the storyteller is constantly checking off boxes and examining scales to make sure the lovers are getting equal treatment, it can take us out of the story. The sad thing is if Snow White (2025) were actually, you know, good, it could have been an example of a well-done female empowerment story that also features powerful male heroes.

CCC 4: Snow White Doesn’t Actually Work During Whistle While You Work. She Just Directs the Dwarfs in Cleaning.

Finally, I agree with this criticism!

Technically speaking, Snow White does sweep for a few seconds in the remake’s version of this song but mostly she just sings and dances as the dwarfs do the work. It would make her look a lot better if she did.

That being said, I don’t quite get the level of disgust some people on the internet have over this. As I detailed in Part 1, Snow White does other helpful and kind things in the movie. And if we’re going to compare this to the original movie, she only did the easiest chores like dusting and sweeping while leaving the hard ones like dishes and laundry to the animals-and then she chided some of them for not doing it right!^[10]To be fair, she also made an apparently delicious soup offscreen and was going to bake gooseberry pies for the dwarfs but was tragically poisoned before she could do so. Anyway, this ties into a larger criticism of Snow White’s character in this remake but I thought I’d give it its own section since I’ve noticed people keep specifically mentioning it.

CCC 5: The Other Characters and the Movie in General Keep Going on About Snow White’s Awesomeness but She Hardly Does Anything

Again, I basically agree. As I detailed in my defense of CCC 3, the male characters do far more to save the day than Snow White does yet too much of the movie consists of them fawning over her and giving speeches about her greatness. But I question how different this is from the 1937 classic. The most altruistic things she did were comfort a baby bird that had been separated from its parents and clean the dwarfs’ house for them. And you know what? They never wanted anyone to clean their house for them! They were fine with the way it was.^[11]Her motives were also to get them to let her stay in the house. And, yeah, she also cooked for them, but she did it on her own terms, refusing to let them have a bite to until they’d washed. Why isn’t she criticized for being a girl boss?

Much of that last paragraph was tongue in cheek but I admit it I don’t love the character of the animated Snow White. I do consider her movie great, but I don’t love the main character.^[12]It’s mostly her voice that I find annoying. I recognize this as a limitation in myself. Adriana Caselotti’s operatic singing was considered great in its day and it’s tragic that we … Continue reading That didn’t used to be a controversial opinion. In his four-star review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote, “If Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had been primarily about Snow White, it might have been forgotten soon after its 1937 premiere and treasured today only for historical reasons…Disney’s inspiration was not in creating Snow White but her world.” That was the consensus not so long ago. Snow White and the prince were seen as dull characters and the queen, the dwarfs and the animals as great. Of course, no one is obliged to agree with whatever is the consensus. Honestly, I think it’s nice that the controversy about the remake has encouraged some fans of the animated heroine to speak out about their love for her even if it’s a love I don’t necessarily share. I love enough characters that others don’t that I can empathize in the broad sense. But I have the right to my opinions just as they have to theirs. It’s not like I hate the animated Snow White with a passion or anything. Sure, both she and the recent live action one are Mary Sues but, hey, Disney Princesses are supposed to be Mary Sues. That’s part of their appeal. What I’m tired of is the simplistic assumption that everything old=good/ “based” and everything new=bad/”woke.”

