The animated film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is an iconic Disney movie that’s still beloved in the hearts of many. Its live-action counterpart, in my opinion, was either going to make or break Disney’s remake streak. Meaning it needed to be successful.

Did the live-action film do its animated counterpart justice? Was the movie given too many expectations? Was the hate for the movie just an age-old example of jumping on the bandwagon? Was the movie even bad?

M.sadegh-khalili82 from Wikimedia Commons

Well, I watched the movie and here’s my review.

Off the bat, let’s point out some common issues this movie had that made it the subject of a lot of scrutiny and hate. A Latina (who had brown skin) was cast instead of a Caucasian girl (with white skin). Disney used AI dwarves instead of people who actually have dwarfism. Rachel Zegler’s multiple comments, especially the one where she said that there would not be a love interest in the movie…

Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pexels

These are just a few of the criticisms of the movie, and well, I think it’s time that we give the movie an honest review.

The Actual Issues With Casting

Many will debate whether or not we should have actresses who don’t look like the animated versions of Disney Princesses. In my opinion, the real issue we should be focusing on is ethical casting.

Gal Gadot was a former IDF soldier, meaning she supported removing Palestinians from their homeland. This is a classic example of how, despite a celebrity being outwardly problematic, they are sill allowed in roles.

IDF Spokesperson's Unit from Wikimedia Commons

Also, Gal Gadot isn’t even a decent actress. Look, say whatever you want about Rachel Zegler, but I’ve seen a few clips from a Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the girl can act.

Gadot, on the other hand… every time she was on the scene, I had to look away out of pure cringe. Even if she wasn’t problematic, she's still a bad actress.

I think that Zegler is a good actress, but I feel like she wasn’t fit for the role, and not because of her race. In my opinion, the live-action Cinderella film was the best Disney remake ever. The actress who played Cinderella, Lily James, not only looked like Cinderella, but when she was playing the role, she had the enchanting, princess-like quality to her. It’s hard to explain in words, but her acting was so elegant, she really seemed like a real-life princess.

Zegler, when acting, did not have that elegance, and I think she is better suited for other roles. We’ll get more into that later.

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Costume Design

Ok, this is a big one. The costumes are essential in any movie, especially a Disney princess movie. That said, the film did not live up to my expectations. Every single character here had awful costumes, but to keep this short, I’ll be talking mainly about Snow White and the Evil Queen’s outfits.

Snow White’s outfit was just sad to look at, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful to the costume designers or anything; it's just that it was so bland. Like there were no sparkles, the colors were contrasting too much, and the collar of the dress were poking out too much.

All in all, a disaster. Meanwhile, the dress in Cinderella is jaw-dropping gorgeous, granted, there was some editing, but even without it, was beautiful. I highly recommend watching some clips of the live-action Cinderella movie.

The Evil Queen’s outfit was horrible. It looked like a scuba diver wore an antique glass decoration piece they got from a flea market, no hate on flea markets. Also, she wore some tacky stick on gems that were supposed to be a necklace, but really just looked like the things I used for my art projects back in Kindergarten.

Everyone else had less than polished peasant-styled outfits, which makes sense for the movie, but still somehow looked like a beginning theater production rather than a fully budgeted Disney Movie.

Acting

This was arguably one of the biggest issues with the movie. Ignoring the fact that Gadot’s problematic, she’s simply horrible at acting and it’s not just for this movie. No, every single movie she’s ever been in, she’s done a really bad job at acting.

Seriously, just search up any movie clip that she’s in and you’ll see what I mean. The fact that in 2020 she was the third highest paid actress, according to Forbes, is diabolical. She keeps making weird faces, and the way she says her lines is so forced.

Zegler, while not being the best actress in the world, isn’t the worst either, but in this movie, she makes weird faces too, and while watching, I wondered if the directors were even paying attention to what the actors were doing.

Earlier, I mentioned that Zegler didn’t have a princess-like quality to her, and that made the movie a lot less magical. Zegler should not have been cast, and neither should Gadot have been.

Also, can we talk about how insane the hate for Zegler’s been? I mean, like, I admit she sounds bratty but come on! Sending death threats to her, people making hundreds of videos, tearing her down is insane!

Like, how about we focus on people who are literally pro-g*nd0cide, who have done sexual abuse, or I don’t know, are home wreckers? Ya’ know, people who actually cause harm, but those are just my thoughts.

Pure DOPE Magazine from Wikimedia Commons

Plot (Spoiler Warning)

The movie’s plot didn’t make sense and was unrealistic even for a Disney movie. So at the end of the movie, the palace guards are about to kill Snow, and she stops them by reminding them of their names or some random fact about them. I’m not kidding, it was kind of funny.

Look, I get it, a lot of Disney movies have to change up the plot sometimes, and it can be done to make the movie better than its original, but in this case it was more confusing and the original plot line was better.

Final Thoughts

I know it sounds like I’m hating this movie hard, but I just couldn’t find myself enjoying this movie. It felt off. The costume, acting, casting, and plot were done so poorly, and it's hard to find positive comments.

Needless to say this wasn’t the worst movie in the world, but for Disney standards it's a hard flop. Though if the movie wasn’t from Disney, it may have been your laughably bad comfort watch.

Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

As I said earlier, this film could either make or break Disney’s live action streak. So, with its current Tangled live-action film being paused, it's unclear what Disney’s fate will be.