Snow White
Raised to be fair, just, and kind Princess Snow White (Rachel Zegler) is cast out of her kingdom by her evil stepmother Queen (Gal Gadot). Now, hidden deep in the woods she must find her strength to lead a band of outcasts and thieves to reclaim what’s hers. But, finding that inner strength will take the help from an unlikely group of dwarfs, seven of them to be specific, can she do it, or is it already too late?
Adapting the work of Disney’s 1937 animated classic, based on the writings of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and present day Erin Cressida Wilson, and Directed by Marc Webb, this lightly re-imagined tale brings a sense of self empowered strength and independence to what audiences have been familiar with for nearly 88 years, a damsel in distress in need of being saved. And, while the film makes strides to entertain with new music in addition to the familiar classics Hi-ho, and Whistle While You Work, the newer songs by and large serve to move the narrative but lack the necessary hook to make them truly memorable despite remarkably strong vocal performances from Zegler and Gadot. Meanwhile from a visual perspective, the production choice to go with CGI dwarves as opposed to live actors has certainly been a point of controversy off screen; still the overall look of the film is visually consistent across the board. All this is to say, for all of its merits, there are often equal or slightly stronger de-merits to accompany throughout the film. Now, in the shadow of Wicked the high bar has been set, and Snow White doesn’t quite contain the same oomph to match or exceed. Yet, for families of young ones, don’t let the off screen banter dissuade you from a “pretty ok” film. Running one hour and forty nine minutes, Snow White is rated PG.