By Stephanie Nguyen
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the oldest Disney movies, there’s no need for a summary of it. What’s new is the live-action adaptation that attracted a lot of criticism.
Everything seemed to be against the production. Being the twenty-third live-action film by Disney, the film is put in a spot where it’ll have to fight harder to win the approval of die-hard Disney fans tired of seeing remakes that don’t respect the original films. That wasn’t the only grievance, however.
Comments by Rachel Zegler, the lead, about the sexism of the original tale and her Latina background sparked criticism. Fans had complained that reimaging Snow White as a person of color, a feminist heroine disrespects the original princess and was an attempt to make Disney “woke,” or left-leaning. That’s not even the worst of the controversies, but there are too many to list.
Nonetheless, I wondered how it would hold up on opening night, hence why I found myself at Regency Theaters.
Combining the fairytale Cinderella, “The Lion King” and the original classic, Snow White was an orphan forced into servitude by her stepmother, the Evil Queen. Murdering Snow White’s father, she sent the once prosperous kingdom into poverty by taking its resources for herself as queen. Strangely, the queen delayed ordering the assassination of the only threat to her power until she became more beautiful than her, according to the magic mirror.
After running away, Snow White meets the dwarves and her love interest, Jonathan, who both help her usurp the Evil Queen from her throne. Refreshingly feminist indeed, on paper. Neither a silver-tongued bookworm or a brash fighter, Snow White could shatter stereotypes, on paper.
The characters weren’t fleshed out; many critical components were rushed, such as Snow White’s harsh life as a servant. Without the backstory that shows her as a character, I couldn’t feel for the protagonist as she goes through what was meant to be trials and tribulations. When she died and all seemed lost, I would have laughed if I could. If anything, she seemed like a burden to her allies than the “fearless, fair, brave and true” leader her father wanted her to be, which she talked about every ten minutes.
She never fought but wanted to accompany Johnathan to fight armed forces. When the dwarves were arguing with the bandits, she reprimanded both parties for arguing, saying “This is what the Evil Queen would want us to do!” She just kept talking throughout the movie instead of doing anything, reminding everyone around her that “when she was a little girl…” yada yada yada.
Oh, and she bursts into song every fifteen minutes as well. She even walked right up to the palace where they wanted her dead, singing, with the singing peasants behind her; it was hard to keep watching.
There were some areas in the film that performed strongly. Rachel Zegler’s acting was pretty good, she tried her best. If it wasn’t for her, Snow White could’ve been so much worse. Same for Gal Gadot, who had to make a goofy villainess as evil as she can be while singing and jerking her body in what appears to be an attempt to dance. The stunning scenery and costumes also gave the movie a magical nostalgia expected for a Disney movie. But no matter how convincing either of them was or how enchanting everything looked, the characters were so poorly written that the only person I would watch the movie for was Dopey.
It’s so disappointing; the movie made a great first impression with a strong hook and vibrant opening scene, but there’s no substance beneath the surface. With an innovative storyline, it had so much potential. But instead of creating a sympathetic hero people could root for, Snow White was a narcissistic revolutionary leader ungrateful for the support she got.
My final rating? 7/10. The acting saved the characters, and the aesthetics were excellent. And Dopey. If it wasn’t for those things, it would get a three from me.
Disney, work on creating characters that people actually want to see on screen, not make a profit.
