Spartacus / Splashnews.com

Rachel Zegler in full Snow white attire

               One of the most recent live-action films of 2025 was a remake of Snow White. This movie has stood out to people as one of the worst Disney projects ever. People felt this movie had strayed too far from the original story and disappointed many. There was also a lot of backlash and criticism about the characters and their portrayal, which led to mixed reviews. In addition, many people felt that the cultural themes and representation in the movie were not portrayed well enough, and the film was also overall problematic.  

                       The main character, Rachel Zegler, who plays Snow White, faces criticism for several reasons. One main reason was her controversial speaking about the original film’s sexist elements and dated portrayal of women. Many people thought these comments were inappropriate and disrespectful because the original film was a kids’ movie, and also because her comments insinuated that being feminine was something weak. The movie performed poorly at the box office. It opened to 43 million domestically and 87 million globally. These statistics were significantly below expectations, considering the movie had an over $ 270 million budget.

                   The failure of this movie could have been avoided in many ways. There were a lot of “creative” decisions made about the movie. In the original film, Snow White has a love interest. Still, in this movie, the directors wanted the primary focus to be her embracing her feminism rather than her feminine energy. Too many changes to a project drove people away from interest because it no longer had the traits they liked in the original movie. The directors also let Rachel Zegler speak about the changes in the live-action film, and she even spoke down about the original movie. If she had kept the changes a surprise, more people might have come to see the film and reacted differently. Letting the characters talk about the movie and the original in such a sullen way was also a considerable financial risk for the press and for promoting the movie.

            This movie served as a lesson to many upcoming films about respect and consideration. It’s okay to embrace girls’ strength and independence; however, it’s not OK to say that being feminine makes a girl weak and less intense. Many producers have come out to say she is a financial risk with any interview she does. She is speaking about the movie and the way she has cost the movie so much PR and marketing money because people do not want to see the film anymore. Many fans also felt that, because of how she brings down girls for being feminine, she does not capture the main image of the movie, and she tries too hard to make changes to the main aspects of the movie that many fans look up to. Overall, there are a lot of changes that could have been made to make the success of the movie better. This PR mistake is a good lesson for future films about how their employees promote their projects.