It’s undeniable that over the past decade or so, the majority of content that Disney has churned out has been either a sequel or a live-action remake of a classic movie. From “Cinderella” to “The Little Mermaid,” they’re steadily making their way down the list of beloved childhood movies to reformat for a new audience, often to mixed reviews.
As a kid who grew up on princess movies, I’ve seen the majority of live-action Disney projects that have come out, and yet I feel like I’ve never seen outrage like I have with the “Snow White” movie. Under every single piece of promotional material I saw leading up to the release of the movie, the majority of the comments were hate comments (mostly concerning Rachel Zegler).
With an admittedly questionable wardrobe, a dubious decision to create CGI dwarves instead of casting real people with dwarfism and controversy from both sides of the aisle surrounding either Rachel Zegler or Gal Gadot, it seemed destined to be a flop. However, after Zegler’s stunning performances in 2021’s “West Side Story” and 2023’s “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” I was more convinced than others that she would deliver. Walking into the theater with an admittedly pro-Zegler point of view but attempting to remain unbiased, I was determined to answer the question: is “Snow White” really that bad?
To get the elephant in the room out of the way, yes, they did change the story. A popular anti-Snow White talking point was indignation over the fact that Zegler said that Snow White wouldn’t need a prince to save her, something that I’ve always found a bit odd considering a feminist angle on princess stories has been a Disney talking point since 2015’s “Cinderella.”
In this iteration of Snow White, the prince is no longer a prince, but is instead a rebel named Johnathan who lives in the woods and steals from the Evil Queen to give to the poor. The movie begins with the Evil Queen hoarding wealth and leaving the peasants to starve, as well as turning the peaceful kingdom into a violent kingdom of warriors. Snow White, a servant, encounters Jonathan when he tries to steal potatoes from the castle to give to the poor, and after Snow White is nearly murdered, she joins forces with the rebels and the dwarves to take the kingdom back from the Evil Queen (after being awoken by a kiss, an iconic plot point that was left intact).
The movie obviously ends with the Queen being defeated and Snow White taking over the throne, restoring the kingdom to a place of happiness and prosperity. The changes to the story were done in typical Disney fashion, i.e. a lot of comedic relief characters and songs about friendship, but I thought that they were done relatively well. It made sense, and the majority of the original songs that they added weren’t masterpieces, but they also weren’t terrible.
The low points of the movie were the dwarves, the Evil Queen’s new song, and the offensively bad costuming and hair styling. The CGI dwarves were very uncanny valley, with disproportionately huge and uncomfortably human-looking faces. Gadot’s song started out rough and only got marginally better when she was joined by a group of background dancers and singers.
The costuming choices were all around baffling — the Snow White dress, which should’ve been the star of the show, looked like it was ordered off of Amazon, with garishly bright colors and a silhouette that made me mad in ways I can’t explain. The costume designer behind the project is the same woman who made the gorgeous Cinderella dress in the 2015 movie, so the poor quality here makes me wonder if someone was just trying to cut costs.
The Evil Queen was, for some reason, wearing literal sequins, which would’ve been fine had literally every other character not been dressed in fairly standard period-piece attire, which is distinctly non-sequined. Zegler, one of the most gorgeous people ever, was also done very dirty by the Lord Farquad-esque bob that she was given. The aesthetic flaws of the movie weren’t bad enough that I disliked the movie as a whole, but it did lessen the overall quality of the movie and frankly make me wonder where the $209 million budget went.
For me, Zegler’s performance was undoubtedly the reason that I walked out of the theater feeling satisfied that I had spent $12 to see the movie. Her voice is as stunning as ever, and although the musical material she was given is nowhere near the quality of other Disney classics, her vocals were so good that I didn’t even care. Despite a great number of factors working against her, I felt like she embodied the character’s kindness and generosity while putting a twist on it to match the film’s more modern views.
Her chemistry with her new love interest was well-executed, and I actually liked the fact that they were given a chance to interact and get to know each other through the course of the movie. She’s obviously a very talented actress who did the best she could with what she was given, and it makes me sad that she wasn’t allowed to shine in a better film. Although reviews of the film are generally mixed or negative, the one nearly-universal conclusion, at least from what I’ve seen, is that Zegler delivered a standout performance.
Overall, I don’t think the movie was a masterpiece, nor necessarily that it needed to be made at all, but I also don’t think it was as much of a garbage fire as it’s being made out to be. It’s not remarkable, but it’s also not a bad movie. At the end of the day, it’s a children’s movie meant to deliver a message of kindness and bravery, and that’s exactly what it does. I honestly think that if the movie were being looked at objectively and weren’t being bogged down by the Zegler hate train, it would be receiving a much better reception than it currently is.
If there’s anything that I hope comes out of this, it’s that it allows for Zegler in more movies.