Gaudy, noisy, overwrought and tedious, Disney’s live-action “Snow White” movie is sometimes dull, sometimes excruciating and not at all good. However, it has one unintentionally delicious element that makes the movie semi-tolerable: the ways in which its narrative mirrors the real-life drama behind the scenes.
Now, let’s be fair: the press has been incredibly unfair to “Snow White,” seemingly making a mountain out of a mid-sized molehill and seemingly churning at the idea of blood in the water right before the movie’s release. Yes, it’s had a few controversies. Do we really care that much, and should these issues overwhelm and damage the actual film itself?
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025
With that said two things can be true. The press can be hyper-biased against “Snow White,” and the movie can also be objectively bad without partisanship. So, one of the few elements of joy and humor you can find in the film—unintentional or otherwise—is how it inadvertently seems to be speaking in code.
For those with no clue what the f*ck I am talking about, it’s the real-life drama behind the two stars: one, the evil Queen, played by Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman”), an unabashedly pro-Israel and IDF apologist, and Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”), playing Snow White, a defender and advocate of Palestinian rights.
So, it’s amusing to see the film, in many ways, acting as a not-so-subtle subtext for each actor’s political views and how they manifest in the world.
Directed by Marc Webb (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson (“The Girl on the Train”), the original “Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs” was really, when you really think about it, just a tale of profoundly toxic vanity and poisoned jealousy surrounded by privilege—a beautiful empress with all the power and wealth in the world is eventually ruined by the insecurity of a new up-and-coming girl that a magical mirror deemed cuter than her (When you’re accustomed to being the most beautiful, even the faintest trace of compliments for someone else’s pretty looks feel like a catastrophe).
Webb’s film leans into ideas of privilege and the idea of greedy late-stage capitalist regimes versus the have-nots—and that makes it mildly interesting— but it’s amusing how the stars are seemingly performing their views and representing the nations they support.
In “Snow White,” the cold-hearted stepmother, the Queen, is an interloper occupying and ruling a land that is not hers. Snow White’s mom passes away, and the stepmother, Queen, inveigles her way in, takes over and betrays and kills the king she has deceived, manipulated and seduced. Wielding full power is not enough, however, and fearing that Snow White may one day uprise, outshine her beauty or grow in public sympathy, she preemptively essentially jails her within the walls of the castle that is rightfully hers, forcing her to be a scullery maid. From there, she rules with cruelty, fear, and propaganda to make the impoverished plebs of her empire satisfied with what little meagerness they are offered.
The story from there is more or less the one you know from the movie, with some additional elements that buttress the 1% versus the working-class theme. The prince in the original is turned into more of a Robin Hood-like thief named Jonathan (the distinct theater kid energized Andrew Burnap) stealing from the Queen— who is hoarding wealth and food—and giving it to the less fortunate living outside the kingdom walls.
Snow White makes the mistake of freeing him when the Queen sentences him to starve and freeze for his theft treachery (the way Gadot’s Queen attempts to gaslight Snow White, Jonathan and her people into thinking they should be grateful for what they have when she is surrounded by prosperity is pretty biting). And for her transgression, the Queen, playing the victim, naturally orders the reluctant Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to kill her.
She goes free, of course, and meets up with the Seven Dwarves—all photorealistic CGI monstrosities that look like creepy lawn gnomes come to life— and the story more or less follows the same story with the addition of Jonathan and his insurgent freedom fighters trying to keep Snow White safe from the Queen’s guards who have come to kill her.
However, these elements and ideas are the only thing that makes “Snow White” remotely watchable. The rest is strained musical numbers—written by Larry Morey and Frank Churchill and Pasek and Paul—that aren’t that catchy, agonizing musical numbers with the dwarves that might as well be 100% scenes of computer-generated animation, a very hammy and vampy Gal Gadot who does no favors to the growing online criticisms that she cannot act, risible dialogue and jokes that mostly fall flat.
Zegler fares slightly better and can sing clearly, but the material, besides having some semi-pointed thoughts about tyranny, oppression, occupation and wealth inequality, is pretty routine and paint-by-numbers.
Films are supposed to be passion projects, even the biggest and kitschiest, but one wonders what in this material compelled Marc Webb to dedicate two years of his life to this hollow and soulless project seemingly meant to move merchandise other than hopefully what was a very handsome paycheck.
The film’s final insurrection is somewhat satisfyingly barbed: Snow White and the people rising up against the Queen’s totalitarianism, reclaiming the kingdom that is rightfully theirs and overthrowing her colonialist rule. But again, it’s only marginally satisfying, given how poor and unsatisfying the rest of the movie is.
White interjecting its social commentary, “Snow White” otherwise tackles much of the same ideas—the notions of true love, the power of friendship, and the triumph of good over evil—but it’s all put together in a very familiar and garish package. The fairest in the land? Far from it. [C-]
Disney’s “Snow White” opens in theaters March 21.
