👏👏👏 A wonderful article, James that I throughly enjoyed! You perfectly tore apart Rachel Zegler and the new Snow White movie! Disney claims to care so much about inclusion, but then they go and exclude dwarves from the movie. Dylan Postl better known as Hornswoggle from WWE, rightly called this out. Instead of having dwarves they had six normally sized people. I guess they thought it’d be ableist somehow to use dwarves. That backfired on them badly and they ended up being ableist by accident. So they had to go back and make CGI dwarves.
Now we come to Rachel Zegler, she was a miscast to begin with as she doesn’t look anywhere close to Snow White. Second, she ran her mouth and embarrassed herself. She derided the old beloved classic from the 1930s as sexist and dated. Then she declared “free Palestine” and threatened Trump supporters. Rachel Zegler destroyed her own career. She alienated the American public and destroyed any hope the movie had of being successful.
The disaster of the Snow White movie is emblematic of the gradual downfall of a once unstoppable entertainment empire. Disney used to be a family entertainment giant that could do no wrong. Walt and Roy Disney had built something truly special. But one look at the Disney Co. today under Bob Iger tells you that it has seen better days. They’ve been plagued by poor leadership, laziness, creative bankruptcy, an over reliance on nostalgia, wokeness, greed, getting too big, and refusing to listen to the fans.
The mouse has become like the Roman Empire in its last years. This is NOT the Disney I remember from my childhood. Disney used to put out one hit after another. They were a factory for quality films that became classics enjoyed by young and old alike. Movies like Mulan, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story, The Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Monsters, Inc., Robin Hood, Aladdin, Luck of the Irish, The Color of Friendship, High School Musical, Halloweentown, Pinocchio, Follow Me, Boys!, The Song of the South, and The Incredibles among many, many others. Their theme parks used to be unbelievable. They made great TV programs too. The House of Mouse, the Tarzan series, Timone and Pumba, Doug, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Phil of the Future, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Even Stevens. Disney Channel used to be something special. Now all that’s gone and the vast majority of what they make is awful! It has no heart, no soul, no entertainment value, no energy, nothing! The theme parks are going down hill. Their nickel and diming people to death and filing copyright strikes left and right against folks on YouTube.
They even did all they could to avoid lawsuits from the family that had a member who died of a peanut allergy and looked completely callus in the process. If Walt and Roy were alive today they’d want nothing to do with this company! They wouldn’t even recognize it! Bob Iger is a greedy piece of garbage who has sullied the company’s once proud legacy and butchered all its most beloved properties. Look what they’ve done to Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Chip N’Dale Rescue Rangers for example!
In Dahl's book the Oompa Loompas were small brown people...this, and the book illustrations, come across very racially inappropriate today. In the 70s movie, they were played by little people but they were given orange skin and green hair. But yes. They're fantasy little magical people. Like Munchkins.
And the other question is why is Disney doing a remake/remodel when there are so many other great fairy tales they could use -- from Grimm which is definitely red in tooth and claw as well as from many other sources. It would mean they would have to commission new scores etc.
Disney is notorious for regurgitating their catalogue: Beauty and the Beast the animated film...Beauty and the Beast the Musical...Beauty and the Beast the live action film...
Funnily enough I was thinking about Beauty and the Beast. The live action film did not really add anything. Almost word for word. (Yes, my children did watch the video when they were young).
I would like to see the Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stories redone -- as the Song of the South is a deeply problematic film which had at least one brilliant song. I think it could be done with a totally different script which gives prominence to why these stories of a rabbit outwitting and triumphing over its much stronger adversaries spoke to so many Black (and indeed just in general) Americans.
But they need to get fresh material which is going to speak to today's children (and their parents).
👏👏👏 A wonderful article, James that I throughly enjoyed! You perfectly tore apart Rachel Zegler and the new Snow White movie! Disney claims to care so much about inclusion, but then they go and exclude dwarves from the movie. Dylan Postl better known as Hornswoggle from WWE, rightly called this out. Instead of having dwarves they had six normally sized people. I guess they thought it’d be ableist somehow to use dwarves. That backfired on them badly and they ended up being ableist by accident. So they had to go back and make CGI dwarves.
Now we come to Rachel Zegler, she was a miscast to begin with as she doesn’t look anywhere close to Snow White. Second, she ran her mouth and embarrassed herself. She derided the old beloved classic from the 1930s as sexist and dated. Then she declared “free Palestine” and threatened Trump supporters. Rachel Zegler destroyed her own career. She alienated the American public and destroyed any hope the movie had of being successful.
The disaster of the Snow White movie is emblematic of the gradual downfall of a once unstoppable entertainment empire. Disney used to be a family entertainment giant that could do no wrong. Walt and Roy Disney had built something truly special. But one look at the Disney Co. today under Bob Iger tells you that it has seen better days. They’ve been plagued by poor leadership, laziness, creative bankruptcy, an over reliance on nostalgia, wokeness, greed, getting too big, and refusing to listen to the fans.
The mouse has become like the Roman Empire in its last years. This is NOT the Disney I remember from my childhood. Disney used to put out one hit after another. They were a factory for quality films that became classics enjoyed by young and old alike. Movies like Mulan, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story, The Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Monsters, Inc., Robin Hood, Aladdin, Luck of the Irish, The Color of Friendship, High School Musical, Halloweentown, Pinocchio, Follow Me, Boys!, The Song of the South, and The Incredibles among many, many others. Their theme parks used to be unbelievable. They made great TV programs too. The House of Mouse, the Tarzan series, Timone and Pumba, Doug, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Phil of the Future, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Even Stevens. Disney Channel used to be something special. Now all that’s gone and the vast majority of what they make is awful! It has no heart, no soul, no entertainment value, no energy, nothing! The theme parks are going down hill. Their nickel and diming people to death and filing copyright strikes left and right against folks on YouTube.
They even did all they could to avoid lawsuits from the family that had a member who died of a peanut allergy and looked completely callus in the process. If Walt and Roy were alive today they’d want nothing to do with this company! They wouldn’t even recognize it! Bob Iger is a greedy piece of garbage who has sullied the company’s once proud legacy and butchered all its most beloved properties. Look what they’ve done to Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Chip N’Dale Rescue Rangers for example!
It's been years since I read Charlie, but I was never under the impression that Oompa Loompas were dwarves. They were just Oompa Loompas, no?
In Dahl's book the Oompa Loompas were small brown people...this, and the book illustrations, come across very racially inappropriate today. In the 70s movie, they were played by little people but they were given orange skin and green hair. But yes. They're fantasy little magical people. Like Munchkins.
And the other question is why is Disney doing a remake/remodel when there are so many other great fairy tales they could use -- from Grimm which is definitely red in tooth and claw as well as from many other sources. It would mean they would have to commission new scores etc.
Disney is notorious for regurgitating their catalogue: Beauty and the Beast the animated film...Beauty and the Beast the Musical...Beauty and the Beast the live action film...
Funnily enough I was thinking about Beauty and the Beast. The live action film did not really add anything. Almost word for word. (Yes, my children did watch the video when they were young).
I would like to see the Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stories redone -- as the Song of the South is a deeply problematic film which had at least one brilliant song. I think it could be done with a totally different script which gives prominence to why these stories of a rabbit outwitting and triumphing over its much stronger adversaries spoke to so many Black (and indeed just in general) Americans.
But they need to get fresh material which is going to speak to today's children (and their parents).