Live-Action ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’

[Tony the Tigger]

Or a lot of people got suckered into the nostalgia bait and left the theater saying, well, that was not needed. I'm not sure anyone would argue that transformers age of extinction is a good movie. And that any large number of people enjoyed it. Heck all I hear is how bad Transformers 3 is as well. But that's over a billion as well. And to think that the last 2 Transformers movies weren't hurt because of Bays lazy uninspired transformers films would be strange to me. Maybe I'm looking too into it, but I sure see a similar pattern.

So we judge movies by box office when it suits our narrative, but explain it away with baseless suppositions otherwise?

 

[LittleBuford]

Or a lot of people got suckered into the nostalgia bait and left the theater saying, well, that was not needed.

Aladdin and The Lion King (the first of which I thought was OK, the second of which I hated) came after a string of earlier remakes. There was no bait-and-switch; people knew what they were getting and paid—over a billion in each case—to get it. We’ve only had one major cinematic remake since then, The Little Mermaid, whose performance by itself simply doesn’t provide us with enough information about public appetite for such films going forward.

 

[LittleBuford]

There are different storylines in Snow White, but the main storyline is LOVE. Love for her Prince and vice versa and love for the Dwarfs and vice versa. To focus the storyline mostly on her becoming a leader and slaying the Queen is going totally away from it. The Dwarfs want to kill the Queen because they love Snow White. And the Prince kisses her because he thinks it will be his last kiss with his one true love. To make it like love is less important than personal gain is just wrong.

We don’t yet know the the ways and degree to which love will feature in Snow White. I wouldn’t get preemptively angry about it.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We’ve only had one major cinematic remake since then, The Little Mermaid, whose performance by itself simply doesn’t provide us with enough information about public appetite for such films going forward.

Especially considering the unfortunate controversy surrounding it.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

There’s a lot of bad movies that make billions, the entire Fast and Furious series instantly jumps to mind, quickly followed by the Jurassic Park sequels, the Transformers sequels, and the Disney remakes.

People love escapism, a movie doesn’t have to be “good” to be “good”, it just has to let us forget about our problems for a few hours or take us back to our childhood and we’ll line up to see it.

I’m sure we all have guilty pleasure movies that we know are bad but we still love to watch over and over. Every time I watch a Jurassic park movie I groan a little at how bad the stories are but I keep watching them because I love the visuals and the spectacle of it.

Escapism pays.

 

[erasure fan1]

So we judge movies by box office when it suits our narrative, but explain it away with baseless suppositions otherwise?

No. I brought up box office to show a point of fatigue. I've been pretty up front with my position on box office. I've said multiple times great box office doesn't equal a great film. I'll bring up Prince of Persia again. I thought it was really good. But I completely understand why they abandoned it. It made no money and was a complete financial loss. But I'm not going to sit here and argue when people say it was a flop, because it was.

Aladdin and The Lion King (the first of which I thought was OK, the second of which I hated) came after a string of earlier remakes. There was no bait-and-switch; people knew what they were getting and paid—over a billion in each case—to get it.

You seem to inject things into posts that aren't there to begin with. I never said bait and switch. When I say nostalgia bait, I'm talking about the marketing. They are playing on peoples nostalgia of the original. And when you watch the trailers, that's exactly what they are doing.And maybe, just maybe, people are getting a bit tiered of it. I'm sure a lot of people went into Aladdin and lion king with high hopes because of the originals, then they were disappointed with what they got.

 

[LittleBuford]

You seem to inject things into posts that aren't there to begin with. I never said bait and switch. When I say nostalgia bait, I'm talking about the marketing. They are playing on peoples nostalgia of the original. And when you watch the trailers, that's exactly what they are doing.And maybe, just maybe, people are getting a bit tiered of it. I'm sure a lot of people went into Aladdin and lion king with high hopes because of the originals, then they were disappointed with what they got.

I’m not sure how the scenario you’re describing—whereby people were lured by the “nostalgia bait” (your phrase) but left the cinema disappointed with what they actually got—isn’t bait-and-switch. If you really object to my use of that term, I can edit my post, but it would make absolutely no difference to my point.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I remember hearing nothing but good things when Aladdin was doing well in theaters. I never bothered with it, but it got very good word of mouth and "had legs."

 

[erasure fan1]

I’m not sure how the scenario you’re describing—whereby people were lured by the “nostalgia bait” (your phrase) but left the cinema disappointed with what they actually got—isn’t bait-and-switch. If you really object to my use of that term, I can edit my post, but it would make absolutely no difference to my point.

Just because you don't like something, or were disappointed, doesn't make it a bait and switch. No need to edit, I just found it odd because the two things are pretty different. It doesn't make a difference to your point but isn't really related to mine. Think of it like a Disney cupcake. You see it and say, I love cupcakes! You then eat it and think it was too sugary, not a lot of flavor... Disney might sell a lot of them based on people love cupcakes and they look good. That doesn't mean they taste good, or that it's a bait and switch.

 

[LittleBuford]

Just because you don't like something, or were disappointed, doesn't make it a bait and switch. No need to edit, I just found it odd because the two things are pretty different. It doesn't make a difference to your point but isn't really related to mine. Think of it like a Disney cupcake. You see it and say, I love cupcakes! You then eat it and think it was too sugary, not a lot of flavor... Disney might sell a lot of them based on people love cupcakes and they look good. That doesn't mean they taste good, or that it's a bait and switch.

Then I'm not sure I understand your point. Do you view Aladdin and the The Lion King as marking some sort of turning point in how people responded to the remakes?

