Posted in: Disney, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Review | Tagged: snow white

Snow White Review: Lacks the Original's Magic Despite Zeglar's Spark

Snow White is one of the better Disney live-action remakes, but that bar is getting so low you could stub your toe on it.

Snow White justifies its existence more than other Disney remakes, but no matter how charming Rachel Zegler is, it still can't capture the magic of the original.

Director: Marc Webb
Summary: A princess joins forces with seven dwarfs to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother the Evil Queen. A live-action adaptation of the 1937 Disney animated film 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'.

Snow White Is One Of The Better Live-Action Remakes, But That's A Low Bar To Clear

The Disney machine has been turning out live-action remakes for over a decade now. If you count Maleficent, it seems they still haven't quite figured out how to make it work. Which is funny because they got it right on the first and second try. Maleficent was way better than it had any right to be with a metaphor for physical and sexual assault that no one saw coming. Then Cinderella came out in 2015, and everyone seems to agree that they nailed that one too. So, what happened? Well, something scared Disney, and instead of leaning into what made those two films unique, they leaned into copying the past. The worst of the live-action remakes are shot-for-shot with maybe one or two new scenes thrown in, usually in the second act.

To say that opinions have shifted about the Disney live-action remakes since this one was announced, fresh off the success of Cinderella, would be an understatement. People have been beating this film into the ground for years, which is why it is all the more amusing that Snow White justifies its own existence far more than other Disney remakes.

This is not to say that there aren't shot-for-shot moments in the film because, of course, there are. There's also the problem that Disney decided to directly translate Snow White's dress and hair from the cartoons to real life, and the results aren't great. The bob is not bob-ing on poor Rachel Zegler. The hair actually looks the best when it's wet or very messy which doesn't happen often. As with most of the Disney live-action remakes, the film is usually at its worst when it's trying to be one of the greatest animated features of all time. It does an admirable job, however, even if some elements translate better than others.

Where Snow White really elevates itself is how much new material they added to the story. The entire beginning has changed pretty significantly; Snow White's motivations have changed entirely, and the Prince is a completely different character. The original story only had so much going on, so they needed to bulk up a few things to make the story flow a bit better—or, at least, make the character interactions flow a bit better. Most of the changes were made to give Snow White more of a character arc aside from "hitting puberty and becoming too pretty," along with giving the love story a bit more breathing room. It still moves at breakneck speed, but Snow White isn't being woken by a complete stranger this time around. However, the changes also contribute to a strange pacing problem. Whenever the movie switches from the source material to something new, you become fundamentally aware of where we are in relation to the original film, and it makes everything feel much longer than it should.

One Great Casting Decision Hiding Among Many Bad Ones

The casting decisions are all over the place, but the one good one, despite how much it pisses off Disney fans, is Zegler. You absolutely cannot deny how stunning her voice is, but she's also the only one who seemed to understand the assignment. This isn't just a musical; this is theater, and she brought the theater kid energy in a good way. She might be the only one aware of what kind of movie she's starring in, while everyone else seems a bit lost. There is nothing wrong with being unapologetically Broadway and the moments where Snow White really leans into that element, specifically the opening number, are the thing theater kid dreams are made of. Andrew Burnap makes virtually no impression as Jonathan, but his voice isn't terrible and he does the best with a role that's still very limited despite being new.

The real missteps are in the villain and the dwarves. The decision to do the dwarves using a combination of motion capture and puppeteering was the wrong one, full stop. The movie already looked a little cheap, thanks to the costume and the wig, but despite all of the shiny VFX work, there isn't a second where you actually believe these magical creatures exist. Gal Gadot is woefully out of her depth as the Evil Queen. Maybe if they decided not to give her a song and make her sing, she might have been able to pull it off, but they wrote a new song just for the Queen and Gadot is not a very good singer. She's not "Russell Crowe in Les Mis" bad, but compared to Zegler's sharp vocals, she sounds incredibly autotuned and fake. This role desperately needed an alto who could belt.

Snow White is one of the better Disney live-action remakes, but that bar is getting so low you could stub your toe on it. It justifies its own existence by making real changes to the source material while keeping all of the elements that worked in animation. While those new elements are nice, the film fails to prove why the move from animation to live-action was fundamentally needed aside from financial considerations. There are new things here, but Disney is too afraid to fully separate these live-action remakes from their animated counterparts and truly let them soar as their own separate beings. As long as Disney continues to lean into shot-for-shot elements for their live-action remakes, the films are doomed to always lag behind their animated counterparts.

Snow White

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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7.5/10

Snow White justifies its existence more than other Disney remakes, but no matter how charming Rachel Zegler is, it still can't capture the magic of the original.

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