Disney Imagineer Jim Shull has taken to Twitter to offer his thoughts on a controversy, surrounding the Disneyland ride Snow White’s Enchanted Wish.
Since the Anaheim theme park reopened at the end of April, there has been substantial backlash to a ‘non-consensual kiss’ depicted on its renovated Snow White attraction, between the characters of Prince Charming and Snow White.
Shull’s Tweet came attached to a screenshot of Fox News, in which a headline reads, “Cancel Culture Targets Snow White.”
“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,” wrote Shull, who has worked for Disney for over three decades. “People are of course allowed to dislike the story but the Imagineering team did a spectacular job!”
The updated ride comes to an end with Prince Charming giving Snow White “true love’s kiss”— as seen in the 1937 animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—so that she might awake from eternal asleep, following her poisoning by the Evil Queen.
Social media furor over the ride came on the heels of an SFGATE piece published on May 1 by theme park reviewers Katie Dowd and Julie Tremaine. In it, they suggested that the ride should be updated, with an ending befitting a contemporary audience.
Disneyland is currently open at 25% capacity. For the moment, the park is only accessible to California residents.