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It’s kind of strange when you think about it: one of the most controversial films in recent years is Disney’s live-action remake of the animated fairytale classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The studio known for churning out safe, family-friendly fare somehow managed to spark outrage long before a single trailer even dropped. This remake—ditching the “Seven Dwarfs” from the title entirely, a sign of the rocky road ahead—surely couldn’t be that bad, right? The dismal IMDb score had to be the result of review bombing… right? I walked in expecting something mediocre at worst. What I got was something far worse than I imagined.
I should’ve been paid to watch “Snow White”, because sitting through it feels like a chore. The opening scene sets the tone for the next 100 minutes: a lifeless musical without any memorable songs, set in a computer-generated world that somehow feels claustrophobically small. The cast looks like LARPers in dime store costumes, and most of them seem to have been chosen more for checking diversity boxes than for actual screen presence. If the film succeeds at anything, it’s in handing ammunition to alt-right critics eager to pounce on anything vaguely “woke”.
You already know the story: a beautiful young woman, a vain and jealous queen, seven dwarfs, a poisoned apple, a prince’s kiss. This remake tries to modernize the tale by replacing the dwarfs with seven “bandits”—a clumsy attempt to sidestep accusations of insensitivity. But after backlash erupted, the dwarfs were awkwardly shoved back in as poorly rendered CGI creations, never actually called dwarfs. The result is a patchwork film that never finds its footing and constantly feels at odds with itself.
I’m pretty sure this movie will be a source for video essays dissecting every little nook and cranny for years to come—and rightfully so. “Snow White” is a masterclass in terrible filmmaking, both on and off the set. You could easily write a book about everything this movie tried to do right, only to spectacularly miss the mark at every turn.
Much of the blame falls on the two lead actresses: Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. Zegler has a beautiful singing voice but lacks any real screen presence. Gadot is undeniably striking, but her acting remains as wooden as ever. Neither of them manages to carry the film, though Gadot at least seems to be having a bit of fun as the Evil Queen. Zegler, on the other hand, appears to be going through the motions—singing with polish but offering little else. She doesn’t inspire goodwill as a performer; in fact, quite the opposite. “Snow White” might very well mark the end of her run as a leading lady, and frankly, that wouldn’t be undeserved.
If there’s one scene that people will obsess over, it’s the first major confrontation between their characters. Zegler, playing a downtrodden servant, pleads with the queen to share food with the starving villagers. Gadot, in full villain mode, coldly refuses. Given Zegler’s outspoken pro-Palestinian stance and Gadot’s well-known support for Israel, this moment is bound to be interpreted as an unintentional metaphor for the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict. Whether you see it that way or not, the subtext practically writes itself.
Then there’s the rest of the cast, none of whom leave any lasting impression. The prince has been replaced by a bandit—a bland, underwritten character with zero chemistry opposite Zegler. The only truly notable thing about the supporting cast is its diversity. Diversity in itself isn’t the problem—it’s when diversity becomes the sole purpose of the casting that things start to feel forced.
A diverse cast works in “Wicked” because the school exists in a richly imagined, multicultural world where characters from various backgrounds come together naturally. It makes sense in the “Spider-Man” films too, given their modern-day New York setting. But it falls apart in something like Disney’s remake of “Beauty and the Beast”, where a small French village in the 1700s inexplicably looks like a modern-day international community. The same issue plagues “Snow White”, which appears to take place in a vaguely 1800s European setting, complete with dense forests and towering castles. And yet, the film constantly seems fixated on ensuring that people of color are prominently placed in every crowd scene—especially when a white character is also on screen.
Once you start noticing the pattern, it becomes impossible to ignore. Aside from the CGI dwarfs, every time there’s a group of background characters, the film makes a visible effort to include people of color—often to the point where it feels unnaturally calculated. That might sound like something out of an alt-right talking point, but the issue isn’t with the presence of diversity. It’s the way the filmmakers clearly made casting decisions based on optics rather than authenticity, placing actors into certain frames because of their ethnicity. And when representation is treated as a checklist instead of something organic, it only ends up undermining the very message it’s trying to send.
Also not helping are the changes made to the story. As the lead actresses stated in several interviews, this version of “Snow White” wasn’t going to be about a princess being saved by a prince, but about a young woman becoming the leader she knows she can be. Well, she’s not saved by a prince—but by the lead bandit—and her big leadership moment consists of walking up to the castle gates and convincing everyone to stop working for the Evil Queen because of who her father was. The writers probably thought they were being progressive with this arc, but they completely missed the irony: they essentially wrote her as the ultimate nepo baby.
I could go on, but I’ll leave that to the people who are going to pick this movie apart in endless video essays. As for a recommendation—I can’t give one, at least not for adults. I’m not entirely sure how kids will respond to it either. Maybe they’ll enjoy the bright colors in the magical forest or the abundance of CGI animals. Maybe even the abominable dwarfs. But for anyone over the age of ten, there’s very little joy, magic, or fun to be found here.
