Well, grab your pickaxes and prepare for some grumbling, because Martin Klebba—aka the voice of Grumpy in Disney’s new live-action Snow White—has some thoughts on the film’s suddenly not-so-fancy premiere.
So, here’s the tea: Disney originally planned a big red-carpet event for their first-ever animated classic turned CGI extravaganza, but then—poof!—it magically shrank into something smaller than Sleepy’s ambition. Instead of a dazzling Hollywood affair, it’s now just a “pre-party” with a screening, some photographers, and what we assume is a very confused house crew wondering where all the journalists went.
Martin, never one to hold back, spilled his grumpy little heart out to The Hollywood Reporter. “It really isn’t going to be a red carpet,” he grumbled. “It’s at the El Capitan [Theatre], which is cool. But it’s basically: eat some cheese cubes, watch the movie, go home. There’s no ‘Disney’s first freaking movie they ever made!’ celebration, because—surprise, surprise—they’re worried about backlash.”
Backlash, you ask? Well, Martin didn’t exactly beat around the enchanted forest: “It’s the controversy with Rachel [Zegler],” he said, before clarifying that nobody at Disney gave him any direct info. But let’s be real—when a major studio suddenly scales back a premiere, you don’t need a magic mirror to see something’s up.
Of course, Klebba also had some words about Disney’s chaotic back-and-forth on the seven dwarfs—er, sorry, the “seven magical creatures”… wait, no, actually, back to dwarfs but now CGI (keeping up?).
“I don’t usually get into political stuff,” he said, before very much getting into political stuff. “But like… dwarfs exist. You can’t just wish us away like an evil stepmother with a poison apple. We’re still here, still short, and still waiting for people to stop acting like we don’t count.”
And about the decision to make the dwarfs CGI? Martin gets it—kind of. “At least this way, they’re all the same size,” he mused, before pointing out the very real difficulty of finding seven actors under 4’10” who also happen to be ready to break into song at a moment’s notice.
Despite all the drama, Snow White is still set to hit theaters NEXT Friday (March 21). Will it be a happily ever after or a box office curse? Only time—and some very opinionated moviegoers—will tell.
