With its early release of pictures of some rather dubious dwarfs and social media comments by the film’s star Rachel Zegler about Snow White no longer needing a prince to save her, Disney’s Snow White had alienated a large part of its target audience before if had even hit the screen.
With social media commentators expecting, some hoping for various biased reasons, that the film would be a gigantic flop Disney didn’t help matters by the exposure the film received by limiting it’s premieres to only a handful of showings.
The big question now that Disney’s Snow White has been launched upon a not entirely responsive public is it any good? The answer is nearly.
Beginning with how Snow White (Rachel Zegler) got her name (she was born in a snow storm) the story moves to a market scene which looks very similar to the opening number on the live action version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. With the death of Snow Whites mother her father takes a new bride and a new Queen (Gal Gadot).
After the strange disappearance of her father her evil stepmother banishes Snow White from the castle where, in the woods she comes across the home of the seven dwarfs (the CGI dwarfs look no better than the characters in Polar Express and that was made over 20 years ago). In the middle of this she meets and falls in love with a thief called Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) (no prince for Snow White in this modern version).
Disney’s Snow White is at its best when is sticks pretty much to the original story but when, after about an hour, it reimagines the story to make Snow White a more independent woman it all starts to fall to bits. On the plus side the songs are excellent as is Rachel Zegler. The less said about Gal Gadot’s performance the better. Let’s just say that she is to Disney’s Snow White what Peirce Brosnan was to Mamma Mia.
Overall Disney’s Snow White isn’t the disaster, thanks mostly to a star turn by Rachel Zegler, that some would have us believe.