If you’re looking for a laundry list of the controversies that have beset Disney’s latest live-action remake, the Marc Webb-directed “Snow White,” we’ll direct you to that subsection on the film’s Wikipedia page and then move swiftly onward because none of that really applies to the task at hand. Put more bluntly: as a remarkably sensible audience member said to me at the conclusion of our screening, “After all that?”
Yes, after all that, Webb’s Rachel Zegler-starring film is good. Not great, but certainly good, spirited and sweet and filled with wonderful songs and some canny updates to extremely dated material. And while that might not be good enough for some potential audience members, let’s be honest: There are just some people who were never going to loosen up to a “colorblind” fairy tale or one that dared ask, “Hey, what if a woman could like, do stuff, too?” If it hurts you to see an updated version of a story you loved — if your childhood is ruined because of the existence of this film or the new “Little Mermaid” or the new “Aladdin” or whichever new spin on literal fairy tales has so wounded you — that’s fine. You don’t have to watch. That’s not mean; that’s the honest truth.
But for those film fans willing to embrace the most obvious updates and upgrades to a story over 200 years old, “Snow White” will likely please. That’s not to say every choice made here (even some of the “controversial” ones!) sticks the landing. Wherever you fall on the debate surrounding the cast of the title character’s seven best friends, those magical pals sure look awkward in their final form (heigh hoooooo, Uncanny Valley animation!) plunked into a world that’s otherwise photorealistic and lit to high heaven. Loosey-goosey backstory doesn’t help (they’re magical? kind of?), and I’d love for anyone to explain to me where the hell the tons of gems they mine every single day go, but fairy tales do require a suspension of disbelief, so we’re willing to back off on the demand for P&L statements.
Mostly, all those classic elements are still in place: the lovely princess, the dead parents, the evil stepmother, the magic mirror, and the poison apple. This is still “Snow White,” and it’s still Disney, so you better believe they’re going to play the hits. In this version, written by “Secretary” and “The Girl on the Train” screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson, Snow White (Zegler) is the sole heir of the kind of kingdom that could really only exist in make-believe (they rely on their agricultural bounty to flourish, but they also all live on a rocky outcropping without a field in sight? No, no, we’ll stop with the practical concerns). Her parents are so awesome their character names are literally “Good King” (Hadley Fraser) and “Good Queen” (Lorena Andrea), and the ruling life, well, rules.
We know this because the trio loves to sing together, and everyone’s clothes (even the “farmers”!) are colorful and bright. Sometimes, they all eat giant pies together that Snow White bakes! There are woodland creatures, well, around, and they seem happy too! But when Good Queen dies (the victim of the terrible scourge of voiceover exposition), darkness creeps into everyone’s lives. And when Evil Queen (no, she never has another name) arrives, portrayed by Gal Gadot having an absolute whale of a time chewing the scenery, we all know where this is going. Unaware, however? Good King, who falls for the temptress, promptly follows her tip to fight a far-off battle, and never returns.
Evil Queen and her best pal Magic Mirror (voiced by Patrick Page) are pleased as punch with the whole thing, and when Gadot is not imploring the reflective surface to tell her how hot she is, she’s making young Snow White’s life miserable. Eventually, it becomes fairly (hehe) clear (tehehehe) that Evil Queen’s read on what being “the fairest of all” is woefully skewed. While her take on “fair” has to do with beauty, young Snow White is blossoming into someone both beautiful and just. Ah, felled by homographs!
Just as Snow White is starting to think she needs to do something to save her now-extremely sad kingdom (Evil Queen turned all the farmers into soldiers, no one wears color anymore, also everyone sort of thinks Snow White is dead?) and beat back the real baddie (self-doubt), a dashing stranger (Andrew Burnap) arrives on the scene. He’s stealing potatoes from the queen, but this Robin Hood-esque bandit isn’t all terrible. He and his merry band of forest scamps still believe in the king and serve him. Perhaps Snow White is into that?
This all sparks something important in Snow White and thus something the Evil Queen loathes. Enter still more classic Snow White lore: The queen instructs her loyal Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take Snow White to the forest (to pick apples, naturally) and kill her. But Huntsman, like many other citizens we meet along the way, can’t quite bring himself to commit such an evil act. After all, he remembers what life was like before, and wasn’t that better? After he frees a terrified Snow White, she runs deeper into the forest, where she encounters still more peppy woodland creatures (as ever, her natural animal husbandry is used as a quick way to sell her pure-hearted spirit) and eventually a quite charming cottage that houses seven very strange small men.
This all sounds familiar, does it not? In between some classic songs (“Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” remain charming), new jams from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul offer a little punch-up, from Snow White’s “I want” song “Waiting on a Wish” (fine, does its job) to Evil Queen’s hilariously evil anthem (“All Is Fair”), all the way up to the standout “Princess Problems,” which is clever and self-effacing in ways that these live-action remakes can tend to miss.
If there’s a quibble to be had with the film — and a real quibble, not one about the film’s casting or some production photos taken entirely out of context or some bird-brained defense of the original story in which the prince carried Snow White’s dead body around with him wherever he went until the poisoned apple was dislodged from her throat and she suddenly woke up — it’s that it can often feel as if all its various parts and players exist in a slightly different film. Zegler’s Snow White is in the more straightforward and good-natured fairy tale, the Dwarfs in a literally (and figuratively) more cartoonish version of that, Gadot in a wildly hammy villain story, and Jonathan in some sort of “Into the Woods” take on the material.
It doesn’t always fit seamlessly together, but it’s far more entertaining than that might lead on. This is a spirited and sweet spin on classic material that deserves kudos for its balance of necessary updates and affection for the old ways. Mostly, it’s a reminder of what’s actually worth considering and critiquing: the final product. This one is good.
Grade: B-
Walt Disney Pictures will release “Snow White” in theaters on Friday, March 21.
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