Every so often, a film comes along with an overpowering reputation. Everyone seems to have an opinion, even when they haven’t seen it yet. This is the trap Snow White seems to have fallen into. Between those with opinions and those with preconceived notions, it’s a struggle to remember that sometimes a movie is just a movie. This one, in particular, is a kid’s film. Is Snow White worthy of a fairy tale happy ending? Or should this movie take a gigantic bite of a poisoned apple?
Snow White
Snow White follows, you guessed it, Snow White (Rachel Zegler) as she flees from the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), meets seven “mostly” friendly dwarfs and must contend with a poisoned apple. Yep, that old chestnut. Andrew Burnap, Andrew Barth Feldman, Titus Burgess and Martin Klebba co-star in the movie. Marc Webb directs Snow White from a script by Erin Cressida Wilson.
Alright. I need to start with the wacky, bejeweled elephant in the room: Gal Gadot. Everything from Gadot’s casting to her performance is packed with what I can only call interesting decisions.
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Chewing All the Scenery
I’m not pulling punches here. I found myself convinced Gadot was catastrophically miscast for the first quarter or so of the film. Something just didn’t feel quite right. Then, she jumped into her music number.
Gal Gadot brings a swirling and random performance that doesn’t shy away from chewing all the scenery. I frankly have no idea if any of it was intentional, but at this point, I don’t care. There’s almost a sense of camp in Gadot’s performance, and while I doubt this was purposeful, it gave me such unabashed joy. In fact, I’d love to watch this film in an adult, “midnight-screening” type scenario and just listen to the reactions. This is where Gadot would shine.
Diving into this latest live-action remake, director Marc Webb crafts a film that seemingly wants to step out on its own. However, it’s unfortunate that it’s more than a little afraid to really take a chance. It is a Disney, live-action remake, after all.
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The Pasek and Paul music score brings their standard big-budget, showy flair. However, I’m not entirely sure I would call any of the new songs “toe-tapping,” and outside of perhaps “Princess Problems,” it’s tough to call any of them “catchy.” They certainly allow the creative team to grow the world, but the story still takes a backseat to old standards like “Hi-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work.”
Absolutely Sells It
If anything can be said about Rachel Zegler, she has pipes. Next to Halle Bailey as Ariel, Zegler comes the closest among the live-action remake princesses to absolutely selling the musical numbers. Truthfully, Hollywood isn’t the right place for Zegler’s talent until musicals make a regular return to the big screen. Her singing skills, charisma and infectious energy really belong on a Broadway stage.
Unfortunately, you can feel the story straining under the weight of the desire to bring it up to a 2025 sensibility. Ultimately, this is where the Disney of it all seems to overpower the whims of the creative team.
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The script delves deeper than Disney has previously gone into Snow White’s past. We see her family and what leads to her current predicament. Slight tweaks to her character arc grant Snow White more narrative power. This Snow White is no longer waiting for “Her Prince to Come.”
De-Emphasized
This isn’t to say, though, that this Snow White is an armor-wearing, feminist baddie who doesn’t need a man. The House of Mouse can’t let “movie love” completely disappear. It’s just de-emphasized a bit. Her “true love’s kiss” doesn’t come from a prince. This time around, he’s an actor and bandit. Truthfully, the narrative push-and-pull with the “movie love” most hinders actor Andrew Burnap, who struggles to pull a memorable character from what he’s given.
Ultimately, though, Snow White, as a character, also struggles under the weight of expectations. While it is nice she’s granted more background and power in her own right, it’s difficult to argue most of her character development can be summed up as … she’s nice. There’s still much more room for work here. Luckily, though, Zegler’s casting saves this from being a painfully apparent struggle.
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Now, what would a discussion of Snow White be without her seven dwarfs? All I can say is, “Holy Uncanny Valley, Batman.”
Uncanny Valley
Something about the Dwarfs is awkward. Peter Jackson worked magic with practical effects, prosthetics and plain old perspective shooting in The Lord of the Rings franchise. More than two decades later, Snow White relies on strange and, at times, unsettling motion-capture work. Friends, at many points, Dopey still reminded me of Gollum. Do with that what you will.
That said, I am often mean to Disney, especially as it relates to the often bland and uninspiring aesthetic we see coming out of the franchise installments. Luckily, Webb and the team manage to step out from behind “The Volume” and actually craft an interesting and colorful storybook aesthetic that fits beautifully in this story’s fantastic world.
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No More, No Less
All in all, Snow White is simply another Disney live-action remake. No more, no less. This film has sucked up a lot of pop culture discourse and has a trail of unearned anger and frustration following it around. Families might find this one a delight as Rachel Zegler is a perfect, spunky Disney princess. Others might not find as much here to love, but those who enjoy a bit of campy wackiness might find some joy in everything Gal Gadot brings to the screen.
Snow White opens in theaters around the country on March 21, 2025.
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