Disney’s Snow White - Movie Review
I was going to add this review to another post I was doing but then i thought….
Also,
sorry I really can’t talk about this movie without touching on some things
Now when I tell you the trailer for this movie did not get me hype, I mean I felt nothing.
actually that might be an understatement
I can't believe i wasn't excited for this. I love Disney and I really like the Disney Princesses so anything to do with them, I'm in
I wanted to see the movie regardless because I really wanted to talk about it & since the trailer left me with some thoughts and concerns, I wanted to see if they were granted
And they were.
Title & Legacy
My first worries about this movie came about when I heard the title of it. This is a remake, well I guess more of a "re-imagine" of the original animated classic
YET
they don’t share the same name
I guess it follows in the same vain as Maleficent but that was a complete departure from the title, for Snow White, it's the same title just not finished which makes it kind of a special case
so this movie is a weird combination of remake and reimagine
they’ve added new aspects to the movie for it to differ from the original but there’s also enough from the original to make it a remake. So not calling it Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs doesn’t makes sense to me
And unfortunately all the changes they made, all the new stuff they added doesn’t make sense! I don’t want to say it’s a disrespect to the beloved original but, at least to me, it seemed to me like they didn’t care
I wish they had taken the Cinderella live action approach where they continue to build on what made the main character strong to begin with and build on characters that the original didn’t have time or money to focus on (in most cases, the prince/love interest)
And while they build on the characters, let the production and costume design do most of the talking. In the case of the songs that wouldn't work for their retelling, again take the Cinderella route and have it play during the credits
I'm literally trying to fix this movie 🥲
Remaking this movie is such a big deal. You're not just remaking a Disney classic that started the Disney renaissance, you're not remaking an animated movie that was nominated for best picture, you're remaking THE movie that started it all, that was made with such love and care and started a new form of entertainment
It really should have been handled better.
The Director
I don't know why this bothered me so much but for some reason it did
When I heard Marc Webb was going to be directing this I was like...
I don’t know much of his work aside from 500 days of Summer and the Amazing Spider-Man movies and I think it’s safe to say that's the same for most people SOOOOO…
WHY did they get him for this movie???
Unless they were going to focus on the love story between Snow and the Prince, which of course they weren't going to do that, then WHY get him???
I did not like his directing in this movie or lack thereof. i knew something was off the moment the first song started and the way it kept going
There was no direction. I couldn’t understand how these characters are singing this song and there’s no movement
the musical sequences felt so…static. It felt like a broadway musical with a high production budget. The shots being taken during these scenes reminded me…gosh I hate to say this… reminded me of my church livestream. Only two kinds of shots ever taken, a close up and a wide and then a casual pan here and there.
and it feels like it was a problem with the direction. There is a shot in the opening number where Snow is in the village and it cuts to wide shot where there is so much going on you have NO IDEA where to look!
It almost felt like a Where’s Waldo picture
and this was very apparent with the first song and Jonathon’s song. It’s kinda that way with the love song too but that makes sense to me as it is a more calm and focus moment and the song is slower
The direction for the queen’s song…I’ll be honestly i don’t remember because i was too distracted by other things that I’ll touch on later
Overall what i’m trying to say here is that, there was no personality in the direction here. I’m not sure why they got him if that was going to be the case
They got Kenneth Branagh to direct Cinderella and it shows
They got Guy Ritchie to direct Aladdin and it REALLY shows
They got….sigh…. Rob Marshall to direct The Little Mermaid and it shows
Here it was just like…
kinda liking this gif, don't be surprised if it pops up again 😆
Speaking of the songs…
The Music
the music was done by the same duo that did the greatest showman, la la land and more (I believe they even have some credits on other Disney live action projects) but with those two credits alone, you know what your getting here
Personally…i don’t think they worked here and I think that's because a musical language is already established. Yes you could say the same thing for the Little Mermaid & Cinderella but Cinderella didn't use any of the original songs and The Little Mermaid used pretty much all of the original songs with the except of 2 that fit with and 1 that was so crazy unnecessary
talking about you scuttlebutt
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul seem to work better with original content, which makes sense as you have more freedom to create something original. And because their style is so specific, I don’t think they can paired with just any other type of music
Like I would never pair them with…opera
Okay that might be a stretch but hopefully you get what I’m trying to say here
The music just didn’t work! lol
It seems like they added additional lyrics to the original songs… sure…okay fine but with the exception of Whistle While You Work & Heigh-ho, all the other songs felt so…produced…?
