Will Snow White's Enchanted Wish suffer same fate as Splash Mountain following Peter Dinklage's comments?

[Parteecia]

I want the dwarves' back story. Are they related? Where do they come from? Do they go back to visit? Are they all little people in their hometown or did they leave because they were different? How did they come to live together? Are they orphans left in the woods to eke out a living? Have any considered finding a wife? Where are the women? Do they sell the gems direct to consumers or use a middleman?

Edited for more questions! Do they own the mine or are they being held hostage and forced to work it? Does it belong to the Evil Queen?

 

[TP2000]

I want the dwarves back story. Are they related? Where do they come from? Do they go back to visit? How did they come to live together? Are they orphans left in the woods to eke out a living? Have any considered finding a wif? Where are the women? Do they sell the gems direct to consumers or use a middleman?

I actually love that idea! I'd like to know more about the Seven Dwarves, aside from their slapstick personalities.

Heck, that might have been a good premise for a new movie. The Seven Dwarves before they met Snow White.

Who are they? How'd they meet? Social outcasts who banded together to make a new life and family for themselves? So many fun possibilities! It would have heart, and emotional charm, and wit, and they could sing a few songs.

 

[Supreme Leader]

I still think Snow White and the Huntsman will be the winner in which is better.
And that's only because they had the amazing Charlize Theron.

 

[Professortango1]

So you are the one who is part of the problem. Got it.

Nope, just don't boil complex issues down to bite sized black and white statements. If you're having to draw false comparisons to make an argument, you've already lost.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Oh, I get it now. I had to Google. Mr. Dinklage is a dwarf and he is 4'5" according to the Internet. I'd honestly never heard of him until this thread.

So, he's coming from a place where he faces type casting his whole career. I can understand that frustration now, even if I don't completely agree with him on his comments.

That said, I'm still not sure how it fixes the issue by turning the dwarfs into "magical creatures" that aren't even human. That seems like a downgrade to me, and even more pandering.

Dwarves in this context have ALWAYS been mythical creatures. They're not "human beings with dwarfism," they're mythical creatures like Gimli from Lord of the Rings.

 

[Professortango1]

Dwarves in this context have ALWAYS been mythical creatures. They're not "human beings with dwarfism," they're mythical creatures like Gimli from Lord of the Rings.

That's as of the 1950's. LOTR is often credited with creating the High Fantasy genre. Before that, dwarves were just human dwarves. They weren't magical creatures. They are not gnomes or hobbits or brownies or leprechauns. They were considered freakish or unusual humans and used as such throughout literature. Snow White wasn't encountering 7 fairy tale creatures. She was encountering 7 unusual men who lived in the woods and away from society.

The dwarves in Snow White are no more magical characters as Quasimodo is. They are people with disabilities that were considered monstrous or odd. Its the same how many fairy tales and children's lit used Pygmies for so long. The original version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has Pygmies who would later be changed to Oompa Loompas for future printings.

 

[Professortango1]

That's an amazing spin for a complete, total box office disaster that was summarily rejected by audiences over the lucrative Christmas period with a massive advertising campaign. The film is a complete write off and won't even recover it's marketing budget at the box office.

But hey, if that makes you sleep better at night....

Not a spin. The movie was a financial failure for the studio. But an artistic achievement as well.

The Shawshank Redemption
The Iron Giant
Children of Men
A Cure for Wellness
Slither
Fight Club
Scott Pilgrim

All favourites of mine which flopped when they were in theatres. I'm glad these movies exist, even if the studios lost money with their theatrical release.

 

[TP2000]

The dwarves in Snow White are no more magical characters as Quasimodo is. They are people with disabilities that were considered monstrous or odd.

Really? I just never thought of them that way.

But, leave it to Walt Disney to turn them into charming and loveable icons!

Re-reading Mr. Dinklage's comments, I have to assume he has very little knowledge or experience with Disney's parks and the way Disney has treated the Seven Dwarves for the past 80 years as company rock stars. He likely has no idea that there's a relatively new roller coaster in Florida and Shanghai named after them and featuring them prominently, that they appear in nearly every parade that Disney ever does in any of their parks, they meet n' greet daily, have their own line of merchandise, have their iconic song cross-referenced in other attractions, etc., etc.

Mr. Dinklage didn't seem to be very familiar with the subject matter of the Seven Dwarves before he went on record criticizing them and the company that markets them heavily. Oops! Better call your agent, quick!

Otherwise, Burbank may ask Mr. Dinklage to follow the lyrics of the Tiki Room exit song... Hi-Ho, it's out the door you go!

 

[TP2000]

Just to be clear Disney had almost nothing to do with West Side Story, outside a little marketing. That project was a pure Steven Spielberg creation under Amblin and was a hold over from Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The project was pretty much done and ready to release by the time Disney was even involved. They requested no rewrites, reshoots, or anything else.

So any decisions about who was cast, changes made to the story, or anything else is 100% not on Disney but on Steven Spielberg himself.

Yes, I'm aware of Disney's acquistion timeline of Fox.

But West Side Story was released after Disney bought Fox.

