Snow White: A Timeless Animated Classic Revisited (Early Review)

In 1937, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first major animated feature film from Walt Disney Studios. A pioneer in the genre, a story about a girl as fair and white as snow being hunted by an evil queen and the seven dwarves as friends to help guide her, resulted in a classic that is revered to this day. With the current trend at Disney to make their most iconic animated efforts once again but in live action form, it was only a matter of time they got to Snow White which is now upon us. That being said, Snow White is not quite a remake, as it changes many details of the story and characters to make itself more a reimagining of the original tale.

In this iteration, Snow White (Zegler) was born in a snowstorm and survived the harshness of it through the night, as her parents, The Good King (Hadley Fraser) and Good Queen (Lorena Andrea) teach her all about being kind and good. This life, however, is upended by the arrival of the Evil Queen (Gadot), who envelops the kingdom in darkness, destroying everyone’s lives. Yet, despite all that power, the queen is envious of Snow White, as her magic mirror explains that she is the fairest and kindest in all the land thus making Snow White a target as the young princess attempts to unite the kingdom against the queen.

It is this quality of Snow White that sets it apart from most of the other live-action retellings from Disney so far. Rather than take an almost shot-for-shot, beat-for-beat approach as many have taken, this effort attempts to carve its own path and gives it something to be known by. Zegler is more than up to the task to accomplish that, giving a genuinely great performance and the highlight of the film. Her screen presence is remarkable, and as she has proven countless times before, she also has an equally remarkable singing voice, elevating the lyrics in the reprisals from the original as well as the new music from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, all welcome editions to this new iteration.

On the flip side, Gadot feels spectacularly miscast as The Evil Queen, giving a performance that feels disconnected from the rest of the film. Despite solid work from her as Wonder Woman, some of those talents unfortunately do not translate to her villain portrayal, though her performance of ‘All is Fair’ gets some points for giving some of The Evil Queen’s campier moments a bit more levity in retrospect, as well as her eventual transformation into the Old Hag to give Snow White an apple. The supporting cast, meanwhile, is also mostly lost to the wayside during the proceedings, despite Jonathan (Burnap) delivering solid work in and having good chemistry with Zegler in the few moments they do get together on screen.

The rest of the film is built on a scattered list of pros and cons, as every positive comes with a caveat. The visuals, for instance, are quite colorful, and several sequences are gorgeous on screen, particularly the opening musical number and the first tumble Snow White takes through the forest while coming upon the other animals. On the other hand, the film features a lot of wonky green screen in moments, with some shots even having a hint of an outline around the characters who don’t seem blended in properly. The biggest culprit of the visuals, however, are the Dwarfs. While characterized quite nicely, particularly by a scene-stealing Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman), the effects with them are quite off-putting in moments that the film is unable to shake.

Narratively, the film fails to consistently keep its tone and ideas intact. It wants to be fun for kids while also being a damning message about authoritarianism and power, and how kindness and good can help the world. While the latter comes through in an effective manner largely thanks to Zegler, it fails when trying to be both, with a scene of partying and fun following a harsh prison sentence towards a character in rapid fire succession, often creating a puzzling viewing. However, in a world that may seem increasingly dark, children will no doubt gravitate towards the message of goodness it no doubt wants to put out there, and being the fairest, truest of all.

In the end, Snow White is hardly a failure. Unlike some of the other live-action remakes, it possesses a lot of its own identity and heart to make it stand out and be appreciated more by audiences. For those expecting a catastrophic disaster to tell stories about, it is nowhere near those levels. At the same time, it doesn’t come to the level of some of the better ones in the past such as Cinderella, The Jungle Book and to a point, even Beauty and the Beast. Above all else, the film marks a step in the right direction as well for Disney, to be more creative and different with any live-action remakes they would be interested to do next, and give them the chance to be the fairest version of themselves.

still courtesy of Disney

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Shaurya Chawla