Partial poster of “Snow White” featuring Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler.
Disney Enterprises, Inc.Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s controversial remake of the 1937 Disney animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is finally here with Snow White. How does the movie differ from the original?
While the first live-action adaptation of one of the studio’s animated classics dates back to 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close in 1996, Disney really didn’t start mining its animated library until 2010 with Alice in Wonderland. Since then, Disney has done either straight-up remakes, “re-imaginings,” prequels or sequels to nearly 20 films that originated in the animated realm.
Among the most faithful to the original Disney animated films are The Jungle Book, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King — the latter of which is virtually a shot-by-shot remake of the 1994 hand-drawn classic. Some of the films were slightly altered in the plot — like Cinderella — while some more noticeable changes like Mulan, mainly because of the omission of the original animated film’s music.
Director Marc Webb’s remake/re-imagining of Snow White seems to fall somewhere in between. The template of the original animated movie is still in place, as the orphaned Snow White (Zegler) is living under the rule of her stepmother the Evil Queen (Gadot), who is declared the “fairest of them all” by her magic mirror … until she’s not.
Also, the Evil Queen’s transformation into the beggar lady who gives Snow White a poisoned apple is still a part of the story, but the bookend to that subplotline differs from the animated film.
Snow White is also freed in the forest by the Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) ordered to kill her by the Evil Queen, and she finds her way to a remote cottage, much in the way she meets the seven dwarfs from the original movie.
From there, several noticeable changes were made to the remake from the original film. Here’s a look at some of them.
Note: Some spoilers from the new version of Snow White are discussed throughout the rest of the story.
Rachel Zegler in “Snow White.”
Disney Enterprises, Inc.Big Change No. 1: The Music
Being that Disney has dubbed the film a musical, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that new showtunes are part of the updated Snow White.
Penned by La La Land Oscar-winning composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the new songs give Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) plenty of opportunity to exhibit her vocal range. Even Gal Gadot gets a dazzling, show-stopping tune — “All is Fair” — to give her Evil Queen a little more pizzazz.
While Pasek and Paul’s music takes center stage in Snow White, Marc Webb still includes the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs classics “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work.”
There is one noticeable omission from the animated film’s stable of tunes — Snow White’s “Someday My Prince Will Come”— which has been replaced by a more modern-thinking song “Waiting on a Wish.”
Andrew Burnap and Rachel Zegler in “Snow White.”
Disney Enterprises, Inc.Big Change No. 2: There’s No Prince
There’s a good reason “Someday My Prince Will Come” is absent from the remake of Snow White: The prince doesn’t exist.
Instead, Snow White’s love interest is a bandit named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), who is a new character written for the remake. Burnap, a stage veteran, even shares a tune with Rachel Zegler and of course, Jonathan is destined to give Snow White her fateful “true love’s kiss.”
Like the inclusion of the new music, the omission of the prince storyline shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention to the controversies plaguing the production of Snow White for the past few years.
While the idea of not having a prince saving Snow White was conceived by screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and obviouly given the green light by Disney, Zegler for some reason took it upon herself to break the news in a not-so-subtle manner in an interview with Extra TV in 2022.
“The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There is a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her,” Zegler told Extra TV as she added, “Weird! Weird! So, we didn’t do that this time.”
Rachel Zegler in “Snow White.”
Disney Enterprises, Inc.Big Change No. 3: The Kiss Doesn’t End The Movie
In the animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the prince breaks Snow White’s death spell cast by the Evil Queen and the two ride off on horseback to the prince’s castle after she bids farewell to the seven dwarfs.
After the kiss in Snow White, the princess emerges from what was supposed to be her eternal slumber to enlist the seven dwarfs, as well as Jonathan and his fellow bandits to lead an uprising to take down the Evil Queen.
Image from “Snow White.”
Disney Enterprises, Inc.Big Change No. 4: Dopey Speaks
In the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dopey is portrayed as a mute character who communicates through gestures.
Dopey seems destined to do the same in Snow White, but thanks to the encouragement he receives from the princess, he eventually works up the courage to use his voice (which is supplied by Andrew Barth Feldman). Dopey uses his voice in another way in the film, which will not be revealed here for the sake of a surprise.
Big Change No. 5: The Seven Dwarfs Are CGI Instead Of Hand-Drawn (And Awkwardly So)
One of the many controversies over the live-action Snow White originated with Peter Dinklage, who was born with a form of dwarfism. In an interview with podcaster Marc Maron, Dinklage surmised Disney was going to employ dwarf actors for the remake, which led to a highly publicized outburst.
“Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White — but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Dinklage told Maron. “Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f—ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f— are you doing, man?”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney responded to the criticism by saying it was going to meet with the dwarfism community to arrive at a solution. Ultimately, the studio ended up rendering the characters as CGI creations.
Now that the reviews are out for Snow White, some critics are suggesting going the computer-animated route to create the characters was the wrong move.
“Snow White flees into the forest and into the home of seven magical nightmares with CGI heads that look like sun-dried orange peels wearing too much foundation,” William Bibbiani writes in The Wrap.
“Their faces are caricatures straight out of a beachfront boardwalk sketch stand, exaggerated in ways that spit in the face of nature when rendered in three dimensions,” Bibbiani continued. “They are Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Dopey and Doc, and they are textbook examples of why some remakes are probably a bad idea.”
Rated PG, Snow White opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
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