Disney was warned for years that their live-action remake of Snow White would be an abysmal failure. They ignored the warnings and instead made every wrong decision possible, leading to a box office bomb. Theaters around the world are empty.
The film sold 50% less than they projected. It earned a 1. 6 out of 10 star rating on IMDb, a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The CGI dwarves will give you nightmares, and the little people they replaced with CGI have filed a class action lawsuit against Disney. Walt Disney himself is turning in his grave because he personally requested that the company should never change, alter, or remake Snow White. But they did it anyway by casting Rachel Zgler, who insisted that they change the entire film to make it more politically correct.
Rachel called the original Prince Charming a stalker. Insisted that Snow White was not yearning for love, but actually dreamed of being a leader. Rachel also demanded she be paid more for quote standing in a dress for 18 hours.
Zgler created so much controversy that Disney had to hire a personal security detail for her co-star Galado because of the countless death threats she was receiving. This movie is an absolute dumpster fire. And Rachel's response to the film bombing proved that everyone's suspicions about her were correct.
I'm a narcissist. And yet, none of that has anything to do with why people were suspicious about Rachel Zgler in the first place. In 2018, Rachel's friend sent her a tweet about an open casting call for Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Westside Story.
So, 16-year-old Zgler recorded and submitted an audition tape. Bernardo and Anita, are you all morning about about a fight that's going to happen tonight? Now, she was definitely a promising young talent.
She spent her childhood acting in countless plays and developed an impressive singing voice. Rachel was just one of 30,000 who auditioned for the role of Maria. Without any professional acting experience, an agent or connections in Hollywood, she was selected for the lead role.
Her performance earned critical acclaim and she went on to win the Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture, musical, or comedy. The industry plant accusations were formed because some people simply do not believe that a no-name actor could get this lucky. She was basically hand selected by Steven Spielberg.
Then again, with the entertainment industry being flooded with Nepo babies and people born into immense wealth, Rachel being essentially a random girl from New Jersey securing an A-list role actually might be a step in the right direction for Hollywood. However, they may have chose the wrong girl because her inability to keep her politically charged opinions to herself started to cause problems for Disney executives. As if Westside Story wasn't already a massive introduction to Hollywood, her next role was even bigger, one that could set her up for a lifetime of success.
And that was being cast as Snow White in Disney's liveaction remake of the classic. Rachel chose to make this monumental announcement on Twitter where she wrote, "Yes, I am Snow White. No, I am not bleaching my skin for the role.
" Rachel deleted this tweet shortly after sending it out to the world. However, the reason she brought up her skin color in the first place was to address the criticism she was receiving online. In the original fairy tale and the 1937 animated film, Snow White is depicted as having skin as white as Snow.
It is quite literally the inception of the princess's identity, but Rachel Zgler is of Colombian descent and has more of an olive skin tone. Now, there definitely were some extreme takes suggesting that Disney is evil and only casting POC characters to cause outrage. There were also some blatantly racist takes, but most people were just genuinely confused why Snow White wasn't going to be white.
And this does seem to be a recurring theme for Disney these days. The original 1989 animation of The Little Mermaid depicted Ariel as a white woman, whereas the 2023 liveaction remake cast Bailey as Ariel, who is African-Amean. And yes, this film was also accused of pandering, trying to change something that was a non-issue in the first place.
However, defenders pointed out that mermaids don't have a race because they are not real. Normally, these controversies lead to failure, but the film grossed over $560 million worldwide and made a solid profit. But Zgler insisted that the Snow White remake was based on an alternative version of the story, one that doesn't have to do with her skin color.
She said it fell back to another version of Snow White that was told in history where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience. One of the core points in our film for any young woman or young person is remembering how strong you actually are.
And while this may seem like a small nuance that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, it was an insight into the major changes that were coming next. Because the more Zgler talked about the film, the more it seemed like it was going to be a disaster. Particularly in this Variety interview where she talked about how she and the writers are giving Snow White a modern twist.
You said you were bringing a modern edge to it. What do you mean by that? I just mean that it's no longer 1937 and we absolutely wrote a Snow White that is she's not going to be saved by the prince.
