Release Date
March 21, 2025
Director
Marc Webb
Writers
Erin Cressida Wilson, Greta Gerwig
Producers Callum McDougall, Marc Platt
In addition to being a well-known Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first animated film to completely transform the animation business. With its iconic character designs, unforgettable musical sequences, and breathtaking vistas, the original film’s legacy was always going to be hard to top. Disney and filmmaker Marc Webb, however, aimed to update the 88-year-old film for a new audience.
Snow White, which stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, is much more than a live-action adaptation of the beloved animated film. Snow White, which references the original Grimm fairy tale, Schneewittchen, further develops the past of the title heroine, including her relationship with the Evil Queen and her biological parents, much like Disney’s 2015 Cinderella remake. While modernising the story’s more problematic components and trying to honour the original film’s legacy, the film fails to bring its strongest concepts together into a coherent narrative.
Rachel Zegler Is Stunning as Snow White, But Her Story Has Flaws
Rachel Zegler’s performance in Snow White is unquestionably the best. Her love for the title heroine is evident not just in her singing but also in the way she expresses the character’s feelings through body language. In certain respects, Zegler offers a more complex portrayal of the adored Disney heroine. Snow White is given the love and compassion that people already identify with her character, but she is also given the opportunity to feel resentment at the Evil Queen’s brutality and the way she tore her family and her kingdom apart. This is one way the character from the original film is enhanced in the live-action version.
The scenes with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are where the later issue is most noticeable. The Dwarfs provided the terrified young princess with refuge and defence against the Evil Queen in the original film, but Snow White’s revised plot renders their involvement in her tale mostly unnecessary. The Dwarfs have virtually little reason to be in the new film, except from the fact that they are included to recreate some of the most famous scenes from the previous film. It’s sufficient to state that the overall meaning of her story would remain unaffected even if the Dwarf scenes were completely cut out.
The forced romance with Jonathan is the other plot point that doesn’t support Zegler’s Snow White. Although Jonathan is given more screen time in the live-action version than Prince Charming in the original film, it is regrettably not an upgrade. The age difference between Snow White and her male love interest is, at best, eliminated in the new film, but their chemistry is woefully inadequate. Ironically, even though the Prince only had two appearances in the original film, this was not an issue.
The Prince was truly captivated by Snow White when he first met her, which at least sold the idea of a relationship between them. This was what made the difference the first time. The age difference between the two characters and the way the Prince was introduced were the main things that hindered the notion. Every exchange between Snow White and Jonathan in the live-action version is, at best, awkward and, at worst, completely unnatural. There is simply no reason for these two to fall in love other than to fulfil the famous kiss scene from the original film, considering the way their plot is handled in the film.
Snow White Needed a More Terrifying Evil Queen to Hold the Story Together
Though Rachel Zegler knocks her performance out of the park as the titular heroine, the one character that really brings the movie down is Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen. Despite capturing the character’s menacing physical appearance, the Evil Queen being a real threat to Snow White is lost in Gadot’s acting. Rather than coming off as abusive and unhinged like the original Evil Queen from the animated feature, Gadot’s iteration comes off as petty to a cartoony degree. As such, it’s hard for the audience to take her seriously as a villain, and her actions throughout the movie do very little to add to Snow White’s growth
Snow White already has the bravery to face her stepmother, so she can’t find it without truly being afraid of her. There is nothing to help her character grow because she has the tool she needs to overcome her evil stepmother right from the beginning, thus she stays the same person she was at the beginning of the movie. Although the live-action Snow White remake has good ideas, it could have been on par with its animated equivalent if it had been written much more tightly and executed more subtly. Similarly, Zegler’s version could have easily outperformed her animated equivalent if Snow White, the Evil Queen, and the Dwarfs had developed their relationships more.
Watch the ‘Snow White’ Trailer
Released on December 3, 2024, the official trailer for the brand-new Snow White is available to watch above. Giving fans their first glimpse at Rachel Zegler as the iconic Disney princess and of Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen. With a history that dates back as far as Snow White’s, lovers of the title will be hoping for consistency in the story, which is something already shining through in the above trailer.
