For years, Disney\u2019s live-action Snow White <\/em>remake has weathered a relentless storm of controversy\u2014from backlash over casting a Latina actress as the \u201cwhite as snow\u201d princess, to leaked photos of the reimagined human dwarfs, to the leading lady\u2019s divisive jabs at the \u201cdated\u201d original Disney classic. It seemed that no matter Disney\u2019s efforts, the film stumbled into one PR disaster after another. Endless reshoots and a ballooning budget later, one question to the Magic Mirror looms: does the final film rival the 1937 classic, or is it simply a dumpster fire of epic proportions? Which Snow White<\/em> is the fairest one of all?<\/p>\n Snow White<\/em> follows Snow White (Rachel Zegler), a princess not named for her complexion but rather for surviving who being born during a ferocious blizzard. She\u2019s reared to lead the kingdom into a collectivist utopia, but when her mother dies, her father (Hadley Fraser) quickly remarries and marches off to battle a threat at the kingdom\u2019s southern border, never to return. His new wife\u2014the cunning Evil Queen (Gal Gadot)\u2014reveals herself as a sorceress who enchanted the King with her powers and beauty and promptly usurps the throne, banishing Snow White as a scullery maid. The once prosperous kingdoms crumbles into disarray and poverty due to taxation and forced conscription. But the vain queen fears that one day, Snow White\u2019s beauty will surpass her own, so she consults her magic mirror, which continually affirms that the Queen is indeed the fairest of all.<\/p>\n One day, a bandit, Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), raids the palace kitchen. Snow White confronts him, insisting that stealing is not right. Unaware of her true identity, he lectures her to steal as much as she can for herself. Later, he\u2019s captured and sentenced to freeze to death while shackled to the castle gates. He\u2019s shocked when Snow White not only reveals herself as the long-lost princess, but also frees him, giving him a parting piece of bread for the road.<\/p>\n Her defiance shocks the Evil Queen, who again asks the mirror, \u201cWho is the fairest of them all?\u201d This time, however, it bestows the honor on Snow White\u2014not for beauty, but for her pure heart and sense of moral justice. Infuriated, the Evil<\/span> Queen dispatches her Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take Snow White to the royal orchard under the guise of apple picking, then kill her, bringing her heart back in a box. He chickens out, revealing the true plan to Snow White, and tells her to flee. Deep in the woods, she finds refuge in a cottage, where she meets seven mining dwarfs and later reunites with Jonathan and his ragtag gang of bandits.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t talk about 2025\u2019s Snow White<\/em> without discussing the polarizing Rachel Zegler, so let\u2019s dive in. Zegler\u2019s talent as a\u00a0 singer and actress is undeniable; however, her Broadway flair doesn\u2019t translate to the big screen, particularly for this version of Snow White. While the filmmakers deviated from Snow White\u2019s original wholesome depiction\u2014making her more vocal and aggressive\u2014while still insisting that she embodies purity, fairness, and goodness, winning over everyone she meets. Zegler, however, struggles convincingly exhibit these characteristics as her performance lacks warmth and sweetness. She may have been suited for the film\u2019s earlier, edgier draft, but after the story morphed, she couldn\u2019t bridge the gap.<\/p>\n Gal Gadot\u2019s Evil Queen is a mixed bag, delivering a bipolar performance that makes it hard to take her (or the movie) seriously. One moment she\u2019s icy serious and the next she\u2019s chewing the scenery. Her villain song\u2014\u201dAll Is Fair\u201d\u2014is so campy and Broadway-like that it drew snickers from the audience. All that was missing was a chorus line of royal guards with top hats and canes.<\/p>\n Boasting seven new songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul\u2014the songwriting duo behind Dear Evan Hansen<\/em>, The Greatest Showman<\/em>, and Jasmine\u2019s \u201cSpeechless\u201d from 2019\u2019s Aladdin<\/em>\u2014the film attempts to be a Wicked<\/em>-style musical with its extravagant dance numbers. Yet the songs feel like generic mid-2010s Broadway numbers and contrast poorly, feeling out of place when classics like \u201cWhistle While You Work\u201d, \u201cHeigh Ho\u201d, and \u201cThe Silly Song\u201d start playing. There\u2019s no cohesion between the old songs and new because the oldies were never meant to be there in the first place.<\/p>\n Visually, the film is a chaotic mess, with a color palette that jumps from drab to garish depending on the scene. Most scenes in the enchanted forest and dwarfs\u2019 cottage suffer from bizarre, sickly color grading as if you\u2019re like looking through urine-tinted lenses. Snow White\u2019s iconic pale yellow and royal blue gown, while appropriately saturated for animation, becomes a loud yellow-aqua eyesore, feeling like a cheap design that you could find at your local Spirit Halloween. It\u2019s odd this cartoonish output is from famed costume designer, Sandy Powell, known for her beautiful costuming in Cinderella<\/em>, and that she didn\u2019t opt for a more realistic, toned-down version of the iconic dress.