A princess joins forces with seven dwarfs and a group of rebels to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother the Evil Queen. (from IMDB)

Pretty much since the first murmurings about a live action Snow White Disney remake hit the web, there's been backlash and controversy. This wasn't helped, either, by actress Rachel Zegler's inflammatory remarks about how dated the 1937 original movie is. But nearly 100 years since the first animated Disney movie, we're given 2025's Snow White... whether we want it or not.

This Snow White has been molded and remade for a mid-2020's audience. This means that the ideals and gender roles of the 1930's have been reworked for a more modern approach. For starters, Snow White isn't named "Snow White" because of her lovely, white-as-snow complexion; it is now merely the name given to her based on the weather conditions of the night in which she was born. Next, her knight in shining armor has been replaced with a local bandit/thief who basically is a less flashy take on Robin Hood. He's a troublemaker for the Evil Queen's kingdom, and nothing more than a homeless commoner instead of being royalty. Lastly, the story is more about empowerment than necessarily good versus evil, and instead of her riding off into the sunset with her prince, we see Snow White becoming queen. It's definitely a different take -- to the point where one has to wonder if this is truly Snow White anymore.

One of the problems with this Snow White remake is we've already had several live action Snow White stories before. Be it 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman with Kristen Stewart, Mirror Mirror with Julia Roberts (coincidentally released the same year), or any number of animated and live action renditions on Grimm's fairy tale around the 80's and 90's and since, retelling Snow White is hardly an original idea. Why Disney felt the need to touch their iconic original just feels more pompous and arrogant than inspired. And let's be honest; casting for this movie seems entirely odd. Zegler doesn't exactly fit the look of what one would expect for the character, but I suppose her voice does serve the songs well. And then casting the glaringly more "fair" Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen just seems silly. (Although, seeing the movie, the mirror makes a remark that Snow White's greater beauty is more than skin deep, which makes more sense given the casting.) There was also a whirlwind of controvery around animating the beloved seven dwarfs with CGI instead of casting actual little people. Their look is more faithful to the original animated movie, but their designs border on creepy ("nightmare fuel" has been another description for it). There was huge backlash during the production of the movie when some set photos leaked showing Snow White walking with a bunch of strangely dressed "freaks." It turns out, these are actually the band of weird misfits that accompany the thief Jonathan; they're not the seven dwarfs. They're part of expanding Jonathan's character and world, even if they mostly just add another layer of oddness to the production.

From the opening song, the movie felt lost. The first musical number has characters gleefully twirling around a town square in stereotypical Disney musical fashion, and the set design and color palette is just garish, with it mixing and mismatching like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. It's not a pretty sight. (And this is coming from someone who loves Fruity Pebbles!) But I suppose this is more a movie for kids than for someone like me, and it's a fact the movie will constantly remind the viewers of as the story progresses. Zegler is fine as Snow White, even despite knowing the crazy things she has said publicly about the original movie and this role. And while I adored Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the 2017 film (we can ignore that sequel, can't we?), she really is miscast here. She fits the look of the character, but her line deliveries are painful and it only adds to the laundry list of things wrong with this production. She even leads a song at one point, and while I'm certain she does her best, it doesn't really work. Speaking of songs, there are quite a few new songs here, and none of them are all that memorable or endearing. It'll be the beloved songs from the 1937 movie that stand out here; the others, not so much. Jonathan even gets a song of his own, an obnoxious one called "Princess Problems" (you can imagine from the title what it's about), and sadly he sounds like Kermit the Frog with a dash of Owl City. I'm admittedly not usually a fan of musicals, but this one was more annoying than most.

I'd expect a director like Marc Webb - who did Gifted, (500) Days of Summer and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - to turn in a solid movie, but I never would have guessed he directed this one. (And it surprised me to learn he was the director after watching it.) I really can't begin to imagine why he took the job. There are certainly worse movies out there, but the fact that this is specifically a live adaptation of such a beloved classic, the bar is much higher and the expectations are much grander. Ironically, this Snow White feels much more low budget and poorly conceived than it actually was. It hardly looks like a movie with a budget of $209 million.

Content-wise, Snow White is pretty family-friendly. It has a little violence, and some creepiness with the spooky forest and such, but it's pretty light on it. There's slapstick humor involving the dwarfs, but it's minor. The Evil Queen keeps ordering people to kill Snow White, and a few try to, but aren't successful. One attempt has a crossbow arrow nearly hitting her, but another character takes the arrow to the shoulder for her instead. There's a little blood shown around the entry point in the person's shirt, but it isn't focused on. We later just see a little blood on their shirt, and the person ends up being okay. The Evil Queen doesn't get crushed by a boulder in this version. Instead (and I suppose this is a little spoiler if you don't want to know ahead of time), she breaks the "magic mirror" in anger and is then coated in a magical blackness that takes over her whole body. She then disintegrates into the mirror, which fixes itself.

While I didn't enjoy the songs, the movie moves along at a brisk enough pace to keep it entertaining. And I imagine kids will enjoy it for what it is. The empowered Snow White is an odd take, and Zegler doesn't play it with all that much warmth (maybe the smugness of her real-life personality shines through?), but she still somehow makes it work for this version of the story. The ending is super hokey -- cringey even -- but it aligns with the intent of this silly update. Andrew Burnap is fine as Jonathan, and is even likeable, but the fact his character was so drastically changed from the original makes him a tough character to warm up to.

I'll be completely honest. Nothing about the new Snow White movie intrigued me to see it (even though I liked Gadot in other films), but being sent a review copy pushed me to give it a viewing. Is Snow White as bad as so much of the buzz has suggested? Probably not. Is it good, then? No, I wouldn't say that either. Bottomline? I wouldn't recommend it.

Snow White is available now at digital retailers. It comes with a decent amount of extras, including:

EXTRAS

1. Fearless, Fair, Brave, and True: Making Snow White (11:41)
2. Merry Tunes (9:30)
3. Fairy Tale Fashion (8:53)
4. Bloopers (2:28)

DELETED SCENES (2:20) [Play All]

1. Anguish and Opportunity (1:00)
2. Danger in the Woods (0:52)
3. Hunt for Snow White (0:19)

Lastly, there's a Song Selection for anyone interested.