Snow White - Review

Of all the major film studios, Disney is probably the most micro-managed and sanitised. Throughout the past 10 to 15 years, with the acquisitions of Star Wars, Marvel and 20th Century Fox, Disney has been managed within an inch of itself, almost definitely too much. The mouse hangs its head over all its property, making sure it fits in with its clean and safe studio umbrella. It is a surprise then that their latest release Disney’s Snow White has been such a PR nightmare. The live-action remake of their first-ever feature film release should have been a major celebration, but instead, it has been a build-up of scandal, leaving Disney giving the film a scaled-down premiere.

Much like the 1936 animated film, Snow White (Rachel Zegler) is born a princess to a virtuous king and queen. She is given the name this time because she was born in a snowstorm, and she grows up in a utopian land where the bounty of land belongs to all. When Snow White’s mother falls ill and dies, she is replaced by an enchanted woman (Gal Gadot) from a faraway land with great beauty and powers beyond the ordinary. Her power was kept intact by her magic mirror. The new Queen fears a war heading for the kingdom, sending off the King, never to return. Ruling on her own, the Queen fears Snow White, tasking a huntsman to take her to the forest and execute her.  However, she escapes and ends up meeting seven miners as well as the Prince Charming replacement Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a Robin Hood-esque scoundrel.

Like all Disney’s live-action films they are aiming to expand the narrative whilst getting rid of any potentially outdated material, and Snow White does this to varying degrees. The clear shining light of the film is Rachel Zegler, who perfects the characterisation of Snow White. She is true of heart, kind to a fault, and although the script doesn’t give too much to invest in, you are most certainly invested through her performance. However, Gal Gadot feels as if she is in a completely different film, she is playing camp up to 11 or 12, a really hammy performance where every line delivery has elongated vowel sounds. Meanwhile, Andrew Burnap lacks the charisma of this rogue Robin Hood figure he is playing. He doesn’t feel devilish or cheeky, there is little to no appeal to him.

The Dwarfs, or in this instance miners have an uncanny effect which makes them look like they have come straight out of Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express. Meanwhile, the visual look of the film looks like every other Disney film. Full of green screen and high-key lighting making it a really uninteresting and sometimes ugly film to look at. Meanwhile, there are also a plethora of new songs, which are pretty good but not too catchy. However, there is a problem with the sound mix, especially with Gal Gadot’s song, where the lyrics are close to inaudible because of the volume of the instrumentation.

Snow White is unfortunately poor. There is a lot that doesn’t work for the film, despite it having a little sprinkle of charm in moments. The film doesn’t suffer from the typical problem of just reprinting the animated film, in fact, there are a few nice changes here. However, it is executed really poorly probably as it went through Disney’s authorial edit that lacks any form of personality. For a film as special as the first animated feature film from the studio, its remake most certainly deserved something of higher quality.