Snow White, the latest in a series of live-action remakes of Disney’s beloved cartoon canon, released into a storm of controversy. The first issue has already been referenced; that is, it is part of a seemingly deliberate choice by Disney to milk its IP and remake every single one of its cartoons. Two more are coming within the next 18 months, and five more are in development. This unadulterated fetishization of nostalgia has already riled audiences for years, despite the individual box office success of some of them.
Then there are the issues surrounding the depiction of dwarfs in the film. These dwarfs (Tolkien preferred “dwarves” as a plural, and D&D’s Gary Gygax embraced that convention, but in old-school iterations like Disney’s it’s “dwarfs”) are magical creatures from Germanic folklore, but some, notably Peter Dinklage, feel it is inappropriate in the modern age to have a magical dwarf as a character. Then there’s star Rachel Zegler, who made comments critical of the original movie that some have interpreted as unduly harsh, feeding into cultural battles about “wokeness.” Add in disagreements between Zegler and her co-star Gal Gadot (an Israeli actress) on the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict, and all the ingredients are there for a hot-button media disaster. The film bombed in its opening weekend and currently “boasts” the lowest IMDb score of all time.
In a sense, a cinephile might delight in a piece of filmmaking that holds such cultural influence and attention. All of the varying debates, reactions, and dissertations about this speak to the fact that movies are still an important talking point for society, even if most of the discussion is only adjacent to the content of the film.
The grand irony of all this comes to light after watching the movie. Is Snow White good? Not really. Is it the worst movie of all-time? Not even close. If anything, Snow White is a sad reminder about the homogenized machine that Disney has become in the post-COVID world.
There are elements of this picture to praise. Whatever one might think of Zegler personally, she is the shining light of the movie. Since her role in 2021’s West Side Story, Zegler has dazzled with her singing voice and screen presence. She nails every song she is handed, and the recreation of “Whistle While You Work” is among the closest any of these remakes has gotten to capturing the spirit of the original film.
The humorous dynamic of the dwarfs themselves produces some chuckles, and the film thankfully doesn’t go for a washed-out color palate for the sake of “realism.” It perhaps looks cheap at times, but the faithful recreation of Snow White’s iconic dress and other splashes of color give the movie a bright and eye-catching look most of the time. One can say, at least, that some effort was put into the aesthetics.
But unsurprisingly, it is the new elements and differences from the original film that cause this movie to go awry. For one, the decision to use entirely CGI dwarfs triggers a headlong fall into the uncanny valley. They look horrendous, especially the beloved Dopey. The attempt to recreate his less-burly and more childlike depiction in cartoony-yet-photorealistic CGI is one of the most foolhardy decisions in the entire production.
All of the newly-penned songs are bland and forgettable. While Zegler belts admirably on “Waiting on a Wish,” the movie’s new “I want” song, it fails to say anything new or distinct and offers little to latch onto sonically. If anything, it unfortunately reminds one of the songs from Wish, which already felt like a generic attempt at Disney music. And whoever decided making Gadot sing through a villain song was a good idea needs their ears examined. The flat number makes it painfully apparent that Gadot should not be singing.
As for Gadot herself, her performance is more mid-tier than terrible. Some have criticized her as stiff and the acting as poor. But the character of the Evil Queen never was one for grand expressions, so her take is “accurate” in a sense. When she is allowed to flex a bit in the elderly hag guise, Gadot shows more personality. Even so, she should have made some effort beyond simply aping what the animated film does – much as Susan Sarandon did in Enchanted when she played essentially the same character.
Added-on or changed storylines attempt to add more agency to Snow White. Rather than simply being rescued by a generic prince, Snow White comes to revelation that her stepmother is a cruel dictator and teams up with Jonathan — a roguish outlaw leader — to lead a rebellion against the Evil Queen. These storylines not dissimilar from the Twisted Tale adaptation of Snow White by author Jen Calonita. This attempt to spice things up is appreciated, as the largest fault of the original film is probably the fact that Snow White has relatively little personality.
Yet attempt and success are not the same thing. The story has broad outlines of ideas but no depth to go along with them. The inner political conflict of the kingdom is nondescript, and the motivation for fighting back for any of the characters, including Snow White, relies on platitudes. Not that a kids’ film needs complex sociopolitical dilemmas to succeed, but something more than “people are hungry” and “it’s bad to be bad” would have been appreciated.
In the end, Snow White doesn’t deserve the treatment it is getting from various parts of the audience. Without all of the external factors around it, this would have come and went with the same box office numbers and a lot less press. There are far worse movies to spend your time with, and even some of Disney’s other remakes are more poorly executed than this one.
The real lesson to be had here is that as long as Disney keeps trying to recreate the unique qualities of its animated films in liveaction without adjusting the writing appropriately, they will keep falling on their face regardless of people’s personal opinions about the lead actors. As to all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth, much ado about nothing. There are far worthier films, good and bad, to spend your time writing about on the internet.
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