The live-action Snow White movie from Disney has gone through one of the most troubling life spans I've ever seen a movie go through, at least in the public eye. As you might have been following, the flick hasn't even been released yet, but it's been making headlines constantly, mainly due to the fact that its lead actress, Rachel Zegler, has been an absolute nightmare for the film.
Of course, Zegler is hardly the only problem the film is having. Disney has been releasing live-action films for some time now, and each of them has been worse than the last. The enthusiasm for these rehashed, low-effort, over-CGI-laden messes is very low. Gone are the days of Disney's originality, and nothing brings that home quite like dragging better movies out from the vault and transforming them into lesser works.
What makes it even worse for Disney is that it fell victim to the woke mind virus that claimed so many companies. The works it spat out have ranged from subtly in messaging to outright, in-your-child's-face indoctrination. Social justice themes are a common thread in Disney films nowadays, with both the radical feminist and LGBT agendas infecting every film.
The problem got so bad that Disney finally bent the knee and declared it would no longer attempt to inject homosexual content into its films, hilariously, creating its own "don't say gay" policy, something it had attempted to go to war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over.
(READ: You've Won: Disney Adopts Its Own 'Don't Say Gay' Policy)
But despite their new path, or at least their look of one, Zegler continues to be a massive issue. She is, without reservation, a walking, talking PR nightmare. While her comments about men, the original Snow White, and more still poison the air around the film, her recent comments on Trump supporters after the election of Trump might have just made the film completely unwatchable.
Zegler is your typical social justice-obsessed monster and without seeing what she said about Trump supporters, you could probably guess with great accuracy what it is she posted online. You've seen it before a million times. We're hateful bigots, we hate women and want to take their rights, swear words galore, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Bonchie has more of the story if you truly want to dive into the nitty-gritty of it, but that's not what this article is about.
The point is, Zegler has made this movie a giant skip for nearly everyone in America save for a few Disney diehards and anyone willing to express their Zegler-level spite for Americans by paying to see this half-hearted cash grab.
So the only real move for Disney, at this point, is to toss the movie into a vault, never to speak of it again, and take the tax write-off for the production costs.
This isn't unheard of. Warner Bros has done it twice in the recent past, once with Batgirl in 2022, a cancelation that occurred after it was clear that test audiences hated it so much that there was no chance for it to survive. The other was "Coyote vs. Acme" in 2023, giving WB a $30 million tax write-off.
While rare, it's not unprecedented.
The thing about this move is that it would also do something very important... it would send a message. Two messages, in fact.
The first would be a message to Hollywood, to actors, directors, and producers, that if you can't get your own social prejudices under control, your movie can be destroyed. No film is invincible, and insulting the audience you're trying to sell tickets to can and will hurt your film's numbers. The best move is to shut up or, at the very least, keep your opinions to a minimum. If the movie gets too down in the PR dumps, it's shelved, alongside any residuals you might have gotten.
Moreover, the death of that film will be a mark on your career, and you may find it difficult for anyone to want to work with you again in the future as your name will be enough to drive people away from your projects. It's in everyone's best interest, including your own, to just shut up and act.
The other message it will send is one to the people. It's an acknowledgment that they've been heard and that things did, indeed, go wrong. So wrong that the company is willing to kill the offending project and try again, this time with a bit more care and a little less vitriol. Shelving the film would show something like maturity from Disney, and that it's not only willing to make good financial decisions, but that it understands the toxicity of its product enough to refuse to release it.
I'm not sure if Disney will do this, but given its options, this does seem like the best one business-wise. I sincerely doubt people will turn out to see this live-action monstrosity of $269.4 million dollars. The film would need to generate $400 million just to break even... and there is no chance this film is getting that kind of box office love now.
It's time to hang it up, and I don't just mean the movie. I mean this period of Disney that was controlled by woke idiots more intent on spreading a message than creating good cinema.
