Warning: there are SPOILERS for all of Disney’s “Snow White” within the following review!
Disney’s “Snow White” hit theaters amidst a storm of political and production-related controversy. The live action musical came out on March 21, receiving $100.2 million worldwide and earning divisive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience reviews averaged out to 71 percent, whereas critics averaged to 41 percent.
This is The Charger Account reporters Nicola Bailey (11) and Andrew Cooper’s (10) review of the individual elements of the movie as well as our overall ratings.
Plot (Story Arc and Plausibility):
Bailey: Here’s the thing with the story arc: it is very predictable. And not in the “this is a live action film adaptation of a classic fairytale that practically everyone knows” way. It’s in the way of “this is the most cliché thing that could ever happen, but in this hypothetical scenario, I am a 13-year-old girl, so I am going to eat this up.” Instead of a prince, it is a bandit who is basically a different version of “Tangled’s” Flynn Rider. His name is Jonathon. With the power of friendship and support from her people, Snow White saves the day and fixes her kingdom. There’s also the cliché moments of the story, like when the quiet character who doesn’t talk speaks for the first time and everyone gasps, and through their awe that they heard the quiet character speak for the first time in forever, they have bravery and courage, and they all save the day. There’s nothing wrong with any of this — it just feels like they took the original plot, put it through ChatGPT, and asked the Artificial Intelligence to make the script “feel more 2000s Disney Channel.” If that’s your vibe, you’ll adore this movie.
Cooper: The film opens by literally opening a story book and having a voice-over narration explaining the beginning of the story. This narration persists for maybe the first fifteen minutes of the movie, which I found distractingly cliché. Overall, the plot was nothing to write home about, though lifting your plot from a 200-year-old fairy tale doesn’t exactly make for innovative storytelling.
Theme (Identity and Depth):
Bailey: I have no problem with the new theme this movie created. This movie shows conflicts between evil and good, war between impoverished and wealthy, and loyalty to loved ones and the communities we care about. There is nothing here that isn’t good. Snow White genuinely loves and cares for the people around her and tries to make the world a better place for not just the individual, but for the whole of the community too, advocating that everyone should be equal in the paradise of her kingdom. Once she defeats the Evil Queen, who represents the wealthy, everyone has equal resources again, and they’re all joyful and bake apple pies.
Cooper: I think this film is kind of custom made to enrage right-wing social media outlets, with its strong and independent characterization for Snow White, the male hero needing to be saved, and its overt socialist messaging. To clarify, the movie opens with a scene of all the different villagers all gathering together different goods and resources and putting them on a big table in the town square, where everyone shares and benefits from the fruits of their labor. Then, when the Evil Queen takes over, all of the money and resources go to her, causing others to live in poverty. The Evil Queen even says that the villagers’ suffering is morally justified and correct because luxury “confuses them.” Snow White decides to rebel against this system, and it’s only when she breaks free from the systems of oppression surrounding her does the magic mirror see her as the “fairest of them all.” Snow White eventually returns to the kingdom to its old ways, bringing about a beautiful socialist paradise. I don’t have an issue with the inclusion of these themes, but I think that the movie does a bad job at conveying them to the audience. It doesn’t commit hard enough to these ideas, probably to preserve its rating, but I almost would rather these themes of economic inequality be removed entirely than exist in their current half-baked state. Either commit fully to making this a movie about a capitalist dictator and a young woman of color overcoming oppression and uniting the disenfranchised under the banner of revolution, or just make it a silly movie for kids. Obviously, I’d prefer the former, but really, I just want this movie to make a decision.
Acting (Characters and Performance):
Bailey: Rachel Zegler carried this movie, and I am 100 percent not biased when I say that. She is incredible in every single way, and while some people may not enjoy the way she sang some songs, (I’ve seen some complaints about her belting in a very unlike-Snow White soprano fashion) I do want to remind people that she was in no way, shape, or form, a director, producer, or any role that would be making important decisions, specifically decisions about acting choices or vocal decisions — there is a director for a reason. They direct the actors. Zegler followed her direction wonderfully, though it may not be the direction audiences would want.
Cooper: Zegler is always on point in this movie, both in her acting and her singing. Her’s was one of the only performances I felt genuinely engaged by. Everyone else in this movie fell very flat for me. Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen makes me feel nothing. I don’t know if her character is supposed to be funny, or scary, or cool, and honestly, I don’t know if Gadot knows either. Every scene feels like this is her first run without a script and she’s just focused on getting the lines right without fumbling. The bandit captain tenor was so one note and forgettable I don’t even remember his name. I actually was very invested in Ansu Kabia’s role as the Huntsman. For a character who doesn’t even have a name, Kabia puts his all into the role and delivers a genuinely gripping performance. His scene with Zegler in the apple orchard is probably the only scene where Zegler is not the only competent actor on screen
Editing (Pace, CGI, and Effects):
Bailey: To be so honest, I am really bad at telling when something is CGI or not. I just learned the bunnies in this movie might have been computer generated. That makes me so sad (though, I am happy that bunnies did not have to go through animal cruelty while shooting this movie). However, the dwarves were CGI in a way that was insane. I would be watching a scene, everything is cohesive, and then, suddenly, Dreamworks Animation enters the picture and destroys the cohesion that was mostly there before. That’s all I have to say on that. Effects were cool, I think. Maybe look more at Cooper’s section for this part of the review — I think he’ll have a more coherent take.
