So... Snow White Is Woke Now?

A New Beginning presents a new book from Pastor Greg Laurie. We are offering a brand new resource called The House of David Devotional and it's based on the great Psalms of David as well as the life of David. So I'm going to put this brand new devotional in your hand so you can learn from this man of God.

Or your gift of any size at harvest.org. It's the official companion resource for the new Amazon TV series also called The House of David. So Disney is a new live action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hitting theaters. Now let's be clear this isn't just any film they're remaking. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated feature ever made created by Walt Disney himself. In fact before that animation was just a series of short amusing little skits. Think Oswald the rabbit and the silly symphonies as an example and of course later Mickey Mouse. But Walt had a bigger vision. So he saw a silent film adaptation of the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale and thought this story about beauty, jealousy, good and evil would be the perfect foundation for my leap into feature films.

And it was a bold ambitious move to say the least. So ambitious in fact that people actually called Walt's idea of making Snow White into a feature film Disney's Folly. They thought no one would sit through a full-length feature cartoon. Ah but Walt Disney had the last laugh didn't he? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a global phenomena and it was a springboard for everything we now associate with the Disney name. Well okay I grew up loving all things Disney like many of my generation yeah I'm a baby boomer. I watched the Mickey Mouse Club then later The Wonderful World of Color and we sat glued to the screen as Uncle Walt as he was sometimes called unveiled his plans for this new amusement park that he was going to call Disneyland. Now we want you to share with us our latest and greatest dream. That's it right here Disneyland. To a little kid eating from a TV dinner it seemed like heaven on earth and I remember going to Disneyland I remember driving up the freeway and seeing the Matterhorn uh jutting above all the other buildings and I made a solemn vow as a child and I said when I become an adult I'm going to go to Disneyland every single day.

Well I've been an adult for a while and I've not kept that valve but hey my love for Disney animation stuck with me so much so that I became a cartoonist myself eventually producing my own animated shorts with my characters Ben Bourne again and the yellow dog. Which brings me to Disney's latest attempt to remake a classic and let's just say that well they've lost the point. It didn't help that the lead actress Rachel Zegler torched the original film in interviews before the cameras even started rolling. She dismissed the 1937 animated classic as quote extremely dated when it comes to ideas of women being in roles of power and a woman is fit for in the world end quote.

She added there's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her weird so we didn't do any of that this time end quote. Ah yes I see now so when audiences flocked to see Snow White for the last 87 years what they really hated about it was that love story and the triumph of good over evil. Apparently Zegler missed the entire point of this fairy tale. Snow White is a moral fable. It's a story about good versus evil written as I mentioned earlier by the Grimm brothers. A tale about a vain queen so obsessed with her own beauty and status she's willing to murder an innocent girl just to remain the fairest in the land.

Sound familiar? That's basically the story that we read about in the bible about Lucifer a once high-ranking powerful angel who wanted to take the place of God with himself. The problem with Lucifer is he was in love with his own image.

He wanted to be in the place of God. So how does this story end? Well evil is defeated and the queen in all of her vanity meets a ruin and Snow White is resurrected from her death-like sleep saved by the prince and what does she sing? Someday my prince will come.

Which if we're being honest is not all that different from a Christian worldview. The original Snow White carried the message that one day the prince would come. The true prince. The one who raises the dead and defeats evil once and for all. But the new Snow White?

No we can't have that. Zegler along with the film's producers proudly declared that Snow White wouldn't be waiting for true love. Instead she would be dreaming of becoming a fearless leader.

Fearless leader of what exactly? She refused to sing Someday My Prince Will Come. The signature song of the original film. Dismissing it is again weird. Instead she's got a new song waiting on a wish.

A song about you guessed it female empowerment and self-sufficiency. Because heaven forbid we acknowledge the timeless human desire for love, redemption and rescue. By the way Disney has sunk 270 million dollars into this movie hoping audiences will embrace this new vision of Snow White.

Time will tell how that turns out. To say Disney was a genius and a visionary is an understatement. Walt Disney believed in a world where good overcame evil. Where truth defeated lies.

Where families were celebrated and where patriotism was honored not mocked. He once said and I quote, the important thing is the family. If we can keep the family together that's the backbone of the whole business.

Catering to families that's what we hope to do. End quote. Well said Walt. Disney understood that people don't just want entertainment entertainment they want meaning. They want stories that reaffirm the best parts of humanity. Once upon a time believe it or not Disneyland's original plans included a church on Main Street.

So think about that. But perhaps there are small glimmers of hope that the Disney organization is starting to wake up. For the first time in 20 years Disney has produced an openly Christian character in their new animated series Win or Lose on Disney Plus. Her name is Lori.

I like that name and she prays this dear heavenly father please give me strength. I have faith but sometimes doubt creeps in. End quote. I like that.

It's something small but it is something. So as a lifelong Disney fan I collect Disney figurines and memorabilia. It's called Disneyana. So I've been a fan of Disney for my whole life and I want to believe that Disney can find its way back to what it was meant to be. If there's any chance of that happening the best thing Disney today could do is return to the roots of its founder to stories that celebrate family virtue and faith. Walt Disney once said and I quote again in these days of world tensions when the faith of men is being tested as never before I am personally thankful that my parents taught me at a very early age to have a strong personal belief and reliance on the power of prayer for divine inspiration. End quote. Well said.

If Disney wants to reclaim that magic that's where they need to start. Hey everybody thanks for listening to my podcast. Before you go I wanted to let you know about the important work we're doing here at Harvest. You know we've had the same goal these last 50 years which is simply this we want to know God and we want to make Him known. And we do that in a lot of ways. Documentary films, animation, radio, television, large-scale evangelistic events, and more. If you want to be a part of what we're doing to fulfill the great commission you can support us with whatever you can give at harvest.org slash donate. Again that's harvest.org slash donate and thanks so much.