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BentKey has been getting more and more publicity and excitement appears to be growing, but what of Disney? Will they repent of their civilizational debauchery? Not a chance. As Bobby Iger & Kathy Kennedy show us, they are sold out cultists, and they will rather be lost at sea under the brittle shards of their Titanic’s twisted and bent hull before they will apologize to their resentful fans for breaking the heads off their 1/6th size collectible action figures.
Ahhh, c’est la vie. So goes Hollywood. So, let’s move on from Hollywood, what is happening here with BentKey?
News on DW’s BentKey and their new upcoming version of the Grimm’s Snow White fairy tale (which is in the public domain) has been hitting the newsstands. Everyone who knows anything about writing knows what a public domain work is, and that the Grimm’s fairy tales fall into this category. So, any frantic claims that BentKey has no right to make their own version of Grimm’s classic fairy tale is smoking some hard drugs.
Just look at all the versions of the story that exist by going to IMDb.com and typing in Snow White into the search bar. Even the Snow White and the Huntsman stories with Kristen Stewart were a big studio version of Snow White, which was made in 2012. All BentKey has to do is to be careful to follow the original story and refrain from any copyrighted authored elements or iconic artistic representations or renderings unique to the Disney version. Some of these may be copyrighted or some design elements may be trademarked in places. They have to make an effort to distinguish it from Disney’s interpretation, and in my view they’ve already done this successfully.
How so? Let’s analyze the facts of Snow White & the Evil Queen and of Disney’s reaction since then.
On October 16th Jeremy Boreing did a short explainer video from his beautiful location in Slovenia, where he introduced their newest most ambitious initiative in their history, BentKey, and ending it with a short teaser unveiling Brett Cooper as Snow White. Both of these portions of the announcement were aimed directly at Disney, who Jeremy says, have basically betrayed the parents who trusted their children with them, and have betrayed the legacy of their company’s founder, Walt Disney himself. Our previous article on this is here.
This October 16th date was on the 100 year centennial date of Disney’s founding, and Disney’s relative silence on this speaks volumes, mostly making clear to all of us just how right Jeremy was. Disney has not honored their commitment to Walt, and they didn’t even defend their actions to DW nor to the public. This is because they have no way to defend them, since they are so obviously not in line with Disney’s legacy, and they have even admitted to this numerous times.
In steps… our favorite Gen Z influencer from DW, Brett Cooper, the Comments Section girl. She has a delightful natural smile, so seeing her in this costume was a tad unnerving, because I didn’t expect it. But, fairly quickly I have gotten accustomed to this idea that Brett Cooper simply “IS” Snow White now that this trailer has arrived. She looks a bit different from the original animation, as she has a more angular face, and thin body, and she looks like she has had some thick makeup applied for this teaser. Still, her appearance is in line with the original tale.
Here’s Brett Cooper commenting on what it’s like to “be” Snow White now.
As it comes to the costume, this is part of the surprise, because understandably DW will have to give her an updated, and distinct design to her dress from the “Disnified” version. We have all grown used to the Disney version, which of course is iconic, and so any new version will feel somehow wrong. But one thing about copyright is that even a silhouette of a design (if iconic) can be used to claim copyright infringement. DW had to be careful to prevent these eventual claims (by such a litigious multinational corp) to be coming forthwith, if they made a fatal slip up. DW had to claim its inspired by the original Grimm’s version, and not by Disney’s version, so look on IMDb and that’s what you’ll see. But saying that isn’t enough, you must establish distinct story and design differences, her hair being longer, and down the back, and this dress and costuming effort is likely the biggest one to make sure you get right. So people who complain about the hair, well, this is likely part of an astute effort to be aware of any copyright infringement claims that may be coming their way if they don’t fly right.
