Snow White is an American live-action musical/fantasy adaptation of Walt Disney's very first animated feature film in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was released on March 21, 2025.
Premise
Princess Snow White flees the castle when her stepmother, the Evil Queen, in her jealousy over Snow White's inner beauty, tries to kill her. Deep into the dark woods, she stumbles upon seven magical dwarves and a young thief named Jonathan. Together, they strive to survive the Queen's relentless pursuit and aspire to take back the kingdom in the process.
Plot
The narrator begins the story by telling how a princess was born in a winter storm inside a carriage. Her parents named her "Snow White" and raised her to be kind and caring and to be the leader everyone needs ("Good Things Grow"). The royal family and everyone in the kingdom lived happy days until the queen fell ill and passed away. Soon, they were greeted by a noblewoman whose beauty and magical abilities charmed the king. They married, and then the woman revealed herself to be evil. There were whispers of an attack from a neighboring kingdom and the king went with his army to war. Sadly, he never came back. The new queen ruled the kingdom with tyranny and drove everyone into fear and famine while Snow White became her own castle's servant.
Years later, while cleaning the halls, Snow White comes across a thief named Jonathan, who tells her the kingdom is suffering and he is stealing for those in need. He soon gets caught and the Queen prepares to have him executed, but Snow White speaks on his behalf. But the Queen insists on punishing him. Snow White walks around the castle, thinking back to the happy days ("Waiting on a Wish"). Seeing Jonathan bound to the castle gate, she frees him and gives him a piece of bread. He asks her to come with him and see the kingdom for herself, but she declines. The Queen witnesses all this and is furious.
That night, Snow White tries to ask the Queen to show the townsfolk some kindness and charity, which she profusely declines, saying no one needs luxury, and they don't want a withering flower but a perfect diamond. Her words pierce Snow White's heart. The Queen later asks the Magic Mirror who the "fairest of them all" is, which the mirror answers is Snow White. This angers her to no end. She then tells the Huntsman to take Snow White into the far forest to pick apples and kill her.
The Huntsman fails to find it in his heart to murder such an innocent princess and urges her to flee into the forest. While fleeing, she comes across horrifying images of tree-like monsters but then finds some cute and beautiful animals. They guide her through the forest to the cottage where she rests until the owners, the seven dwarfs return ("Heigh-Ho"). All except Grumpy allow her to stay with them for safety.
The Queen asks the mirror again who is the fairest of them all, and the mirror again answers that the fairest is Snow White. She realizes the Huntsman had lied to her and takes him to court. She punishes him by having him thrown into the dungeons and orders her guards to hunt down and capture Snow White ("All is Fair").
The next morning, the dwarfs quarrel and quickly escalate to a fight until a bowl of oatmeal drops on Dopey. The dwarfs laugh at his ridicule, so Snow White comforts him. She teaches him to express himself by whistling. The pair then convince the other dwarfs to help clean the house ("Whistle While You Work"). Snow White sets off to find her father while the dwarfs head off to the mines. On her way, she comes across Jonathan again, and he leads her to his troops, a group of bandits ("Princess Problems"). The guards find them and demand Snow White to come with them. The bandits refuse and fight bravely until Snow White lures them away with the herbivore animals' help. Jonathan gets shot on the shoulder protecting the princess from a flying arrow.
They take Jonathan to the dwarfs, where Doc heals him. Everyone celebrates and dances together ("The Silly Song"). Snow White and Jonathan find themselves falling for each other ("A Hand Meets a Hand"). When they hear guards nearby, Jonathan and the bandits lure them away, but Jonathan gets caught and taken to the Queen's court. By finding out where Snow White is, the Queen opens a secret passage, transforms herself into an old hag and dips an apple into a cauldron filled with poison, then sets out to find Snow White ("All is Fair Reprise").
The Queen finds Snow White at the cottage and gives her the poisoned apple. When she takes a bite, she begins to fall ill. The Queen then tells her that she killed her father as the princess falls under the Sleeping Death curse. The dwarfs return to find her "dead" and mourn her.
Jonathan and the Huntsman escape their prison. Jonathan finds his way to the sleeping princess and kisses her in mourning. The kiss awakes her and they are reunited. Snow White has no idea what to do now that the king is dead, but Jonathan convinces her to take back the kingdom ("Waiting on a Wish Reprise"), and even Dopey speaks in agreement, shocking everyone.
