Disney
Disney has continued recreating their popular films, releasing a live action version of the 1937 release Snow White directed by Marc Webb. The movie has officially beat Dumbo for lowest debut weekend sitting at $43 Million dollars. Disney has lost $500 Million dollars with the movie itself costing $270 Million and promotions adding an additional $230 Million. Controversy has broken out about the new release with many saying Disney has “Gone Woke, Gone Broke.”
The Disney original of Snow White was the first Disney Princess Movie, starting off the long-lasting legacy of many Disney movies to come. With 87 years in between the original release and the newest rendition, societal norms and standards have substantially changed, providing the creators with a broad selection of options to renew the movie. Components like plot, casting, details, action and the level of entertainment in the movie were all factors that were altered in the newest rendition.
The original plot of the movie is focused on a princess named Snow White, who is the stepdaughter of the evil queen. The queen desires to be “the fairest in all land.” Her jealousy leads her to plot against Snow White. Snow White escapes the murder attempts of the Evil Queen, running to the forest where she meets seven dwarves in a small cottage. She lives among them, teaching them how to live a clean and happy life. When her impending doom strikes, she is poisoned by the Evil Queen with an entrancing apple and saved by her prince with a true love’s kiss.
The general storyline remains similar in the story, Snow White being tormented by the Evil Queen because of the Queen’s jealousy, but numerous changes were factored in.
The newest version of this movie takes away the classic prince and princess dynamic, in order to align with today’s culture making women more independent.
Parts of the storyline that were changed include switching the meaning behind her name, Dopey talking, and even taking away Prince Florian and adding a bandit named Jonathan in his place.
Differences in the movie include:
Showing the background of her parents and childhood
No Prince Florian and a Bandit named Jonathan instead
Snow White doesn’t clean the cottage or cook for the dwarves
Dopey gets locked in the room and discovers Snow White
Dopey bullied by the other dwarves and eventually speaks
New fight scene with guards and bandits
Snow White saves Jonathan after being shot with a crossbow
Jonathan captured by Evil Queen and escapes with huntsman
Goes back to kingdom by herself to confront the evil queen
Uses the villagers and dwarves to defeat the Evil Queen with words
Dopey revealed as storyteller and everybody is free
Pulling off playing monumental characters from the first ever Disney princess movie is a big role with many standards to uphold. Rachel Zegler was casted as Snow White in early 2021, raising plenty of controversy with both her ethnicity and political standpoint. Taking a bold person and having her play a soft and enchanting character was an interesting choice.
In this movie, Zegler took a less enthusiastic approach to Snow White’s character, with less smiling, excitement and energy. Instead, she played the role of a bold and independent woman, taking away from the classic Disney story and changing the dynamic.
Gal Gadot played the Evil Queen and had a steady approach all throughout the movie. Gadot had an angry front and tone throughout the whole movie, neither becoming less or more angry, but doing one thing throughout a 109-minute movie. With no change or growth, her character became very boring to watch and too predictable.
Zegler and Gadot worked decently together in the brief scenes they had with one another, but didn’t expand on the tension due to lack of screen time together and quick conversation. Other main cast members include Andrew Burnap as Jonathan, Ansu Kabia as the Huntsman and Martin Klebba as the voice for Grumpy. The cast worked well together and grew off of one another’s energy, but specific characters took away from the story with attempts to make Snow White the hero.
The visuals and effects in this movie were well done, using realistic computer-generated imagery to complete the details in this fairytale. The seven dwarves were brought to life using CGI rather than casting people to play the roles. Both the dwarves and animals looked realistic and added to the story with humor and visualization.
Setting played a big part in this story, the cottage and castle being big pieces to replicate. These were created exactly like the original, honing in on the details and making them functional to the story. Places like the forest and the kingdom itself were executed well. The editing and visual effects worked well in this movie, immersing the audience into the story and adding insight to situations, adding overall depth to the storyline and bringing it to life.
Numerous scenes in the movie are led with a different approach by Snow White, taking it upon herself to be bold and self-reliant, rather than the helpless and gentle princess in the original. Action scenes are built around Snow White, in order to build up her character as self-sufficient. The fight between the guards and the bandits was one of the few scenes filled with action, but only for about two minutes, ending with Snow White’s love interest being shot and her having another independent moment saving him. The movie lacked action overall, limiting itself, taking it from a smooth moving story, as the original was, to boring and mediocre.
This movie gave an experience for viewers with spectators either laughing or regretting their choice to pay for a ticket. New music left me compelled to listen in, but I found it to be dull.
The repetitive scenes in the movie aimed to highlight Snow White’s kind and fearless personality were overbearing, taking away from the original story. As its own independent movie, the scenes, acting and plot work well and are decently entertaining, but compared to the original story it strips away from the magic and fairytale aspect.
This movie was a hit or miss for many, either due to controversy or biased opinions. The politics behind the scenes made for a difficult process, especially for the actors. A multitude of press tours, including a UK and Los Angeles premiere shut down by Disney, led to heated controversy. With these factors, this film diminished the classic Disney story that kicked off the franchise, overall adding to the downfall of Disney.
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