SNOW WHITE Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Emilia Faucher, Hadley Fraser, voices of Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravitz, George Salazar, Jeremy Swift, Andy Grotelueschen, Patrick Page.
Disney continues to plunder its extensive back catalogue of animated classics for live action remakes, hoping to reintroduce their tales to a brand-new audience. For their latest live action remake they have turned their attention to the 1937 classic Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, the studio’s first full length animated feature. That film also helped establish the studio as the animation powerhouse for 50 years. And if one ignores the controversies surrounding this remake – the outcries over the colour-blind casting, the tone-deaf comments from stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot – Snow White is actually quite entertaining, and much better than expected.
This remake, written by Erin Cressida Wilson, remains reasonably faithful to the spirit of the original which was based on the fairy tale written by the brothers Grimm, albeit with a few tweaks to give it something of a more contemporary flavour. The script still contains many of the darker elements of the story.
Snow White is the beautiful young princess and heir to the kingdom which is peaceful and prosperous. But her mother dies and her father, the king, remarries to a beautiful but mysterious woman (Gal Gadot, from Wonder Woman, etc). Soon after he is tricked into going off to war to fight an imaginary enemy. When he disappears, feared dead, her stepmother assumes power. The kingdom is soon a place of misery and poverty. Snow White herself is forced into servitude. The queen is also vain and demands assurances from her mirror that she is the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.
But as Snow White grows into adulthood, her virtue and beauty threaten the queen. She arranges for her loyal royal huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. He takes pity on her and lets her live. She makes her way into the forest until she stumbles upon the quaint cottage that is the home of the seven dwarfs and miners.
Eventually, the queen learns that Snow White still lives, and arranges to poison her with an apple. In this film though it is not a handsome prince who awakens her from her slumber but rather Jonathan (Andrew Burnap, in his first major film role), the handsome and roguish freedom fighter who lives in the forest with his band of merry outlaws. With the help of the dwarfs and Jonathan’s band of outlaws Snow White inspires her people to rise up against the queen’s tyranny and oppressive rule, a sentiment that has plenty of resonance given events in the world today.
The film has been directed by Marc Webb (the Andrew Garfield Spiderman movies, etc), who maintains a fast and breezy pace throughout. This a colourful and lively production that has been beautifully shot by Australian cinematographer Mandy Walker, who creates some wonderful visual contrasts for the different settings. Kave Quinn’s production design is superb, especially the creation of the interiors of the palace and the dwarf’s cottage. The dwarfs have been brought to life via some CGI effects, and their antics provide plenty of moments of slapstick humour.
A couple of familiar songs from the 1937 original are given a reprise here – Whistle While You Work and the classic Heigh Ho – and there are a couple of new songs composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (who wrote the songs for The Greatest Showman, La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen). There are a couple of well-choreographed sequences as well.
Zegler (from Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story) gives her Snow White a feisty quality, suffusing the character with strength, and a positive upbeat attitude, but also with a hint of naivety. Gadot gives her wicked queen a cold and steely demeanour. Her evil queen is a bit of a one-dimensional character though and her performances is appropriately one note and without much in the way of subtlety.
★★★
