Disney’s reimagining of the 1937 animated classic “Snow White” arrives in theaters with more baggage than the Terminal 3 carousels at O’Hare on a holiday weekend.
The latest in a long and often enormously profitable series of live-action, CGI-driven remakes of films such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid” was plagued with problems, from COVID precautions adding to the budget to production delays caused by the 2023 Screen Actors Guild strike and Gal Gadot’s health complications. That’s not to mention controversies surrounding political comments made by Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”) and Gadot, the decision to use computer-generated technology to render the seven short-of-stature forest-dwellers as “magical creatures,” and the howling outrage from some trolls who accused Disney of going woke again by casting a Latina actor as Snow White.
I’ll just say this about that latter dust-up. You don’t have to see these updated versions of “The Little Mermaid” and “Snow White,” ever, ever, ever, if you don’t want to. The animated versions are available. And if you’re telling me your childhood memories have been tainted because of new versions of a MYTHICAL HUMAN-FISH or a CHARACTER CULLED FROM ANCIENT FAIRY TALES, then your childhood memories are more fragile than Mr. Glass in “Unbreakable.”
Let’s go to the movies. After all the clutter and noise, it turns out that “Snow White” is a perfectly serviceable, gorgeously filmed, toe-tapping musical that pays homage to the animated film while making significant changes, including deviating from the original storyline to make Rachel Zegler’s Snow White more of a People’s Princess and girl-power rebel than someone warbling “Some Day My Prince Will Come.”
In fact, her romantic interest isn’t a prince, he’s a commoner woodlands bandit named Jonathan (played by Tony winner Andrew Burnap) in a hooded sweatshirt. (He’s kind of Robin Hoodie, sorry but I had to go there). Seeing that it would make no sense for Snow White to be singing about a prince, that song isn’t included in the film, but we do get rousing updates on “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work,” along with some solid and infectious new work, primarily from the team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Greatest Showman” fame. (The highlight: Zegler with a bring-down-the-house performance on “Waiting on a Wish.”)
After a prologue with the obligatory big production number about how all is well in the happy kingdom, thanks to the benevolence of the King (Hadley Fraser) and Queen (Lorena Andrea), we’re told that after the Queen died, the heartbroken King was vulnerable to the beauty and supernatural charms of the Evil Queen (Gadot). Dressed in heavy and dramatic costumes that make her look like 1980s Cher on the red carpet, the Evil Queen sends the King away, ostensibly to fight for the kingdom, but he never returns. Farmers and bakers are recruited to be soldiers, the people are oppressed, and poor Snow White is essentially imprisoned as a servant. (Oh, and as for Snow White’s name: We’re told in the prologue that her parents gave her that moniker because she was born during, well, a snowstorm).
The Evil Queen orders the Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take Snow White deep into the woods and cut out her heart and return it to her, but the Huntsman cuts her loose, which leads to Snow White meeting those seven magical creatures, who are still named Dopey, Sneezy, Doc, etc., They’re startling and borderline disturbing CGI creations (why does Grumpy look like Tommy Lee Jones with a giant nose?), confirming this was a bad decision from the start. The deer and birds and squirrels in the forest are photo-realistic (they don’t talk, thank goodness), and Zegler and Burnap and the rest of the live-action cast blend in with the VFX surroundings, but Bashful and Sleepy and the gang look like they’re in one of those off-putting AI “remake” reels people put on the Internet. (No offense, but your AI re-creation of a scene from “Forrest Gump” or “The Shining” or whatever sucks.)
At times, “Snow White” gets a little preachy and heavy-handed, with the screenplay leaning into some obvious parallels to real-world politics while it hammers home the message that the goodhearted, liberal-minded people who used to look after one another can’t defeat the oppressive ruler if they’re always fighting among themselves. What saves the day is the power of the story that pits the noble princess against an evil queen. Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman”) carries icy chill and sings well enough, but it’s Rachel Zegler who shines like the brightest star in the sky, with a funny and warm and empathetic performance, and a singing voice that carries to the heavens.