Snow White Review

Directed By: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Written By: Erin Cressida Wilson; Based on Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Snow White by the Brothers Grimm
Runtime: 109 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated PG for violence, some peril, thematic elements and brief rude humor.

Rachel Zegler – Snow White
Gal Gadot – Evil Queen
Andrew Burnap – Jonathan
Ansu Kabia – the Huntsman
Andrew Barth Feldman – Dopey
Tituss Burgess – Bashful
Jeremy Swift – Doc
Martin Klebba – Grumpy
George Salazar – Happy
Andy Grotelueschen – Sleepy
Jason Kravits – Sneezy
Patrick Page – Magic Mirror
George Appleby – Quigg
Hadley Fraser – Good King
Lorena Andrea – Good Queen

The Walt Disney Company’s latest crass, overblown, and feckless attempt at exploiting its library of animated classics is a live-action remake of Disney animated linchpin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Unfortunately, like many recent attempts, the new live-action Snow White brings little to the table and struggles to expand upon the simple quaintness of cinema’s first animated feature production.

Rachel Zegler takes center stage in the remake as the new Snow White, a kind and bright girl. Snow White is born a princess to her father, the King (Fraser), and mother, the Queen (Andrea), who raise their child to show kindness and compassion to others, regardless of background. Their kingdom is one of love, prosperity, and occasional song and dance numbers. However, Snow White’s mother falls ill and passes away, which leads to her father remarrying a mysterious outsider (Gal Gadot). Soon, Snow White’s father goes missing during a military campaign, granting her wicked stepmother control over the kingdom, which she cruelly rules with a sharpened-nailed fist. The Evil Queen only cares about her own vanity, and fearing that Snow White is fairer than her, the Queen seeks to have her killed.

Snow White flees from her home, eventually coming under the care of the creepily cartoonish Seven Dwarfs. Later, she forms a union with a group of seven bandits led by the handsome and princely charming Jonathan (Burnap). In a kingdom where all hope is lost, Snow White must discover her courage to become the brave, bold, and compassionate monarch her parents raised her to be and save their home from the Evil Queen’s malevolent reign.

The new Snow White boasts standard fairy tale fare. Director Marc Webb and writer Erin Cressida Wilson fail to flesh out the story in any bold, new, and exciting ways that have not already been done multiple times. Cressida Wilson unnecessarily pads the narrative to create a more contemporary cinematic experience. The padding only needlessly fluffs up the story’s beautiful simplicity, creating yet another bland, flaccid Disney remake. The new material sounds so elementary and rudimentary, as if adults are writing what they feel is a simplified version of a children’s play, with none of the energy or excitement that elevates such productions.

The new version is a full-blown Broadway-style musical featuring new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The new songs lack the inspirational quality that fits the Snow White vibe. The only instances of magical whimsy come from the appearance of the classic tunes and motifs from the 1937 version. The new songs and musical numbers are tepidly unenthusiastic and flagrantly unmemorable. The closest the film comes to a halfway decent song is “Waiting on a Wish,” sung by Zegler’s Snow White. Sadly, it replaces the iconic “I’m Wishing” from the original. Thankfully, “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” are repurposed for the remake, but the newly expanded lyrics of the classics resemble the entire movie, playing like unnecessary padding.

Zegler has been the center of controversy surrounding the production, but she’s the closest thing the film comes to a bright spot. Even with such uninspired material, her charisma and charm emerge. It helps that Zegler is a talented singer and vocalist, which shines through in her performance, despite singing such sonic dross. Snow White wants to make its eponymous princess more of a heroine and protagonist in her own story, but the new material lacks any true vibrancy. Even Snow White’s new romance with the rogue bandit, Jonathan, comes off as remarkably bland.

Gal Gadot delivers the film’s worst performance as the Evil Queen. She creates a striking picture, translating the villain’s iconic look into live-action, but that’s where the success ends. Gadot’s performance lacks conviction, and she fails to prove her mettle as a seductively evil or malevolent force. Even some performative scene-chewing would been acceptable from her clunky interpretation of the indelible Disney villain. Gadot’s attempts at acting with malice or cruelty look forced and unconvincing. Even her chance to strut her villainous stuff and take over the screen in her villain musical number, “All Is Fair,” runs limp. Gadot’s vocal chops are not up to the task. Her Evil Queen lacks the presence and command of her scenes despite the added intrigue of the character’s otherworldly sorcery.

All debating and controversy aside, the new Snow White maintains the Seven Dwarfs, who appear as CG-rendered creations but look weird and off-putting. The Seven Dwarfs appear plastic and rubbery, resembling oversized lawn gnomes rather than living, breathing sentient beings. Their role in the story becomes superfluous and unremarkably marginalized by the presence of a band of seven bandits led by Jonathan, a group of rogues with hearts of gold, much like Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

The narrative utilizing two groups of seven as allies to Snow White overcrowds the classic story, creating a weird mishmash of the old and the new. The Seven Dwarfs add little to the narrative, and the updated story elements render their agency relatively inert. The uncanny creepiness of the Seven Dwarfs symbolizes how the production failed to make the CG-animated abominations work in tandem with a live-action photorealistic environment and setting. The Dwarfs lack agency as characters and have little relevance to the overall plot as the new story jettisons one of their most significant events.

Despite boasting a whopping $270 million budget, the film looks relatively small-scale and cheap. The sets and costumes look drab and small in scope and size. It’s difficult to see where most of that money went other than the rushed CG animation of the Seven Dwarfs. The most impressive scene comes when Snow White flees through the dark and frightening forest. It’s the one scene in the film that nearly captures the abject terror and scares from the original, which was not without its haunting moments for its time. Instead, most of the spooky vibes in the film resonate from the Seven Dwarfs, who should be lovable and delightful.

The Seven Dwarfs look strange and off-putting The production fails to figure out how to make the CG-rendered Seven Dwarfs mesh with a live-action photoreal environment.

Flaws aside, there is nothing offensively awful about Snow White, aside from the poor appearance of the Seven Dwarfs. It’s an overwrought, overly long Disney musical and a banal, pointless rehash of an animated classic. However, it’s still harmless family entertainment with good messaging and morals. Families can take their kids and likely find some modicum of entertainment if not utter disappointment and indifference.

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

Disney's Snow White remake features lots of unnecessary padding and expansions of the 1937 animated classic, which amount to little more than a tepid, bland, and uninspired remake. The sole enjoyment comes from reprisals of the classic songs, lyrics, and motifs, but the new music and songs don't cut the mustard, nor do director Marc Webb's uninspired visuals, especially the CG-animated Seven Dwarfs. Snow White resembles a bloated, disappointing stage production more than a big-budget cinematic Hollywood musical.