Disney's latest go woke go broke fiasco

[K Frame]

Really surprised no one has been commenting on this one, because it's been a lot of fun...

Disney recently released a live action version of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs starring Rachel Zegler.

It was substantially wokeified, using CGI dwarfs instead of giving jobs to actual dwarfs, and Zegler has been popping her mouth off, inserting her personal political views into her press appearances every chance she's gotten.

Zegler also started pounding the Palestine drum... which was a REAL problem because her costar in the movie is Gal Gadot, who is Israeli and a former member of the IDF. Gadot started getting death threats so Disney had to spring for a bunch of extra security.

Production cost a quarter billion dollars (on top of another couple hundred million in publicity).

Opening day box was... $43 million. After which the box office fell off a cliff.

A Disney producer had to fly to New York to have a meeting with Zegler, and people were going so nuts that the producers son had to set them straight on the reason for the meeting.


So, Disney decided to produce a woke version of their classic movie. And then star decided to take the wokeness to a new level.

And now Disney is looking at a disastrous movie that could go a long way towards bankrupting the studio.

And it couldn't be any more amusing.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/snow-white-death-threats-zegler-social-media-guru-1236347433/

[HankB]

Weren't the CGI dwarfs a last minute "fix" because the non-dwarf rainbow 7 they had originally cast made test audiences and focus groups  ?

[K Frame]

Oh, and there are strong suggestions that Zegler has now been dropped from consideration for a number of new projects, so she's obviously didn't do herself any favors, either.

[K Frame]

Weren't the CGI dwarfs a last minute "fix" because the non-dwarf rainbow 7 they had originally cast made test audiences and focus groups  ?

Beats me. I'd not heard that, but it wouldn't surprise me.


I'm reminded of a Bloom County cartoon years ago where a grandpa character is reading Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs and his grandkids protest, saying there are other colors.

So he changes the title of the book to Pitch Black and the 7 Big Honkys, or something like that.

(Edited to correct who was portrayed in the strip. Unfortunately can't find an image of it online.)

[HankB]

Disney said the pictures in this story "weren't official."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12298801/EXCLUSIVE-Snow-White-Seven-Politically-Correct-Companions.html

[WLJ]

Weren't the CGI dwarfs a last minute "fix" because the non-dwarf rainbow 7 they had originally cast made test audiences and focus groups  ?

There were photos that came out where they looked they were picked from a LGBTQ parade. Now whether or not those photos were real I can't say 100% but they were reported to be.

And BTW, they're not dwarfs they're magical creatures. 

Edit: HankB beat me to it

[K Frame]

wow. Just wow. That's... wow.

One thing I forgot to mention is that Zegler has done nothing but absolutely trash the 1937 version. As in really being a despicable little bitch in some of her comments, alleging the prince figure in the original is a stalker and possible sexual predator.

The 1937 movie SAVED Disney from bankruptcy and likely break up, and set the groundwork for everything that came afterwards. It was also one of the original 25 films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

That the company would allow that legacy to be trashed is just disgusting.

[Ben]

One of the reasons that they went CGI on the dwarves is because of Peter Dinklage outrage about using real midgets. Which is kinda ironic, considering how much money he made in Game of Thrones. I guess he decided to shut the door behind him.

I hope young Rachel never works again. She's not the kind of person who would learn a lesson and grow. She happily created a situation that created death threats against her costar, requiring Gal Gadot to hire 24/7 security. Something Disney should be paying for, if you ask me.

[WLJ]

So have they blamed Trump yet for it failing?

[K Frame]

So have they blamed Trump yet for it failing?

There have been rumblings about conservatives and MAGA, yes.

[dogmush]

Weren't the CGI dwarfs a last minute "fix" because the non-dwarf rainbow 7 they had originally cast made test audiences and focus groups  ?

I don't know when the CGI came in, but I did watch a YouTube video from a conservative commentator on this, and she said that the picture that leaked of the non-dwarf magical creatures was actually a picture of the love interest's Band of Bandits (Prince Charming is apparently a bandit in this one) and that those charectors are still in the movie, un CGI'd.

So Disney may have been planning the CGI dwarf-fest the whole time, and still couldn't get it right.

[BobR]

Weren't the CGI dwarfs a last minute "fix" because the non-dwarf rainbow 7 they had originally cast made test audiences and focus groups  ?

I seem to recall way back when the casting started for this movie they had real actors portraying the little people and they were not little people and were multi-ethnic and varied pronoun people. I tried looking for any reference to them but a quick search turns up nothing, did it get scrubbed? Oh well, no matter, this one won't be a collectible that everyone has to have in their Disney collection.

bob 

[WLJ]

There have been rumblings about conservatives and MAGA, yes.

Shades of 2016 Ghostbusters where they blamed men for it failing after publicly stating the movie wasn't for men and insulted anyone who dared question the total gender swap

[Northwoods]

Shades of 2016 Ghostbusters where they then blamed men for it failing after publicly stating the movie wasn't for men and insulted anyone who dared question the total gender swap

There are sooooo many good, original stories they can write for women, blacks, Latinos, lgbtwtfbbq, etc characters that I just don't get this insistence on losing money by reimagining classic tales or characters to be something non-normal-white-person.

