Welcome to the First Things podcast.

It's a one-topic episode because we're just so excited about Disney's live-action Snow White.

Did the star hijack it with her woke statements, or was she scapegoated?

Is Disney worthy of its own IP? And what's with that dress?

I'll talk with Associate Editor Virginia

Abram and junior fellow Hermann Saucedo. I'm Senior Editor Julia Yost. Thanks for joining us.

On Friday, March 21st, Disney's Snow White opened in theaters across America. It's a live action

update of the 1937 classic Snow White and

the Seven Dwarfs, and it seemed cursed even before it went into production. Here's an incomplete

list of the controversies. In 2021, there was an anti-woke backlash against the casting of

Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress in the role of Snow White. In 2022, there was a

progressive backlash against the decision to remake the film at all, given its hurtful depiction

of people with dwarfism. Last summer, Zegler published a tweet promoting the teaser trailer,

and adding, Always Remember Free Palestine, leading to controversy and to death threats

against her Israeli co-star Gal Gadot. In November, Zegler published an Instagram post condemning

Donald Trump and everyone who had voted for him. The result, the industry had predicted

45 to 50 million in domestic box office on the opening weekend,

which would be disappointing for such a big budget film,

but the film disappointed even that expectation, grossing only 43 million domestic.

Among the few who have purchased tickets to this film are three intrepid members of the First Thing staff.

Virginia, Hermon, wow, that was bad.

Yes.

...