The songs really did sound like they were made for a broadway musical which is funny considering Howard Ashman's approach when creating the iconic songs for some of the Disney renaissance films
But that worked for animation and the type of broadway that Ashman knew
This felt like music for a modern broadway show that didn’t work for setting of this film.
The songs felt too wordy and just too much.
Also I’m shocked, SHOCKED! They didn’t have Rachel sing either I’m Wishing or Someday my Prince will Come during the credits. Imagine her voice covering those songs....geezzz 😍
The song they gave Jonathon, Princess Problems, when it started it felt forced. I didn’t feel the build up for him to suddenly burst into song
it also reminded me so much of My Petersburg from the musical Anastasia
BUT there’s one song that got so under my skin…
The queen’s song.
THEY GAVE THE QUEEN A SONG.
THEY MADE GAL GADOT SING.
Hated it.
when it started I was like this,
It was so off for me! At the beginning of the movie, the evil queen is presented as someone, refined, posed, pretty calm but obvious evil.
And then she burst into this loud villain song and it’s like
Where was the build up? She went so over the top so fast i thought i was having a stroke!
I would have loved for them to have taken almost the same approach…gosh i hate to do with again but whatever, same approach as Cinderella's villain but without the comedic moments
Keep the evil queen elegant in her evilness. This isn’t Ursula whose more flamboyant or Jafar who is so over the top (and we love him for it)
This is the EVIL FREAKIN’ QUEEN. She should have been able to cut the audience with one look.
And you know what! I'm just gonna do it! this review is already all over the place! I'm just gonna talk about casting here!
GAL WAS NOT IT.
I would love to know what other actresses they had in mind, if any!!
I know I previously said get unknowns in the main roles and i get that can’t work all the time because of money and politics or whatever so they need to cast big in some places, so fine cast big for the evil queen but not Gal. I really did not think she had the chops for this.
This lady just came into my mind and I think she would have been perfect if she was younger,
Lesley Manville. I loved her in The Phantom Thread and I think she would have been perfect. But I get it, she's old now, old enough to play evil queen in her hag form but I love her
Okay back to the music...
I will say, the love song…
It got me, it got me
I’m listening to it right now while writing this! lol! LOVE IT
The Production/Costume/VFX
while watching the trailer, the major aspect that turned me off the whole look of the movie. I didn’t like the look or feel.
I’m not sure what i was expecting but it wasn’t what we got. I think what I wanted was the production design of Cinderella but more organic, you know?
Part of the reason i think i felt that way about the trailer and movie is the production design and maybe a little bit of the visual effects
While not bad! Really! It had…has, this very soft look to it. Like you can tell it was filmed on a blue/green screen, nothing is tangible. There’s a few other movies that give off this same feel, Wonka being one of them and even Wicked
And again this might be an issue on the production crew or director instead of the visual effects because of how much of it was filmed on a blue/greenscreen
But I do have to stand and applaud all the artists from MPC who worked on this. This seemed like the last major project they did before the company shut down & and left all their talented employees without a job. I sat through those credits to see their names. I honestly hope they were able to find new jobs because they really do deserve it!
The animals were cute!
Every now and then i found myself saying “ahhh” and the did audience too! It makes me wonder why Snow didn’t interact with them more. I know, budget, but if any remake deserved it, you would think it would be the remake to their FIRST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM??
And the dwarfs…they deserve their own section…
The costume design was fine. The artist, Sandy Powell, did Cinderella and I feel she probably couldn’t go as big here as she did with Cinderella because Snow White demands a more subtle design.
And i think they got the right person. I probably would have gone for her too.
but what was off for me was Snow’s outfit, her main outfit
It's kinda hard to tell and someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looked like her dress was sparkling..
and i was like…why? That’s too flashy for Snow White even in this version of the story
Snow’s main look always felt more sutle, not peasant looking but not in your face you know?
