3 out of 5 poison apples (Average)
From the moment Disney announced they’d be putting Snow White, the 1st ever fully-animated feature, through the live-action remake machine, myself and many others hissed at the idea of this particular update given how its animated predecessor literally launched the studio. However, like the title character herself, I’m ever an optimist and entered this film open-minded to see what they’d do, and exited smiling. Snow White has strong work from Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot along with solid story expansions, some good songs, and a welcome message of kindness in dark times, but is held back by distracting CG dwarves and an uneven tone and pacing.
Disney’s Snow White | Official Trailer | In Theaters March 21
There once was a kingdom ruled by a fair king and queen who taught their daughter Snow White (Rachel Zegler, West Side Story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), to greet all with kindness and love. Unfortunately, when the good queen kicked the bucket, the king remarried to a vane, malicious Wicked Queen (Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman) who got the king out of the way, sucked the kingdom dry of joy, and is now insecure that the grown Snow is deemed “Fairest of them All” by her magic mirror. After a kind-hearted Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) can’t bring himself to kill Snow as instructed, she comes upon a house in the woods with seven dwarves and meets a dashing, self-serving rogue named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap). Despite everyone telling her to stay put, Snow resolves to fight the Wicked Queen and save her kingdom once and for all, teaching everyone the value of optimism along the way.
Snow White does a lot of things right, so it’s frustrating when it slips up. Rachel Zegler shines in the title role, making Snow’s eternal optimism and kindness feel genuine and her initial fear of the Wicked Queen come through in their early scenes together. Gal Gadot veers unevenly between threatening and campy as the Wicked Queen, but she’s overall an enjoyably villainous presence whenever onscreen and has a passable singing voice. Speaking of the songs, I particularly enjoyed Snow’s new “Waiting on a Wish” and the villain tune “All is Fair” and the others are fine too. The storybook aesthetic and production design are good, and I love the timeless message of kindness in dark times.
Unfortunately, Snow White is kept from greatness by an uneven tone and pacing as well as distracting CGI dwarves. The film’s first act feels like it’s speeding through iconic moments of the original while setting the table with its new narrative hors d’oeuvres and can’t match its predecessor’s fear factor in some of those moments, the lighter musical numbers occasionally conflict with the dark tone, and the CG dwarves creeped me out. This film has a budget of around $300 million, and I imagine it would have been more cost-effective to either hire 7 actual little person actors (something fellow Snow White adaptation Mirror Mirror did 13 years ago) or use camera tricks to make actors look smaller (a la Lord of the Rings). Zegler interacts off them believably, but they look more like possessed garden gnomes to me here rather than real living beings. I also wish Snow’s arc from Wanting to be the inspirational leader of her kingdom to actually Being that had more time to breathe, but Zegler sells it. Despite these flaws, I applaud the film immensely for promoting kindheartedness and optimism towards others as positive virtues and telling its story with sincerity with a minimum of snarky smugness that plagues many modern reinterpretations of classics.
Snow White’s interesting story additions, strong performances from Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, a timeless message, and some good new songs work enough magic to mitigate its uneven pacing and tone. I can imagine kids who see this growing up may view it the same way I view the Brandy Cinderella , a fresh adaptation that keeps the original’s spirit, but updates and expands its story to cast a spell all its own. See it.
Rated PG for Violence, Some Peril, Thematic Elements, and Brief Rude Humor