Speaking of copyright, other elements to be careful with is the basic story structure, the iconic visuals in Disney’s versions, the dialogue, and other iconic elements such as the looks of the castles, the dwarves, and the evil Queen. DW appears to have made a move to go for the depictions in nature in the film, which is absolutely the smartest move. Nobody can claim these elements in copyright.
But the other part of this teaser that we simply MUST mention here… is the other major copyright elements: the music. Disney’s music is of course iconic, but since then, our sense of sophistication in movie soundtracks has become both incredibly nuanced as well as far more simplified. We can accomplish a very appropriate sounding theme or motif with only a few instruments and a basic idea, and we have tended to focus on motifs for some time now. This was the antithesis of the overriding philosophy of movie soundtracks back in 1937 Hollywood. It was a rather enormous orchestral affair in that day, and the bigger the better, having multiple sections, and requiring virtuoso conductors.
Yet, the simple notes and… wait, is that Brett Cooper singing? Yes, yes it is. Brett Cooper herself sang this tune with, it appears, very little help. We hear a nature theme, and strong horns ending with a bell. It’s very appropriate to today… and it is very good! Very appropriate to the themes in the tale.
I think we have a perfect combination of events happening here, folks. BentKey is up, Disney is flailing in panic, their Snow White is a disaster, and DW’s Brett looks, acts, and sounds just like a REAL Snow White. The NEW Snow White. And it may be much more accurate to the Grimm’s envisioning, but as we have little to go on still, we do not know just yet. But with the music… this new interpretation of song strikes out for ancient waters, but simultaneously calling us where we are at today, in our society.
Once upon a time.
In time, a Prince would come…
Once upon a time,
but now that time is gone…
This strikes a bittersweet chord of coming love that now feels to be lost. This not only calls us back to the original story of Snow White and her journey, but this resonates with what we are seeing now in culture. “Once upon a time,” we had a studio that believed in such things (Disney), but now this reality has hit a brick wall. We see that this has failed and our heroes and our culture are floating upriver to be sold to the slavers that George Lucas spoke of when he sold Star Wars.
Speaking of which, what has Disney been doing since this teaser dropped? Well, while they are investigating BentKey and answering corporate questions as to whether the board should be admitting or allowing someone more responsible (Nelson Peltz) into the board room, they also have to fend off the mockery from South Park’s fans, after “Joining the Pandaverse” hit Paramount+ unleashing a torrent of hate at Disney. Our story on South Park is here.
Within that nonsense, Disney released a doctored photo of Rachel Zegler among seven digitally rendered dwarves that she was obviously not filmed with. This looks entirely fabricated. And then… glory of glories, they DELAY the release of Snow White for over a year (March 2025)! Here’s some info at Entertainment Weekly on this story. That’s right… Disney backtracked and receded into their vampire’s casket. These concentrated efforts against a corporate monolith like Disney is growing into a turning of the tide of this war.
What will Disney likely do in that year? Lick their wounds, number 1. Then they will go back to the drawing board digitally, will find a way to make it “look” more traditional without selling out their biggest political cult members (add the dwarves back in), and they will add more dumb digital glitter. Not much else. There will be no prince action, or romance, and the girl-boss nonsense will be toned down but not eliminated. If anything, they may even double down in a month or two. This is just to buy them some time for now.
So, we will be discussing BentKey’s Snow White & The Evil Queen version more in the future because this is a worthy subject, being that it is culturally significant and it contains old Christian mythology in it. We will also discuss Brett Cooper more and what I see in her performance, at a later date.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the Snow White: BentKey vs Disney controversy.
Did you enjoy this article? What do you think about BentKey’s Snow White and the Evil Queen? Let us know in our social media, or comment down below (with subscriptions).
BentKey’s Snow White and the Evil Queen rises as Disney momentarily recedes from their vandalism of western civilization @realDailyWire @JeremyDBoreing @imbrettcooper #SnowWhitevsDisney https://t.co/q0Z32JONEf via @themediamoses
— Media Moses (@themediamoses) October 30, 2023
