By Tim Estiloz
Snow White, the long delayed live action remake of Disney’s original 1937 animated classic landed in theaters with somewhat of a thud this past weekend. The inauspicious debut of this latest effort strip-mined from the studio’s IP was not completely unexpected by industry insiders; as well as from elements of the public. After all, multiple controversies both genuine and hyped up have plagued the production since its inception.
From debate over the casting of a Latina, Rachel Ziegler in the titular role of “Snow White” to whether or not the classic “7 Dwarfs” would even be part of the film; or perhaps reimagined as completely different characters in a move of political correctness, created a marketing nightmare for the production. A completely avoidable red-carpet unforced error by the film’s star Ziegler who gleefully dissed the original film in an interview as outdated and “weird”, months before its debut, didn’t win over any fans who grew up cherishing the 1937 classic either.
Controversies and pearl clutching aside, this live action remake isn’t as spectacular as one might hope; but it’s also not as horrible as the negative hype surrounding it might lead one to believe either.
Director Marc Webb (“The Amazing Spider-Man”, “500 Days of Summer”) has crafted a story that still has much of the basic foundational pillars of the animated original. The Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) has usurped the crown from the widower King, after first marrying him and then having him killed during a faraway military campaign. This leaves her nefarious and vain stepmother free to pillage the riches and resources from her kingdom and subjects; while the King’s daughter Snow White (Rachel Ziegler) is basically kept under house arrest scrubbing floors and doing menial work in the castle.
As clumsily revealed by Ziegler in her now viral and infamous red-carpet interview long before the film’s release, audiences should expect no “weird” and “stalker-like” royal prince in this story. Instead, Snow White encounters a Robin Hood-like leader of bandits named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) who encourages Snow White to become a more empowered princess and stand against the injustice her people suffer under The Evil Queen’s reign.
After Snow White dedicates herself to standing up for her people; The Queen’s mystical magic mirror informs her majesty that she is no longer “The Fairest Of Them All” and she orders one of her guards to escort Snow White into the woods and kill her.
Of course, he can’t bring himself to do so and he tells her to escape and she eventually finds herself at the cottage of seven little miners. ( The film never refers to them as “dwarves”. More on that to come )
Ultimately, Snow White’s stepmother discovers that she is still alive and magically transforms herself into an old haggish crone complete with a poisoned apple that will put Snow White into a deep sleep. She can only be awakened by “true love’s kiss”. You know the rest; or at least what director Webb’s updated tale of princess empowerment will tentatively adhere to.
Ziegler, who delivered a wonderfully impressive vocal performance in Steven Spielberg’s updated 2021 remake of “West Side Story” shows her musical talents were no fluke with her singing skills in this film. Though several of the new songs are not particularly memorable beyond enjoying them in the moment, then quickly forgotten after the credits roll; Ziegler’s powerful voice gives them some degree of resonance and emotion, such as the film’s musical opener “Good Things Grow”.
Perhaps the best musical moment in the film is the rendition of the classic “Whistle While You Work” with the seven “little people” as they work together cleaning the inside of their cottage. The set design and staging of this number is probably the best part of the entire movie completely evocative of the classic original; making this live action redo worthy of the effort in this scene.
The choice to make Snow White more of a strong empowered woman willing to physically battle for her people, instead of her original, more benign princess persona, may please audiences looking for an updated change of pace. It’s a truly debatable choice however.
Gal Gadot makes for an acceptable, occasionally convincing evil monarch when she simply talks. Gadot manages to present her egotistical and beautiful queen with enough sneering evil and vanity; as well as displaying an impressively glittery and gorgeous wardrobe, to compensate for her clearly limited vocal singing skills on her two only songs.
As American Idol’s Randy Jackson might say, “Gal, that last high note was a little pitchy”.
As for Snow White’s seven diminutive companions themselves, they too are problematic. Before this production even began, established “small of physical stature” actor Peter Dinklage publicly and strongly voiced his outrage that the original film’s “Seven Dwarves” were an insulting affront to little people; and to do a remake requiring such real-life people of smaller stature to act in such a role was a step backward.
This prompted Disney to rethink how to portray these characters; much to the chagrin of many actors with dwarfism who stated they would’ve gladly welcomed the opportunity for such roles and decried Dinklage’s perceived public interference to their professional detriment. Rumors swirled of seven multi-ethnic new characters to replace the dwarves from the story. Ultimately, Disney opted to incorporate the original seven dwarves as CGI-rendered creatures, again to the chagrin of many real-life little actors.
The result is a bit odd looking and unrealistic; especially when these CGI-created dwarves are eventually in a scene with a real-life little person (one of Jonathan’s band of bandits). Their heads and features are unsettlingly large, especially when a real-life actor of similar physical stature is nearby for a comparison. One wonders how much more effective, realistic and nuanced a performance could have been attained by actual flesh and blood actors.
Their opening scene in a neon-lit mine evocative of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” to the song “Heigh-Ho” adds to the unrealism, looking more like video game or an animatronic laden ride at Disney World. As the seven “dwarfs” appear here in this film; it’s no small wonder why they were dropped from the title.
“Snow White” is filled with enough songs, bright colors, cute cuddly animals and funny looking CGI-characters that will certainly be enjoyed by the kids. Kids are easy to please with a film like this that serves parents as an ideal distraction.
However, for adults who cherish the animated original classic that was simpler, a touch more romantic and not weighed down by trying to mirror the problematic social inequities of today’s real-life world; this film might be entertaining enough for the short duration.
But it’s certainly not a film that will stand the test of time… or even linger in the memory months from now; begging the question, why bother to make it in the first place ?
Snow White, the remake is just “Meh”.