Review by Alana Chancy and Dan Berry
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Rachel Zegler, Andrew Burnap, and Gal Gadot
Movie Length: 1 hour 49 minutes
What it’s about: A live action (with CGI) reimagining of the Disney animated classic, which was based on the Brothers Grimm story of the same name.
Alana’s thoughts: While much of the media coverage of this latest iteration of Snow White will focus on the film’s controversies (how dare they cast diverse actors with opinions!?!) I’d like to focus my review more on the content and character of the film.
The movie offers a faithful retelling of the sweet princess who stood up to her evil stepmother to fight for her town and good itself. To that end, this movie is great for families and Disney enthusiasts, particularly those who have loved Snow White since the beginning and know how much the movie propelled Disney forward to the powerhouse it is today.
Fans will love all the throwbacks to the original as well as a couple of new faces and songs sprinkled in. And much to my chagrin, managed to showcase Snow White’s beauty in spite of her story accurate but still unfortunate haircut.
Many fans (me included) will wish for real actors to play the dwarves. Though I will say the whistle scene was probably my favorite of the film.
To those complaining about the film’s “shortcomings” by adding a bit of diverse flair – to them, I say – let’s dig deeper. Let’s tell the dwarves side of the story and learn more about the mine. Perhaps they learn about supply and demand or understand their power in holding the one thing the queen values as much as her own beauty? Or maybe tell the story from the town’s perspective? Lots of good options to keep writing in the same universe that brought us to the theater but also deliver inspiring and original content that used to keep us coming back time after time.
Alana’s score: 3.5 out of 5.
Dan’s thoughts: This is a movie which will be divisive when it comes to people’s thoughts on it, with the choices for the main actresses, introducing a new character/love interest for Snow, and the use of CGI for the dwarves. That being said, I enjoyed the movie for the most part. It did have some moments (no spoilers here) that were a bit cheesy, and they could have expanded on the reason for the dwarves mining the jewels as they did (maybe that will be another movie or comic book?).
There are a few original songs from the same team (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) that worked on the live action Aladdin movie, along with Jack Feldman to go along with some classic songs from the original animated film (including “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work“).
Rachel Zegler’s role as the title character was well acted (despite the haircut…) and Gal Gadot playing the first Disney villain was terrific, and the visuals (whether they were real or visual effects) were well done. I would have liked if they had real actors playing the dwarves though instead of just voicing them…they did utilize Martin Klebba for one of the voices though, so that’s something.
All in all, this is a movie which families would probably enjoy as it’s a fresh take on one of the oldest Disney animated films.
Dan’s score: 3 out of 5.
Snow White is now in theaters
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