Thoughts on Internet Outrage

I’ve seen people argue that the character of Snow White from the old, animated movie embodied important virtues and that progressives’ haste to replace her with more overtly tough, pugnacious heroines means that our culture runs the risk of raising children without those virtues. I theoretically agree with this. In fact, it’s pretty much what I wrote in my old blog post about Cinderella (2015.) However, what I’m seeing from people online who have grown up loving the original Snow White-or claim to have done so anyway-makes it impossible for me to believe that growing up with the film has made them kind, gentle, sweet or gracious. In their bitter insults towards Rachel Zegler, they seem more like Grumpy or even like the spiteful, obsessed queen than like Snow White whom they claim to champion.^[13]Pardon me for generalizing here. There are plenty of people who take issue with Zegler’s words and love the animated movie that aren’t like that. For example, there’s the unusually … Continue reading Of course, there’s nothing new about people on the internet piling on a celebrity. And I’d be a huge hypocrite if I claimed I didn’t understand the impulse. There have been times when I’ve obsessed about celebrities who offended my sensibilities. But I feel like I realized on some level that this was unhealthy for and irrational of me. I didn’t know those people personally. I didn’t need to pay attention to them if they annoyed or insulted me. Why couldn’t I just forget about them? But I’m not sure if Zegler’s more ardent detractors have that self-awareness. Some of them seem to think they’re part of a glorious crusade to shame the woman. And as much as I disagree with her about hot button issues, it disturbs me how much the Rachel Zegler hate train really took off not because of any of those issues but because she said she disliked a beloved movie. If that’s all it takes for someone to become hated on the internet, who among us is really safe?^[14]I admit I’m also a little weirded out how angry people are at the prospect of Disney changing the love’s first kiss scene because of concerns about consent. Sure, Zegler’s comments … Continue reading

Now the rare times I have gotten obsessively angry at a celebrity, it was because it was hard for me to ignore them since they’d made things I’d enjoyed in the past or they were involved with a project about which I cared, so I can kind of understand why Disney fans feel like they have to read/listen to interviews with Zegler and pay attention to her output on social media-even though they really don’t have to do so. But I don’t understand why social conservatives specifically should feel like they need to care about her or the 2025 Snow White remake. The rising generation of them seems to be mainly made up of men who enjoy action movies from the 80s, not princess musicals from the 30s. I mean, it’s great for people to be able to enjoy both but…seriously? Ironically, it wasn’t so long ago that conservatives were sharing an article about how J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, both of whom are admired in conservative circles these days, disliked Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now all of a sudden, the movie is a pillar of Western civilization, and we all have to love it? Well, to be fair, conservatism is a broad camp, and I imagine that the conservatives most interested in Lewis or Tolkien aren’t the kind to be interested in either the 1937 movie or its recent remake, one way or another. Still, I couldn’t resist bringing up the irony.

While I think Zegler definitely brought up much of the controversy on herself by behaving unprofessionally, I do think it’s kind of a loss to cinema if it ruins her career. She really does strike me as a charismatic actress and an excellent singer. (cf. her performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.) And I don’t buy that conservatives couldn’t possibly enjoy her in anything because of her politics. After all, when some of the picture books of Theodor Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss were withdrawn from publication for racist imagery, conservatives raised their voices in protest despite him being an ardent democrat.^[15]I like to think it’s because Geisel’s picture books, unlike his political comics, have universal values that transcend political lines or maybe that both liberals and conservatives are … Continue reading Plenty of conservative Christians enjoy the Lord of the Rings movies despite the lifestyles of some of the filmmakers. Zegler’s lack of tact may be unusual in Hollywood, but her liberal politics aren’t. I feel like the reason she’s become such a target is not because her beliefs are even worse than those of so many other actors but because she’s a fairly new talent who hasn’t been in that many successful movies, making her vulnerable.

