Snow Whites Legacy - The Journey to Shang-Chi

Snow Whites Legacy - The Journey to Shang-Chi

Snow Whites Legacy

“By the year 2050 – as cultural sensitivities continue to shift – all old Disney movies will be 26 seconds long.”

The author means that because old Disney movies contain so much sensitive content about gender and left-wing views that wouldn’t be allowed in 2050, the movies will have pretty much all their content stripped, so much so that they will only be 26 seconds long; they don’t have political correctness. This is relatable to Snow White as it contains a few controversial things, such as a non-consensual kiss at the end of the movie, or the use of little people as dwarves. The guardian might post about this as they are left wing progressive.

Disney is retroactively censoring out past releases.

Fantasia Censored Scenes

Caricature playing on racist stereotypes are seen in this movie. Along with this, there are also slave connotations. Rather than censoring these scenes, they put out disclaimers so that the viewers are aware of what they are about to see.

What came next

● The debts were paid off and Walt Disney immediately put all of his extra profit into the company.
● With millions of profit in the bank, Walt Disney builds a studio.
● A reduction in quality to speed up the process of film making had to occur at some point -  Walt hated the idea of this.
● Walt Disney himself died in 1966 whilst making The Jungle Book.

A dwarf in Snow White is called Dopey, which has caused controversy, as it is not right to name someone based on their intelligence.

Modern audiences look for something a bit different - in addition to a story and technology, we also challenge the social and cultural context. It's hard and controversial to judge a film nearly 100 years old on these values, but times do change. The film industry has had to change. Disney has had to change.

Cinderella

Made and produced in 1950 by Disney. The character Cinderella is abused by her sisters, and is the victim and protagonist. She finds true love when her foot is able to fit into the glass slipper; she then falls in love with a prince, something which her sisters were jealous of; they believed they were prettier than Cinderella. The message to young girls is to never give up, and always fight for what you love.

Rachel Zegler

The main image in the article suggests that young actors are greedy, selfish and quoted to be "entitled"; this is compounded by the body language of the actor shown in the image, as she comes off to be almost boasting herself, and showing off her power. The preferred meaning of the article is to show the fact that young actors are not being fair, and are entitling themselves to benefits they do not deserve; it is desired that the consumer will see eye to eye with the article.

Clay Shirky

In old media, centralised producers make content for consumers. 

Now consumers are no longer predictable, as they have now turned into prosumers; they now also make content on their own, and no longer passively consume it.

Old media is filtered and then published; an example of this is a scene in the Taxi Driver, which was filtered so that it fit a 15 age rating, instead of an 18.

An example of this is the name 'Jack mehoff', a name which has been used to get around the filter of the news website, which disallows inappropriate names.

Cinema – Doomed?

Against:

● Covid-19 caused home cinema releases, dubbed “premier”.
● Cinema provides a much better experience for film watching and immerses you in the movie.
● Cinema is not as accessible as streaming.
● Cinema is still going strong, as proven by Oppenheimer and Barbie.
● Only 34% of people have said they will keep going to the cinema more, with 27% saying they will go less.
● There is an overly-competitive streaming market.
● Premiering access is given to people who wish to pay good money to see just released films.

For:

● People use streaming services more, with the USA and Netflix reflecting half of data usage.
● A streaming subscription is much better value than watching one film in cinema.
● Streaming is more accessible; you can watch movies on your phone for example.
● Covid-19 accelerated the use of streaming services, as nobody could go outside and go to the cinema.
● Streaming services have grown quickly, with 60% of people using them more, and only 10% less.
● Disney can't keep gaining new subscribers forever, and it has reported some quarterly falls.
● The release method has changed, and binge-watching is less viable. 
● Subscriber behavior is changing, in which subscribers will only subscribe so they can watch one show, and then leave.
● TV licenses cost a lot of money, making streaming expensive. Thanks to the cost of living crisis, streaming is not worth it as much.

Disney premier access

Premier access is a service in which you can watch very recent releases - just in or out of the cinema.

● Black Widow
● A Shang-Chi actor came forwards to defend Scarlet Johansson 
● Infighting between stars and studios, Disney allegedly not honouring Scarlet Johansson's contract
● Gender issue; women not being paid fairly

Wish

Hundreds of intertextual references / easter eggs are in the movie. Disney went from Disney magic to Disney cynicism. Disney's ability to predicts success is beginning to wain. Disney fatigue is occurring, in which the audience is tired of Disney's movies and stories.