 

[erasure fan1]

Then I'm not sure I understand your point. Do you view Aladdin and the The Lion King as marking some sort of turning point in how people responded to the remakes?

Yes, it goes back to my original post that people are tired of the remakes and that's played into all the snow white stuff. Just because those two movies made a ton of money doesn't necessarily mean all is sunshine and roses with the remakes. You said yourself you hated lion king. It seems to me, that those movies were somewhat of a straw that broke the camels back. Two extremely beloved films that most seem to no longer care about the live action versions at all. Is it the only thing at play? Absolutely not. But it is a factor that plays into what's going on now in my opinion.

 

[LittleBuford]

Yes, it goes back to my original post that people are tired of the remakes and that's played into all the snow white stuff. Just because those two movies made a ton of money doesn't necessarily mean all is sunshine and roses with the remakes. You said yourself you hated lion king. It seems to me, that those movies were somewhat of a straw that broke the camels back. Two extremely beloved films that most seem to no longer care about the live action versions at all. Is it the only thing at play? Absolutely not. But it is a factor that plays into what's going on now in my opinion.

Thank you for explaining.

I may have hated The Lion King, but others didn't. Aladdin was enjoyable enough and entirely consistent in aim and tone with the remakes that preceded it. I really don't see how those two movies, either individually or together, would or could have shifted the public's attitude to the remakes as a genre.

At any rate, it will surely be the next several films in the lineup that will determine whether Disney thinks there's any profit to be made in pursuing such remakes. We don't have enough evidence at present to say whether or not audience interest has dried up.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

At any rate, it will surely be the next several films in the lineup that will determine whether Disney thinks there's any profit to be made in pursuing such remakes. We don't have enough evidence at present to say whether or not audience interest has dried up.

This brings up an interesting question... if Snow White loses money, or even breaks even, will that change Disneys attitude towards the remakes?

They’ve now done the renaissance era films (BaTB, LM, LK) and they will have done the best known early era films (Cinderella, Snow White, Alice, Jungle Book, etc), what’s next? Do they start the CG era films like Tangled, etc? We know Moana’s on the table, I wonder what the future holds for the remakes.

 

[LittleBuford]

This brings up an interesting question... if Snow White loses money, or even breaks even, will that change Disneys attitude towards the remakes?

They’ve now done the renaissance era films (BaTB, LM, LK) and they will have done the best known early era films (Cinderella, Snow White, Alice, Jungle Book, etc), what’s next? Do they start the CG era films like Tangled, etc? We know Moana’s on the table, I wonder what the future holds for the remakes.

As I've noted before, I'm generally ambivalent when it comes to the remakes, but remaking something as recent as Moana seems really silly to me. But again, if enough people pay to see it, Disney will only continue down this route.

 

[LittleBuford]

What did they learn from their terrible run of Lightyear, Strange World, Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Haunted Mansion, Mermaid, Elemental, etc.?

What lessons could they draw about the remakes from a list of films that are mainly original?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

What did they learn from their terrible run of Lightyear, Strange World, Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Mulan, Haunted Mansion, Mermaid, Elemental, etc.?

Not to mention the straight to D+ disasters of Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Wendy, etc.

Their entire content strategy needs to be rethought.

I think it’s too early to tell, movies take years to develop and create so anything they‘ve learned probably won’t materialize until 2025.

I’d probably exclude the Covid era movies though (Onward, Soul, Luca, etc), we’ll never know how well they’d have done had they actually been released, with the exception of Mulan I’d say they were all far superior to this years releases.

I agree they need a reset though, the D+ remakes have been very underwhelming and people seem to have taken a wait and see it for free approach with the theatrical releases thanks to D+. They need to figure out D+ so it doesn’t poach the box office and they also need to figure out the D+ quality to maintain subscriptions, questionable quality shows like Peter Pan and Pinocchio aren’t going to cut it.

 

[erasure fan1]

At any rate, it will surely be the next several films in the lineup that will determine whether Disney thinks there's any profit to be made in pursuing such remakes. We don't have enough evidence at present to say whether or not audience interest has dried up.

I don't think interest has dried up completely. I'd say waning is a better way to say it. But you are right, the next couple will tell us if the arrow is pointing up or down.

 

[LittleBuford]

I don't care what anyone says, Onward is a delightful and highly underrated film.

 

[Chi84]

how they’re changing a movie we all grew up with.

I wonder how many people (outside of the super fans here) grew up with the actual movie rather than the “story.”

I’m 68 years old and Snow White came out nearly 20 years before I was born. I remember hearing the story and reading books but I don’t think I saw the movie until last week.

I know my kids are familiar with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from the Disney storybook series and WDW but I don’t think either of them saw the 1937 movie.

Maybe the story is the important thing so it doesn’t make much difference. Just a thought.

 

[TP2000]

Covid, in an unlikely way, provided cover as the box office for Onward (which opened to only $39M before the shut down), Soul, Luca, Mulan, Turning Red, etc. would have made the narrative about their string of box office failures even worse. None of those films have created any kind of long-term resonance in any format since release.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a single instance of any of those movies having a presence in the American parks. No character meet n' greets, no cavalcades, no attraction placement, no World of Color snippet, etc.

If any of those movies had generated a meaningful audience, you would see park placement and merchandise displays. Even just adding a character to an existing parade float, or having the character dance along next to a parade float.

But there is none of that. Those movies and their characters and stories don't exist in the parks. So much for Synergy.