Cooper: Most of the CGI in this movie is pretty inoffensive. The animals were given exaggerated eyes and proportions, which was initially off putting, but I got used to it eventually. The seven dwarfs were all completely motion-captured CGI characters, and the second they came on screen, I rolled my eyes so much it hurt. Actors with dwarfism have so few opportunities for work, especially in mainstream Hollywood. Disney had the opportunity to elevate and give a platform to seven actors who could make people worldwide feel seen and valid. Instead, they opted for CGI monstrosities that look totally out of place. Their voices weren’t even done by actors with dwarfism, which would have almost been an okay compromise. Overall, it was very disappointing to see.
Soundtrack (Sound Design and Film Score):
Bailey: It was very clear when a song was originally in the animated movie (“Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work”) and very clear when it was a new song they wrote for the live action, (written by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, who also created the music for Broadway musical and movie “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Greatest Showman”). The entire first song, “Good Things Grow,” felt very adjacent to “You Will Be Found,” which made me wonder if Pasek and Paul were told to create songs that would sound adjacent to their old works in hopes of going viral on TikTok from all of the musical theater children still stuck in their middle school “Dear Evan Hansen” phase. Zegler killed it, though, and she sounds stunning. One question I did have was why they didn’t let her utilize her soprano more, as she has sung very high opera in the past — the directors really leaned into her mix-belt instead of letting her hit ultra-high notes like Snow White did in the original, though Ziegler 100 percent was capable of doing either. I’m just curious why the directors chose that (my theory was they wanted to match what musical theater TikTok likes nowadays, and that was their best bet).
Cooper: As someone who loves musical theater and listens to show tunes regularly, nothing from this soundtrack is making it into my rotation. Zegler’s voice is incredible but can’t elevate a mediocre instrumental. The bandit guy (I could look up his name, but honestly, I don’t think he deserves it) has two songs with Zegler and is passable. He sounds like the average tenor who was great in his high school production of “Newsies” and hasn’t done anything cool since. I would call “Heigh-Ho” passably funny, though the scene itself is just a bunch of actors in Mo-Cap suits dancing in a CGI environment, which really took me out of the moment when I realized nothing I was looking at was real. Gadot is actively bad. Her solo, “All is Fair,” feels like I died and went to autotuned Britney-Spears music video Hell. Her lip-syncing is also distractingly off, like you can absolutely tell that she is not singing live. With the recent release of “Wicked” showing audiences how a movie musical can really shine if executed correctly, this entire film feels like a step backwards.
Miscellaneous:
Bailey: I’m just going to use this space to emphasize the fact that it is crazy that Disney is trying to blame Zegler for this movie failing when she is the best part of it. I think that’s all I have to say here. There’s a lot on my mind but I don’t think I can articulate it into words for this review.
Cooper: It’s hard to try and give a review of any movie that focuses on the film itself and not the political context surrounding it. Since all art is inherently political, it can be hard to review something honestly without accidentally talking about a different issue. I want to take this space to say that, even though I severely dislike Gadot’s performance in this movie and am staunchly opposed to certain political beliefs she very publicly holds, I do not believe in any way that she deserves the harassment or death threats she is receiving. People wanting to express their thoughts on an actor’s performance can freely express their thoughts publicly via social media or just vote with their dollar by not watching the movie. Actors and celebrities are, at the end of the day, people trying to make it in the entertainment industry. When someone chooses to set aside basic human decency, their argument loses validity and just becomes noise.
Overall Rating:
Bailey: On my Letterboxd, I gave this two stars out of five. I think I would rate it with the same ratio here, as a 4/10. It wasn’t good. Without Zegler, it would have been worse. End of the day, I think people should see it and come up with their own perspective because I think their perspective will be that Zegler did carry what she could, but it can be hard to carry something that is in shambles.
Cooper: I think that ranking the quality of a movie is hard because, at the end of the day, film is an art form, and it is hard to objectively evaluate. I am of the mind that art is supposed to make you think and make you feel, and if a film makes me feel the right things and come away from it with a new perspective, I would call it successful. “Snow White” is a movie that fails to make me feel anything. In fact, it actively makes me mad that I’m watching it. I do not think this movie is worth seeing. You can look up “Waiting on a Wish” and “Whistle While You Work” on YouTube and experience the best parts of the movie from the comfort of your home. I’d give this movie a 3/10, though without Zegler, it could probably get even lower.
