Longtime Disney Imagineer Jim Shull defended the updated Snow White ride at Disneyland that has faced backlash for including the famed “true love’s kiss” that critics deemed problematic.
Disneyland reopened in Anaheim last month after being closed for more than a year due to the coronavirus lockdowns, and “Snow White’s Enchanted Wish,” which had been renovated during the closure, gained some attention for including the kiss that some people say is nonconsensual.
“The new grand finale of Snow White’s Enchanted Wish is the moment when the Prince finds Snow White asleep under the Evil Queen’s spell and gives her ‘true love’s kiss’ to release her from the enchantment,” editors Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine wrote for SFGATE. “A kiss he gives to her without her consent, while she’s asleep, which cannot possibly be true love if only one person knows it’s happening. Haven’t we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue? That teaching kids that kissing, when it hasn’t been established if both parties are willing to engage, is not OK?”
Mr. Shull, executive creative director of Walt Disney’s Imagineering department, tweeted a screenshot of a Fox News headline that read, “Cancel Culture Targets Snow White,” and he explained that the ride is accurate based on the story.
“Allowing for the fact that cultural changes occur over decades it must be acknowledged that in the context of the tale on which the film is based that the ride is accurate,” Mr. Shull wrote Wednesday. “People are of course allowed to dislike the story but the Imagineering team did a spectacular job! #Disney”
Mr. Shull tweeted about the ride again on Sunday, writing, “In a version of the German fairy tale Schneeweibchen (Snow White), the comatose young woman is revived when one of the prince’s servants drops her body which dislodges the poisoned apple from her throat and the prince didn’t kiss her. #Disney #SnowWhite”
“Many European fairy tales were published over 200 years ago with an expressed purpose to both entertain and educate. Reading books was a valued public occupation. #storytelling,” he added.
