We’re going to start with my most favourite Disney character ever. Dopey. I love him almost as much as I love Arnie, my dog. There was a lot of criticism about using CGI for the dwarves in the live action version of Snow White but I’m so very glad that they did. It made them mystical and otherworldly, like they’d just walked out of the cartoon. I think the dwarves were absolutely perfect and it was so great to see the characters developed and more whole. Especially Dopey, who was so perfectly adorable. He even had me crying at one point. Animation Dopey and Live Action Dopey are now both equally my favourite character now and I never thought that would happen
Snow White’s interaction and songs with the dwarves was my favourite part of the film. I could watch Whistle While You Work over and over and over again. I also love that we got so many of the iconic images from the original beautifully re-created in real life. It’s so visually stunning. I couldn’t stop myself from squealing out loud when I saw the owl stairs and the beds! The animal scenes with snow white too. I feel like they took a bit of Enchanted (based heavily on Snow White) in terms of giving the forest creatures more personality and charisma. Snow White doesn’t just have one animal sidekick, she has a whole forest of them. The essence of Snow White I think.
Rachel Zegler is Snow White, lets just get that clear. She’s absolutely perfect for the role and I never for one second doubted her authenticity as the fairest princess in the whole 109 minutes. I think I may have a different take then most because as a child when I was told that she was the fairest of them all I always assumed that we were talking personality and character, not skin tone. I never really thought about the colour of her skin. Yes, there’s the whole ‘skin as white as snow’ line but it’s not something I ever took away from the original. Whilst Rachel’s acting and singing was pretty epic, I do have a couple of issues regarding hair and wardrobe. The ever-changing bob, it goes from curly to curled under so often that I lost count of how many times it changes and her necklace also disappears and reappears so often. Better continuity pretty please Disney. I’m also confused about why she needs a new dress to go off to the woods to get killed, like where did it come from? Was it made specially. She’s not seen people for years so it’s not like she’s need a party outfit. I get that her hair and her dress don’t matter, that beauty shines through regardless but it’s issues that could have so very easily been fixed. I could have lived with the hair if they had and I think I’m in the minority of liking the new dress once the ugly blue outer skirt was ripped off.
We are going to have to talk about the Gal Gadot in the room. I’m so very sorry but she’s awful. I’ve got no gripes with the woman, I quite liked her in Wonder Woman and thought she was good in Death On The Nile but she is so very bad in this. I could have overlooked and got past it if she didn’t sing. I feel it a public duty to prepare anyone who hasn’t seen it for that song. What was that? I’ll give her this, she did some good Ursula vibes during it but she is not playing Ursula is she. The dancers around her are seriously serving it so there’s that plus. I wasn’t surprised when I saw that Mandy Moore (not Rapunzel, different Mandy, she did Taylor Swift’s tour) was the choreographer. Also, her magic seems random and nonsensical and why does she need so many capes? I’m also confused how Snow White didn’t know she was the old hag with the apple (don’t spoiler alert me, 90 year old plot) when she had the exact same accent?
Without giving away too much, there are changes to characters and the plot. Personally, I think that they’re for the better. The ill-informed will argue that the film has gone “woke” but what they really mean is that a women are given more agency in the film, less reliance on men, an ability to save ourselves or save the guy right back. It’s not just Snow White, the female villages are dominant and integral to the plot (There’s one scene towards the end where Snow is backed by a front line of women and it is everything). The result, young girls are given a stronger princess role model to look up to. Young boys are shown that women can be strong without it diminishing their sense of identity. It’s not a new concept for Disney, Tangled is almost 15 years old now and the new leading man is very much a combination of Flynn and a Frozen’s Kristoff (with a little bit of Robin from Once Upon A Time thrown in). The new song Princess Problems feels very much like it could be about Rapunzel or Anna.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the songs. “You can’t fix the world baking apple pies” had me dead. The lyrics of Princess Problems pretty much explain why we need to see updated princesses. You can tell it’s the work of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who gave us The Greatest Showman and La La Land, they are lyrical geniuses in my opinion and they mostly did us proud. A Hand Meets A Hand is such a beautiful song (maybe a bit too much like Tightrope from The Greatest Showman but I love that song so I will forgive). I tried to listen to All Is Fair again to give it a chance but I couldn’t get past the first two lines without wanting to throw my phone. I have figured out what it reminds me of though, if Ursula sang Mother Knows Best instead of Mother Gothel, that would be this song. I need to hear someone else singing it as I think that might change my opinion. Needless to say, I will be fast-forwarding (Do we still call it that) past it when it comes to Disney Plus. Good Things Grow and Waiting On A Wish are both amazing, I will hear nothing bad about them. They both on my playlist now.
Three songs from the original are kept, Heigh-Ho, Whistle While You Work and The Silly Song. I could watch these scenes over and over and over and over and over again. They were perfect. There’s nothing at all that I can think of that would make then even more so. They alone are enough reason to go to the cinema. Two original songs were removed but I didn’t really miss I’m Wishing or With A Smile And A Song whilst watching. I’ve never really been a fan of I’m Wishing anyway, she’s known the dude for like two seconds. I feel like Waiting On A Wish has it covered without. I do wish that “Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine” had made the cut but the original film isn’t going anywhere so neither is that song. It’s always there if I want it.
I guess that’s the whole point really. The new film is not a replacement of the old. The original is a classic that will always be there but it’s always going to be a reflection of the world and time in which it was created. We can retell old stories to make them relevant to the current time, the current world in live, and it doesn’t take away from what came before it. It just moves the story on. If you don’t like that, if you’re not ready for that change or want to bubblewrap yourself up against the fear something different, then just don’t watch it. There’s honestly no one forcing you to do so. The amount of people who don’t seem to get this and instead let their fear turn into hate across the internet is crazy. Try not to pay them any attention, they are only hurting themselves. The rest of us are too busy dancing around to Waiting On A Wish. Go watch the film so that you can join us.
P.S. I didn’t spot any hidden Mickey’s in the film but a did spot a good number of German references to honour The Brothers Grimm. Such beautiful little touches, keep an eye out for them.