Snow White goes to confront the Queen, convincing the guards to remember what the good old days were like and can be again if they would all allow it, as well as revealed the truth of the king's death ("Snow White Returns"). Meanwhile, the dwarfs and bandits sneak inside the castle through the secret passage under the dungeon to be her backup. Everyone rebels against the Queen, who angrily tries to plunge a jeweled dagger into Snow White's heart until one of Jonathan's bandits shoots it out of her hand with a crossbow bolt. The Queen then retreats to the mirror chamber where Snow White witnesses her smash the mirror after it tells her that Snow White will always be the fairest in the land and is suddenly dissolved and pulled into the now-dead mirror as the mirror's glass parts repair itself.
Snow White takes her place in the kingdom as a new, but kind, queen, marrying Jonathan, and everyone comes together to celebrate in a finishing dance number ("Good Things Grow Finale").
Cast
- Rachel Zegler as Snow White
- Emilia Faucher as Young Snow White
- Olivia Verrall as Infant Snow White
- Gal Gadot as The Evil Queen
- Andrew Burnap as Jonathan
- Jeremy Swift as Doc
- Martin Klebba as Grumpy
- George Salazar as Happy
- Tituss Burgess as Bashful
- Andrew Grotelueschen as Sleepy
- Jason Kravits as Sneezy
- Andrew Barth Feldman as Dopey/Narrator
- Ansu Kabia as The Huntsman
- Patrick Page as The Magic Mirror
- George Applyby as Quigg
- Colin Carmichael as Farno
- Samuel Baxter as Scythe
- Jimmy Johnston as Finch
- Dujonna Gift as Maple
- Idriss Kargbo as Bingley
- Jaih Betote as Norwich
- Hadley Fraser as The Good King
- Lorena Andrea as The Good Queen
Dancers
- Lukus Alexander
- Eddison Burch
- Kat Collings
- Misa Koide
- Leon Ung
- Jon-Scott Clark
- Daniel Lindqvist
- Kathryn Akin
Production
According to the press release, the film will expand upon the 1937 film's story and music, and will feature new songs by songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman and Aladdin).[1]
On May 30, 2019, Marc Webb was in talks to direct this film.[2]
On June 22, 2021, Rachel Zegler was cast as Snow White.[3] On November 3, Gal Gadot was cast as The Evil Queen.[4] On January 12, 2022, Andrew Burnap was cast as a new version of the prince named Jonathan, who is described as a "Robin Hood-like" person who serves as Snow White's love interest and "[follows] her into battle".[5]
Despite the criticism made by Dinklage, actor Martin Klebba shared that he would be playing the live-action Grumpy, however this was apart of the discarded concept.
On February 22, it was announced by The Disinsider that Sandy Powell, costume designer for the live-action Cinderella and Mary Poppins Returns, has joined the crew for the film.[6]
Filming and production
Production on the film began on March 1, 2022, in London, England, and ended on July 8.[7]
Promotion
On September 9, 2022, a first look at the film was exclusively shown at the 2022 D23 Expo, presenting a character trailer for the Evil Queen. Although it was never shared online, it contained scenes of the Magic Mirror and Snow White after biting the apple. On that same day, the film's official logo was revealed publicly.
Later in the 2024 D23 Expo, the first official trailer was released with a poster - later the music video for "Whistle While You Work" was played. Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot were in attendance to represent the film in both events.
Release
During the 2022 D23 Expo Presentation, it was announced that Snow White would be released in 2024.[8] On September 15, 2022, the film was announced to have a release date of March 22, 2024.[9] However, on October 27, 2023, the film was delayed to March 21, 2025 due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[10]
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was overwhelmingly panned by audiences, fans, and British film critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 41% of 232 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Snow White is hardly a grumpy time at the movies thanks to Rachel Zegler's luminous star turn, but its bashful treatment of the source material along with some dopey stylistic choices won't make everyone happy, either." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Other critics called the film "the best Disney live-action remake in a decade" and said that it "adapts the broad strokes of the original, while fleshing out its themes."
Controversies
This movie is notable for having several controversies attached to it:
- Following criticism from actor Peter Dinklage over the "stereotypical portrayal of dwarfs", Disney announced that the film will replace the titular characters with "magical creatures" and that casting for them will begin shortly.[11] Apparently, according to to the following backlash, Dinklage ignored the difference between real life humans suffering from dwarfism and the dwarfs as mythical and fantastical creatures from European fantasy, folklore, and mythology. Dinklage even wrongly stated that the dwarfs of Snow White live in a "cavern" instead of a cottage in the forest. This move has been criticized by people and fans (like professional dwarf wrestler Dylan Postl, better known by his ring persona "Hornswoggle") accusing Dinklage of hypocritically virtue signaling and ignoring the source material, and criticizing his words and the resulting response from Disney for being harmful to the dwarfism community, including the potential actors for roles of the dwarfs in a film based on an established property who denounced him as "hypocritical" and "selfish" and blamed him for making them lose job possibilities.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Comedian Brad Williams also expressed a similar sentiment, in that while he partly agreed with Dinklage, he stated that there are ways to work around the issue by depicting the Dwarfs as a potential love interest for Snow White and de-emphasizing the prince's role in the story, also complimenting the positive aspects of the characters: "I mean, they have jobs, you know? They got good friends. They got a house. They like to protect her. They're diamond miners, so they're rich. They're self-made, wealthy."[20][21] Despite the criticism made by Dinklage, actor Martin Klebba shared that he would be playing the live-action Grumpy.
