Over the past 10 years, Disney has repeatedly been pumping out live-action remakes of animated classics. The trend began in 1996 with “101 Dalmatians,” but the frequency by which they produce their remakes has increased drastically since. On March 28, Disney added the newest remake to their catalogue, “Snow White,” an adaptation of the very first feature-length Disney film, starring Rachel Zegler in the titular role. It also follows many of the same trends as other Disney remakes: it’s boring, uninspired and unnecessary.
Truly, there is no reason that the movie should’ve been made in the first place. The original movie, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” released in 1937, is a classic that needed no revisions. Pretty much all of the redeeming qualities of the new movie are aspects taken from the original. All of the best songs, for example, were in the 88-year-old film. There are original songs in the new one, but they are just as forgettable and unimportant as the rest of the movie. They lack the classic Disney charm and the soul that made the original feel magical.
Furthermore, the movie has faced some criticism for choosing to make the seven dwarfs computer-generated rather than hiring actual little people. Interestingly, the movie does feature a little person, but his character is not a dwarf in the mythical sense, and his condition is never addressed. This isn’t inherently wrong, but it felt like a forced inclusion. I very much doubt that the casting directors would’ve made that choice if the backlash had never come out in the first place.
Zegler as Snow White is an interesting casting choice because Snow White is originally described with “skin as white as snow” in the original fairy tale. Zegler simply doesn’t have that. That said, she does fine in the role, and she’s a talented singer. Gal Gadot, meanwhile, who plays the story’s evil queen, is terrible in her part. Her acting and delivery falls flat in every single scene. I can’t imagine why she was hired for the movie. Her accent makes her hard to understand, and it is not made up for by her physical acting either. She is making the same face in every frame of this movie, save for perhaps the occasional eyebrow raise. She brings the already bad movie down.
“Snow White” is more than just a bad movie, though. It’s a representation of the problem with Disney movies today: it’s nothing new. It isn’t a new take on the classic fairytale; it’s a failed attempt at recreating the feeling and wonder of the original film. Even if Gadot had tried a little bit harder to act or if the new songs were great, the movie would still be a bore because it is trying so hard to live up to an already existing project. In order to actually get their magic back, Disney needs to start focusing on original works rather than trying to reinvent what they’ve already done. I hope that the failure of this movie shows producers that this rinse-and-repeat format isn’t working, since it was both a failure among audiences and critics and a failure at the box office.