It may be the colors and saturation of the new one? Maybe? but something was just off
Also…you give snow HER CAPE! She needs the cape! I would have given anything to see them do this scene in the live action where the birds pull her in the direction of the dwarfs cottage, it’s just…so Disney and so sweet and i just love it
this high quality is so weird, I can't do it. I'll take my VHS quality any day!
The Dwarfs
These guys were monstrosities.
I’m so sorry, I didn’t not like them at all. I think it was the design. Cause the vfx weren't bad, it 's the look of them.
It was hard to tell them apart and i think that was because of the design and the writing. Of course you tell which one was grumpy, doc & dopey but that's because they talk the most and get the most screen time.
Oh dopey…
He was adorable & had me at the heart strings
UNTIL
HE SPOKE..?!
No no no no no
I did not like this change at all. It was nice not having him speak and getting that emotion from his body language and facial expressions. The moment he started talking I lost all interest in his character.
Going back to the dwarfs, i noticed the moment before they go into whistle while you work, they have the dwarfs getting into some shenanigans that their originals counterparts got into which didn’t work. it doesn’t work in this more realist setting and realistic look.
You can't have it both way Disney! You can't have your cake and eat it too!
or however that saying goes...
I also didn’t like what they did with grumpy
What I loved, LOVED about grumpy was that he cared, even though he said he didn’t and acted like he didn’t. I loved his scenes with snow in the original so much and that’s pretty much all gone here.
They have a lingering shot of him squeezing out a tear when snow “dies” but it feels so forced and not honest.
oh right...the poison apple...the kiss...
minor bump in the road or as Pitch Meeting puts it...
Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
She eats the apple from the old lady THAT VERY MUCH SOUNDS LIKE HER STEPMOTHER, passes out, Jonathon breaks out of prison almost as quickly as he got in there, finds Snow, kisses her, she wakes up, and they go back to saving the village...?
Gosh the more i talk about this movie i more i don’t like it. Almost all the decisions they made just makes me sad and a bit angry
All i watch is pure Disney movies, especially the princess ones so i think it’s fair for me to be so harash and critical
It’s just i really do wish this movie was handle with more care
...
where was I...oh! so i guess i can’t talk about the dwarfs without talking about the bandits
They were…there lol
Literally i had no idea why they were there. They added nothing to the plot. I can’t even tell you any of their names, even if you held a gun to head! I'm gone!
Whatever they did, the dwarfs themselves easily could have done.
I guess this is one of the parts that makes the movie feel like a mishmash.
They were going to remove the dwarfs and replace them with the bandits but when that caused blacklash so they added the dwarfs back in but with cg but then also decided to keep the bandits...?
I’m not saying that’s what happened but it feels like that's what happened.
After talking about the bandits and the dwarfs, i guess it only makes sense to get into the plot or at least the changes they made that make no sense.
The Plotpoints - Quicky
They decided to give the evil queen a bit more here and i don’t think it worked. The evil queen is about vanity, not power and ruling a kingdom (though I’m sure that doesn’t hurt)
In the original it was all about “who’s the fairest of them all” and while for the queen that meant outward appearances, we the audience always knew it was more than that because when you look at Snow, she is literally fair inside and out.
In THIS movie, it seems to apply that at the start it's about outward appearance but then during the climax scene it does a 360 and switches to the inward appearance which makes no sense
Because if it was always inside appearance, didn’t snow always have that? And the EVIL queen never did? So then why did the mirror say the queen is the fairiest up until a certain point?
What we have here ladies and gentlemen is another case of the remakes adding unnecessary confusion and plot points that the original never had
It’s really hard for me to try and find something nice to say about this movie…
I love the new long song…
The cgi animals were cute…
Dopey had me up until a certain point…
I like the end scene were they are all in white, thought that was pretty…
Rachel did okay acting wise, her voice...AMAZING.
But yeahhh…i think that’s pretty much it
Sorry if this was another review all over the place. I'm trying to do better by having some sort of "structure" to it, not sure if it's working, hopefully it is 😆
I saw someone on YouTube say instead of going to watch this movie, just stay home and watch the original and I truly think that’s time better spent
I really don’t think there’s a need to go watch this. It’s so sad to say but it really does feel that Disney did not put any love into this one and i can’t express how much that depresses me
Save your money, watch reviews on it if you don't care about spoilers & wait for it release on Disney+
🫧