- Snow White, in the original fairy tale and the 1937 version and in every other version, has been described with the words "skin as white as snow" (hence her name), so the casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler has caused controversy over the "race swap" of the character. It should be noted that the words themselves will be absent from this version and Snow White's original animated counterpart didn't have skin white as snow.
- The casting of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen has caused controversy due to the current Israel-Palestine conflict because Gadot is Israeli, and publicly expressed her support for the IDF and Israeli government. This was compounded by Zegler making a tweet saying "free Palestine", which many interpreted as an attack on Gadot.
- In addition to the above, Zegler has made several other comments that came across as offensive and insensitive, such as speaking harshly about the 1937 version (if not the original fairy tale) and about Snow White as a character.
- Much like Once Upon a Time and Snow White and the Huntsman, the conflict between Snow White and the Evil Queen is not about beauty, but about the Evil Queen wanting to secure her grip on the kingdom, and Snow White actively fighting to free the kingdom from the Evil Queen's tyranny, a change from the 1937 version (and from the original fairy tale) that many take issue with. These controversies are notable enough that they have been reported in several media, and an entire episode of The Simpsons was made to lampoon them.
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Gallery
Trivia
- This film, to date, is considered to hold the longest amount of time between its live-action remake and its Walt Disney Animation Studios animated predecessor, as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937; while this live-action remake was released in 2025, almost 88 years later.
- Before the announcement of a straightforward, live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, there were reports of another live-action Disney film based on the animated feature, centered on Snow White's sister, Rose Red. However, the project appears to have been scrapped on May 29, 2021.[22]
- The dwarves are created using CGI to emphasize their features rather than live actors with dwarfism, as they are inspired by dwarves from Germanic folklore which are mythical creatures that take the physical appearance of little people, known as humanoids.
- This is the seventh Disney Princess film to be adapted and reimagined into live-action, after Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Mulan, and The Little Mermaid.
- Plus, this is only golden/silver-age Disney Princess film remake that remains as a musical, as both Maleficent and Cinderella cut all musical sections.
- This is also the third Disney Princess remake to be released in the 2020s decade, after Mulan in 2020 and The Little Mermaid in 2023.
- Considering that Pocahontas won't get a remake, this film will mark the last pre-revival Disney Princess film to get a remake.
- This is the fifth live-action film to have an alternate title different from the original's title, after Maleficent for Sleeping Beauty, Christopher Robin for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Cruella for One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Peter Pan & Wendy for Peter Pan.
- However, this is the only live-action film not to have an alternate title different from the original's title in some countries (mostly in Asia), as the original's local title in some country is just translated from "Snow White" instead from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".
- It is the second remake to be titled after the original story as opposed to the Disney version, following Peter Pan & Wendy.
- In the first official image released by Disney, Snow White wasn't seen wearing her iconic red hair bow. In the first teaser though, there were some scenes featured that had her wearing the bow.
- It's been revealed in the film that she lost her hair bow after being submerged underwater while running through the forest.
- This is the second time that Gal Gadot does a role for a Disney film, after playing Shank in Ralph Breaks the Internet.
- Gadot also reprised her role in the Hebrew dub by recording her translated lines in Los Angeles, with the Hebrew voice cast recording their lines in Israel. Due to time constraints, she could only record the dialogue and not her singing parts. Her singing parts are sang by Shirly Lilu.
- Because of the involvement of Gadot, this remake is banned in Kuwait and Lebanon.
- To promote this movie, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode added the Huntsman as a playable character. The franchise was also included in the Patch Season around the time movie premiered.
- While "Someday My Prince Will Come" is not sung in the film, Snow White does hum it just as the queen, disguised as an old hag, arrives at the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs.
- A lot of the additional elements that are a part of this film were originally intended by Walt Disney himself to be included in the 1937 animated film. Some of those elements include:
- Snow White and her love interest having a deeper connection and a more comedic dynamic.
