Snow White is a complete fiasco: it's a resounding failure, one of the worst ever recorded by Disney. It's highly likely that this live-action film will end up becoming a major flop for the company, which is reminiscent of the colossal crash of John Carter at the global box office in 2012. Almost three weeks after the film's release in theaters, we take a look back at the failed treatment of the story, which doesn't stop at atrocious CGI. The studios must make a drastic decision about their direction, and quickly!
Snow White and the 7... Dwarfs (?)
If only Peter Dinklage hadn't started a controversy with the representation of the Dwarves in Snow White in 2022, we would never have gotten to this point! In itself, the actor wasn't wrong to express a double standard on Disney's part. The company with the big ears, which has been singing improvised songs about diversity for several years (a most ironic situation given its past), chose an actress of Colombian origin through her mother to play a character with skin as white as snow. She also decided to "modernize" the story, deemed retrograde and misogynistic. So why not also give the Dwarves a facelift? In this, the star of Game of Thrones isn't wrong, but the result is so ugly that it would make the VFX artists of Ant-Man Quantumania cry. An observation that logically leads us to the following reflection: adapting sometimes controversial content (racist, sexist) is already a challenge in itself, Disney should definitely put aside its classic "realistic" anthropomorphic characters that are too touchy.
Disney: several types of characters
On the one hand, we have the felines of the Lion King in live action: certainly, the film was an impressive box office hit, but the transition to live-action adds nothing to the original 1994 plot. The story is copied almost shot by shot, and seeing animals reproduced with the most realistic CGI possible start talking makes no sense. On the other hand, we have characters who straddle the line between fiction and reality, like the Dwarves in Snow White. They're not entirely within the fantasy realm of the tale, and instead appear as caricatures of short people, which puts them squarely in the "offensive" box in the eyes of those involved. With these types of protagonists, Disney shoots itself in the foot. And finally, we have the classic humans, male or female, with or without powers, who already represent a challenge for studios in terms of writing: studios should focus on them.
Disney must focus on its "genre" classics and without animals
Here's another sequence that traumatized me as a kid: the death of the demon king in "The Cauldron of the Black Cauldron." All his appearances made me break out in a cold sweat, but this was too much. pic.twitter.com/ngf0AN6Z1d
— (@vadub69) June 10, 2023
Let's get to the point: since Disney prefers to adapt its classics into live-action rather than using the minds and imaginations of its many collaborators and artists, who undoubtedly still have great stories to tell, then they must focus on their "genre" or animal-free animated films. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Tarantino and the Magic Cauldron or Treasure Planet, stories as beautiful that strange, between fantasy and science fiction, future and past, tale and myth, take place in fictional universes allowing greater flexibility in terms of adaptation. Less well-known, less iconic than Snow White or Cinderella, they will be less controversial. The same goes for its anthropomorphic animals, which the company would do better to let rest in peace and in cartoons, rather than wanting to recreate them at all costs in CGI without bringing anything new to them. The Aristocats and other Bambi, two of the 10 live-action films planned by Disney after Lilo & Stitch, are about to lose their soul and charm thanks to special effects... While Hercules looks promising and fun. And you, what do you think?
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