Victim Blaming Princesses: The Failure of Live Action Remakes
By Laurel Sanders
Hollywood makes a lot of awful movies. They can’t all be winners. But often, these flops are hundred-million-dollar mistakes. Or are they?
The new Minecraft movie is visually hideous, poorly written, and seemingly one mistake after another. Yet, this film—designed as a meme—has become the second highest-grossing movie of the year, raking in $910 million worldwide. I’m sure this visual assault will get a sequel and make even more money.
This might seem like the beginning of an article about Minecraft, but it’s not. I wanted to note the drastically different cultural reactions audiences have had to Minecraft versus, say… the recent Snow White film.
Image Courtesy of Disney
A film targeted toward girls, starring two female leads—both of whom were viciously bullied from the start of their press tour. While I’m not ignoring the political context behind the hate comments, I urge people to take a step back. Look at how “boys” were rewarded for something less than mediocre, while Snow White faced backlash so severe it apparently put an end to live-action remakes entirely. That extreme reaction was inherently gendered—and deeply misguided.
That said, I do believe a large part of the issue lies with the marketing team, and the comparison between Minecraft and Snow White isn’t entirely fair. Minecraft leaned into its meme potential. Meanwhile, Snow White (2025) weirdly tried to hide the fact that it’s a romance. The original controversy came when star Rachel Zegler said in an interview, “She’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love…” A line echoed by other live-action princesses like Emma Watson and Naomi Scott, but Zegler's version sparked disproportionate backlash. Ironically, in the final film, Snow White is saved by true love’s kiss. So, everyone was mad... for nothing.
Now, it may sound like I’m defending Snow White (2025), but I’m not. It’s nearly unwatchable. I believe there are three irredeemable, yet completely preventable, issues.
First: the dwarves. What is going on? Instead of casting little people, the production chose to animate nightmarish CGI versions of the original 2D characters. I won’t pretend to know the ethics of casting here; it’s a nuanced debate, but this was not the solution. The result is lifeless, grotesque, and lacking all the charm of the originals. The dwarves are meant to be Snow White’s friends, her found family. Here, they’re creepy digital placeholders. And yes, they’re ugly. Very ugly.
Image Courtesy of Disney
Second: the costumes. I can tolerate bad movies. I can even forgive a weak script. But if you have the budget and still make the film look like it was styled at Party City, I’m judging you. The costumes look cheap and are bizarrely off-color. What’s most baffling is that Sandy Powell (yes, the Sandy Powell who designed the stunning blue gown in Cinderella (2015)) was in charge here. Yet somehow, everyone looks bad. Snow White. The Evil Queen. Even Jonathan, the love interest, who’s dressed like he wandered in from a mid-2000s mall in a green hoodie and chain. It’s all just... wrong. Visually wrong.
Third, and maybe most important: Gal Gadot. This might be the worst performance I’ve ever seen. She fumbles every line, struggles to sing, and looks uncomfortable just standing on camera. It’s not one bad moment: t’s a cascade of bad choices. Hitchcock said, “There are no bad actors, only bad directors.” Maybe Marc Webb is to blame. But honestly, I don’t think anyone could’ve salvaged her performance.
What’s frustrating is that all of this could have been fixed. Take the money wasted on CGI dwarves and give it to the costume department. Hire actual actors. Make thoughtful creative decisions. Do that, and you’d get, not a masterpiece,but a decent Disney remake.
There are bright spots. Rachel Zegler is incredible. She remains earnest and charming despite the CGI chaos and Gadot’s performance. It was smart to keep the film a musical and add new songs. There’s not much plot in the original Snow White, so musical numbers help fill the gaps. The choreography (thanks to Mandy Moore) is sometimes fun. I personally found the haunted forest chase visually compelling. But none of that matters when the major issues overwhelm everything else.
I still believe live-action adaptations have their place. But animation exists for a reason as it brings imagination to life in a way realism can’t. Why burden those stories with gritty “realism”? Take The Lion King. Why remake it? It’s about singing lions. If the whole film is CGI, it’s not even live action. That’s a good rule of thumb: If everything is CGI, what’s the point?
Image Courtesy of Disney
Some stories translate better. Cinderella, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, those can work. The Little Mermaid? Less so. Nobody wants to watch a photorealistic crab sing. But if that doesn’t work, you still have seven sisters to build a subplot around. There’s a lack of creativity here, and that’s what’s really hurting these remakes.
My final point: Not one of these so-called “feminist” remakes has been directed by a woman. Every time a new remake drops, Disney launches a campaign about how empowering it is and how outdated the original was (which often isn’t true). Yet behind the scenes, nothing changes. They hand the reins to a 60-year-old male director who makes superficial, arbitrary changes to check the “feminism” box. It’s absurd. And frankly, most of the movies aren’t even good.
At this point, Disney should take the hint and stop. No one wants live-action Lilo & Stitch. No one asked for Moana to be remade less than a decade later. And please, don’t touch Tangled. Snow White was a disaster. But instead of blaming talented young actors like Rachel Zegler, we should be pointing fingers at the Disney executives who clearly can’t produce—or market—a film worth watching.