Some readers may be skeptical right now that I could really be a conservative when I’ve just devoted so much space to criticizing conservatives of my own free will. That’s the thing though. I feel like I share so few presuppositions with liberals that it’s pointless for me to try reasoning with them. The reason I’m more likely to argue with conservatives is that I feel I have enough common ground with them for us to argue. I have something of a personal interest in what people are calling “the vibe shift” whereby Hollywood has gone from needing to worry more about offending the left to needing to worry more about offending the right. The backlash against Snow White (2025) and its subsequent box office failure were a big part of this-but I suspect the seeds of the vibe shift’s destruction can be seen in them. If you ask me, there were a number of reasons why so many people became fed up with progressives but one of them was their entitlement. The feminist criticisms of the 2015 Cinderella were a case in point. I know many liberals reading this will object that that movie’s progressive detractors were a minority even among the left and they didn’t have much impact on it financially. But I can’t resist bringing up the topic because I see some fascinating parallels between leftwing criticism of Cinderella and rightwing criticism of Snow White. Contrary to what you might have heard, Cinderella had plenty of things that seem like they were made to appeal to the left^[16]The heroine’s philosophy involved a stereotypically masculine virtue (have courage) as well as a stereotypically feminine one (be kind.) She also took a stand against deer hunting which strikes … Continue reading but because it had some things that appealed to conservatives, its most vocal critics showed no mercy. This was typical of the online left when it came to complaining about movies. No matter how Hollywood tried to placate them, it was never quite enough.^[17]To really get into this, I’d have to talk about race, but not only would that be somewhat off topic, but this blog series is already too long. They had this thing where they were both gleeful about finally having some influence over the entertainment industry and relentlessly bitter that they hadn’t had it long before and that they still didn’t have even more. There was something sadistic about how they’d self-righteously gloat whenever someone or something they disliked was suffering financially that I think it alienated a lot of people who might otherwise have sympathized with their concerns about, say, racial profiling or sexual harassment. You got the impression they were dead set on shaming anyone into submission if they didn’t tow their line in every last way. And that’s what I see from the online right in their criticism of Snow White (2025.) Fortunately for them, I don’t think it’s a fun enough movie for too many people to accuse them of being killjoys or fun suckers.^[18]Not at the moment anyway. We’ll see what happens when kids who watch it on streaming grow up. But if they keep up the same attitude towards every movie that isn’t one hundred percent conservative-coded, the vibe might very well shift back again.

I never wanted this to be a Disney blog. I mean, I always wanted to do some blog posts about Disney movies since I’m a fan of fairy tales and classic children’s fantasies, many of which they’ve adapted, and I consider animation to be a fascinating medium. But it seemed to me that there were enough blogs about Disney movies and Disney-related things in general. I’d rather have more posts about my more niche interests. But I don’t have that many ideas for blog posts about those interests right now. This summer, The Adaptation Station.com is going to be all or mostly about Disney adaptations. I’m really surprised at myself for doing a two-part series on the recent live action(ish) remake of the 1937 animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, especially since the series is going to be less about the remake itself than the Controversy around it. Ordinarily, I disdain writing about things just because they’re controversial.^[1]I do try, within reason, to mention whether there’s anything in whatever piece of entertainment I cover that might offend anyone, but the blog isn’t really about that. I don’t even watch or read things just because they’re controversial! And Snow White (2025) seems like the kind of controversial movie that makes for the most boring blog posts since, in my opinion, it’s neither good enough to deserve defending nor bad enough to deserve more attacks than it’s already had. But now that I’ve finally watched the film, I do find it to be interesting in that it’s the kind of controversial movie you wouldn’t guess would be controversial from simply watching. The controversy only makes sense knowing the context, as opposed to the content, of this Snow White.

The main readers of this blog are my friends and family, and I assume most, if not all, of them weren’t that interested in all the controversy, so I should probably sum it up for them. Honestly though, Snow White had such a cursed production history that it’s hard to know where to start. Not only have the actors who were in it, like Gal Gadot sparked controversy, but even actors who weren’t, like Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis, have done so.^[2]I was going to explain in this footnote but after writing the rest of this post, I don’t have the energy. Sorry. You’ll just have to use Google. This blog series is mainly going to be about the gender-related controversy though, so that’s what I’ll explain. Infamously, in early interviews, the movie’s star, Rachel Zegler, dismissed the 1937 movie as hopelessly dated, saying she never enjoyed it even as a child, and calling the love interest in it a stalker. She praised her version for not being a love story but rather about a girl realizing her leadership potential. While Zegler referred to the movie’s male lead as a “great dude,” she also said (jokingly?) that all his character’s scenes could easily be cut. “It’s Hollywood, Baby!” Naturally, this turned off fans of the animated movie, especially conservative ones. Zegler being vocally pro-choice, anti-Israel, anti-Trump, etc. didn’t do much to reconcile the latter to her. The movie went through several reshoots and rewrites^[3]Though the only screenwriter to receive credit in the movie itself was Erin Cressida Wilson. which I imagine were at least partially in response to the backlash.^[4]I don’t care enough about it to research all the details. In the end, the movie didn’t appeal to conservatives or liberals, not enough for them to go see it in cinemas anyway. It was a notorious box office bomb and left bad blood between Zegler and Disney as well as between Zegler and the general populace.

