As far as nostalgia cashgrabs go, this could have gone sideways and cringe-inducing, while also redundant like The Lion King CGI remake, alongside the Aladdin live-action and Beauty & The Beast retelling. Disney should know by now that if you’re going to change up a fairy tale they’ve animated, pick the ones just before the Disney Renaissance of the 90s because those stories had pacing issues and needed reworking.

With Snow White, the oldest & pioneer of the bunch, the new narrative additions and beats make sense and works in its favour, and at least piqued my interest even for a short bit before I dismissed it as a safe fare enjoyable by all ages. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Whistle While You Work

This new version of Snow White follows the beats of the 1937 classic animated film: a princess (Rachel Zegler) who is turned into a servant by her wicked stepmother Queen (Gal Gadot), stepmother is evil and is vain, uses a magic mirror to find out who is the fairest among them all, jealous that Snow White is it, then tries to kill her off by getting someone to do it. Snow White then runs off due to her kindness and aura, and then finds shelter in the house of seven dwarves.

The new movie establishes extra bits of lore and context: Snow White’s kingdom was thriving with her original parents ruling the kingdom fair and square, with her mom dying early due to plot forwarding, the stepmother rules with an iron fist and is cartoonishly evil, and the kingdom still loyal to the original monarchy but can’t do anything about it due to the Queen’s magic and enforced army. Our “Prince Charming” comes in the form of thief Jonathan (Andrew Bernap) who leads his own resistance group. And the dwarves are CGI and do look awkward and unnerving as heck at first sight. And also a bit odd considering the aforementioned rebel group has its own live-action little person actor; they couldn’t afford to hire seven extra little persons for the magnificent seven?

However, you get used to it as they’re done with a lovely remix of their iconic intro song “Heigh-Ho”, with Dopey being the more charming one among the seven miscreants. The fact that this is all a child’s fairy tale does help with the suspension of disbelief, alongside the CGI animals that hang around Snow White and acts as her familiars. In fact, the new music injected alongside “Whistle While You Work” revamps are all worthy additions that will immerse you and the young ones. We even get a couple of villain songs that go well with the Queen’s motives and lust for being alpha b****. Props go to Gal Gadot for reveling in her villain role and overacting just right to make her eventual comeuppance all the more satisfying. She’s more appropriate and comfortable being a cartoonish bad character with an oppressive, manipulative, and cruel streak.

What I admire about this remake from Marc Webb is that it sticks to its guns and doesn’t lose sight of its fairy tale morals: that kindness goes a long way in winning battles. Heck in a few instances, characters do kill obstacles with kindness. While the outcome may be different in more cynical movies, it makes sense in this Disney-fied context that’s taking a classic 50s film that started its long-as-heck legacy and adding a meatier retelling.

Wish Fulfilled?

The Snow White remake could have gone bad. Instead, it settles for being a decent fairy tale flick that adds more than subtracts, making it a justified retelling of Disney’s 50s animation classic that’s more or less a tech demo in this day and age. I’d rank this just as decent as the 2016 Jungle Book remake, another retelling that took a song-heavy-but-story-bare animated film and made it relevant for modern times.

Just get used to the fact that the CGI dwarves are here to stay (appropriately in dim areas to hide some less-than-touched-up areas) and that Snow White’s original blue-and-yellow-ensemble does stick out like a sore thumb.

Final Score: 60/100