Snow White opens in theaters Friday, March 21.
While it’s technically the latest in Disney’s never-ending string of live-action remakes, Snow White is more adaptation than mere nostalgic mimicry. Director Marc Webb doesn’t just re-create (to varying degrees of success) the basic outline and designs of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – he also gives that landmark 1937 release a fresh, Broadway-like spin. In the process, the new Snow White fleshes out both its story and its main character, a more well-defined Disney heroine played by a remarkable Rachel Zegler.
During an original opening song highlighting the cast of characters and storybook setting, we meet a young version of the princess accompanying her regal parents as they spread food and joy across their kingdom. This is a Snow White who cherishes kindness above all else, an outlook that’s challenged following her mother’s death and her father’s marriage to the otherwise unnamed Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). The monarch’s magic-mirror-aided obsession with being “the fairest one of all” takes on a different meaning here, pivoting from solely a question of physical beauty to one of compassion and charity as well.
For a while, the Queen’s unforgiving form of justice gets her the answer she wants, until Snow White’s generosity toward a hungry, handsome bandit leader named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) causes the magic mirror to change its tune. Most of us know where the story goes from there: The Queen sends her Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to kill Snow White, Snow White flees into the woods, and takes shelter with Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, and Doc. What’s new are the goings on back at the castle, where the Queen enacts an iron-fisted rule over her subjects. Chief among those impacted is the cynical, Robin Hood-like Jonathan: No flimsily written prince, he gives Snow White the opportunity to have a real romantic dynamic with the man destined to save her.
It all makes for a more fully realized tale that can justify a 109-minute runtime. Additional musical numbers help even the pacing, too, as do the rearranging and lengthening of songs first written for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It allows Snow White to feel more like an ensemble piece, though the results can feel awkward at times. The expanded “Heigh-Ho” makes room for individual introductions to the Dwarfs – but only about half of them. Another downside of this augmented songbook: Not one, but two Evil Queen solos for Gadot to belt in the flat, monotone register that haunted social-media timelines at the beginning of COVID-19 lockdown.
At least the Wonder Woman actress manages to bring an appropriate flamboyance to the Queen’s body language and movements. Gadot makes her feel like an imposing, gleefully sinister figure, even if her singing and dialogue never measure up to the character’s operatic sensibilities. Zegler, on the other hand, digs great, soulful depths, crafting a version of Snow White who retains the graceful motions of her animated counterpart, but with a renewed sense of bravery. Few of Disney’s live-action remakes have been worthwhile, but by centering the fight for kindness in the face of adversity, Snow White channels the very best of them: Kenneth Branagh’s 2015 take on Cinderella.
Too bad so much of it is an eyesore. While there’s some cartoonish charm to the CGI animals, the preemptively derided Dwarfs never climb their way out of the uncanny valley, and the human characters are saddled with costumes that would look cheap and tacky parading down the thoroughfare of the Magic Kingdom. A general drabness hurts the distinctions Webb draws between the Queen’s reign and what came before it: Her theft of the throne from Snow White’s father brings dark clouds and a gloomier atmosphere, but it doesn’t look all that different from the marginally brighter, earlier scenes. On the plus side, Webb peps things up with a dizzying depiction of the Queen’s plans coming to fruition and the expressionistic psychedelia of Snow White’s flight into the woods.
Zegler digs great, soulful depths as Snow White.
As much as the Dwarfs take getting used to, they become a meaningful and integral part of Snow White’s story, even if things start to feel crowded when Jonathan’s troupe of bandits enters the fray. The supporting cast essentially doubles – without enough time to devote to any one of them – as they plan to oppose the Queen. The presence of a human character with dwarfism, the bandit Quigg (George Appleby), seemingly addresses criticisms lodged against Snow White, though the dual existence of fantasy “Dwarfs” and real people with dwarfism is more than a little odd.
Fortunately, Zegler’s Snow White is rich and well-rounded enough to keep things afloat. She embodies the character’s gentleness with sincerity, maintaining an awareness of why each act of kindness matters, and where it will take the story. As the world around her grows increasingly grim, the thoughtfulness and self-reflection of her performance becomes more important – it shows that this is Snow White reacting to her situation, not a default setting. Even the climax rests on Snow White’s appeals to people’s better selves.
For all the things it can’t quite get right, the movie never does wrong by its Snow White. She remains the focal point of a simple, straightforward story for kids, while also demonstrating a refreshing lack of worry about staying faithful to the original movie. The result is a fairytale that feels more thematically and musically liberated than Disney’s other live-action experiments.