Thus, the huge financial hit for this massive bomb shows up on Disney's corporate balance sheet for 2022.

 

[Professortango1]

Really? I just never thought of them that way.

But, leave it to Walt Disney to turn them into charming and loveable icons!

Re-reading Mr. Dinklage's comments, I have to assume he has very little knowledge or experience with Disney's parks and the way Disney has treated the Seven Dwarves for the past 80 years as company rock stars. He likely has no idea that there's a relatively new roller coaster in Florida and Shanghai named after them and featuring them prominently, that they appear in nearly every parade that Disney ever does in any of their parks, they meet n' greet daily, have their own line of merchandise, have their iconic song cross-referenced in other attractions, etc., etc.

Mr. Dinklage didn't seem to be very familiar with the subject matter of the Seven Dwarves before he went on record criticizing them and the company that markets them heavily. Oops! Better call your agent, quick!

Otherwise, Burbank may ask Mr. Dinklage to follow the lyrics of the Tiki Room exit song... Hi-Ho, it's out the door you go!

I wouldn't call them rock stars. No kid wants to be one of the dwarves, with perhaps Dopey as the exception because he's the goofiest one. I gather that Dinklage objects to the usage of Dwarves as a silly little person who hangs in caves which Disney's use of dwarves remained consistent with. Disney hasn't treated them as humans with wants and dignity. They are just the silly little men who care for Snow. So I think his knowledge of Disney's treatment is on point. Sure, he's tuned out the finer points, because that what you do to things that annoy you, but he's probably been referred to as one of Snow's dwarves many times in his life and, as I mentioned, has had plenty of offers to play roles consistent with the stereotype that Disney cashed in on.

It would be like if the Dumbo remake still had a character named Jim Crow and had him played as a minstrel show character as he was in the original animated film. You might say...good for you not using real elephants and abusing them, but maybe cut the racist stereotype character before you congratulate yourselves too hard.

 

[TP2000]

Are you serious with this? He's literally a little person.

I had never heard of Mr. Dinklage until this thread. For the first few pages, I had no idea he was under 5 feet tall. He was just another Hollywood celeb blabbering on about the latest hip issue du jour, for me at first.

Oh, and what a shock, the usual group of pearl clutchers are offended by the opinion of a single individual. Even managed to bring up the much ado about nothing consent article!

He's perfectly okay to voice his own opinion, But it's also apparent he didn't quite understand how ingrained in both the hardware and software of Disney's corporate brand the Seven Dwarves are. Which makes his sudden public criticism of the characters an unusual strategy to take with a potential employer.

As but one example, he obviously had no idea that this was a thing...

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Seven Dwarves Mine Train at WDW

And they got seven foot tall basketball players from the Orlando Magic NBA team to hold the freaking ribbon!

Mr. Dinklage is going to lose his mind if he ever decides to Google a bit.

 

[TP2000]

I'm still laughing over the basketball players holding the ribbon for the Mine Train grand opening. Hysterical!

This also makes me chuckle, and good for them for speaking up in their own defense... Happy Friday everyone!

Dwarf actors slam Peter Dinklage for canceling Snow White's 7 dwarves

Multiple actors with dwarfism and agents told DailyMail.com there are plenty of people who would have happily accepted the jobs that Dinklage said were 'backwards'.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Parteecia]

I had never heard of Mr. Dinklage until this thread. For the first few pages, I had no idea he was under 5 feet tall. He was just another Hollywood celeb blabbering on about the latest hip issue du jour, for me at first.



He's perfectly okay to voice his own opinion, But it's also apparent he didn't quite understand how ingrained in both the hardware and software of Disney's corporate brand the Seven Dwarves are. Which makes his sudden public criticism of the characters an unusual strategy to take with a potential employer.

As but one example, he obviously had no idea that this was a thing...

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Seven Dwarves Mine Train at WDW

And they got seven foot tall basketball players from the Orlando Magic NBA team to hold the freaking ribbon!

Mr. Dinklage is going to lose his mind if he ever decides to Google a bit.

It could be that he doesn't have much knowledge of things Disney because he doesn't care about things Disney. He knows enough about how they characterize dwarves and may not care to work with them. And he's done well and won plenty of awards without Disney. More likely they would come asking him.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

I wouldn't call them rock stars. No kid wants to be one of the dwarves, with perhaps Dopey as the exception because he's the goofiest one. I gather that Dinklage objects to the usage of Dwarves as a silly little person who hangs in caves which Disney's use of dwarves remained consistent with. Disney hasn't treated them as humans with wants and dignity. They are just the silly little men who care for Snow. So I think his knowledge of Disney's treatment is on point. Sure, he's tuned out the finer points, because that what you do to things that annoy you, but he's probably been referred to as one of Snow's dwarves many times in his life and, as I mentioned, has had plenty of offers to play roles consistent with the stereotype that Disney cashed in on.

It would be like if the Dumbo remake still had a character named Jim Crow and had him played as a minstrel show character as he was in the original animated film. You might say...good for you not using real elephants and abusing them, but maybe cut the racist stereotype character before you congratulate yourselves too hard.

