- Date of Release: 21 March 2025
- Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Musical, Romance
- Language: English
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Snow White
Introduction
In a scene in the new English film Snow White, you see the character of the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) presenting an option of a blooming rose to Snow White (Rachel Zegler), almost symbolic of her ask of kindness. In a matter of seconds, the rose is reduced to ashes even while being presented by a glittering diamond that the Evil Queen cites as ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Long-Lasting’. In many ways, the new Variant of Disney’s latest Live-Animation outing, Snow White falls in this very trap of glitter, while letting go off its original source of kindness that remained an integral part of the original. To be fair, some emotions do manage to land alright, and the film did have its politics in check as well, it all felt superficial and plastic after a point. And one reason for the same extended to the flat production design that did discard the real locations for some decorated sets that never accounted for the depth in the drama that even an animated version of the film had years ago (in 1937 to be precise). Clearly, this Disney model of reimagining their classics in the live-animation form isn’t working at the moment wherein the lack of creativity or inventiveness is evident, in this partly heartfelt but almost completely vanilla version of a fairytale that we have all grown up on. And what remained frustrating was that there were elements of anti-facism in the drama that we can so easily relate to in the current setting, that even a cleverly penned adaptation could have done wonders. Alas! It wasn’t to be even as the creative decision remained to merely remake a classic.
Story & Screenplay
Make no mistake, Snow White remains a watchable affair through and through with a hint of emotions that land at a few junctures. This includes a wonderful opening set-piece that introduces you to a younger version of Snow White and her family, with a central theme being that of kindness. In its early sequence, we are witness to the parents of Snow White telling their young daughter to be fearless, brave, true…and fair, the latter being one of the core traits around which the drama is built on. This is because at a later point in the drama, you are introduced to the Evil Queen too who has a mirror of truth at her disposal, with the sole question being popped out – ‘Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who Is The Fairest Of Us All’. The ‘fairest’ here goes beyond the colour of the skin, while symbolizing the trait of kindness that you associate from within a person. And hence, the analogy at the start was indeed heartfelt while establishing the sole trait of the protagonist, which was kindness. Unfortunately, the drama does turn into a vanilla affair at certain junctures, that doesn’t quite extract this quality of the protagonist.
One thing that the drama gets right is the politics around it. By virtually retelling a classic, the narrative here is completely has a binary approach to it in terms of right versus wrong, and good versus evil. The character sketch (which is different from characterization that remains poor) justifies the binary vision of the narrative here. There is a sense of softness to the protagonist that epitomizes the trait of kindness and fairness. The antagonist remains a symbol of fascism, a trait that we see in almost all world leaders today. In fact, the idea of luring an individual to the path of cruelty, is a trait that we witness in the Evil Queen too (interestingly Gal Gadot belongs to Israel, a country that is currently in a state of fascism with Gaza). And this is where the character of Snow White becomes all the more important to maintain peace and harmony in the world. But I wish the emotional core of the drama was stronger, something that didn’t quite come through due to the CGI-generated characters – the seven dwarfs.
I must admit that the idea of slightly straying away from the core with respect to the protagonist was good and bad. I liked how Snow White is used as a medium of a mediator between the dwarfs, asking them to resolve their issues as opposed to doing their own chores. I also liked how the character wasn’t reduced to a damsel in distress waiting for her prince charming to arrive and seal it with a kiss, there was an identity to the character of Snow White. And there were a few heartfelt moments too – like the protagonist teaching Dopey a way to whistle out of his misery. But these moments are few and far between, even as crucial minutes are spent in uneventful events of survival in the forest resembling a film set, as opposed to working on the emotional core of the protagonist with deeper traits of kindness as opposed to simply superficial incidents. Even the emotional streak of the protagonist with her father that was evident as an undercurrent, did not fully land.
The criticism towards the hollow nature of the drama holds true even in the final act wherein a poison fruit is consumed by the protagonist, while being handed over by a character in disguise. This, even as the stakes in the drama remain mid with the introduction of the conflict in a scene, to its resolution in the very next one. The issue remained on how flat and plastic the emotions in play actually were, that didn’t make you feel a thing for the protagonist. Even the magic of elementals that once were cute in the film, quickly fizzled out! As a result, the final act remained underwhelming with the exception of a moment in the screenplay wherein the protagonist reminds the folks around her of their once duties, and the traits that were associated with them. I once again liked the messaging of the drama, and cannot emphasize on how important that remains in the context of the world today, but the screenplay needed deeper emotions to make things work even better.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are glossy and mostly sugar-coated that go well with the central themes of kindness and fairness well, but don’t exactly land with the emotions brimming beneath the surface. The music is good in the context of the drama, but because the drama is a musical, it needed an even better soundtrack to allow emotions to land which wasn’t exactly the case. The BGM remains soulless without accounting for most emotions that remain tied up on paper while never transitioning onscreen. I have recently had a complaint with how frames remain flat if the drama is mostly shot indoors as opposed to actual locations. And that remained a huge complaint for me here – the frames felt plastic and straight out of a film-set so much so that it didn’t allow me to emotionally invest in the drama. The production design while good remained superficial along with CGI that restricted the emotional connect towards its characters, thereby compromising on its core. The editing remained crisp and sharp such that the length of the drama was kept in check. Director Marc Webb does a decent job but his major stumbling block lies in the fact that he isn’t fully able to translate the emotions on paper to the big screen. His characters also remain lesser versions of the original while only momentarily accounting for a heartfelt narrative in parts, that makes for a rather ‘vanilla’ watch. The direction remains mid at the very best.
Performances
The performances are on the superficial side too while never fully allowing the emotions to land. Lorena Andrea as Good Queen and Hadley Fraser as Good King are sincere and earnest in a limited screen time that they appear in. Andrew Burnap as Jonathan ought to have been an utterly charming character, but the performance here did not fully bring that charm out. His chemistry with the character of Snow White was non-existential and hence, the emotional core of his character was completely missing. The biggest casting mishap was in the form of Gal Gadot who fails to impress as the Evil Queen. She was hardly intimidating with a poor outing as far as singing was concerned, while hardly having any meat in her role to extract a note-worthy performance. This remained a forgettable affair for her. The star of the show was Rachel Zegler who is wonderful to witness as Snow White. There is a softness to her character that she wonderfully exploits in a performance that remains tender yet affable. She shoulders a wobbling ship all by her own and almost carries it to the finishing line with aplomb. She remained excellent in an otherwise mediocre drama.
Conclusion
Snow White remains a plastic and superficial retelling of a classic that gets its politics and messaging right, but fails on the account of a strong emotional core that was very essential to the plot. And so unfortunately, she is Not The Fairest Of Them All (amongst her previous variants). Available in a theatre near you.
