Leftists Turn on Each Other: New Scene in Disneyland's Snow White Causes Outrage
Next on the cancelation list: left-leaning Disney and Snow White’s prince.
These should be good times for Disney. On Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, California’s Disneyland reopened after 400 days. The park also had a new ride, Snow White’s Enchanted Wish, which replaced Snow White’s Scary Adventures in Disneyland.
“You’re still going to feel a lot of suspense,” said Dave Caranci, manager of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering, in a statement. “The Evil Queen is still there outside the attraction opening the curtains. But there’s a warmer, inviting feel that’s drawing you inside and now it’s Snow White’s journey.”
It sounds as if Snow White is reclaiming her time and making this all about girl boss energy — but alas, I can’t tell you, since I wasn’t there. Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine of the San Francisco Chronicle were, and they ended up being both impressed and outraged.
“The attraction preserves much of the charm of what originally opened in 1955 at the park’s debut, but gives it a more cohesive storyline that’s true to the 1938 movie. It also adds in the movie’s biggest problem — but we’ll get to that in a minute,” their Friday story on the new attraction read.
Pluses? “The ride, one of Fantasyland’s original attractions, got a major upgrade, with new audio and visual technology installed throughout, including LED black lighting, laser projections, new music and a new animation system,” they wrote.
“The colors are punched up in a major way, and the new imagery is stunning, especially in the scenes where the Seven Dwarfs are mining for gems. Those scenes are reminiscent of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, a thrill ride that also includes a similar glittering mine scene.”
It’s also not as frightening: “The ‘scary’ in Snow White’s adventures was a divisive tone for a kiddie ride,” Dowd and Tremaine wrote. “Some felt it was much too scary for small children, especially because many scenes were very dark and used jump scares. The sight of screaming, crying children exiting the ride was not uncommon, and perhaps was part of the reason Snow White often had some of the shortest lines in Fantasyland.”
Minuses? Consent issues.
Remember the prince? The one about which Snow White sang the Disney standard, “Someday My Prince Will Come”? He’s there, and Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine are not Happy (or any of the other dwarves) with his behavior.
“The new ride includes a more comprehensive storyline — but that’s also the problem. The new grand finale of Snow White’s Enchanted Wish is the moment when the Prince finds Snow White asleep under the Evil Queen’s spell and gives her ‘true love’s kiss’ to release her from the enchantment,” they wrote. “A kiss he gives to her without her consent, while she’s asleep, which cannot possibly be true love if only one person knows it’s happening.
“Haven’t we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue? That teaching kids that kissing, when it hasn’t been established if both parties are willing to engage, is not OK?” they continued.
“It’s hard to understand why the Disneyland of 2021 would choose to add a scene with such old fashioned ideas of what a man is allowed to do to a woman, especially given the company’s current emphasis on removing problematic scenes from rides like Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain. Why not re-imagine an ending in keeping with the spirit of the movie and Snow White’s place in the Disney canon, but that avoids this problem?”
The ending of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” is seared into the memory of 90 percent of Americans over the age of 10, one guesses, and the majority of them don’t have an issue with it.
Unlike Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain rides, where the “problematic scenes” had to do with issues of race, woke outrage never really took off around Snow White — although it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Why? Conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis may have put it best:
Since she immediately goes on to marry the Prince instead of tweeting outrage demanding we cancel him or going on Oprah, implied consent is a pretty good defense here.
Leftists are so sad. ?https://t.co/1crwlhId4B
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) May 3, 2021
The Daily Wire’s Hank Berrien pointed out the incantation the Evil Queen spoke when she first poisoned the apple in the movie:
“Dip the apple in the brew. Let the Sleeping Death seep through. Look! On the skin. The symbol of what lies within. Now, turn red to tempt Snow White. To make her hunger for a bite. Have a bite? It’s not for you. It’s for Snow White,” she said.
“When she breaks the tender peel to taste the tender apple in my hand, her breath will still, her blood congeal. Then I’ll be fairest in the land! But wait! There may be an antidote! Nothing must be overlooked. Oh, here it is! Love’s first kiss. Bah! No fear of that. The dwarfs will think she’s dead. She’ll be buried alive! Buried Alive! Thirsty? Have a drink.”
It’s clear from the movie’s internal logic that it’s only “love’s first kiss” — not “creep’s first kiss” — that will wake Snow White.
The movie also makes it clear she’s already in love with him. If this is a hill some on the left wish to die on, that’s great, but this doesn’t raise issues of consent with anyone who exists outside a small pocket of leftists who love to hear themselves debate these things.
Then again, it’s always edifying to see the left eat its own. Keep in mind this is the same Disney that dismissed Gina Carano from “The Mandalorian” for her un-woke tweeting, the same company whose ESPN division has Jemele Hill and Colin Kaepernick on its payroll.
Unfortunately, the company also has a canonical 1937 movie it can’t particularly change to fit the moment. And yet, one assumes this isn’t the last criticism in this vein we’re going to hear.
Wokeness is a hungry, angry beast everyone rides atop at their own peril. It’s not a finicky eater, particularly when it comes to corporations. The further away you are, the safer you’ll be. That’s a lesson you get an inkling that Disney’s about to learn the hard way.
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