- Disney himself wanted to also include a wedding scene for them.
- The Evil Queen having a darker and much more magical backstory.
- The dwarfs not being referred to as "dwarfs", and being intended to be actual fictional creatures rather than humans with dwarfism.
- Snow White's biological parents being a part of Snow White's early life.
- Snow White's love interest having a more heroic role.
- Dopey was originally supposed to talk.
- The Evil Queen captured the prince but would later escape.
- Snow White and her love interest having a deeper connection and a more comedic dynamic.
- This is the second Disney film to receive a worldwide boycott due to political issues, following Mulan (2020).
- Both films were released in the 2020s and are remakes of Disney princess films.
- Both films faced backlash due to political-related speeches by their respective actresses.
- Both films struggled to achieve box office success.
- For Mulan's case however, it struggled financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- For Snow White, it is the fourth film to be criticized in China for political comments, following Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
- Unlike the first three films, Snow White was not banned and had a proper theatrical release in China.
- Unlike Mulan, the backlash against Snow White led Disney to cut most promotion of the film, retaining only media screenings for safety concerns. In contrast, Mulan maintained strong promotional efforts even after it switched to an exclusive release on Disney+.
- Because of the significant controversies surrounding this remake, Disney consequently has yet to include these versions of the characters in gaming medias, including Emoji Blitz and Magic Kingdoms. Even a video game adaptation of this remake would not commence.
- There was going to be a song featured in the film that would have been sang by Jonathan and the bandits.[23]
Differences from the 1937 film
- Ignoring some non-English regions that only use Snow White as the 1937 film’s title (e.g. Japan), the remake is simply titled Snow White due to the film having a bigger focus on Snow White herself.
- Instead of the forest animals alone helping Snow White clean the house, both the animals and the Seven Dwarfs help with the cleaning.
- When Snow White was still working as a scullery maid in the castle, it's not only white doves that accompanied her, but also different colored birds and other animals such as chipmunks and squirrels.
- The water well appeared more than once in the remake. In addition, Snow White was not the only one who visited it.
- The Huntsman has a beard, but no long hair in the remake.
- Snow White and the Evil Queen (in her real form) are seen interacting together on-screen in this film. The 1937 film only had scenes with Snow White and the Evil Queen in her peddler disguise interacting with each other.
- In the original film, the Queen (in her hag form) was the one who placed the apple on Snow White's hands. In this film, it was Snow White who willingly took the apple from her.
- In the original film, Snow White made a deal with the dwarfs to stay at their cottage. In this film, however, she is determined not to disturb them for long and wishes to leave immediately, but the dwarfs insist she stay for a while for safety.
- When Snow White first came to the cottage, she didn't start cleaning the place and instead went straight to bed.
- Dopey is the first to interact with her when she is discovered and the dwarves charged in to save him.
- The dwarves' beds were not completely arranged in a single row.
- Snow White's love interest is not born into royalty and is given a specific name, Jonathan, who is a thief instead of a prince. He also had a lot more appearances in the remake unlike his animated counterpart.
- Unlike the original film, he first appears along with his fellow thieves stealing food, with Snow White allowing him to escape.
- They met inside the castle rather than outside.
- The romance in the film is further developed, as Snow White and Jonathan interact more after the Evil Queen tries to send him to the dungeons, but Snow White pleads otherwise. She is seen handing him a piece of bread at the castle gates.
- Furthermore, Snow White and Jonathan fall in love throughout their mission instead of it simply being "love at first sight".
- Snow White didn't sing "With a Smile and a Song" after she met the forest animals.
- Both Snow White and Jonathan ride a horse, rather than just the male character.
- In the original film, Snow White wears her hairbow until the end. In this film, she didn't had it until she went into the forest and lost it after getting submerged in a lake while running through the forest.
- Snow White confronts her stepmother with the citizens at her side, showing how everyone is aware of and against her cruelty.
- The Evil Queen has more scenes including her own song and a more humorous personality.
- The Magic Mirror is simply one color, being white, while the edges of the mirror itself are engraved with snakes.
- Its face is dark green instead of dark purple-pink.
- The Evil Queen also has more magical abilities; she carries her own scepter instead of all her magic coming from hand-crafted potions.
- Snow White eats the poisoned apple outside rather than inside the cottage.
- She also greets the Queen in her hag form at the door instead of the window.
- In the original movie, the Huntsman gives the Queen a pig's heart to fool her into believing Snow White had died. In the remake, the Huntsman puts an apple offered to him by Snow White inside the heart box, which the Queen later uses as the poisoned apple.
- During the scene with the Huntsman, Snow White doesn't console a baby blue bird in this film.