The remake’s failure was regarded by conservatives as a triumph of “basedness” over “wokery.” I really feel like I should be celebrating it too. Not only do I consider myself a conservative with whom I’m sure Rachel Zegler would never get along, but I’ve been a fan of old-school fairy tales for most of my life. My favorite recent Disney remake is Cinderella (2015) which was actually accused of being antifeminist by some leftwing critics and praised for its old-fashioned heroine by some rightwing critics. I’m also a big fan of Charles Dickens books, the heroines of which tend to be condemned as bad depictions of women even more strongly than traditional fairy tale princesses. And I’m also a big fan of the Narnia books, which have also been historically criticized for their portrayal of women. If you’d predicted the Snow White controversy to me ten years ago, I’d have disbelieved you but wholeheartedly wished it would come to pass. The prospect of Hollywood being pressured into treating old-school heroines with the respect I believe they deserve instead of always having to radically reimagine gives me great satisfaction.

Yet somehow, I can’t rejoice as much as some conservatives are doing. Maybe it’s because I have a foot in both camps. While I’ve grown up loving traditional fairy tales and still love them today, I also grew up loving some modern fairy tales that were feminist adjacent at least, such as the works of Gail Carson Levine. And while the 2015 Cinderella is my favorite piece of modern Disney nostalgia bait, my second favorite is the 2019 Aladdin which took an explicitly feminist approach to its heroine.^[5]Mind you, I don’t think the movie actually gave modern feminists what they want since it basically shoehorned a feminist heroine into a male-driven story. For the record, I’d say that … Continue reading As for animated Disney princesses, I don’t hate Snow White with a passion but I’m more of a fan of Belle and Mulan though I hasten to add I’m more of a fan of the animated Cinderella than I am of many more feminist-friendly Disney princesses.^[6]Truth be told, I gravitate towards the animated Disney films from the 1950s. Their heroines (Cinderella, Alice, Wendy Darling, Lady, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather) tended to be traditionally polite … Continue reading I think the real reason I’m writing this blog series is that there’s this weird dissonance between the way conservatives tend to describe Snow White (2025) and the movie I actually saw when I finally got around to watching it. For the record, if you’re a conservative who boycotts Disney (or, for that matter, a progressive who boycotts them), I’m not saying you should abandon your principles and watch this film. I’m just saying conservatives who cite this as the most insufferably progressive thing the company has made strike me as silly.^[7]For one thing, this Disney movie doesn’t have any token gay or trans characters. I try to remind myself that plenty of conservative reviewers who castigated the movie went into it with open minds (or tried to keep their minds open anyway) and would have been the first to admit if they were pleasantly surprised. But so much of the vitriol aimed at this Snow White seems so out of proportion to me and the criticisms so nitpicky that I can’t help thinking that many hoped for it to be as bad as possible.^[8]Along similar but apolitical lines, many fans of the animated movie, who weren’t particularly conservative, regarded it as sacred and objected to the very idea of a remake. I respect that as … Continue reading To be fair though, I’d pegged the film as middling and broadly left-coded but largely harmless long before I watched it, so I could also be accused of confirmation bias. To come to your own conclusions, keep reading.

How Is the Movie Just as a Movie?

