"Snow White" (2025) Film Review

Snow White (2025)

Rating: 1/5

By: Nathaniel Simpson

    Disney is known for being perhaps the biggest animated film studio, releasing tons of classic films for nearly the past century. They range from fairy tales to worlds with talking animals that can become police officers, but almost every one of them contains that beautiful Disney magic that the films are known for. However, for the past decade or so, they have been trying to recreate this magic in the form of live-action films based on these animated classics. Some have worked wonderfully, and some have not been very good at all, showing that Disney is starting to turn into this studio that is known for being either a hit or a miss. Unfortunately, with their release of the live-action Snow White, which is already surrounded by numerous controversies, it proves a new low for the film studio, releasing perhaps the absolute worst Disney live-action film. 

    From the start, star Rachel Zegler was determined to let audiences know that this movie is not going to be like the animated classic at all, complaining about how it was outdated and simply creepy. She didn't want our princess protagonist to be saved by the heroic prince, and wanted to flip the story on its head and tell this brand new story. This was faced by massive backlash and criticism from fans and audiences worldwide, and many said they were going to boycott this film entirely. The movie does make tons of changes to what Walt Disney did with the original film, adding in a new band of scoundrels and a quite noticeable lack of dwarfs. Even then, they take the characters of the dwarfs and not only make them very bland and boring, but really change the characterization of them totally. The movie does have the same plot of Snow White hiding from the Queen (Gal Gadot) as the latter will stop at nothing to become the fairest of them all. But, aside from that, this movie doesn't even really feel similar at all to the movie it is remaking. 

    I'll go ahead and get the positives out of the way here - there were some aspect I did like. I think some of the new songs were quite decent, and I was honestly a fan of the "Whistle While You Work" segment. Zegler is such an odd and confusing choice to play the iconic princess, but there is this sort of innocent charm about her that sort of fits the character in scenes throughout the film. I definitely would have preferred a completely different actress to play the titular character, but Zegler definitely isn't awful at all here. 

    But, with that being said, everything else is just abysmal. There was no innovative vision to this movie, and it seemed like Disney and director Marc Webb just wanted to make a completely different film under this iconic name. It's really unfortunate that this film is going to leave a stain on Webb's filmography as I do find him as a great director, but this film simply doesn't work in the slightest. It's tired and unoriginal, and the changes they make that they think are so great are actually unflattering and dull. Mr. Disney would be rolling in his grave if they knew how he massacred his first feature film; as a Disney fan, this is honestly very hard to watch for me.     

    The set and character design is incredibly off-putting. They think CGI would be a great tool to use when conjuring up this world, but it actually hinders it quite well. The set design and camera shots feel like something out of a Disney Channel movie, and the dwarfs are straight nightmare fuel. The movie feels very amateurish and not up to par at all comparing to the other Disney films. It makes me wonder how we went from live-action films such as Pirate of the Caribbean and The Sorcerer's Apprentice to this unhinged mess. 

    The Dwarfs are not spectacular or interesting at all, and to be frank, I had a hard time telling them apart most of the film, besides Dopey, Doc, and Grumpy, of course. They try to bring in this band of criminals, similar to Robin Hood and his Merry Men, to replace the dwarfs, but they don't do much and seem like more of a source of comedic relief than actual characters. At the same time, Gadot practically ruins the character of the Queen, turning her from one of the scariest and most feared Disney villains of all time to a character that is hilariously bad for all the wrong reasons. Gadot can't act to save her life, and this role proves that both Hollywood and Disney need to find some new talent. She is, hands down, the worst part of this whole movie, and I absolutely hate what they did to this fantastic character. 

    This movie is just a misfire on every level, and it simply doesn't work at all. If I was Walt Disney, I would be incredibly embarrassed that not only is this the kind of levels the studio is putting out today, but how they tried to tarnish a beautiful animated film. This movie should have never seen the light of day, and this proves there needs to be a management overhaul at Disney to ensure something like this never happens again.