Welcome to another review of a movie that has become more about its controversy than the movie itself. I’m getting really sick of every other movie that comes out these days being marred in controversy. I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of cancel culture and social media or what but it needs to stop. It’s annoying. That’s not to say that if people who are involved in upcoming films do something actually bad and wrong they shouldn’t be publicly shamed, but many of these recent spectacles seem to sprout from insignificant places. Is this an intense start for a review? Probably, but if you don’t like it, you should just stop reading now because it’s not going to get any better. That being said, let me remind you that this is about the movie Snow White. That’s right. The Disney film Snow White, a live-action remake of the 1937 Walt Disney animated musical, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is based on the 1812 German fairy tale, “Snow White”, by the Brothers Grimm and is not only the first animated feature film produced in the United States, but is also the first ever cel animated feature film, an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand (by hand! Insane). Disney has been on a journey in recent years of making these “live-action” remakes of their classic animated films like Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, The Little Mermaid, and more. I have never understood it. That’s not true. I understand that it’s a simple money-making ploy. Just take a story you know is successful and has brand recognition and present it in a vaguely new way. We see this all the time these days with the constant remakes, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, etc. It seems like easy money. But from an entertainment perspective, I don’t think any of the Disney live-action remakes have been particularly good or well-received. And I really, really don’t understand films like The Lion King, which is not really “live-action” because it involves talking animals, and is instead essentially just a more modernly animated version of the original film. Was anyone asking for this? Does anyone like it? Despite my feelings on Disney’s live-action venture and the relentless controversy that overtook this film, I actually think Snow White is one of the better entries into this modern canon. Too bad it won’t be remembered that way.

Let’s just get this out of the way. This movie was basically doomed from the start. In 2021 when Rachel Zegler was first cast as the titular Snow White, there was backlash from many people (read: racists) who said Zegler was “not white enough” for the role. Zegler is of Colombian descent while the character famously has “skin as white as snow”. Stupid and gross. Zegler then went on to even further anger these die-hard fans by publicly criticizing the 1937 film. She said it was “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power”, that the prince “literally stalks her”, and that, in her version, “She’s not going to be saved by the prince. She’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.” She’s not wrong and it’s not so crazy to say that a movie that came out in 1937 doesn’t exactly hold up in 2025. Not crazy at all. Once again, I don’t understand the vitriol that comes from people over slightly modernizing a fairytale. How does that hurt you? But sure enough, Disney fans completely turned on Zegler for her comments. Then politics came into the mix. After the presidential election in November 2024, Zegler posted on Instagram saying, “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace. There is a deep deep sickness in this country.” (Again, not wrong.) She quickly apologized for the post. Throughout all this, Zegler and her co-star, Gal Gadot, have found themselves on opposite sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict. (Didn’t think you’d be hearing about Israel/Palestine in a Snow White review, did you?) Zegler has made some comments in support of Palestine while Gal Gadot is Israeli, served in the IDF,  and has spoken out against antisemitism and advocated for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

When Disney first began this project, nothing could have prepared them for the PR catastrophe they would have to deal with. Disney and Zegler have actually had a contentious relationship since 2022 when she complained on social media that she wasn’t invited to the Oscars as the star of best picture nominee West Side Story, a film distributed by Disney. Apparently, she had just begun production on Snow White and then-president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, Sean Bailey, declined to let her out of filming to attend. After publicly airing her grievances, the Academy gave her a ticket even though she wasn’t nominated herself. Disney was unsurprisingly not happy about this. Zegler stayed true to herself, though, and continued to be vocal about her opinions. Eventually, Disney paid for her to work with a social media expert to vet any posts before the film release. However, Disney has been very careful about weighing in on anyone’s speech after the studio was sued in 2024 by actress Gina Carano, who claims she was fired from The Mandalorian for voicing her opinions on political issues. Meanwhile, Disney also had to pay for additional security for Gal Gadot after death threats spiked. Some controversy helps boost word of mouth for a movie. It can get people talking about, and more importantly seeing, a movie that might not have made any noise otherwise. But for Snow White, the constant barrage of negative conversation and press only weighed it down. 

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the actual movie underneath all the craziness. Yes, it is technically based on the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but it does have some modern changes. The major one (and probably the only one I noticed in the moment considering I haven’t watched the original in maybe 20 years) was that the story is reshaped to give Snow White more agency. She is not saved by a prince to then live happily ever after. Instead, she falls for a bandit who fights alongside her to win her kingdom back from the Evil Queen. And then they live happily ever after. A few other details change too. Like Snow White gets her name from the snow storm during which she was born (take that racists! But also can we all agree that no matter where it comes from, it’s a dumb name?). Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, of Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, and La La Land fame, wrote some new songs for the film as well that mix into the soundtrack with a few of the originals. The way that some people are up in arms, though, about any change to what they apparently consider a sacred text is insane. It’s a cartoon. A fairy tale. It literally could not matter less. Grow up. I don’t really mind the changes to the story, but at a certain point it begs the question: why do we need these live action remakes of classic animated movies? If the issue is that the stories are problematic in modern day so they need to be changed, then just dont remake them. Make a different movie. You easily could’ve changed a few details in this and called it something else and you’d have a brand new princess movie. They’re essentially all the same anyway. I know, I know, from a business and branding perspective, the legacy name helps get more people interested over trying to invest in something completely new. But still, I think it could save Disney a lot of headaches with their rabid fans.

Say what you want about Rachel Zegler (actually, let’s all try to keep the hate speech to a minimum), but no one can deny her talent. Her voice is forever transcendent (I am lucky to have heard it live) and I think she embodies the modern version of Snow White perfectly. My only issue is I think they could’ve given her a longer bob while they were modernizing some details because she was slipping into Lord Farquaad territory a little bit (which is funny because seeing the Magic Mirror actually reminded me of Shrek more than Snow White). Gal Gadot is getting so much hate, well for everything, but for what people are calling terrible acting. I disagree. She was fine. Not incredible, but not bad by any measure. I mean, that definitely wasn’t her singing but who cares? She’s playing the villain in a Disney movie for children. Of course she’s going to be over the top. That’s kind of the point. My absolute #1 biggest problem with the film was the dwarfs. Snow White’s seven dwarfs are another plot point that has become particularly tricky in modern times. The production chose to use CGI dwarfs in an effort to not offend the dwarfism community. As with all issues, there are opinions on both sides and actor Peter Dinklage spoke out about the choice to not cast actors in these roles saying, “Literally no offense to anything, but I was sort of taken aback. They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there.” It’s not for me to say what the right and least offensive decision was in this area. What I can and will say, though, is that I thought the CGI dwarfs looked really bad. Like distractingly bad. It was hard to keep my mind in the world of the story when they were on screen because of their weird cartoonishness. Out of everything, that was the biggest miss for me. 

No one involved in this movie deserves the response it’s getting. The review bombing and the death threats. It’s childish and stupid and unnecessary. Everyone just needs to relax. The movie was fine. Not amazing, not something I would likely revisit, but it was totally acceptable. There are soooo many worse movies than this. And there are actually good reviews that were buried by all the controversy. This is a children’s movie so can we all just get a grip? I didn’t realize how angry this made me until I started writing this. I think the internet discourse on movies and culture in general has just really gotten on my nerves lately. I’m probably not helping because these blog posts are just adding to the discourse but oh well. That’s the state of the world. Sorry to end on such a bleak note here for what I will remind you all again is a review of the Disney film Snow White. Let’s all let this be a low point that we don’t return to.

2025 Count: 25 movies, 15 seasons of television, 3 specials