They don't 'hang out in caves'. They work there..hence the song. The very all time ICONIC SONG. Ever heard of it mate?? The dwarves in the film are never treated with disrespect or less than human. They mine for riches and live in a really nice cabin. As pointed out again in the video I posted, the dwarves are treated like magical creatures in the original story not as people with a growth deformaty. Everything in the video is dead on accurate.

 

[Disney Irish]

Yes, I'm aware of Disney's acquistion timeline of Fox.

But West Side Story was released after Disney bought Fox.

Thus, the huge financial hit for this massive bomb shows up on Disney's corporate balance sheet for 2022.

Not really as this falls under that funny "Hollywood Math" as they spent no money on it other than marketing. So they would take no real loss on it. So unless they don't want to payout the large backend deals that the some of the talent have in place, its likely they won't take a real write down on it.

 

[WDWJoeG]

But it's also apparent he didn't quite understand how ingrained in both the hardware and software of Disney's corporate brand the Seven Dwarves are.

Or that they are literally holding up the Disney corporate office building.

 

[Professortango1]

They don't 'hang out in caves'. They work there..hence the song. The very all time ICONIC SONG. Ever heard of it mate?? The dwarves in the film are never treated with disrespect or less than human. They mine for riches and live in a really nice cabin. Again, you are part of the problem and you are wrong. As pointed out again in the video I posted, the dwarves are treated like magical creatures in the original story not as people with a growth deformaty. Everything in the video is dead on accurate. The way you are carrying on about dwarf representation makes me think you are running a telethon we don't know about.

They are not magical beings in the original story. As someone who wasted my liberal education studying Children's Literature, I can assure you on that. Not proud of that fact, but I get to claim expertise when it comes to fairy tales and YA fiction. Go me.

And yep, I know the song. Its the same song that some airline company used incorrectly in an ad some years back by playing the "home from work we go" version while depicting people getting out of bed and getting on flights, implying that everyone in the ad was some sort of prostitute/gigalo who was leaving their overnight appointment and heading home. Cracked me up every time. "Delta Airlines...the official airlines of call girls everywhere!"

If Disney was remaking Aristocats (they are) and decided to keep the character of Shun Gon, the wacky Asian stereotype, would people be as rude to an Asian actor casually mentioning how hypocritical Disney is with their diversity? If the new Dumbo featured a white actor playing a black minstrel show character and a black actor said it was backwards, would we say the actor is overreacting?

Disney has been jumping through hoops to rectify how they have portrayed certain minority groups in the past. How many "first gay character"s can they have? PD is just pointing out that they seem to have forgotten this when it comes to differently abled people.

He's not saying to #cancel the film or Disney. He's just rolling his eyes at Disney praising themselves for casting a Latina actress while still presenting a backwards representation of people like himself.

Calm down. Nobody is dying here. No need to get all triggered. Just an actor pointing out that Disney isn't as woke as they want to be.

 

[The Mom]

Please be respectful to other posters, people in general, and stay on topic. Thank you.

 

[Brer Oswald]

I wouldn't call them rock stars. No kid wants to be one of the dwarves, with perhaps Dopey as the exception because he's the goofiest one. I gather that Dinklage objects to the usage of Dwarves as a silly little person who hangs in caves which Disney's use of dwarves remained consistent with. Disney hasn't treated them as humans with wants and dignity. They are just the silly little men who care for Snow. So I think his knowledge of Disney's treatment is on point. Sure, he's tuned out the finer points, because that what you do to things that annoy you, but he's probably been referred to as one of Snow's dwarves many times in his life and, as I mentioned, has had plenty of offers to play roles consistent with the stereotype that Disney cashed in on.

It would be like if the Dumbo remake still had a character named Jim Crow and had him played as a minstrel show character as he was in the original animated film. You might say...good for you not using real elephants and abusing them, but maybe cut the racist stereotype character before you congratulate yourselves too hard.

Comparing the significance of the Seven Dwarfs (regardless of how politically correct or incorrect you think they are) to the one off crows in Dumbo is a bit of a disingenuous comparison. The Seven Dwarfs essentially ARE that original movie. There’s a reason why the ride at Walt Disney World is themed around the Dwarfs and not Snow White. There’s a reason why they “hold up” the roof of the Team Disney building in Burbank. There’s a reason why it’s Mickey Avenue and Dopey Drive.

Disney is going to do whatever it takes to save this movie because it’s a Princess movie, and they LOVE that princess merch. The question is, should they? Is it really worth the public deeming their premiere film, the film that built the studio and put them on the path they are now, as “unacceptable” just for a temporary boost in merch? Of course, they usually have their cake and eat it too. The Disney fans will come to their defence so long as the company says the IP is “relevant”.

In any case, I’ve always looked at the Dwarfs in the film as magical creatures that resemble humans. They have four fingers, they are designed with the same principles as Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony characters. This likely could have been avoided if they put out a trailer and the “Dwarfs” were just CGI versions of the 1937 characters, not unlike the Smurfs or Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

[marcel54]

So society has to cave in to one persons opinion?