On March 21, 2025, Disney released the live-action remake of one of its most popular films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, starring Rachel Zegler from the hit movie adaptations of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and West Side Story. And it failed. If Snow White were meant to be a boulder, it would be a pebble. If it were meant to be a star, it would be a black hole. If it was meant to be good, which I’m honestly doubting, it turned out pretty awful. It failed so exceptionally, so noticeably, it was almost purposeful. 

But it wasn’t. Because no studio would ever purposefully crash their cash-grab, pathetic excuse of a movie that was just one more live-action remake in a planned, long line of live-action remakes.

Well, until that movie did so badly that Disney, according to Screen Rant, shelved some of its other live-action remakes until further notice. Such are their plans to remake Tangled, which is a relief to those who do not want to see their beloved princess tale brutally maligned and then plastered on billboards broadcasting the tragedy on the side of the 405. 

With a dismal 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, 1.6/10 on IMDB, 50% on Metacritic, and a production loss of 100 million dollars, to say this movie did poorly would be a wee bit of an understatement.

But why did it descend so terribly? Was it Gal Gadot’s unbelievably dull acting performance? (Could it even be called a performance?) Was it the unemotional, cliche world? Was it the CGI dwarfs? Was it the exact same copy-pasted story that did well in the 1930s and a little less than well in the 2020s?

Perhaps everyone’s just tired of stories being reused with popular actors and actresses. Maybe they want something original? 

Or it could be because the film was dragged into politics by the social media posts of both lead actors and interviews given by Zegler about how outdated the old Snow White is.

It should also be noted that a lot of the backlash for the Snow White movie comes from the main lead, Rachel Zegler, not being white, which is the most idiotic critique one could have for a film that has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. So some of the hatred isn’t even justified. 

But the controversies aside, the movie was also just… not great. The previously stated statistics aside, nothing about it sounds appealing.

Stories have been retold ever since stories existed. From handprinted drawings on cave walls to the Tale of Genji, to Gutenberg’s very first printing press, to Louis Le Prince’s invention of the motion picture camera. Ever since stories were made, people have been relaying and repeating, and reshaping them. From Grimm’s fairy tales to Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27 to Super Mario Bros. (1985).

There’s nothing wrong with repeating a story. But you should probably do something interesting with it. Something unique. Something that makes all that effort ($209 million) worthwhile. Something that shows that you care about the craft of art and aren’t just, oh, you know, remaking loved classics as an easy way to make cash because you are too greedy to be willing to take the risk of losing money on actual creative projects made with care. 

But who am I to say anything?