<\/p>\n The dwarfs\u2019 costumes\u2014bright, solid blocks of color\u2014fare no better, but their most egregious problem lies in their CGI design. The CGI dwarfs (added in last minute, which delayed the film for over a year) are the most uncanny valley, unintentionally frightening creatures imaginable. With their oversized heads and bulbous noses, they are unappealing, breaking one of the 12 Principles of Animation championed by two of the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em> animators. The only character who stands out is Dopey, whose character arc replaces Grumpy\u2019s from the original, but he simply looks like the kid from The Polar<\/em> Express<\/em>, which was made over 20 years ago when motion-capture technology was still in its infancy. Despite this, it\u2019s clear his animators put a lot of time into capturing his sweet, cute, childlike essence.<\/p>\n On the plus side, the Evil Queen\u2019s dresses and capes are rich and gaudy, dripping in rich blacks and purples. Each new outfit is encrusted with more jewels, showing her increase in vanity and power. While it might have been better stylistic choice to swap the sequins for velvet, her clothing still feels realistic for the vain Queen. On the other hand, Snow White\u2019s peasant\u2019s clothes, as well as those of Jonathan and the bandits, are comically absurd, with a patchwork of patterns and textures. Jonathan even sports a medieval hoodie, evoking a poor-man\u2019s Robin Hood, which is fitting because his character\u2019s bandit nature is nothing but surface-level, void of any higher virtue or altruism.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear from Rachel Zegler\u2019s 2022 D23 comments that\u00a0Snow White <\/em>was never meant to have a love story. But thanks to the magic of reshoots, we do indeed get a love story in the end\u2014a tacked-on romance that comes out of nowhere with no chemistry between the two leads. Their love song resembles Tangled<\/em>\u2019s \u201cI See the Light,\u201d complete with twinkling fireflies surrounding them. It\u2019s the classic enemies-to-lovers trope, where she doesn\u2019t respect him at first, he mocks her through song (\u201cPrincess Problems), and then suddenly, after he takes an arrow to the chest for her, she has have a change of heart and falls head over heels for the guy. That\u2019s all it takes; they\u2019re in love. Now time to push him to the sidelines until he\u2019s needed again for true love\u2019s first kiss to wake her from the poison apple\u2019s spell.<\/p>\n The biggest flaw of Snow White<\/em> lies in its shoddy fusion of two clashing visions. One is a Disney\u2019s inital pitch, a progressive movie with socialist undertones, while the other scrambles to play the hits from the 1937 original in a desperate pivot after the backlash. As a result, the movie is a discombobulated mess that attempts to straddle both boats, but is unable to stay afloat. It\u2019s unfortunate because great remakes take inspiration from the original film and forge something new, rather than parroting the past. That seemed to be the original intention with Snow White <\/em>before Disney lost its spine. Instead of sticking to its guns, it folded (repeatedly), shoving in uncanny-valley CGI dwarfs and a tacked-on romance that are at odds with the narrative, which ends up taking a back seat.<\/p>\n All this comes down to the fact that Disney never really wanted to make a Snow White<\/em> film because it neither understands nor respects the original. In Disney\u2019s mind, the princess was weak, the themes were \u201coutdated\u201d, and modern audiences wanted more and deserved better. It\u2019s clear the studio wanted to make a new and exciting fairy tale, where a progressive, girl-boss princess independently takes on the injustice of her time while simultaneously belting out modern power ballads. But Disney wasn\u2019t comfortable releasing this bold vision as an original film, so instead it took the skin suit of Snow White<\/em> as a covert guise, butchering the artistry, themes, and legacy of the original along the way. If audiences complain or the film bombs, Disney can blame Snow White as the culprit, instead of looking at the mirror to see where the rot really lies.<\/p>\n Disney\u2019s Snow White<\/em> is a Frankenstein of a film that is pulled in too many directions\u2014visually, musically, and narratively. There are hints at what could have been a different and potentially interesting remake that was a true departure from the original, but the film is ultimately poisoned by not sticking to that vision.<\/p>\n \u2605\u00bd\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Snow White <\/em>hits theaters on March 21, 2025.<\/p>\n![\"Disney-snow-white-2025-still-snow-white-evil-queen\"](\"https:\/\/www.rotoscopers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Disney-snow-white-2025-still-snow-white-evil-queen-1024x458.jpeg\")
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