Snow White
review by Bobby Blakey
For the last few years Disney has been on track to remake a lot of their animated features into live action films. They have met with mixed results but haven’t slowed them down at all. The latest, Snow White, a reimagining of the studio’s classic 1937 film, is the latest getting the treatment and was already met with controversy early on due to the portrayal of the famed seven dwarves and the casting of Snow White. Now they have retooled it with CGI dwarves looking more like the animated counterpart. Could this film find a way to deliver something fans will love or will it fail to be the fairest of them all?
Snow White follows the beautiful and kindhearted princess Snow White charms every creature in the kingdom except one - her jealous stepmother, the Queen. When the Magic Mirror proclaims Snow White as the fairest one of all, she must flee into the forest, where she befriends the lovable seven dwarfs - Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Dopey. But when the Queen tricks Snow White with a poisoned apple and she falls into a deep sleep, only the magic of true love's kiss can awaken her.
Before diving into this one I want to point out that I am not a big fan of the original animated feature so have no connection to it one way or another. I was still interested to see how this might come together in live action as we have had other versions of the story come to life that I have enjoyed. This film has a lot of issues, but some of my problems with it probably aren’t the same as everyone else’s.
I know the casting of Snow White, and the Queen has had its own controversies. In regard to Gal Gadot, I loved her in the role although it
always becomes the issue of arguing about the beauty of the two in competition. Of course, Gadot is more beautiful than Zegler, but the story is about the beauty inside as well so it is fine. I agree that Zegler is miscast here, but not because of her being a person of color like most complained. I just didn’t think she looked the part in general and the bob hair due just did not work with her facial structure. The dynamic here with the two and tone of the film just never found its way to make the film work in anyway outside of some bits here and there.
The controversy with the dwarves is an interesting one. I liked the dwarves in this movie as they captured the animated counterparts perfectly along with the more fantasy element of dwarves. Sure, the CGI nature is off putting on some level, but they worked. The original concept from the internet of the supposed original plan for the dwarves didn’t bother me either and all those characters are still in the movie so were either retooled to adjust to the filming or everyone was wrong about the whole thing. It doesn’t really matter because here we are, and they made it work.
Outside of the story itself follows the original film pretty closely in which I just don’t care all that much about it’s the musical aspect that I think ultimately made this film not work. I think there was a good version of this film here as it works visually, but the songs are just not good and kept taking me out of whatever they were trying to do. Of course, I think the dwarves famed “Hi, Ho” song should stay, but it could have just been them singing while working as usual. The rest of the songs were just annoying and felt out of place for me. I never felt like anything had purpose and was just singing for singing sake and issue with the idea of a musical anyway.
This release not only includes the film, but also bonus content featuring fun bloopers, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a full-length sing-along. Witness the animated classic come to life when Snow White is available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on June 24th from Disney Home Entertainment.
Even more charming than a circle of gentle forest creatures, fans can appreciate both the original animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs alongside the reimagined live-action film in a special 2-Movie Collection, available now digitally in 4K UHD, HD, and SD and then on DVD June 24.