It seems like anyone who calls any modern Disney movie better than utter garbage gets dubbed a shill. There’s probably no way I can escape that, but I’ll try by starting with all the things about Snow White (2025) that I consider bad, beginning with the visuals. The costumes are much more concerned with reminding people of the 1937 classic than they are with actually looking good on the actors. When Snow White appeared in white for the final scene, my mom, who was watching with me, said, “They finally got her out of that dumb dress!”^[9]Interestingly, Sandy Powell the costume designer also designed the costumes for Cinderella (2015) which I feel had the best costumes of any recent Disney fairy tale even if the colors were a little … Continue reading

The giant eyes of the CG forest animals are supposed to look cute but to my eyes, they just look kind of creepy.^[10]I recall the cricket and the goldfish from Disney’s Pinocchio remake looking that way too. Whatever issues Beauty and the Beast (2017) had, at least the filmmakers realized that certain cartoon … Continue reading

The seven CG dwarfs also look pretty freaky, humans being one of the hardest things to do in computer animation.

What’s more, the comedy of the dwarfs and the forest animals isn’t half as funny as that of their 1937 counterparts. The scenes of Snow White’s nightmarish run through the forest and the queen transforming herself into an ugly old crone also lack the emotional punch that had in the old movie. (I’m not sure if the filmmakers were even trying in the last case.)

The decision to include some of the 30s-style showtunes by Leigh Harline, Frank Churchill^[11]No relation to the character from Emma. and Paul Smith from the original movie along with modern-style songs by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Jack Feldman was pretty ridiculous.^[12]Cinderella (2015) wisely decided not to be a musical and only had the heroine briefly sing a snatch of one of the 1950 movie’s songs as an easter egg for fans as well as having two others in … Continue reading The movie tries to make them blend together by adding sassy new lyrics to the old songs, but this just feels wrong. (At one point in the updated Whistle While You Work, Grumpy (voiced by Martin Klebba) threatens to shove Bashful (Titus Burgess)’s scrub brush “where the sun don’t shine.”) I’ve enjoyed some of Pasek and Paul’s work in the past (their other musical credits include Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land and The Greatest Showman) but, even taking them on their own terms and ignoring the songs from the 1937 film, their songs here are all pretty forgettable with one exception to which I’ll get to presently. There’s an annoying plot point where the huntsman (Ansu Kabia) says to Snow White before she runs off that “she was never told the truth about her father” but doesn’t bother saying what the truth was. (It’s pretty easy to guess but, of course, nobody does until the queen spells it out for Snow White.) The climax is even more ridiculous. (I’ll get into it in the spoiler-filled parts of this series.)

Having said all that, however unlikeable you or I might consider Rachel Zegler herself, she’s very appealing as Snow White and has a lovely singing voice. Gal Gadot is great fun as the cartoonishly evil queen. I also honestly enjoyed some of the movie’s attempts at foreshadowing, heavy handed as they are, such as Snow White describing the queen as poisoning people’s minds long before she literally poisons her or singing about being wakened by a kiss long before that happens. The song in which she does the last one, A Hand Meets a Hand, is the one from the movie that I really like. While I described the movie as less funny than the original animated one, there are some scattered funny bits. And while I also described the scary scenes as less effective, I’m kind of impressed the remake kept the grisly detail of the skeletons in the queen’s dungeon though she doesn’t kick or taunt one of them here.

The writing in general isn’t terrible or anything, just rather bland and generically modern. And apart from the annoying plot points I mentioned above, I think the reimagined story is pretty good. I can imagine it making for a good fairy tale movie with better direction and writing. As the film is, if you enjoy the genre and are bored, it’s not an unpleasant diversion.

So that’s the not-related-to-politics part. Not very interesting, was it? Now I’ll address some common criticisms I’ve heard of the 2025 Snow White online from a specifically conservative perspective. Major Spoilers Ahoy!