She's not going to be saved by the prince. She's not going to be dreaming about true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.
Snow White dreams of being a leader. Why not write a totally new story instead of remaking the old ones? It has nothing to do with Snow White.
Zgler, there is nothing wrong with dreaming about true love. But people were not overreacting in the comments. Zgler supported stripping this classic story of its roots.
I mean, you know, the the original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. Um, there is a big focus on her love story um with a guy who literally stalks her. Yeah, weird.
Weird. So, we didn't do that this time. Rachel's tone might come off silly to some, but it is evidently so sarcastic.
Referring to Prince Charming as a stalker is inaccurate and disrespectful. We are not talking about just any Disney film. We are talking about the first ever fulllength animated feature film in history.
This is quite literally Walt Disney's baby. Now, people are already a little apprehensive towards the countless remakes of old Disney classics, but Rachel's lack of class and grace pushed anyone who was even a little open-minded away. Despite that, she continued to express her disdain for the original film.
I was scared of the original cartoons. Like, I'm being so serious. I watched it once, never revisited Snow White again.
What's interesting about Rachel claiming to be scared of the original film, is that she also said the exact opposite during her press tour, showing pictures of her as a child in her Snow White dress and how she always dreamed as a little girl of being this princess. This constant flip-flopping along with her sarcastic tone just soured people's perception of her. But not only did she seem unappreciative of a Disney classic, she also made some interesting comments about her next role as Anthia and Shazam Fury of the Gods.
What made you want to step into this world of DC Heroes? I needed a job. I'm being so serious.
While yes, even actors have bills to pay and need a job to do that, some interpreted the remark as snarky and annoying. Now, to be fair, later in the interview, Rachel does go on to express her gratitude for receiving this role, considering it was only her second Hollywood film ever, but her unapologetic attitude on the red carpet continued to stir the pot, and she just kept making it worse. specifically during the writer strike of 2023.
The Writer Guild of America represents thousands of writers in film, TV, radio, and online media. They are the backbone of Hollywood's content. Despite their importance, Hollywood executives restructured the industry to drastically reduce residual payments, leaving most writers with little to no income after their work is uploaded to apps like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, etc.
So, the guild went on a strike to renegotiate and push for higher pay. Rachel Zgler also used her voice to support the strike. If I'm going to stand there 18 hours in a dress of an iconic Disney princess, I deserve to be paid for every hour that it is streamed online.
She's like everything people hate about this generation distilled into a single person. At this point, I'm sure you are noticing a pattern. While we hope that deep down Rachel's intentions are pure, and we hope that she truly is just trying to have an overall positive impact on the world, she has a terrible way of expressing her opinions, as her tone often comes off as disrespectful.
Having two movies under her belt and already aggressively demanding higher pay came off extremely entitled, especially considering the strike was mostly for writers because main characters like Zgler are often compensated extremely generously. By this point, her reputation was at an all-time low, and there were even rumors circulating that Disney was going to ax this film. As countless people expressed that Rachel Zgler is the sole reason that they would not go to watch the movie, but then somehow Disney managed to make things even worse.
They announced that they would be changing Snow White's seven dwarves to the more politically correct Snow White's diverse group of magical creatures of all sizes and genders. Photos of the cast were leaked onto the internet, which sparked outrage. These look like Medieval Times reenactors at the local fair.
Disney quickly responded and said that these were not pictures of the actual set, but nobody believed them. The only reason Disney planned on changing the dwarves in the first place was because of a comment made by Hollywood star Peter Dinklage, who felt that the new rendition of the movie was not progressive enough. I was a little taken back by the very very they're very very proud to cast a a Latino actress as Snow White.
Yeah. But you're still telling the story of Snow White, Seven Dwarfs. True.
Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. Yeah. I know that's makes no sense to me.
But oh, so you can be you're progressive in one way and then but you're still making that backward story about seven dwarves living in a cave to what the are you doing, man? Even though Peter Dinklage has built an illustrious Hollywood legacy with countless roles as a little person, he seemed pretty upset with Disney. They promptly responded that they would avoid reinforcing stereotypes and would be consulting with members of the dwarfism community to make the seven characters more inclusive.
