'Snow White' Review: Rachel Zegler Stuns in Not-So-Heigh-Horrible Disney Live-Action Update
Rachel Zegler pours her entire soul into the role and every inch of that results in pure magic.
'Snow White' Review: Rachel Zegler Stuns in Not-So-Heigh-Horrible Disney Live-Action Update
I find it bizarre that the Mouse House took so long to give their first full-length Disney animated feature, Snow White, the live-action treatment. But then again, despite its status as a classic, updating a princess from 1937 for a contemporary audience seems like a tough task. Marc Webb’s feature take on the classic tale is better than any right to be. That ain’t saying it’s good, but if it weren’t for star Rachel Zegler, who is the soul of an update ultimately devoid of one, this would’ve been a real heigh-ho-hum drag to sit through.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of Disney
MPA Rating: PG (violence, some peril, thematic elements and brief rude humor.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 48 Minutes
Production Companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Marc Platt Productions
Distributor: Disney
Director: Marc Webb
Writer: Erin Cressida Wilson
Cast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Jeremy Swift, Jason Kravits, Martin Klebba, George Salazar, Tituss Burgess, Andy Grotelueschen, Andrew Barth Feldman, Emilia Faucher, Hadley Fraser, Lorena Andrea, Patrick Page, Ansu Kabia, George Appleby
Release Date: March 21, 2025
One blizzarding night, the king and queen of a mythical kingdom welcome a baby and name her Snow White. When Snow (Rachel Zegler) gets older, the queen passes and the king remarries a woman (Gal Gadot), who at first seems to be the epitome of grace and beauty. One day, when the king disappears, Snow White's stepmother takes power and becomes an Evil Queen. She turns the kingdom into a military state full of despair and reduces Snow White to a maid. With all her power, the Evil Queen still has an addiction to validation, and asks her truthful magic mirror who is the fairest in the land. When the mirror names Snow White, the Evil Queen orders a Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to kill her. He doesn't go through with it and instead tells Snow to flee into the forest.
Helpful woodland creatures lead Snow to a cottage, home to miniature miners Bashful (Tituss Burgess), Doc (Jeremy Swift), Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman), Grumpy (Martin Klebba), Happy (George Salazar), Sleepy (Andy Grotelueschen), and Sneezy (Jason Kravits).Through her new friends and a charming bandit named Jonathan (Andrew Burlap), she learns that the Queen is on the hunt for her. Now Snow must come into her own and face the Evil Queen.
A Welcome Remix on the Classic Tale
Snow White surprisingly functions as an update. Marc Webb's adaptation forgoes the lazy shot-for-shot route of the past live-action slop, and concentrates on giving Snow the depth and agency fit for a 21st century audience. The script penned by Erin Cressida Wilson is on a strict mission to make Snow self-actualize. Beats from the original are remixed to build a welcoming coming-of-age arc, eliminating all the outdated, man-dependent elements of Snow's character without being in-your-face about it. Compared to the many 21st century Disney princess retellings, this update feels heavily influenced by Tangled, as Snow's agency comes from her natural determination without the usual egregious on-the-nose "girl power" meta-commentary. The script's greatest triumph is its emphasis on what it means for Snow to be the "fairest of them all": everyone she comes across is enriched and leaves wanting to be a better person, much like Rapunzel or Paddington. Plus, the significant change of making her love interest Jonathan, a bandit with a heart of gold (a Flynn Rider clone), instead of a nameless prince, makes for a fun dynamic Zegler and Burlap have sweet chemistry, though at times I felt as if I were watching a Tangled adaptation rather than Snow White.
Somebody Get My Girl Some Icy Hot Because…
Rachel Zegler carries the weight of the entire movie on her shoulders. Simply put, Zegler is the beating heart of the picture, often elevating scenes as almost every other component falls flat around her. She gives a phenomenal performance, delivering both graceful poise and Snow’s iconic heartfeltness with liquid-gold vocals, delivering the serotonin that is missing from most Disney live-actions. She pours her entire soul into the role like her whole career depends on it, and every inch of that results in pure magic. She is up to the challenge of adding life to scenes with Gal Gadot, who constantly drains it all, or the dwarves, whose designs are a thing of nightmares.