Common Conservative Criticism 1: The Story is Socialist Propaganda for Kids

The movie begins with the narrator (Andrew Barth Feldman) informing us that Snow White was brought up to believe that “the bounty of the land belonged to all who tended it.” Along similar lines, the soundtrack version of the opening song includes the lyrics, “we lead with open hearts, and we live with open doors.”^[13]These were cut from the movie itself. A first glance would seem to justify the accusation of socialist messaging, not to mention accusations of corny writing.^[14]Of course, it’s not like the animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wasn’t corny in its own way. Given Hollywood’s social milieu, I’ve no doubt these parts do reflect such political leanings but giving the movie more than a first glance reveals that if it’s socialist propaganda, it’s the most capitalist-friendly socialist propaganda ever.

The queen’s tyrannical rule doesn’t involve introducing a system of free markets to the kingdom. While the script is somewhat vague about the details, the implication is that she forcibly seizes all of her subjects’ property for herself-exactly what conservative Americans fear a socialist government would do. Either that or it’s a case of taxation without representation, another thing they’re against. On the other hand, the queen doesn’t redistribute the wealth to everyone, as socialists would advocate, but hoards it all for herself. She strikes me as a villain whom both capitalists and socialists can hate. In the end, Snow White doesn’t convince the populace to turn against the queen by saying how nice it was when they didn’t own anything. She reminds them of how great it was when they owned things themselves and freely chose to share them with others. In my experience, when American conservatives are asked who will help the poor if they don’t have the government aid, their answer is privately owned charities. That also seems to be what Snow White advocates. Contrary to caricatures of conservatives by liberals, they don’t teach their children not to share with each other. But by ranting against this movie’s message of sharing, they run the risk of looking like caricatures of themselves. In her big musical number, the queen proclaims that she can do whatever she wants, singing, “all is fair when you wear the crown.” From what I understand, American liberals are talking about “rule of law” right now, but it wasn’t so long ago when conservatives were the ones worrying about it. The leftwing filmmakers may not have realized it, but their message transcends party lines-or if you want to be a cynical, you could say it’s a message with which whichever party isn’t in power can agree. Likewise, while the fact that the climax involves Snow White, more or less, leading a protest against the queen reflects our culture these days, it’s not like conservatives never partake in protests. It’s also worth noting that Snow White’s rallying speech looks back to the past rather than forward to the future. That doesn’t seem very progressive-coded. (My best guess is it represents the leftwing writers’ nostalgia for Barack Obama’s presidency.)

I imagine the movie listing the queen drafting men into an army as an example of her wickedness and her later telling people Snow White shouldn’t be queen because she can’t keep them safe or raise any army were intended to be some sort of Take That at Donald Trump. (Although if Gal Gadot is supposed to be doing a parody of him, she didn’t do a very good job.) It’s pretty dumb to suggest that a country can do without an army and that any leader who cares about them is evil. But does anyone really expect political realism from a movie like this? I think all it merits is an eye roll.

CCC 2: The Remake Turns the Character of Snow White Into an Insufferable Girl Boss

It’s true that whereas the first song we heard the 1937 Snow White sing was about her “wishing for the one (she) loved to find (her),” this Snow White sings in the equivalent moment about wishing to be “someone no one needs to save.” Later, she sings that it’s time for her “to lead and not be led.” Her main goal throughout the story is to overthrow her stepmother and become queen herself. However, I’m confused as to why this particular reimagining has drawn such ire for doing the same thing that ABC’s Once Upon a Time, Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror and Rupert Sanders’s Snow White and the Huntsman did with the character.^[15]Along similar lines, while Rachel Zegler’s derogatory comments about the animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs didn’t endear her to me, they weren’t really anything new to me … Continue reading I suppose it’s because this Snow White is specifically a remake of the iconic Disney movie and not just another adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale-though pretty much every Snow White adaptation these days is really based more on that movie than the fairy tale. What stands out to me about this remake is not how it makes Snow White more of a feminist-friendly heroine. That’s to be expected. What strikes me is how, compared to other recent adaptations of the story, this one tries to retain the animated character’s sweet, motherly personality.

