There is another timeline where Disney, rather than producing the dreadful Snow White, an absolutely indigestible CGI flop, offered audiences another version of the tale. Indeed, originally, the big-eared company had planned to adapt a live-action adaptation of another Grimm Brothers tale that had already served as a source for the 1937 film... When you discover below what it is about, you too will regret that it is finally the remake with Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler that has reached us!
Snow-White and Rose-Red: Did Snow White have a sister?
The Brothers Grimm are the authors of two tales collected by Walt Disney for his work, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Snow White and Rose Red. The two stories are independent: while the first gave its name to the Disney classic released in 1937, the second has never been adapted for film. It tells the story of two inseparable sisters living with their mother at the edge of the forest who have a surprising encounter. One winter, a bear asks them for hospitality to keep warm. But this bear is very strange, since we see gold shining in its fur...
It also talks about a gnome with a sour taste for generosity and a prince trapped in a bear's skin. As you'll see, it has little to do with the story of Snow White that we all know. Except that even back then, Walt Disney drew heavily on Snow White and Rose Red to fuel his story, particularly in terms of the character of Grumpy, the Dwarves' long white beards, the mining of precious stones and their underground activity. What does this have to do with Snow White in 2025? Magic mirror on the wall, show us how it all began. #SnowWhite, in theaters March 19, 2025. pic.twitter.com/l8KAt3X0S2
— Disney (@DisneyFR) December 3, 2024You might ask, and you'd be right to. It turns out that when Disney announced a live-action project, it was with the intention of telling the story from Rose-Red's point of view. Almost ten years ago, the remake entered development (in March 2016), then in 2018, our colleagues at GeekTyrant shared the rumor that Brie Larson had joined the cast. According to Screen Rant, the plot focused on the second part of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the moment when the heroine eats the poisoned apple and falls into a deep sleep. Her sister would then have gone on a mission to save her.
As you can see from this pitch, Disney planned to mix the two tales, without being truly faithful to either one. There's no mention of a bear, but Rose Red is introduced: the studios wanted to expand on the story everyone knows, without creating a new one. Meanwhile, a few months after the announcement of Rose Red, Disney began working on another adaptation called Snow White. Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler were not announced in the cast of the latter until 2021, the year in which Rose Red was canceled.
A Missed Opportunity for Disney
Between the horrible CGI Dwarves, who look like deformed gnomes; the countless controversies linked to the statements of Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot; the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White, considered by her detractors to be a "woke heresy" (the actress is of Colombian origin, the character has diaphanous skin); the changes made to the 1937 cult film... The film was doomed even before its theatrical release. Rose Red had much greater potential. Indeed, to the extent that Disney was taking an uncharted path, unknown to audiences, its freedom with regard to the tales of the Brothers Grimm was much greater. The studios would have introduced a new princess to their flock, and because she didn't have a predefined image in the public's mind, they would have had less fear of attracting the wrath of fans. Rather than attracting widespread opprobrium by "massacring" the 1937 film, they would have had with Rose Red a blank slate allowing for great creative freedom...
Disney is probably kicking itself!
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