"snow white" review

By Nadia Dalimonte

Rachel Zegler in Snow White (2025)

​Once upon a time, anticipating a new Disney film didn’t come with grumpiness around which animated classic from an 87-year-old vault the studio would remake next. But ever since the massive success of Disney’s live-action Oscar-winning Alice in Wonderland in 2010, the studio quickly jumped on a moneymaking train, and it seemed no stone would go unturned. Then came the live-action Disney princess trend, from 2015’s Cinderella and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast to 2020’s Mulan and 2023’s The Little Mermaid. The latest addition to this trend goes back 87 years to the vault’s first animated film entry: Snow White. Director Marc Webb and writer Erin Cressida Wilson adapt the Grimm’s Fairy Tale to give the story a new spin for modern audiences. Snow White shows promise in attempting to refresh dated source material and give the titular princess a lot more to dream about than Prince Charming. But there are too many rotten apples that spoil this fairy tale adaptation.
 
Snow White follows the same skeleton as the 1939 story. The princess (Rachel Zegler) is exiled from her kingdom by her cruel stepmother the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). Fueled by jealousy and vanity, the Queen recites to her Magic Mirror, “who is the fairest of them all?” As long as the Mirror replies in good standing with the Queen, Snow White is safe from harm, however the truth eventually finds its way to a broken reflection. Snow White is a threat to the throne, so the Queen orders the Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take her into the forest and kill her. But Snow White’s capacity for kindness far overpowers the ruling. The Huntsman spares the princess’s life, and she flees into a magical forest, where her kind-hearted soul leads the forest animals to help her find shelter. This brings them to the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage, where Snow White joins forces with the diamond miners to reclaim the kingdom from tyranny.
 
Snow White also reimagines some tunes from the 1939 film, namely ‘Waiting On a Wish’ (originally ‘I’m Wishing’). The lyrics work to establish new desires and motivations for Snow White. Rather than wishing for love to find her, she wishes to become a leader of change. She wants to live up to the values her father instilled in her, carry on her parents’ legacy, and do right not only by them but the people of this kingdom. Core messages of bravery, leadership, and kindness resonate in Snow White’s journey, especially when she stands up to the Queen and confronts her guards in the film’s final act. By refocusing what Snow White wishes for, the film finds a way to offer something new that can strike a contemporary chord.
 
Unfortunately, Snow White’s characterization is one of few strengths in Wilson’s screenplay. Among the few, the seven dwarfs are surprisingly spirited, given their awfully distracting CGI appearances. Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman) in particular, who finds comfort in meeting Snow White as she helps find his voice, becomes the film’s best supporting character. Doc (Jeremy Swift) and Grumpy (Martin Klebba) also get moments to shine. Most impressively, the dwarfs’ ‘Heigh-Ho’ musical number (derived from the original film) pleasantly stands out with the vocals, choreography, and production design (especially for the mines). The dwarfs themselves, however, speak to one of the most misguided decisions in the film. The combination of CGI and motion capture give them a distracting, uninspired appearance. It feels especially odd when these characters are sharing scenes alongside George Appleby, an actor with dwarfism, who plays an on-screen bandit named Quigg. While it’s great that Appleby plays a character not defined by height, the approach to the dwarfs (which featured the voice of one actor with dwarfism, Martin Klebba) leaves behind a conflicting message.

The screenplay overall lacks consistency and clarity, ultimately failing to give the story a sense of urgency. The attempts to create a modern retelling pays off in some ways (Snow White) and falls flat in others (Prince Charming, who is transformed into a town thief named Jonathan). Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) makes it clear that he’s not the romantic knight in shining armor, and the film makes it clear that Snow White doesn’t need a Prince to save her. But the notions still manage to come up, whether in scenes that lead up to a potential romance, or in Jonathan literally saving Snow White’s life. The writing shows an attempt to balance Snow White’s wishes for leadership with her romantic desires, as it’s okay to want both, but it lacks the precision and nuance. There’s also a lot of uncertainty around who Jonathan’s character ought to be, and the script does no favors for Burnap, who tries his best to add some personality but ends up becoming a monotonous presence.

Thankfully, the film has a compelling lead in Rachel Zegler, who portrays her best version of this character. She absolutely carries this film on her shoulders. Whether it’s her magical renditions of old and new songs, or the movie star energy she radiates, Zegler shows a keen understanding of the material she’s working with and commits to rising above it. One of her most impressive moments is featured in the film’s final act, when Snow White finds her leadership and reignites the entire kingdom to fight for fairness and truth. Zegler’s strong sense of conviction lends perfectly to this moment, infusing much-needed emotionality into hollow storytelling and making up for a weak antagonist opposite her.
 
The poison apple of Snow White is unfortunately Gal Gadot, whose Evil Queen feels woefully out of place in Marc Webb’s adaptation. As the primary source of conflict in this story, Gadot falls short of emoting a threatening presence, causing one to question how any character can take her seriously at all. Gadot makes an attempt to go the campy route, by way of exaggerated mannerisms and line deliveries. You can almost sense that Webb encourages her to keep trying.  But she leans too far into one note, and plays that note repeatedly, without really exploring the villainy of her character beyond “looking” evil through icy glares. A good Disney villain, despite their antagonistic qualities, still has charm and a conviction that they are in the right. Gadot lacks the range to pull it off, and her scenes rob the film of its momentum.

Disney’s track record continues to disappoint with Snow White. The studio’s dollar-sign eyes behind flipping animated films into live-action commodities can’t help but make one weary for whenever the next one will arrive. Though, while Snow White may not be the fairest Disney remake of them all, it’s also not the bad apple of the bunch. Rachel Zegler does her best to infuse genuine commitment and life into this adaptation, making it far at least an occasionally enjoyable endeavor. If anything, Snow White further solidifies Zegler as a movie star who continues to show her strengths in carrying a film, and a movie star who deserves better.