Snow White’s kindness is emphasized from the very first scene where we see her as a child (played by Emilia Faucher) give her crown of flowers to a shy, sad girl (Freya Mitchell.)^[16]Later in the movie (when the girl is grown up and played by Zoe Athena), the crown actually becomes a nice visual symbol. While her goal is to become queen, her motivation is a desire to help the suffering people of the kingdom rather than to gain power for herself. When she meets the seven dwarfs, she’s able to remember all their names like the ideal hostess, a skill which serves her will in the movie’s climax. She comforts and encourages Dopey after he’s humiliated in front of the others and she wins over Grumpy by being the only one to acknowledge when he has a good point. These all seem like traditional feminine virtues to me. If this is the most obnoxious girl boss Disney has created recently, they’re doing better than I thought.

Snow White’s initial timidity and lack of confidence aren’t portrayed as the result of “the patriarchy” but of the emotional abuse of a villainous matriarch who dismisses her as beautiful but weak, useless and fragile. “Your subjects await you, Snow White,” sneers the queen, “What will you tell them? That you’ve made them dessert?” In the end though, her stepdaughter’s sweetness and compassion are her strengths. If anything, it makes sense to interpret the movie as an antifeminist fable with the wicked “girl boss” being defeated by a heroine who represents traditional femininity.^[17]Of course, many feminists these days say the problem with society isn’t that women aren’t allowed to act like men, but that society is governed by a stereotypically masculine mindset and … Continue reading

The dumbest part of the movie, if you ask me, isn’t the result of making Snow White more of a leader or a fighter but by making sure she conquers the queen in a way consistent with her 1937 counterpart’s character. In their final confrontation, the queen gives Snow White a knife and dares her to kill her in front of everyone. She refuses which her stepmother naturally takes as evidence that she’s weak. Then Snow White gives a speech reminding the guards of how much happier they and everyone else were before the queen was in power. Seemingly, the whole army joins her. It’s so stupid when kids’ movies resolve problems by having a character give a speech and all the relevant characters just agree with them!^[18]Sadly, it’s not entirely confined to kids’ movies. Has any conflict in real life ever been resolved that way? Having Snow White defeat the queen with violence would have been a more boringly conventional ending for a girl empowerment film but it would also have made more sense.^[19]In the original fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White (or, rather, her husband, but it’s implied she’s complicit) forces the queen to dance to death in red hot iron shoes. Now … Continue reading Still, there is a hint of an interesting thematic idea here that could have resonated with both liberals and conservatives for different reasons if it had been handled better.

I find it odd that people who can’t stand this movie’s version of Snow White seem fine with Princess Leia. In the original Star Wars, doesn’t she complain about how her male rescuers didn’t plan the rescue very well and constantly snark at them? Yet Snow White, who graciously thanks her male rescuers even when they’re grumpy, is the shrew? Of course, Leia isn’t exactly what feminists want in a heroine either since in spite of herself, she eventually ends up succumbing to the advances of a roguish man. Maybe that’s why it’s OK for conservatives to like her story. But I can’t help but suspect it’s because they first saw Star Wars when they were kids wanting to enjoy a movie and they saw Snow White (2025) when they were adults looking for another chance to complain about modern cinema.

At this point, you might think what I’ve described as this remake’s blandness is the result of it trying to cater to viewers on both the left and the right instead of committing to just one. But I find myself thinking nostalgically of the days when a politically middle-of-the-road family popcorn movie like Star Wars could be enjoyed by both liberals and conservatives. I know the obvious rejoinder to that is “movies back then were better written” and I can’t argue in this case.^[20]I don’t consider Star Wars the pinnacle of screenwriting or anything, but Princess Leia’s putdowns were pretty snappy. Still, people these days, not only on the right but on the left, seem so impossible to please that I can’t help but imagine they only love older movies because they saw them in their youth.

To Be Continued