If Disney’s live-action remake of the 1937 animated classic “Snow White” crashes at the box office this weekend, industry experts can speculate on whether the $270 million film failed because it just wasn’t that good — or because its production was beset by a series of “silly,” “overblown,” “nitwit” controversies.
But they’ll have a hard time blaming star Rachel Zegler — or, more precisely, her performance as Snow White. Yes, reviews of the film are thus far mixed, and box office analysts say it could struggle to earn $50 million in its opening weekend.
But critics are generally raving about Zegler, with The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney calling her “incandescent” and saying she sells this female-empowered, fairy-tale retread with “conviction and heart.”
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman said the movie is actually better than Disney’s previous live-action remakes and said Zegler, 23, has a “pertly appealing glow.” Even the more reserved Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said that Zegler, who won a Golden Globe for her movie debut playing Maria in Steven Spielberg’s remark of “West Side Story,” has “enough charm and lung power to hold the center of this busy, overproduced movie.”
The reviews could be consolation for Zegler, who has been at the center of some of the movie’s controversies. The fuss began with her casting. Certain corners of in internet raised “racist and absurd” questions over whether the Latina Zegler, whose mother’s family is Colombian, was “white enough” to play a character originally described by the Brothers Grimm as “white as snow,” as Variety and Allure reported.
Zegler began to catch further flak from people beyond the “losers obsessed with maintaining the bloodline purity of cartoon princesses,” as Zegler herself called them. She poked the bear of the culture wars by making dismissive comments about the original 1937 “Snow White.” She called the animated film “extremely dated,” regarding its “ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world,” according to Slate. She also promised that Disney’s new take on “Snow White” would reimagine the story to fit the current progressive era.
Not surprisingly, fans of the original film weren’t thrilled that Zegler dissed a favorite childhood film. But Slate writer Nadira Goffe also said that some audiences simply found the musical star to be “unlikable,” saying that she gives off “strong theater-kid energy.”
Zegler’s outspokenness on social media also got her into trouble, especially with Donald Trump supporters. Following the 2024 election, she posted an anti-Trump message to her Instagram Stories, saying “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace,” Slate reported. She was later forced to apologize, writing, “I let my emotions get the best of me.”
Rumors of a feud between her and Gal Gadot also began percolating, largely due to geo-political issues far outside the film’s production.
Gadot, who is Israeli and once served in the Israel Defense Forces, has been vocally pro-Israel since the start of the war in Gaza. Earlier this week, Gadot’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony was briefly interrupted by both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups shouting and holding up signs on Hollywood Boulevard, as the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, Zegler has been openly pro-Palestine, posting calls on X for a “Free Palestine” and supporting relief efforts to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza, Slate reported. But the women’s political differences on the Gaza war didn’t stop them from presenting an award together at the Oscars on March 2.
The original “Snow White” controversy had nothing to do with either Zegler or Gadot. In 2022, actor Peter Dinklage, who has a common form of dwarfism, accused Disney of hypocrisy because it expressed pride in casting a Latina to play Snow White but was still making a “backwards” story about “seven dwarfs living in a cave together.”
Consequently, the film went to great lengths to avoid presenting the dwarfs in an offensive way, but it made some production choices that has intruded “on the experience” of watching it, according to Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter. “Although the talented voice cast gives the characters humor and distinctive personalities, their CGI renderings are, well, a bit creepy,” Rooney said. Dargis agreed that the results are “er, grim.”
But again, the rendering of the dwarfs shouldn’t take away from what Zegler accomplishes as Snow White, according to critics.
“Zegler radiates light and beauty” in the film’s reworking of Snow White’s iconic blue and yellow gown, Rooney said. He also praised her “crystalline vocals” and said she “conveys the princess’ fighting spirit not with exaggerated pluckiness but with a delicate yet firm sense of who she is and what her destiny holds.”
But “Snow White’s” fate at the box office is now outside Zegler’s control. Deadline said the film’s success “boils down to whether families with daughters go on Saturday and Sunday. Also, will moviegoers in red states clutch their pearls?”
Puck’s Matthew Belloni is among the industry analysts who lament that Disney reportedly scaled back the film’s red-carpet premiere and other promotional efforts this week. For that reason, he said that “Snow White” probably would under-perform at the box-office, “not because of the silly media controversies but because Disney execs overreacted to them.”
Deadline also said that the film’s success “boils down to whether families with daughters go on Saturday and Sunday. Also, will moviegoers in red states clutch their pearls?”