TL;DR – While it is not the disaster that everyone fears, you can still see the narrative decisions that held it back from being quite remarkable.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Snow White Review –

Now, I have not been the biggest fan of the current batch of Disney films that turn their classic animated works into live-action works, or if you are The Lion King ‘live-action’. They tend to struggle because they have a hard time finding a new voice when they are anchored to the past. Well, today, we go all the way back to the first-ever animated feature to see if it follows a similar fate.

So, to set the scene, in a kingdom of complete happiness, singing, and lots of apple pie, one snowy day, a princess was born. She was a delight for the whole kingdom and the King’s (Hadley Fraser) and Queen’s (Lorena Andrea) pride and joy. But when the queen unfortunately dies, and the king remarries a sorcerous, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), things start to change. Even more so when the King is sent away to the southern kingdom and never returns. Now Snow White (Rachel Zegler) is a servant, and the kingdom has fallen into darkness. Until one day the Evil Queen visits her Magic Mirror (Patrick Page) and discovers that she might not be the fairest one of all.

Now, we must start this review with the clear understanding that Rachel Zegler is the heart of this film and does so much of the heavy lifting. She walks the line between naïve and completely earnest, and it works. As you would expect, so much of the movie revolves around her, and she captivates in every moment. This is supported by some solid set construction that brings parts of the forest and the town alive. Bar some odd artificing around the well set, every part of this film looks stunning, even the musical numbers that are aiming for Wicked, even if they don’t quite get there on the spectacle front.        

Indeed, this is a film that very much leans into the musical format, even more so than the original animation. Here is another place where Rachel Zegler shines. She carries most of the musical numbers and gives them the energy they desperately need. Also, they avoided the Aladdin trap by making the new and old songs work together. Now, are there too many musical numbers? Absolutely, and while I would have cut a bunch, they were still entertaining. It is in the songs where we also get a bit of the narrative revisioning, and to be fair to the film, most of the changes are for the best. We get to see a bit more of the kingdom pre-Evil Witch, and having the ‘prince’ character Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) meet and converse with her before the kiss makes a lot of sense.  

However, while the film is absolutely trying, somewhat better than many of its predecessors, there were still things that held it back. To start with, Gal Gadot gives a very bland performance here, and there is no nuance to her character, unlike, say, the agonists in Ever After. While she is the main villain, and that blunts some of the issues, it makes some of the choices around the ending feel fundamentally dragged out. If they were going to spend the time creating a bunch of new characters, I wish they would have given them some more personality. But of course, now we have to talk about the Dwarfs. Look, I am not an expert in the discourse here, but all I will say is that while they do grow on you, the design choice here just feels like a missed opportunity. It did feel like they should have cast real people in the roles or leaned into them being ‘mythological creatures’. Here, it just felt that they were locked with the past and didn’t know how to move on from it. Also, only Doc (Jeremy Swift/ Jonathan Bourne), Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman/ Jaih Betote), and Grumpy (Martin Klebba/ Omari Bernard) get any actual screen time.   


In the end, do we recommend Snow White? There is a lot to recommend here, and I think more than a lot of the Disney live-action remakes, it does some of the heavy lifting to justify the re-release. However, there are so many anchors holding it back in places that you just can’t help but feel that this was a missed opportunity. Have you watched Snow White? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Snow White, we would recommend to you Ever After: A Cinderella Story.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Snow White
Directed by – Marc Webb
Screenplay by – Erin Cressida Wilson
Based on – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank & Webb Smith
Based on – Snow White by the Brothers Grimm
Music by – Jeff Morrow, Larry Morey, Frank Churchill, Pasek and Paul
Cinematography by – Mandy Walker
Edited by – Mark Sanger & Sarah Broshar
Production/Distribution Companies – Marc Platt Productions & Walt Disney Pictures
Starring – Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot & Andrew Burnap with Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, Jeremy Swift, Tituss Burgess, Andrew Barth Feldman, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Andy Grotelueschen, Emilia Faucher, Olivia Verrall, Jonathan Bourne, Leah Haile, Jaih Betote, Omari Bernard, Dominic Owen, David Birch, Sandy Foster, Hadley Fraser, Lorena Andrea, George Appleby, Colin Michael Carmichael, Samuel Baxter, Jimmy Johnston, Dujonna Gift, Idriss Kargbo, Jaih Betote, Adrian Bower, Felipe Bejarano, Simeon Oakes, Joshmaine Joseph & Chike Chan
Rating – Australia: PG; Canada: PG; Germany: 0; New Zealand: PG; United Kingdom: PG; United States: PG