I didn't mind Morgan Freeman playing Red in The Shawshank Redemption because the Stephen King novella had only been read by a handful of people, and was hardly a classic character, plus, Morgan Freeman.

But why take a story or character, and make it something it's not, knowing you'll lose tons of money as fans revolt?

[WLJ]

There are sooooo many good, original stories they can write for women, blacks, Latinos, lgbtwtfbbq, etc characters that I just don't get this insistence on losing money by reimagining classic tales or characters to be something non-normal-white-person.

I didn't mind Morgan Freeman playing Red in The Shawshank Redemption because the Stephen King novella had only been read by a handful of people, and was hardly a classic character, plus, Morgan Freeman.

But why take a story or character, and make it something it's not, knowing you'll lose tons of money as fans revolt?

I said at the time and still do that if they had gone with the girls being the daughters of the original guys and a continuation of the original instead of a total reboot of where they basically tried to erase the original it's reception would have been a lot warmer and it probably would have done somewhat better. This is assuming they also hired more likable actresses as well as the ones they did were a big factor in the movie's failure. But we'll never know now.

[dogmush]

I said at the time and still do that if they had gone with the girls being the daughters of the original guys and a continuation of the original instead of a total reboot of where they basically tried to erase the original it's reception would have been a lot warmer and it probably would have done somewhat better. This is assuming they also hired more likable actresses as well as the ones they did were a big factor in the movie's failure. But we'll never know now.

You mean like Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?  Which were fine?

[WLJ]

You mean like Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?  Which were fine?

Talking about 2016 Ghostbusters. And note I said  it's reception would have been a lot warmer and it probably would have done somewhat better. Keyword being somewhat. Still had the problem of piss poor writing and the actresses they choose being unlikable both on and off the screen.
I think Afterlife did okay and I think it was largely a fan service after 2016 and IIRC Frozen Empire did poorly but I don't recall exactly how it did. Everything I've heard is that it was just an abysmal movie.

[Brad Johnson]

Frozen Empire did poorly but I don't recall exactly how it did. Everything I've heard is that it was just an abysmal movie.

It was decent. They tried too put too much in it, but it wasn't a bad watch.

The 2016 shitshow was a combination of Girl Power for Girl Power's sake, their "If don't like it you're sexist, racist, etc. etc.!!!!" spittle-spewing rhetoric, and it being more focused on spectacle and pizazz than story, character development, and populating their characters with likeable (and competent) actors. The initial trailer's epic face-plant didn't help, either.

Brad

[K Frame]

Shades of 2016 Ghostbusters where they blamed men for it failing after publicly stating the movie wasn't for men and insulted anyone who dared question the total gender swap

Goddamn, that fiasco was almost 10 years ago?

[K Frame]

"But why take a story or character, and make it something it's not, knowing you'll lose tons of money as fans revolt?"

BECAUSE THE "FANS" ARE WHITE SUPREMACIST MAGA RACISTS!

THEY'RE HATEFUL BASTARDS WHOSE ONLY CLAIM TO FAME IS SCARING AWAY THE MILLIONS OF WOKE TRANS FOC (FANS OF COLOR) WHO WOULD HAVE MADE THIS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MOVIE OF ALL TIME!

[dogmush]

Talking about 2016 Ghostbusters. And note I said  it's reception would have been a lot warmer and it probably would have done somewhat better. Keyword being somewhat. Still had the problem of piss poor writing and the actresses they choose being unlikable both on and off the screen.
I think Afterlife did okay and I think it was largely a fan service after 2016 and IIRC Frozen Empire did poorly but I don't recall exactly how it did. Everything I've heard is that it was just an abysmal movie.

Yeah.  I was agreeing with you.  Had they done 2016 as a continuation with grand daughters of the original crew and some level of respect it likely would have done better.

I was trying to point out that that is basically what they die with Afterlife and Frozen Empire, and those movies were fine.  Fun to watch. Wiki says they both made about $200 million off of a $76 mil and $100 mil budget, respectively.

Sadly, I think those two movies would have done significantly better if Ghostbusters 2016 had never been made

[K Frame]

You mean like Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?  Which were fine?

The 2016 identifier in front of the title was, and should have been, a clue as to which movie he was referencing.

[K Frame]

"The 2016 shitshow was a combination of Girl Power for Girl Power's sake"

One of my friends referred to it as the Smelly Snatch Show...

Ouch, John... just ouch.

[dogmush]

The 2016 identifier in front of the title was, and should have been, a clue as to which movie he was referencing.

Yeah, no *expletive deleted*it sherlock.  That's why I identified the movies I was talking about too.

[WLJ]

Yeah.  I was agreeing with you.  Had they done 2016 as a continuation with grand daughters of the original crew and some level of respect it likely would have done better.

I was trying to point out that that is basically what they die with Afterlife and Frozen Empire, and those movies were fine.  Fun to watch. Wiki says they both made about $200 million off of a $76 mil and $100 mil budget, respectively.

Sadly, I think those two movies would have done significantly better if Ghostbusters 2016 had never been made

Got it.
I interpreted it at first as you were asking which movie I was talking about and what I meant