Snow White to Shang-Chi

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Snow White to Shang-Chi:

Walt payed off all of his remaining debts, only to ironically reinvest more money into his next upcoming films - however, this was successful and resulted in Walt building himself a studio and making millions of profit. Walt despised the idea of having a quality reduction to speed up production processes and passed in 1966 in the middle of making The Jungle Book.

Cross-Media Convergence = the same media being presented and spread across different types of media, (this is different from a synergy where companies collaborate and work together).

Cross-Media convergence of Snow White:

- Computer games (Nintendo Gameboy)

- Disney Land rides

- Shrek 3 → DreamWorks turned Snow White on her head, turning her into a foul-mouthed brute.

- Wreck-it-Ralph → The Disney princesses flip stereotypes around, saying they need to (and I quote) "save the big strong man" before proceeding to place him into Snow Whites dress and referencing the Snow White soundtrack.

- Doctor Strange

- Macy's Christmas

- Sophia The First → Snow White visits her and states to only trust herself.

As a modern audience, we subconsciously look for something different, something which challenges the social and cultural context of a movie. In Snow White, there was a significant lack of this - the singular female protagonist is easily influenced and the other is evil and vein. Other outdated problems encountered in Snow White include: the inherent ableism in the approach reflected in the names of dwarves (Dopey) and the well known nonconsensual kiss glamorized as Snow White is unconscious. Shang-Chi is the solution to this problem - as it portrays woman in an inclusive way, even playing empowering, capable roles outside of the typical norm.

Peter Dinklage was asked for his position in the Snow White remake and has been very vocal about his hesitancy about the role. Although they casted a Latina Snow White, they show lack of progression in other places - he showed his frustration in the hypocrisy, stating how ridiculous it is they're producing such a "backward story of seven dwarves living in a cave". 

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Diversity and the lack of it in Hollywood:

Representation and diversity have become huge issues for not only Disney in particular, but the film industry as a whole. To enjoy the film industry, people need to know they are being represented in front of and behind camera, that is welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

Disney Princesses - evolution:

Sleeping Beauty (Aurora - 1959) → Romantic lead/ victim. Similarly to Snow White she is put into a 100 year old deep sleep and is awoken by a man she has never met, though the justification is that he is handsome and rich whilst she still has her beauty.

Anna (Frozen - 2013)  → Sister/ action hero/ comedian. Anna begins Frozen by begging her sister and getting engaged to a man she just met - but by the end, she rescues her sister using sisterly love, scales a mountain facing terrible danger and finds her own personality and spirit. Ultimately, a good role model.

Tiana (The Princess and The Frog - 2009)  Hardworking and ambiguous female lead. She opens her own restaurant in New Orleans and strays from typical norms of being saved by a prince, by attempting to save not only herself but the prince as well. Her appearance also breaks standards by being the first known African American Disney princess and attempts to positively portray black characters, as Disney has a history of presenting them as violent and lazy in previous animations

Ariel (The Little Mermaid - 1989) Hiding a deeper message about self expression alongside self love, rather than being a damsel in distress she saves the prince as he's about to drown, later he saves her from Ursula (gender equality).

Moana (2016) Demigod in Moana 2, about saving yourself as she faces dangers along the way and is questioned with morals, Polynesian culture representation.

Meredith (2012) Not saved by man, not a typical romantic story as it focuses on family love, questions a patriarchal society, enforced marriage and presents a feisty female lead.

#OscarsSoWhite was a trending hashtag in 2020, after people discovered the panel of judges lacked any diversity whatsoever, causing a disproportion of overlooked black actors when the winners were announced.

Shang-Chi is part of the response and answer to any of Disney's past wrongdoings, culture is explored and the production was respectful to Chinese mythology.

Disney's terrible year (2023)

- It was the first year since 2014, (not including the pandemic) the company failed to produce a billion-dollar hit. 

The Australian film industry supported filming with a large grant. For the past few years Disney has been using Australia for the amount of large rural areas due to he nature of the western culture and shared language. One previous production was filmed in the same exact area was Shang-Chi; Thor: Ragnarok. Due to the significance and size of the set, they furbished every house inside the village for a more authentic feel. It was a truly global production, credit is deserved for even more than just America. February 2022, went to Sydney for  principle photography (major filming), this was obviously a horrendous time due to the COVID-19 pandemic - this meant the release pattern of the film was delayed alongside.

Huge amounts of computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used for Shang-Chi, (the modern equivalent of Disney/Marvel still pushing the technology boundaries like Snow White did back in 1937). Disney even employed WETA Digital (special affects company known for Game Of Thrones)

Originally, production used greenscreen to mask out certain things while filming - this is used by using 'chromakey' which selects certain digital colours over a range. Whereas now, the preferred method of masking is 'blue-screen' as it allows for  for more blended image in regards pf nature. Red hues are found in human skin, green in nature - blue is the best option.

Filmed in IMAX, this was expensive production, especially considering it was a new entry to the MCU. It didn't however, match the huge budgets of the avengers films, for obvious reasons. It wasn't even as expensive as the less successful Eternals - so represents pretty good value for money.

Eternals

Marketing and Distribution:

The Dominance of franchises, and the size of Disney's Marvel Empire, mean that fans enjoy the intertextual references, for things like the Marvel logo. 

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Shang-Chi has different posters to appeal to different demographics, whereas Snow White only had one (hand drawn, hand distributed in post worldwide). By varying the people presented on the poster, such as older individuals (Ying Nan played by Michelle Yeoh) it appeals to elder fans, same as Katy played by Akwafina (a young rapper) appeals to younger female fans and Tony Leung (as Shang-Chi) brings in an even larger audience from Asia, specifically China.

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Practice paragraphs: comparison links to the wider industry

Disney has huge advantages when it comes to budgets, they're priveleged to be able to spend $150 million on Shang-Chi (which in itself is small for the company when compared to the Avengers series or even relative flop The Eternals). Most other companies simply cannot compete with this level of spending, especially for the 25th film in a series. As a comparison, Birds of Prey, produced by the Warner Brothers in 2020, had a budget half of Disney's whopping $150 million, the majority of their budget ($84.5 million) would have gone towards their SFX and CGI. 

Shang-Chi has opened up it's potential target audience to people who may have felt under represented in the film industry and media as a whole. The predominantly Asian cast, crew and director Destin Daniel Crettin, for example, are new role models. This was not just a Disney problem though, the Warner Brothers have a long and extensive history of controversial representation or lack of representation at all, a well known example of their older productions is Tom and Jerry, including racist or sexist stereotypes - Birds of Prey's release could almost be seen as an apology for their older offensive materials as it has a diverse strong female lead and lots of queer implied connotations.

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