Last Friday, on March 21st, one of 2025’s most anticipated movies hit theaters: Snow White. Plans for a live action remake were revealed in October of 2016 and the film has been in the works ever since. The film, starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot as Snow White and the Evil Queen respectively, is currently number one in the world and news outlets and social media have been flooded with conversations about the film and the choice Disney has made with the newest of their live action portrayals. Seniors Elizabeth Hample and Sousa Waggoner viewed the film last Friday and had much to say about the movie as a whole. From plot to costumes, there is much to be said about Disney’s new Snow White.

Controversies

Controversies about the film first arose several years ago when Snow White was in production. Several video clips arose of the film’s star, Rachel Zegler, making a comment about how the original film was outdated and it was due for a revamp. Many people were outraged by this (true) comment (who knew there were that many Snow White fans..) and it sparked a trail of hatred towards the actress from then on. Many were upset with Zegler’s casting to begin with due to her appearance not resembling the animated Snow White and many of the comments made eventually turned into, simply put, racism. Despite Zegler’s outstanding qualifications as an actress and singer (West Side Story (2021), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023), Romeo & Juliet (Broadway, 2024)) the hatred of her portrayal of Snow White continued even after the movie’s release. Despite the production of the movie not being in her control whatsoever as well as other live action actresses (Emma Watson (Beauty and The Beast (2017), and Lily James (Cinderella (2015)) saying similar if not the exact same things about their characters, Zegler has received almost all of the hate for Disney’s new production.

After watching the movie, it is safe to say that we think Gal Gadot’s performance as the evil queen did not fall short of expectations, as the expectations were low. Across a variety of social media platforms, Gadot’s performance is being criticized for numerous reasons. Some of these consist of her poor line delivery, awkward body language, and subpar vocal abilities. The fact that she was selected for this role at all continues to confuse viewers, as there is a surplus of extremely talented actresses who could have outdone Gadot in all of these categories. In our (somewhat) professional opinions, it would have been an excellent choice for Disney to select someone along the lines of Idina Menzel, Lea Michelle, or Anne Hathaway. All three of these women have had plenty of experience in musicals or on Broadway, have incredible voices, and are great actresses. Did Gal Gadot sing and act in this movie? Yes…? Could other people have done a much better job? 100%.

Plot

One of the major differences between this film and its animated counterpart is the focus on Zegler’s character of Snow White and her desire to save her kingdom and less focus on the romantic aspects of the plot and the prince coming to save her. This angered a lot of people for whatever reason because 30 year old men don’t like to see an independent woman. Which doesn’t even make sense because she was still saved by the prince so I’m really not sure what the issue even is. It’s called Snow White not Snow White Gets Saved By The Prince Yippee. Many have acted like the prince was entirely erased from the plot which is not true in the slightest, whereas other movies such as Mulan (2019) DID completely erase her significant other from the plot. The Prince, or Jonathan, and Snow White actually worked in tandem for the majority of the movie.

Singing

There’s no question about Zegler’s vocal abilities as she was the most talented person in the entire movie. Many have made comments about her voice not sounding like Snow White in the original film, yet there is no doubt she could have done it just as the original sounds, which you would know if you had seen her as Maria in West Side Story. So clearly her vocals were controlled entirely by production, which is, again, not in her control at all…. “Whistle While You Work” was a straight banger and I enjoy it in the car during my drives now. The new music written for the movie is credited to EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, or more commonly known as Pasek & Paul, whose credits include: La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen, and Aladdin.

Gal Gadot can’t sing. It was atrocious. The solo song written for her character was great, credits to the composers, and would have been much better if an actual vocalist took on the role. (Lea Michelle please save us).

Dwarfs

Another aspect that we thought made the movie was the CGI dwarfs. However, some critics called the dwarfs “monstrosities.” Although this was another extremely controversial aspect of the movie, we thought that they were a crucial aspect of the film. In order of favorite to least favorite dwarf, we would list Dopey, Doc, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezey, then Bashful. We think that out of the people in our newspaper class, these would be Ian Williams, John Thomasson, Sawyer Quertermous, Thomas Hershey, Nikos Paraschos, Fritz Browning, and Jack Troy in real life (in case you were wondering). The dwarfs also did a great job of performing (?)  their own classic number, “Heigh-Ho,” as well as being the perfect addition to “Whistle While You Work.” However, the dwarfs did make shooting these songs a bit challenging for Rachel Zigler since she had to film these by herself.

i want to pinch his wittwe cheeks he smo son canon

she whisper: i love hin, my son, canon;

Lily Thompson (12)

Overall

The reality of this movie’s remake is the original film was released in 1937, nearly 100 years ago, and gender roles and representation of women in media has evolved SIGNIFICANTLY since just after the Great Depression… I believe that if Disney had directly replicated the original movie they would face a similar amount of backlash for continuing to give the princess a plot that idolized romance-driven conflict and adherence to the feminine ideal that was popular in the era of its original release. We’re desensitized to seeing women in these subservient roles because it’s been the norm for so long. As this movie is designed for CHILDREN, the amount of grown adults hating on a movie not even made for them is a little absurd. Almost all of Disney’s live action remakes have departed from the princesses’ reliance on male figures, yet this film has been the most criticized of them all.