Snow White, Disney, Rachel Zegler and a toxic debate that's not going away

Comments

• hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This article almost feels like gaslighting.

  Disney has put out a ton of content that follows the same power. It generally can be summarized as "put out overpriced mediocre garbage, hamfist some culture war stuff in there, and then imply anyone who doesn’t like it is some sort of deplorable.

  This movie:

  • Had a budget of at least 270 million, meaning that it would have to make like 700 million to be considered a success
  • Looks mediocre as all hell regardless
  • The Dwarves are CGI monstrosities that feel more at home in a horror movie. This is because Disney kept pivoting to dumber decisions based off petty internet drama.
  • The decision to cast a Latina in a movie where the actress is explicitly white is on some level a deliberate decision to start culture war drama. Disney has had multiple WoC as princesses for over twenty years now, so it’s not like they didn’t have other movies they could have adapted
  • They made Zegler look a lot less attractive than she is IRL via poor wardrobe choices, while managing to capture Gadot’s beauty.
  • Israel aside, I have zero idea why Gadot is cast in this. She’s like the female version of the rock in that she’s only really good in stupid action movies that take absolutely minimal acting abilities
  • I understand Lemmy is super pro-Palestinian. However the general viewing public is a lot more divided, and many people simply don’t want modern politics in a movie they take their small children too. This is the kind of shit you say at a premier of a small budget film, not something that has to gross hundreds of millions of dollars
  • Zegler also harassed Gadot on set, despite the fact that she was trying very hard to not bring politics into the workplace. Again I understand Lemmy might think that’s amazing, but most working people recognize that as the kind of shit they put in an HR training video
  • Zegler also seemed to go out of her way to insult hardcore fans of the show. This is especially egregious because hardcore fans are the type of people to see an IP no matter how bad this is.
  • Unlike Joker where you can just dodge criticism by calling fans of the original incels, hardcore fans of Snow White tend to be gay men and white women. The end result was a lot of the outrage came in the form of gossip influencers throwing shade, which the Disney PR machine was not prepared to counter.

  The most ridiculous part of this is the trailer for Lilo and Stich, a movie that is a million times more minority forward than the Snow White remake, dropped to largely positive reception. 2024 is going to be simultaneous “Snow White failed because of bigotry” and a movie centered around two woman of color, and unconventional definition of family, and Hawaiian culture prints money hand over fist.

  source

  • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Gal Gadot would be better cast AS A rock; her acting sucks.

    source
• LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I mean casting her is obvious bait by the producers. But the BBC calling her comments “controversial”? That’s problematic at least. She opposed genocide and illegal occupation and opposed an authoritarian strongman gaining power. That is not a controversial comment in a liberal democracy and the founding values of the western democracy.

  source

  • Ilandar@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    But the BBC calling her comments “controversial”? That’s problematic at least. She opposed genocide and illegal occupation and opposed an authoritarian strongman gaining power. That is not a controversial comment in a liberal democracy and the founding values of the western democracy. That BBC article is garbage.

    They are objectively controversial positions, though. It doesn’t matter how much you agree with them, others clearly do not and it has led to heated public debate. That is literally the definition of controversial:

    causing disagreement or discussion

    The so-called “liberal democracy” in which she lives is currently being run by the “authoritarian strongman” whose mission is seemingly to disrupt and dismantle many of those “founding values”. So again, reality is quite different to how you are presenting it. Calling the article garbage because it stated basic facts instead of ascribing to your fantasy land interpretation of current events is very silly.

    source

    • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I’d bet you could find actual historic precedence for this. Imagine a german actress making her voice heard in the weimarer republic about the rising power of the NAZI party. Back then, people didn’t know where hate speech would lead. But now we know.

      Hate speech must be opposed (see Paradox of Tolerance). If you accept it you help the fascists. There is no valid opinion except opposing it, so it is not controversial. There was no discussion that can be called a discussion. It’s just an attack by fascists.

      At least on those two points. It is absolutely VITAL that we call out news media that are supposedly neutral like the BBC. If they accept fascist talking point as a valid opinion in discussion, we have already lost.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The article is not loading for me. But I thought the controversy was about her constantly throwing shade at the classic movie.

    source

    • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      This is what I was referring to:

      Zegler also stoked controversy with her views after the 2024 US presidential election. Writing on Instagram, she said she hoped “Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace”.

      BBC simply shouldn’t take the critique coming from fascists seriously, it legitimizes it as two valid viewpoints.

      The article mentions the “shade” but it seems she only commented on the elements of stalking and I guess you can also throw in the somewhat necrophiliac element of the prince kissing her presumably dead corpse lol.

      But Snow White is based on a Grimm’s fairy tale anyway, which are quite bloody and cruel and far from the sweet Disney movies, and they also contain centuries of storytelling condensing a cultural subconsciousness and dreams. Disney was always more shallow entertainment going with the times. Enchanted is completely bonkers too but really amazing movie. So it’s all bullshit asking a remake to “stay true”.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Ledivin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It’s simply not a very good movie, but that’s not really Zegler’s fault. Not that there’s anything special about her performance, but there isn’t really anything wrong with it, either.

  It’s an adaptation that never had to get made, doubled up with with weird changes for a nostalgia bomb, poor writing, bad songs, and mediocre acting.

  source

  • Ilandar@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I’d argue that it’s not really Zegler’s fault… Not that there’s anything special about her performance, but there isn’t really anything wrong with it, either.

    What’s not her fault? The article isn’t about her performance in the film, it’s about the pushback and resulting pile-on from conservatives to her casting and public comments prior to release.

    source

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Except all of the pushback is actually against casting/writing/changes, she simply answered questions honestly. I would argue that those who made the decisions are the source, not her relaying of the decisions.

      source
• lordnikon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It’s never going away there is a lot of money to be made on both sides. If the movie flops the studio can point to the racists and see it was them that tanked your movie. They can also point to progressives and say if you don’t watch our Comercial product your not supporting the insert minority group.

  The right wing content farms have something to make content about. The left wing content farms have content based on the right wing content. Regular people just wanted a original movie that was good.

  Some people don’t want minority groups to have rights and some people do and most don’t care about anything that’s not directly in front of them.

  source

  • afronaut@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Yea, well it makes no sense to blame progressives for “not supporting a minority group” when the movie got rid of its dwarf actors for CGI or when they punished Zegler for supporting Palestine or when they cast an IDF soldier who can’t act.

    source