Disney’s live action ‘Snow White’ remake is… fine?
After all that fuss, Rachel Zegler’s new princess musical is totally watchable
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It would take an entire investigative podcast series to explain the many, many controversies (some justified, many not) that have bubbled up around Disney’s live action Snow White remake during its long production process. Suffice it to say that Rachel Zegler filmed this movie three months before The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes yet that movie came out in 2023 while Snow White is just premiering now. This remake of the first ever Disney princess flick has been reshot, reedited, and rebranded so many times, it was starting to feel genuinely cursed. And by the time Disney downsized the movie’s premiere to exclude journalists, I expected a full-on fiasco.
So imagine my surprise to discover that Snow White is, in fact, a perfectly average live action remake on par with the likes of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid and certainly better than the nadir of 2017’s Beauty and the Beast. If Disney’s plan was to lower my expectations to the point where I didn’t bat an eye at the uncanny CGI animated dwarves, it worked. While Snow White certainly isn’t great cinema, it’s watchable in that theme park empty calorie way. And at this point, I guess that’s all anyone expects from this live action remake hellscape we live in.
Let’s get the bad out of the way first: As if she hasn’t suffered enough indignities, Rachel Zegler is stuck wearing a truly garish costume and one of the worst haircuts I’ve ever seen onscreen. Gal Gadot aims for camp and can’t even hit so-bad-it’s-good as the Evil Queen. The aforementioned CGI dwarves are a visual abomination. The new songs from The Greatest Showman composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul totally clash with the original movie’s soundscape. And everything about the script’s moral message and feminist politics feels wildly overthought.
Which, to be fair, sounds like a lot of problems! But there’s good to balance it out too: Zegler is a truly captivating leading lady, even bad Pasek and Paul songs are catchy, the plot is briskly paced, and there are just enough new additions to the story that I was regularly engaged, if not exactly enchanted throughout. Ironically, most of those new additions come in the form of men, including a beefed-up role for Snow’s love interest Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), who’s been reimagined as a thief with a heart of gold, and a whole lot of discussion of her long-gone kingly father, who taught her everything she knows about being a kind, empathetic ruler. (Sorry, to her mom, I guess.)
But, as I wrote in my piece on the original 1937 film, I don’t need Disney princess films to pass some kind of feminist purity tests to be enjoyable, so the changes mostly worked for me. Still, I did laugh that this movie seems to think it’s more empowering to have Snow White break into the dwarves’ cottage and immediately go to sleep on their beds, rather than trying to barter her cooking and cleaning services for room and board. But, hey, maybe that really is girl power.
Indeed, there are mostly lateral moves when it comes to where and how this live action remake updates its story for the 21st century. As in recent adaptations like Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, Snow is a more active, driven protagonist with a romance that plays second fiddle to rescuing her kingdom from the Evil Queen’s fascistic reign. Rather than have Snow become a badass sword-wielder, however, screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson makes a pointed effort to celebrate the aspects of leadership that are often unfairly undervalued because they’re deemed “feminine”—things like listening, conflict resolution, empathy, and collaboration.
It's a nice idea, although, with all those explicit moral lessons at play, Snow starts to feel like a role model first and a lived-in character second. The ironic thing about these live action remakes is that even though they star real people, they often feel less alive than the animated originals. 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gave Snow a cheeky, passive aggressive streak that made her a sneakily funny character. This Snow is all earnest longing and cooing integrity. But, by this point, I feel like we all go in knowing these live action remakes won’t have the same heart and magic as the originals, and we’re just here for the novelty factor of nostalgia-meets-newness.
Beyond some painterly forest sets and a few clever, unexpected jokes, that newness mostly comes in the form of the movie’s musical numbers, which are even more prominent here than they were in the animated original. While it’s a bummer to lose “I’m Wishing” and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” especially given how earnestly the movie winds up playing the romance in the end, we do get a cute dance-heavy take on “Whistle While You Work” and a Tangled-meets-Dear-Evan-Hansen love ballad called “A Hand Meets A Hand.” There’s also a Golden Age-style banter song called “Princess Problems” that’s so similar to the “A Lovely Night” number from La La Land, I feel like Pasek and Paul should sue themselves. And while I don’t know if I would call any of the new songs good, exactly, the opening number “Good Things Grow” and Snow’s big belted ballad “Waiting On A Wish” have both been stuck in my head for days, which is not nothing.
Indeed, the thing about these live action remakes is that as the credits roll, I almost always hear a kid celebrate it as the best movie they’ve ever seen. (In this case, it got a 10/10 from the little boy sitting two seats down from me.) And I do think there’s an inherent power to these Disney classics that still hits, even when translated into something closer to a cruise ship musical.
In fact, with these made-by-committee Disney blockbusters, I’m always as curious about what we didn’t get as what we did. Was Jonathan and Snow’s rushed romance cut down from a more expansive story? Was there a draft that excluded the dwarves entirely and instead just focused on Jonathan’s eclectic band of fellow bandits? (As is, we get two separate groups of seven people, which feels a bit redundant.) Was there a version that tried to give the Evil Queen more depth or a meaningful relationship with Snow White? Did anyone flag how weird it is to have Snow lead a revolt against a monarchical ruler only to stake her own claim in monarchical rule?
Who knows! But, as far as live action remakes go, “have courage, be kind, and fight fascism” is a fitting message for the moment, even if it comes wrapped in a pretty garish package.
Grade: B-
Other stuff I’ve worked on lately: This month’s Women of Action column is about Charlize Theron’s infamous flop, Æon Flux. And my reviews of Daredevil: Born Again are still going strong over on Episodic Medium.
I have no interest in watching these remakes, but I do enjoy the critiques! Appreciate this balanced review.
Wow. This review could not be more innocuous (but interesting as always). I cannot believe the trolls are targeting you for such a non-political review.