Most people just looked at this as Disney once again pandering to another social issue. But what often happens when trying to please everyone for the sake of being politically correct, you end up pleasing no one. That what they're doing is pretty much you're you're you're replacing jobs that people could have as little people.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's four dwarfs. Disney was panicking for a solution to make both sides happy.
And nobody could have predicted how bad their solution to this problem would be. Instead of casting real actors, Disney decided to eliminate them and use CGI dwarves instead, which will provide enough nightmare fuel to last you the rest of 2025. The dwarves look like scary monsters, not cute, charming friends.
The overuse of CGI in this film allowed them to take shortcuts. Instead of creating detailed artistic sets and costumes, they relied on animation, which made the film feel cheap, hollow, and soulless. Like, wasn't this supposed to be a liveaction remake?
Where's the liveaction? Why is there so much CGI? Why does it look like a really bad cartoon?
Additionally, the significance of the dwarves to the story was drastically reduced. Grumpy and Dopey got a decent amount of screen time, while the other five dwarves were barely shown enough for the viewers to be able to distinguish them from one another. Ironically, all of these decisions were made to avoid backlash from the dwarfism community, and now the little people who were removed from the film are now planning a class action lawsuit against Disney for replacing them with cartoons.
This is so ridiculous. Actress Ally Chapman, who is 3'8 in tall, said, "Seven talented Little People actors could have played these roles in the liveaction remake, and yet they chose to use cartoons. It's an insult and discriminatory.
" You ever see one of those tragic situations where it's extremely foggy and there's a traffic jam on the highway and you have cars speeding into the fog, just crashing into each other? That is this film. And surely it couldn't get any worse, right?
Wrong. Because now there was a major dispute between the two stars of the film, Galado and Rachel Zgler. Fans noticed sometime between 2023 and 2024 that Gal and Rachel may have developed some tension.
As you can see in this interview, Gal is being professional, looking and smiling while Zgler is speaking. But whenever Gal is speaking, Zgler refuses to look at her, often looking down at her feet or off to the side. Their body language screams that there is tension between them.
And these assumptions would be proven true. When Disney released the official trailer for Snow White, Rachel thanked the fans for their support, receiving over 120 million views in 24 hours, she used that big moment to make a political statement. And always remember, Free Palestine.
While some saw this as an honorable act of solidarity, others interpreted it as a jab at her co-star. Galgado is Israeli and even served in their military. Gal has been outwardly supportive of her country, specifically posting support for the IDF and civilian hostages taken during the October 7th Hamas attack.
Almost immediately, Gal began getting a concerning amount of death threats. Things got so bad that Disney had to hire a personal security detail for Gadit. One of the Disney producers, Mark Platt, flew from Los Angeles to New York to have a personal crisis talk with Zgler.
Platt had to remind her how much was at stake with the movie and her career before asking her to post heedfully. The son of the Disney producer was criticized online for his father trying to reprimand Zgler. to which he responded, "Yeah, my dad, the producer of an enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.
This is called adult responsibility and accountability, and her actions clearly hurt the film's box office. Free speech does not mean you're allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and bluecollar workers who depend on that movie to be successful.
Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged. Now Rachel Zgler cannot necessarily be held responsible for the actions of other people. After all, her and her co-star are doing the exact same thing.
They are just expressing support for opposite sides. But all of this could have been avoided if they just left politics out of a children's movie. But Zgler was insistent on making her political opinion heard at any opportunity she could.
Vote for Kla Harris. And it's actually non-negotiable. Our rights are on the line, folks.
our reproductive rights. Come on, go vote blue. And if you disagree with the sentiment, just hit the unfollow button.
I don't need your business. And what better time than immediately after the election of President Donald Trump, she posted on her Instagram story, "I find myself speechless in the midst of this. Another four years of hatred, leaning us towards a world I do not want to live in.
Leaning us towards a world that will be hard to raise my daughter in. She doesn't have a daughter, by the way. Leaning us towards a world that will force her to have a baby she doesn't want.
