Snow White (2024) Marc Webb - Movie Review

Snow White (2025) Director: Marc Webb, Writers: Erin Cressida Wilson (screenplay), Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Stars: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Jeremy Swift, Andy Grotelueschen, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, George Appleby, Runtime: 149min Rated: PG (Canada) G (Quebec) PG (MPAA) for violence, some peril, thematic elements and brief rude humor.

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Is the new Snow White the fairest of them all?

Evading her vindictive and murderous stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), the princess Snow White (Rachel Zegler) joins forces with a cadre of bandits and dwarfs to liberate her father’s kingdom and become the fearless, fair, brave, and true leader he always wished she would be.

This Disney live action remake of the groundbreaking, first in its class, 1937 feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has met a barrage of criticism for diverging from the original film’s charm and for its accommodations to modern progressive interests. Marc Webb who started his career as a music video director and whose first feature length film was The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, had his work cut out for him with this family-oriented musical adventure legacy showcase project and has largely remained publicly unscathed in blowback from the film’s poor reception and underwhelming performance. With a significant lack of general interest and a sharp audience rejection at the box office, Disney is unlikely to break even or turn even a modest profit. Studios and directors are never happy when negative press about a film’s production overshadows their work souring potential audience interest and affecting profitability. When catastrophic failure like this occurs, the big question is why.

While live action reimaginings like Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019) proved profitable at the box office the comparatively cheap and quick availability of these adaptations on Disney’s proprietary streaming service makes it both economically attractive and easy for families to wait and eventually watch the film together at home popping their own popcorn for a fraction of the cost of heading to the theatres. Couple that reality with the varying quality of these reimagining projects and their general overabundance as Disney seemingly works through its entire animated back catalogue and the possibility of audience apathy and fatigue becomes an ever-present factor. General excitement for projects like this can be further hampered by controversy.

In 2022 controversy erupted around the question of whether little people would be cast as the Seven Dwarfs after actor Peter Dinklage, perhaps the most famous little person working in Hollywood, accused Disney of not being very progressive considering how “very proud [they were of themselves] to cast a Latina actress as Snow White ... [while] still making that <expletive> backward story of seven dwarfs living in the cave.”[1] Matters were further complicated by Zegler and Gadot after comments began circulating online regarding their disapproval of the original film’s romantic elements and subsequent changes made to the story to address these concerns. Along the way Zegler quickly became a poisoned apple with online commentators and fans as she doubled down on social media with her progressive opinions concerning the project. Following October 7, 2023, tensions between Zegler and Gadot erupted as they clashed over the Palestinian/Israeli conflict with Zegler siding with the Palestinians and Gadot, an Israeli who had served in the IDF, siding with Israel. Just as one public relations headache subsided for Disney a new one would develop. After multiple reshoots and changes to mitigate various criticisms Snow White finally limped into theatres and to no one’s surprise wasn’t to anyone’s liking. Viewers unaware of the beleaguered production and online animus may easily be left scratching their heads as to why certain changes were made to the beloved classic.

But before anyone becomes too bent out of shape regarding contemporary changes, it may be helpful to consider that Walt Disney’s 1937 film was itself an adaptation of the beloved Grimm Brothers’ 19th century Germanic folk tale and likewise contained many contemporary 20th century changes of its own like making it into a musical and naming the Seven Dwarfs, along with giving Snow White a girl next door look and having her meet Prince Charming before eating the apple. Even the Brothers Grimm changed many of the folk stories they collected along the way, including ‘Little Snow White.’ In Volume One of their 1812 Grimms’ Fairy Tales[2] the Evil Queen was Snow White’s biological mother. However, because the Grimms held motherhood sacred and personally didn’t want to disparage motherhood they changed her into a stepmother in their 1819 edition.[3] The question when changes like these are made is why and for what reason? Such changes are simply a snapshot of the time in which the folk tale is being presented and the personal ideological, political, or religious views of the ones retelling the story. Dinklage, who in the end does not appear in Webb’s Snow White, says he would have personally been “all in on it” if it had the most “cool, progressive spin” possible which just goes to show the potential dangers inherent in tinkering with well-known stories. It’s almost impossible to satisfy everyone and for every person who thinks changes went too far there will always be someone who believes changes weren’t taken far enough.

Further complicating everything is a shift in the corporate landscape as many major companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Boeing, GM, and Ford to smaller companies like Harley Davidson and John Deer are currently rolling back or abandoning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies. With corporate attitudes changing Disney must ask: “Is it worth losing money for a cause that is falling out of favour or is marketability and profit of greater value?” The 19th century Brothers Grimm were presumably at least equally interested in making money with their books as they were in preserving folk tales like ‘Little Snow White’ for future generations. Add to this the reality that projects like Snow White take several years to realize and it becomes clear this particular project may just be a casualty of a shifting zeitgeist; a fate no amount of editing, reshoots, and public relations strategies can easily overcome. Whereas in 1937 Walt Disney seemed to have his thumb on the pulse of depression era audiences and built a media empire on Snow White’s unexpected success, modern Disney is evidently out of touch with the general audience and is apparently at a loss for how to attract positive interest in their project.         

