‘Snow White’ Review: Not The Fairest

While one could classify this latest live-action remake of a classic animated film as “oh so very Disney,” it’s a bit of a misnomer. When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came out in 1937, it was a time when true ambition and risk went into delivering cinematic art unlike anything anyone had seen (subsequent features, Pinnochio and Fantasia nearly put the Mouse House into bankruptcy at the cost of the art). Not to sound like a broken record regarding these reimagined versions, but this live-action Snow White is the latest assembly-line version of an old tale that does very little to stand out. Beyond the novelty of seeing the Disney-specific version of this story brought to life, the overall production feels lifeless, given the lack of anything truly ambitious here. Sure, aspects are fine, such as Rachel Zegler’s lead performance, some of the production design…end of list. Still, this is once again a case of looking at so much being spent on an inferior version that will hardly ever be in the conversation again outside of a trivia point to bring up in a conversation down the road.

Zegler stars as the titular Snow White, a princess living with her cold-hearted stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). While ruling over the kingdom (and seemingly doing a pretty good job despite perhaps some supposed food scarcity), her vanity ultimately comes into play, as Snow White is deemed fairest of them all by the Queen’s magic mirror. Intending to take Snow White out of the equation, the Queen plans to have her killed. However, this only leads to Snow White escaping to the enchanted forest, where she meets and begins living with seven dwarfs.

See Also: ‘Pinocchio’ Review: Still Not Quite a ‘Real’ Boy

Of course, there’s more to this story, but it’s pretty well-known. Yes, the film, scripted by writer and playwright Erin Cressida Wilson, is another Disney princess film that has been appropriately updated to give the lead character more agency. That’s all well and good, but it is far from unique at this point. It would be odd to see a regression if anything. But sure, Snow White is not a helpless woman and shares a message of caring and kindness. It’s all very innocent and well-meaning, regardless of how engaging it turns out.

It’s a good thing Zegler is putting in her best efforts to make this performance work to the extent it does. While I can’t say the new songs by Pasek and Paul (The Greatest Showman, La La Land) do much to really stand out, Zegler is clearly a talent in this area and brings out all she can in this Snow White performance as a whole. She has decent chemistry with Gadot and Andrew Burnap’s Jonathan, a rebellious young man who essentially replaces the original story’s Prince Charming. She also does her best to play along with the dwarfs. As the entire film does rest on Snow White being effective, Zegler deserves plenty of credit for at least holding the film together as well as it can be.

That’s not saying much though, as so many other aspects of this film do not gel. Gadot isn’t about to headline any musicals, and her attempts to vamp it up as the Evil Queen come nowhere close to what Angelina Jolie was pulling off as Maleficent. It may have at least helped if the decision to have her represent the animated character visually paid off, but beyond the kind of credit one would give to a solid cosplay attempt at a convention, the budget for this film really didn’t pay off when it came to costuming.

This speaks more to the visual choices of these movies, as it seems like these are continually lost battles. This time around, while there’s an abundance of color in the costumes to allow for some level of vibrancy, we’re still dealing with muted environments. And yes, the choices made for how to shoot this film didn’t do the costume design any favors. Meanwhile, the production design choices had some areas to shine (the dark woods, the dwarfs’ home), but so much of it had the sheen of a dull production space.

Perhaps I’m an outlier, but I was mostly okay with the depiction of the dwarfs visually. Handled through motion capture and puppetry, with voices from actors including Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, and Jeremy Swift, being a fantasy, Snow White chooses to depict the dwarfs as fantastical CG characters, which I can understand. I didn’t find their look to be nightmare fuel in the way I know others have, but I wasn’t having much fun when they were around either. Not helping was a specific development with one of the dwarfs that felt so hackneyed that I could only imagine how this would go over better if this movie was attempting parody.

With all of the choices made to deliver the film we’re seeing from director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man), it doesn’t help that so much of this film feels like a slog to get through. Once again, while thankfully under two hours, this film accomplishes what the original did in 80 minutes by tacking on another 30. Why? That comes from the new songs, additional character development, and other things that show how efficient animated films are and why it helps them so much. With Snow White, even while willing to engage with this take on the story, it was tough to feel invested when disenchantment from the material came from the lack of energy I found here. And it never helped to see the film threaten to make bold choices and not follow through on them.

Other Disney remakes chose a similar path. Snow White is not the most action-packed story and only needs so much fantastical intervention, not unlike Cinderella. However, Kenneth Branagh’s take on that vastly superior film had a far better understanding of how to keep the story grounded, update the characters, and still engage with the fantastical elements satisfyingly (the costumes were also way better). Why the same kind of effort doesn’t seem to go into all of these features in a way that would help justify both the budgets they receive and the amount of money they make, I can’t say. As it stands, I wish (upon a star) that I can gather any excitement for the next batch of these live-action re-dos, as Snow White is far from the fairest of them all.

Snow White opens in theaters and IMAX on March 21, 2025.