Leaning us towards a world that is fearful. I shouldn't be this shocked, but I am. I am heartbroken for my friends who awoke fear this morning.
And I'm here with you. To cry, to yell, to hug, to wax poetic on how the left continues to fail us in forging a new path forward. This law should not have been.
And it certainly should not have been by so many votes. May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace. This sent the media into an all-out frenzy, particularly conservative media who were shocked that Disney was allowing their star to publicly condemn half the country.
Hello Disney, you're going to have to redo your film again because this woman is a pig and you fired Gina Corano for far less than this nonsense. Rachel finally crossed a line. Disney was officially fed up with her and decided to take action.
First, I'm assuming they made her apologize because she redacted her comments she made about the election. From there, Zgler reportedly began working with a social media guru paid for by Disney to vet any posts before the film's March 21st debut. They essentially had someone monitoring her social media, so she wasn't able to sabotage the film any further, but the damage had already been done.
The film officially released in theaters worldwide on March 21st, 2025. There was a slight chance that all this negative publicity would actually draw more attention to the film, increased ticket sales, and lead to a successful debut. Unfortunately for Disney, the opposite happened.
Fans knew this movie was going to suck way before it ever released. And no matter how many professional critics on Rotten Tomatoes are writing positive reviews, the fans have made their statement with a lack of support. And as a result, Snow White has suffered a disastrous opening weekend at the global box office, earning only $87.
3 million worldwide, which sounds like a lot until you realize that it had a staggering $250 million production budget, which some reports suggest is actually closer to $300 million after re-shoots and marketing costs. That means they had a whopping 70% loss, making it one of Disney's biggest box office bombs in recent history. This performance is nearly exactly the same as The Little Mermaid.
It had the same budget and had a very similar opening weekend. However, The Little Mermaid was actually a pretty good remake with positive reviews. Fans later decided to give the movie a shot, which resulted in a $569 million worldwide box office earnings.
But due to the overwhelming agreement from people who actually watched the movie that it sucks and then people straight up boycotting, I don't think Snow White's going to get a second wind. This is a bomb. And Rachel Zgler's response to the box office failure was nothing short of delusional.
And to everyone who hates when I win, the winged victory came to the Lou in pieces and people still line up to see her. And I can only hope that despite my flaws and despite my cracks and my breaks, and there are many of them, that at every premiere and everything I do, people will wait in line to see. People who already thought Zgler was a narcissist have officially confirmed their feelings after seeing this statement.
They suspected she was trying to make this film about her. They suspected that she did not care for the legacy of Disney and that all she wanted was the spotlight for herself. And honestly, this response makes it seem like those assumptions are now justified.
But it's a confusing response because the film was a massive flop. Like essentially, she's saying, "Haha, my movies are so great. You just have to line up and you have to watch them.
" But that's not the case. People are actually not waiting in line for this film specifically because of her. And as easy as it is to continuously blame her for the failure of this film, it's only fair to admit that Rachel Zgler's performance was actually decent.
She is a great singer, and she definitely performed well, considering most of what makes the film actually bad was outside of her control. Like most Disney live-action remakes, Snow White just felt a bit bland and lacked the magic of the original. The CGI looked cheap.
The colors are dull and boring. The evil queen didn't feel very evil at all. These remakes often struggle to capture the same charm, making them feel like a corporate cash grab.
But since Disney will lose money on this film, perhaps they won't make this same mistake going forward. But the biggest learning lesson for Disney here is that the internet outrage is not fake. When people say, "Hey, your main character is insufferable and I will not spend my money to see this movie," they're not lying.
When people say they genuinely want politics to remain out of a children's movie, they are not lying. And when people say it's better to just invent new stories instead of alter the classics, they are not lying. The people won, but the truth is this film should have never been made.
Walt Disney himself was extremely protective of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This was essentially his baby. Walt reportedly rejected multiple ideas for sequels, including a proposed short called Snow White Returns, and was adamant that the original story should not be altered or expanded, as he believed Snow White was a standalone masterpiece that should remain untouched.