Zegler gets on her Lucy Gray shit as Snow becomes a symbol of hope and revolution. Oh yeah, this update is a somewhat political film — no I'm not stretching — about Snow coming into her own as a socialist to rise against a tyrannical dictator and inspiring the working-class villagers to rise alongside her. It's crazy because in a time when the Mouse House's higher ups are bending over and showing bare ass to this tyrannical administration, it's hard not to get a little cathartic, radicalized joy from this socialist rendering of Snow White… and Zegler saying “Fuck Donald Trump” before Disney presumably told her to delete on main. Additionally, the film also has a strong anti-colonialist message, but it's hard to think about its sincerity considering this is a Marc Platt production that stars Gal Gadot. My critic friend Josie put it best at our press screening when she said, "Practice what you preach" in the tune of "Whistle While You Work."
Pasek and Paul Problems
One of the film's most ambitious aspects is its musical identity. It’s a legitimate musical, featuring not just one or two but about five original songs. "Heigh-Ho" and "Whistle While You Work" are the only veterans, receiving significant orchestral updates. The music, composed by Pasek and Paul (known for La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and that horrible "Speechless" song from Aladdin), is overall fine. “Fine” for original Disney music is a godsend these days, compared to the terrible tunes of Wish and the forgettable ones of Moana 2. (Though I liked Lin Manuel Miranda's songs in Mufasa, they were few and far between.) Some of the songs, like "Waiting on a Wish," are decent and really entertaining onscreen. The best of them fit the film's contemporary themes, but the worst of them are like rejected Dear Evan Hansen tunes, with Zegler hitting some Ben Platt-isms in her musical numbers. Plus, placed against Larry Morey's iconic melodies, Pasek and Paul’s style is sonically jarring.
Snow White is Ensnared in a Misguided Webb
In a post-Wicked Part 1 world, the best I can say is, thank God, the film isn't backlit and is imbued with nice lighting and color. But, jeez, Disney, stop having filmmakers with little theater experience helm musicals. Marc Webb is great for music videos and bloated superhero fare but that doesn't translate on this big fantastical scale. Part of his weak direction stems from the composition, which mostly relies on medium shots and close-ups, hindering other elements of the production that could have truly shone. Production designer Kave Quinn does an excellent job with the (creatures formerly known as) Seven Dwarves' cottage, creating a stunning interior that gives the film a sense of scope at times, but Webb's direction, as in many blockbusters, refrains from wide shots. The overuse of medium shots makes the film feel more like a TV show, and during some of the musical numbers, I'd envision the ABC logo appearing in the bottom-right corner. Mandy Moore's work has the same issue. At the end, there were over thirty dancers credited, and I’m like, "Wow, that’s a lot of dancers. I wish I got to see their movement."
Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Uncanniness
I liked the casting of Titus Burgess as Bashful and Andrew Barth Feldman as Dopey. Now, on that note, OH MY GOD! The creatures that used to be called dwarves are now things of nightmares. The hyperrealistic, anthropomorphic approach to their designs is terrifying. Their CG quality is as disturbing as watching a 4K Blu-ray of an early 2000s CG animated movie: unpleasant to the eye and deeply distracting until you get past your gag reflex.
That said, the Dwarves don't compare to the true energy vampire, Gal Gadot. Everyone who isn't a film executive knows how devoid of talent the woman is. While I tried my best to give her the benefit of a doubt for like a split second, I couldn't help but cackle whenever she's on screen. It’s "go girl, give us nothing" from beginning to end. In every other scene, she outperforms herself in awfulness, as every acting choice she makes is so lifelessly monotonous it's comical. Yes, she has a song with a reprise, and the auto-tune is so outrageous it makes Karla Sofia Gascon's voice in Emilia Pérez seem natural.
Final Thoughts
Snow White is better than any right to be, fueled by Rachel Zegler's soulful portrayal and an updated story fit for a new age. Unfortunately, it cannot help but bite into the poison apple plaguing every Disney live-action update: misguided direction, forgettable new songs, uncanny CG, and Gal Gadot.
