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Snow White (2025) – Film Review

Cast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Jeremy Swift, Andy Grotelueschen

Director: Marc Webb

Synopsis: After her evil stepmother usurps the throne, a young princess must join forces with seven dwarves to save her people…

Review: Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work Disney goes as the House of Mouse continues to beaver away in its mission to remake all its animated classics. While some live-action remakes have breathed new life into the classic stories on which they are based, others have felt like soulless cash grabs with no reason to justify their existence other than to use audiences’ nostalgia to print money. It was therefore only a matter of time before attention was turned towards remaking the first animated film Disney ever made, the first animated film to be produced in the United States and one of the most influential animated films of all time, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In the same vein as the previous reinterpretations, the story’s core remains the same as its animated predecessor. During a fierce snowstorm, the king and queen of a benevolent kingdom welcome their daughter – Snow White – into the world. Her name is in honour of the wintry weather during the night she was born. After the tragic death of her mother, her father remarries another woman and quickly rushes off to see to an urgent matter he never returns from. The new Queen seizes the throne for herself, and her vanity causes the lives of her citizens to quickly take a turn for the worse, while Snow White is forced to become a servant. After being told that Snow White is the fairest of them all, the Queen furiously orders her huntsman to kill Snow White, causing her to flee the kingdom, where she runs into the forest and meets and befriends the seven dwarves.

Magic mirror on the wall, does this latest live-action remake bring anything new or noteworthy to the table at all? It is slim pickings, however despite all the absurd, and let’s be honest racist and sexist backlash that has come her way ever since she was cast, Zegler delivers a beautiful portrayal of the titular princess. She is given more agency and independence and is not simply reduced to waiting for her Prince Charming to swoop in and save her. Like her animated counterpart, she possesses a kind heart and compassion for the kingdom’s other citizens, which is timely and pertinent given the poisonous hate dominating too much of modern discourse. As well as new iterations of “Whistle While You Work” and “Heigh-Ho”, it also includes new songs to further emphasise Snow White’s independence including “Waiting on a Wish” penned by Oscar-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, which gives Zegler a chance to show her incredible singing ability.

However, despite Zegler giving everything she has in this role and hitting all the right notes, everything around her possibly took a bite out of a poisoned apple as it doesn’t match up to her performance. Aside from the aforementioned changes to Snow White’s character, Erin Cressida Wilson’s script mostly sticks to the original source material, namely the 1812 fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. However, in place of the handsome Prince Charming, her love interest is now in the form of the leader of a group of bandits named Jonathan (Burnap), who is looking to rebel against the tyrannical Evil Queen. The film allows time for their romance to blossom, and their chemistry is sincere. Unfortunately, Burnap’s performance lacks sufficient charisma to differentiate him from any would-be love interests looking to win the princess’s heart.

Talking of someone looking to ~~win~~ cut out the princess’s heart, Gal Gadot looks the part of the Evil Queen, in no small part due to the excellent costume design by the legendary Sandy Powell. However, elegant costumes cannot hide the reality that Gadot’s performance is so painfully wooden that you may wonder if she was mistakenly on the set of another live-action reimagining of Pinocchio. It does not even bear thinking about. Furthermore, her singing may give you flashbacks to a certain viral video. As if a flat and dull villain wasn’t enough, to add further insult to injury, the dwarves are ghastly CGI abominations with none of the charm that their animated counterparts had. The debate raged as to whether the film should have opted to use real-life actors, and while it was a case of damned if they did and damned if they didn’t, these magical creatures are nightmare fuel personified.

Despite some solid production design, this feels inadequate for the House of Mouse, especially given the reported production budget of between $240 million to $270 million, especially as not even such a large budget can hide some very apparent green screen for those scenes in that not-so-magical woodland. Marc Webb has proven himself to be a talented director, but the whole film has a very directed-by-committee feel to it and pales in comparison to certain other musicals that have graced the big screen in recent times. You would hope this might give Disney pause to reconsider its plans to remake all its films and instead return to crafting original stories and reminding audiences of bringing the magic that they are more than capable of. Yet, even with this setback, the live-action remake train unfortunately shows no sign of stopping.

