Snow White Review

For the last decade, Disney has been remaking their animated classics with mixed results. Their remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is arguably the most contentious, with the studio seeking to modernise the story.

Snow White (Rachel Zegler) is the daughter of a benevolent king and queen (Hadley Fraser and Lorena Andrea) and the rightful heir to the throne. However, her position has been usurped by her stepmother (Gal Gadot), and her harsh rule leads to the people becoming impoverished. When the Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror (Patrick Page) warns that Snow White will become fairest of them all, she orders the princess’ murder, forcing Snow White to run away into the forest.

The 2025 version of Snow White has been at the centre of a Culture War storm, with its star being the main target. Zegler was infamously called the prince a ‘stalker’ and has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump. It has led to the usual online suspects painting her as a demon woman, like Kathleen Kennedy and Brie Larson, because they dared to express an opinion. Variety published an article about Snow White’s production issues, and it was setting up Zegler as the fall guy. She might have said some things I disagree with, but she has not done anything reprehensible like Erza Miller.

Snow White also faced controversy through the casting of Gal Gadot since she’s Israeli and has been supportive of Israel. To put it mildly, the conflict in the Middle East has been a divisive issue, and Palestinian supporting audiences would be turned off by Gadot’s presence.

Many people who have criticised have been men in their 40s, people who wouldn’t be the target audience. Snow White has been review-bombed because it has a 1.5 score on IMDB, making it one of worst films on that website. It’s on the same level as Disaster Movie, Saving Christmas, and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. This shows a massive flaw in IMDB since anyone can create an account without verification. If someone honestly thinks Snow White is one of the worst films ever made, then they’re lucky because they haven’t seen many bad films. It’s not even the worst Disney live-action remake. At least it wasn’t a bland shot-for-shot remake like the 2019 version of The Lion King.

Snow White did have issues. It shows Disney is still dependent on intellectual property and shows creative laziness at the studio. It had a massive budget, costing between $240 to $270 million, which was way too much for this type of film. It’s the same issue that affected films like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and The Flash. There were some bizarre creative choices, one of the most notable being the CGI dwarfs that look like they escaped from Robert Zemeckis’ nightmares. It was a film that aimed to have a classic fairy tale look, but it was so clean that it was more like visiting Disney World. I watched the film with my six-year-old nephew, someone who’s unaware of the culture war nonsense orbiting the film. He was getting bored by the time the third act started. Yet he seemed more engaged with Snow White than Mufusa.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs deserved its reputation as a classic. It was a beautiful-looking film with iconic characters and moments and some nice songs. But it was a product time because the story was thin, Snow White was portrayed to be a motherly figure to the dwarfs, and it had an old-fashioned portrayal of romance. It’s a story that could be updated.

The new version of Snow White draws inspiration from the 2015 version of Cinderella. The title characters in both films were about young female characters being forced into servitude by a wicked stepmother but kept their values and kindness. The new versions of the characters were more independent and proactive, and setting up the relationship between the princesses and their princes. Snow White made a point of the romance between Snow White and Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), but there was an 11-year age difference between the actors, so it looked like a budding relationship between a teenager and a 30-year-old man.

The original film was less than 90 minutes, and the remake was 109 minutes, so the story was expanded. An example of this expansion was with this film’s version of ‘Heigh Ho’ which acted as an introductory song for the Dwarfs. Snow White’s story and plotting were more like Snow White and the Huntsman. In the 2012 film Snow White had to lead a rebellion against the cruel, magical ruling. The opening prologue in Snow White matched Snow White and The Huntsman’s where the princess had a loving mother and father, but her father falls for a beautiful magical woman, and the king ends up disappearing during a war. The difference between the film was genre since Snow White and The Huntsman was a fantasy epic like Lord of the Rings, and the Disney film was a fairy tale musical.

As a musical, Snow White was perfectly solid. There’re no denying Zegler’s singing abilities, and she was the best performer in the film. She excelled whether singing new songs like ‘Waiting on a Wish’ or a classic like ‘Whistle While You Work.’ Zegler has a more mature voice than Caselotti, so Zegler’s version was more outgoing and confident. Like Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid, Zegler shows she has star power. On the other hand, Gadot was a poor choice to play the Evil Queen. Gadot is a beautiful woman, but she has never been known for being a strong actor, and once again, she gave a stiff performance.

Snow White is far from a cinematic great, but it has been overly hated due to culture war backlash. Snow White does live in the shadow of an important classic, but on its own terms, it’s a fine family-friendly musical.