- The poisoned apple has a skeleton head rather than having the iconic face mask after being placed in the cauldron.
- We get to see the younger version of Snow White as well as her parents for a greater insight on her background which was discarded in the classic movie and instead revealed in books and other merchandise.
- In this same scene, it is revealed that Snow White got her name from the snowstorm that she was born from. In the original film, how she got her name is not explained.
- Snow White's mother is shown to have died from an illness while her father was killed by a campaign arranged by the Queen. In the original film, their deaths were never explained.
- Unlike the animated film, the king and queen are featured and speak, as well as sing.
- The idea of being the fairest also considers inner beauty and literal fairness and kindness towards other people.
- In this film, the Evil Queen was initially deemed the fairest because, in addition to her remarkable beauty, she was the only one deemed capable of ruling the kingdom, before Snow White gained more agency.
- The beauty standards are therefore ignored when the mirror speaks, with an absence of the words "Lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow". Instead, Snow White is described as "pure as snow".
- The origins of Snow White's name are inspired by the fact that she survived the harshest winter as an infant. This is similar to the origins of Snow White's name in the episode "The Queen Is Dead" of the series Once Upon a Time.
- Some of the forest animals open the book at the beginning of the film, and close it at the end. In the original film, the book opens and closes by itself.
- There was also a narrator in the remake, who is later revealed to be Dopey.
- In the original, the Evil Queen orders the Huntsman to take Snow White to the forest glen for her to pick wildflowers where he's to kill her, while in the remake, it was apples Snow White was to pick at the forest glen instead.
- Snow White does not speak to the forest animals when first meeting them.
- They immediately take her to the Seven Dwarfs' cottage.
- The Seven Dwarfs don't whistle while singing "Heigh-Ho". Their song has additional lyrics instead.
- However, they do whistle the melody of the song as they went to work the following day, after Snow White taught them how to whistle during the "Whistle While You Work" sequence.
- The remake shows that the dwarfs possess magical abilities in their hands to find the gems in the mines where they work. This aspect was not present in the original.
- In the original film, the Seven Dwarfs clean themselves. They never do this in the remake.
- As such, the washing song called "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum" was not featured in remake.
- More than halfway through the film, Dopey speaks for the first time. In the original film, he never talks at all.
- In the original film, when the Evil Queen, transformed into a witch, starts giving Snow White the poisoned apple, the forest animals stop her the first time. In the remake, she succeeds in one attempt and also reveals herself to Snow White.
- However, the forest animals were still alarmed by her presence.
- Afterwards, the Evil Queen returns to her castle and transforms back to her normal self. This never happened in the original film.
- She also lies to Snow White that she is a friend of Jonathan's.
- The Evil Queen dies by dissolving into the Magic Mirror after breaking it because the Mirror is revealed to be her source of power. In the original film, she (as a witch) dies after falling off a cliff where the Seven Dwarfs had her trapped by a lightning bolt.
- In the remake, the Huntsman was thrown into the dungeon for not obeying the Queen's orders. In the original film, the Queen made no effort to punish the Huntsman at all.
- The Huntsman also helps Jonathan escape the dungeon. He never made another appearance in the original film after he disobeyed the Queen nor did he and the Prince ever interacted with each other.
- Jonathan was imprisoned in the remake. In the original, the prince was not as he never interacted with the Queen.
- However, there was a scrapped concept of the Queen imprisoning the prince in the 1937 film.
- A lot more human characters appear in the remake while in the original, it is just Snow White, the Huntsman, the Evil Queen, and the Prince.
- Subjects were made into guards and the group of soldiers were sent to find Snow White after the Queen learned that she's still alive. None of these happened in the original film.
- Snow White's spell was broken before the Evil Queen's defeat in the remake.
- Jonathan kissing her in mourning was a sign of thanks for helping him earlier rather than being a sign of sadness.
- A revolution occurred at the kingdom in the remake. In the original, this never happened.
- In this film, the term Love's First Kiss has been subsequently changed to True Love's Kiss.
- The term True Love's Kiss has also been used in other films like Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted.
- In the original film, the dwarves placed Snow White's unconscious body inside a glass casket. In this film, they placed her body on a rock.
- The Magic Mirror was shattered by the Queen in the remake, although it repairs itself afterwards. In the original, it is unknown what happened to it after the Queen presumably died.
- The ending is expanded in the remake. Snow White becomes the new queen and marries Jonathan, allowing the Seven Dwarves to come live with them and all the citizens in the kingdom. The original film just ends with the Prince taking Snow White to his castle, and the Seven Dwarfs staying at their cottage.