Even with a radiant and beautiful performance from Rachel Zegler, a horrid combination of some ugly visuals and uncharismatic supporting characters ensures this live-action remake is most definitely not the fairest one of all.

Mulan (2020) – Film Review

Cast: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Gong Li, Jet Li, Tzi Ma

Director: Niki Caro

Synopsis: Following an enemy invasion, the Emperor decrees that one man from every family must fight in the Chinese Imperial army. Disguising herself as a man, a young woman rides off to war, taking her ailing father’s place…

Review: It is hard to look past the fact that since Disney started to up the ante with their live action remakes, it has been a lucrative venture. From 2015’s Cinderella to last year’s The Lion King, these six films combined have brought home a near total of six billion dollars in box office receipts. However for all that success, one could make the case that these films have (admittedly some more than others) done very little to justify their existence. It comes a relief to say, that after some utterly soulless adaptations, Mulan brings the honour back to these live action remakes.

When an invasion from Northern invaders, the Rourans, threatens the safety of the country and its people, the Emperor (Jet Li) decrees that one man from every family is to be conscripted into the Imperial Army, to stand and fight. With her father’s health in decline after spending many years of his life fighting for his country, Mulan bravely decides to take a stand. In order to save his life, she disguises herself as a man and takes his place in the army, knowing that if her true identity is revealed, it would have deadly ramifications.

When looking at these live action remakes, it’s next to impossible to not compare them to their animated predecessors. Furthermore, it’s probably an understatement to say that the 1998 animated adaptation would have been an important film for anyone growing up in the 1990s. At its core, there was an empowering message for girls and women everywhere: to not let societal constraints restrict them from being who they want to be. Yet, for all the wonderful things about the animated adaptation of this classic tale of a legendary Chinese warrior, historical inaccuracies meant its reception in China was far from the one Disney would have hoped. Hence for this new adaptation, much has been changed as it strives for a more realistic, gritty tone that honours the tale of the legendary figure it depicts.

For starters, there are no spontaneous moments where a character bursts into song, and the comic relief that was Mushu is also nowhere to be seen. Instead, the intent is clearly there to faithfully depict the story of this legendary figure as accurately as possible. Liu Yifei gives a sincere performance in the titular role. She imbues her with the three characteristic traits that ultimately define who she is a person: loyalty, bravery, and being true to who she is. She also has the added bonus of being an extremely skilled warrior. Unlike the animated film, the majority of her fellow recruits are barely given any development, save for Honghui (Yoson An) and her commander General Tung (Yen), both of whom serve as replacements for General Shang: her love interest in the the animated adaptation.

The 1998 film’s villain Shan Yu, was a suitably ominous and terrifying foe that you would not want to cross paths with. In his place comes Bori Khan, who in spite of a concerted effort to give him some backstory and flesh out his motivations, is a very one dimensional antagonist. His severe lack of charisma and screen presence prevents means he is nowhere nearly as intimidating as his animated counterpart. A completely new presence in this version, Gong Li’s Xian Jang, a witch who fights alongside Bori Khan, had potential to be an exciting antagonist. Though her presence here feels completely unnecessary, as her role is underwritten, consequently taking the spotlight away from Bori Khan.

The film’s battle sequences are breath-taking to watch. The assured direction from Niki Caro, combined with the use of stunning practical, mountainous sets, provides rich visual majesty to Mandy Walker’s cinematography. With Mulan marking only the second time being the second time Disney has backed a female directed project with a budget of over 100 million dollars, the studio has put their money where their mouth is. Instead of using the nostalgia of these animated classics, as an excuse to merely print money, they have delivered a live action re-imagining that actually justifies its existence. Though in a year where cinema releases have been severely blighted, it’s a real shame that the film didn’t get the big screen treatment it deserved.

It may not quite live up to its animated predecessor. However, this adaptation gets down to business and honours the Hua Mulan legend, whilst simultaneously setting to set the benchmark for future live action adaptations.