In the not-so-distant past, conservative entertainment options were usually inflicted by the very serious plague of cringe. Think of the overt, shove-down-your-throat messaging that characterized somewhat successful films like God is Not Dead, making them difficult to watch for those who didn’t agree with their messaging.
This summer, Sound of Freedom seemed to turn a page on that era of media content. It was the first time a conservative-minded film could be enjoyed by all Americans regardless of their political or religious alignment. There was a message, of course, but the film was also objectively good art.
Because it was both so and an undeniably good film, Sound of Freedom “owned the libs” that past conservative attempts to break into the entertainment industry hadn’t — and, let’s be honest, there’s something deeply satisfying about owning the libs, especially on platforms and in mediums they are historically good at. (WATCH: INTERVIEW: Sam Sorbo on New Film Miracle in East Texas’s Fight Against Woke)
Now Daily Wire — a company dedicated to owning the libs — is attempting to capitalize on the impact Sound of Freedom had. Monday was Disney’s 100th anniversary, and Jeremy Boreing, the co-founder and CEO of Daily Wire, took that opportunity to announce the launch of the Disney-doing-better-than-Disney platform: Bentkey.
Replacing Disney
Daily Wire has been on a journey to break into the kids’ entertainment industry for a while. Last year, the company told Axios that they would invest $100 million into a kids’ entertainment venture over a period of three years: Ergo, the birth of DW Kids. It turns out that DW Kids was just a placeholder; Boreing decided that the venture was simply too political. “Bentkey isn’t about teaching kids politics; it’s about childhood and wonder and adventure,” he said in Monday’s launch video.
And so, beginning on Monday, more than 100 kids shows and cartoons — including some Daily Wire originals — were made available for kids to peruse. The offerings included A Wonderful Day with Mabel Maclay, Chip Chilla, Kid Fit Go!, and Kid Explorer as well as a number of curated woke-proof licensed cartoons that Boreing boasts he would show his own offspring. Just in case you thought you might get bored, new episodes will be released every Saturday morning (“That’s right, we’re bringing back Saturday morning cartoons,” Boreing announced). (READ MORE: Golda’s Cloud of Smoke Yields a Profile in Courage)
There’s nothing wrong with creating kid’s cartoons with better messaging than Disney offers, of course. The company practically has a monopoly on the shows kids under 12 watch. As Boreing pointed out: “Disney controls the greatest content library ever created. Their cultural reach, particularly with children, is beyond anything that’s ever existed.” And, for the last few years, Disney has been openly brainwashing a generation of kids with LGBTQ–friendly shows while perpetuating racial tensions with songs like “Slaves Built This Country.”
Daily Wire members — who already had access to DW Kids — will also automatically have access to Bentkey. If you’re not a DW member, you too can purchase access for just $99 a year. (For context, Disney+ Basic costs $79.99 annually, and Disney+ Premium is $139.99 annually, so you really aren’t saving much money by going anti-woke.)
But the big news isn’t that Bentkey will be competing with Disney for your child’s attention — it was already doing that — but that Bentkey will be going head-to-head with Disney over a new remake of Snow White.
A New Snow White
On Monday, Daily Wire released the trailer for its first feature-length, live-action children’s movie, Snow White and the Evil Queen, set to be released in 2024. The goal here is apparent: Boreing is producing the un-woke equivalent to Disney’s live-action Snow White, which will be coming to theaters March 2024.
Announcing Bentkey's first live-action feature film: Snow White and the Evil Queen starring @imbrettcooper pic.twitter.com/HpYoskemAG
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 16, 2023
The trailer is promising. Brett Cooper, a popular YouTuber who hosts the Daily Wire show The Comments Section, has a good voice and perfectly fits the fairy-tale description of Snow White: “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood.” Furthermore, woke-ifying the Snow White story defeats the purpose of the story.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were clearly not exactly concerned with 21st-century political correctness when they scored Europe 200 years ago to record the stories parents were whispering to their children as they put them to sleep. They had no problem describing a beautiful, white female being kissed by a loving prince charming without her consent — and they also had no problem killing off the evil stepmother, whose principal sin was vanity, by punishing her with a death-inducing dance-off in red-hot iron shoes.
Walt Disney wasn’t as concerned with stemming vanity in young girls, but he also wasn’t concerned with political correctness, so his Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remained true to the tale — minus, of course, the grotesque death at the end.
But 100 years later, Disney’s company is concerned with political correctness — in fact, it’s interested in defining political correctness — so Snow White is no longer white, the dwarves are no longer dwarves, and the film is apparently about a young woman who wants power and gets it. Actress Rachel Zegler defended the butchering of the original tale, assuring Variety that “[i]t’s not 1937 anymore.” Fair, but art and truth are timeless. (READ MORE: Pee-wee Herman Was a Loner, a Rebel)
So Cooper and Boreing are creating a live-action movie that’s true to the tale. “I’m thrilled that we’re bringing this iconic story to life for the next generation,” Cooper said. “Snow White is such a beautiful character, and I’m honored to be playing her. Like all the best fairy tales, this is a story with timeless values, like love, friendship, and kindness, and I can’t wait to share them.”
If the film is successful, it will certainly be a great moment of owning the libs — the question is whether it will actually be art. We don’t need an endless barrage of conservative versions of music or movies. We need to rebuild a culture, and that requires moving beyond alternatives to offer something unique.
