Directed by: Marc Webb
Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap
Fantasy/Musical/Family | PG | 1 hr
49 min
3.5 stars
By Reed Ripley
Snow White never had a chance— not because of its quality, which I will argue is perfectly good, but rather because, years ago at this point, all corners of the Internet deemed Disney’s decision to make the film a bad idea. That’s incredibly unfair, and it’s a shame the poisoned apple of online discourse stood in the way of families everywhere just enjoying a nice time at the movies.
There are two major positions that drove the discourse, neither of which holds up after actually seeing Snow White. First, there’s the “Disney’s too woke” criticism. This is now a yearslong thing that has more to do with politics than the films themselves, but even acknowledging the slightest degree to which the criticism was justified (where Disney would clunkily throw in lines and subplots about representation without doing the work to incorporate it into the story), it’s simply not an issue in Snow White.
The cast is pretty diverse, but it’s not like the film actively discusses representation. Unless someone’s position is that Snow White’s domain is uniformly white for some reason (even though this is a magical fairy tale), then there’s just nothing there. I suppose the “wokest” part is the ending, which allows Snow White to be the hero in her own story rather than being passed out waiting for a kiss, but I’m sorry, that’s just good writing.
That leads to the second position, the generally sour attitude toward Disney’s live action remakes. I’m not dying on the hill that Disney’s recent run of remakes is in fact good—they’re mostly garbage, especially since 2022’s disastrous Pinocchio. It’s definitely fair to view these films through cynical lenses considering that Disney is a $100-plus billion company very much interested in squeezing money out of its classic characters.
However, that doesn’t mean that every live action remake is inherently a bad idea, and that’s the frustrating thing about Snow White becoming such a political lightning rod and totem of vitriol toward Disney’s live action pursuits. Out of all Disney’s classic animated features, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was uniquely primed for a remake. Yes, the animation is incredible and undeniably groundbreaking for its time, and revisiting some of the musical sequences is still a treat. But if you sit down, pop in your Walt Disney Home Video cassette tape, and watch from the beginning, the film drags. It’s beautiful to look at, and the dwarfs are great, but it’s just not a good story.
That’s where, setting aside the bad faith opinions of people who haven’t seen the film, Snow White succeeds. Rachel Zegler is wonderful as Snow White, the songs are catchy, just about everything with the dwarfs is delightful, there’s a surprising level of emotional depth, and the story is zippy and fun. It’s not amazing by any means, and there are definitely things that didn’t work (Gal Gadot continues to drain the life out of every scene she’s in, except maybe when she’s completely unrecognizable as the old hag, which is telling). But, at the least, it’s a fun time at the movies that works for parents and kids alike, and it should stand on its own merit.
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Another pathetic Disney shill-piece that did not deserve a chance from the get go. Don’t know what movie you reviewed, but Snow White 2025 was an unwanted film which was badly cast (and for reasons other than the color of Zegler’s complexion); badly produced; clunkily-edited and barely watchable woke-fest, which was “mediocre” at best. The only thing it succeeded in doing was tarnishing the original 1937 classic by associating this travesty with it.