Mirror Mirror on the wall which Snow White is the fairest of them all?

The original 19th century folk tale was a caution against vanity and the temptation towards resentment of youthful beauty between mothers and daughters with a warning against the use of occult magical arts. It was also a condemnation of murder, especially within the family. While still a caution against vanity, Walt Disney softened up on the warning against the use of occult magical arts by adding strong emphases on magical wish fulfilment with the addition of Snow White’s wishing well which acts as a kind of parallel with the Evil Queen’s magic mirror. This focus on wish fulfilment was further reinforced with songs like “I’m Wishing” and “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Because these songs were considered problematic in light of modern feminist progressive standards they are replaced with “Waiting On A Wish” about seeking a nonromantic oriented future with lyrics like “So will she rise, or bow her head? Will she lead, or just be led? Is she the girl she always said she’d be?” It quickly becomes clear Webb’s film is less wish fulfilment or magic or classical virtues and more a political tale about power and control where the Evil Queen has unfairly usurped the pseudo-feudal-socialist utopian means of production from the people for herself while Snow White fights to be the benevolent leader who will return equity to the kingdom by empathetically righting wrongs and speaking truth to power. In today’s hyper-political climate this is not surprising. The result is that Webb’s film can’t seem to figure out if it wants fairness to be about beauty or equity.

In the folk tale and even in the 1937 animated film Snow White as a character remains static. Yes, she starts out in rags and ends up in riches, however as a character she is simply the fairest of them all; she doesn’t need to become the fearless, fair, brave, and true leader her father the King always wished she would be. As a result, the previous versions of the folk tale are about tested virtues of truth, goodness, and beauty that largely remain steadfast and are rewarded for that steadfastness. The modern take on the story requires a character arc that allows Snow White to achieve her goals on her own without much assistance from others. Her ‘happily ever after’ doesn’t involve being saved by prince charming and in a way, she becomes the mirror image of the Evil Queen except without the benefit of having been married and without having a stepdaughter or family of her own. For all its quirks the 1937 film at least offered a positive view of marriage and family. Some will say the new film displays a strong emphasis on honouring mothers and fathers; this is true. However just not enough to value becoming one.

With this in mind, does Snow White recommend itself as worthwhile family viewing? Not really. As a character Zegler’s Snow White vacillates between timid and bossy and while she has a good singing voice the replacement songs written to update the film are forgettable, bland, and at best poor attempts to parrot better songs from other Disney projects like Princess Elsa’s “Let It Go” from Frozen (2013). Gadot’s Evil Queen is wooden; her line delivery is often flat and unconvincing. Her musical contributions pale in comparison to showstopper villain themes like Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid (1989) or the sinister Frollo’s “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) the Prince Charming replacement may be one of the better parts of the film, but his character is underutilized and really doesn’t go anywhere. The art direction overall is generally uneven. The CGI dwarves are at times unsettling. The costumes lack a lived-in realism that would help ground the film and rather look like convention cosplay renditions of the Disney source material straight off the rack or something more akin to what people might see at a Disney theme park. If families value quality in their entertainment this lacks consistency in all aspects of the production.

For a similar story with better execution older audiences should check out Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) or revisit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Heck, if it doesn’t have to be Snow White audiences would have a better time re-watching or checking out Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015), the live action reimagining of Disney’s animated Cinderella (1950), or films like The Princess Bride (1987), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998), or A Knight’s Tale (2001). Better still, sit down as a family and read the original ‘Little Snow White’ folk tale and review the 10 Commandments together in light of the story, especially the commandments on coveting, theft, murder, and honouring mother and father. Of all these options this will be the most fruitful and most fun. For those who decide to watch Webb’s Snow White or revisit the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this last recommendation would likewise be worthwhile.

Rev. Ted Giese is lead pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; an award-winning contributor to The Canadian Lutheran and movie reviewer for the “Issues, Etc.” radio program. Follow Pastor Giese on Twitter/X @RevTedGiese. Check out our Movie Review Index!

[1] WTF with Marc Maron podcast Episode 1299 - Peter Dinklage 2022, E1299 - Jan 23, 2022 56:20-61min mark. https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1299-peter-dinklage
[2] Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen).
[3] The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition / [Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm; translated by] Jake Zipes; [illustrated by Andrea Dezso], Princeton University Press 2014, Page xxxvii