After months (nay, years) of controversy leading up to its release, Disney’s remake of Snow White is almost about to hit cinemas.
There was just one more hurdle the film would have to overcome before its release – with critics having now had their say in reviews of the film.
Snow White has debuted with a score of 48% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting that critics really are split down the middle about the film.
More scathing reviews for the film have derided everything from the CGI (particularly when it comes to the seven dwarves) to some of the tweaks made to the original story.
Others, meanwhile, have praised the modern updates to the fairytale, while Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s performances have proved to be divisive depending on whose critiques you read.
Here’s a selection of what critics are saying about the new movie…
The Guardian (1/5)
“[An] exhaustingly awful reboot … those otherwise estimable performers Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot are now forced to go through the motions, and they give the dullest performances of their lives.”
The Times (1/5)
“It’s hard not to see this as anything other than a crisis point for Disney, a studio that used to make flawless cinematic stories but now infantilises global audiences with sanctimonious life lessons culled from the corpses of their own murdered movies.”
The Independent (1/5)
“A lazily conceived, visually repellent remake [...] What’s most disheartening about it all is how predictable Disney’s choices have become. With Snow White, they’ve finessed their formula – do the bare minimum to make a film, then simply slap a bunch of cutesy CGI animals all over it and hope no one notices.”
Empire (2/5)
“An unholy VFX disaster, [the seven dwarves] slow the film to a crawl every time they appear and there’s no sense of their glowing enchanted forest meshing with scenes shot in real woodlands, or of the dwarves themselves belonging alongside live people [...] The film was criticised for proposing to use actors with dwarfism in the roles and also for denying them work, so you can understand that the filmmakers might have felt caught in a trap, but this is no solution.”
Digital Spy (2/5)
“Despite the strength of Zegler’s performance [...] Snow White ends up caught between trying to do its own thing, but not being radical enough to justify itself. It wants to be the fairest of them all, yet ends up being yet another disappointing remake.”
Irish Times (2/5)
“The permanent magic-hour lighting is hard to look at. Worse, the decision to ‘cartoonise’ the dwarves alongside human actors is hugely problematic. It jarringly takes the viewer out of the movie. And giving little people the same cartoony treatment afforded chirping bluebirds and – checks notes, again – a praying graveside squirrel is not a good look.”
“I don’t actually know how to judge these live-action Disney remakes on any relative scale of quality. The bar is so low, and what people seem to want from them — a tickle of nostalgia, the familiar rendered new on a technicality, 109 minutes of child-friendly distraction — feels so different from the usual standards. So: Snow White is not as bad as it could be, while not being anywhere near good?”
BBC Culture (3/5)
“The story is cluttered, the tone is muddled, and the pacing is off. Again, that doesn’t make the film a disaster. In some ways, the identity crisis is what makes it worth seeing. But this muddled production will be enjoyed more by politics and cinema students than by children who are hoping to be enchanted by Disney magic.”
Metro (4/5)
“Snow White’s major letdown is its portrayal of the (used-to-be titular) seven dwarfs in hyper-realistic CGI, despite them bearing more resemblance to cartoons than anything else. They’re an eyesore in a film that otherwise enjoys revelling in the charming setting of their cottage, overrun with both flowers and appropriately helpful and fluffy woodland creatures.”
“If Snow White arrives accompanied by an echo chamber of overblown online controversies, that has zero bearing on the pleasures of this 21st century update. Even those with knives out for the movie might have to admit it’s no poisoned apple.”
USA Today (3/4)
“Marc Webb’s vision honors but also blows up the template of the original Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. The better-than-expected revamp strips away some of the forgettable matter – no charming princes here! Most importantly, Snow White gives an inspired Rachel Zegler a different character arc and a smattering of original songs to let Snow strut as the fairest of them all. In fact, the fresh stuff is the best part.”
“After all that, Webb’s Rachel Zegler-starring film is good. Not great, but certainly good, spirited and sweet and filled with wonderful songs and some canny updates to extremely dated material.”
Radio Times (3/5)
“Perhaps the very concept of this old Brothers Grimm fable is too antiquated for our modern world. Yet there’s still a lot to like about this energetic adventure. Above all else, it’s a charming fairy tale showcasing – and carefully updating – the original Disney princess.”
“What [Disney’s] remakes are selling is the theme-park novelty of the transformation: Look, here’s what an animated classic looks like when it’s retrofitted with sets and actors [...] all that said, the chirpy, vivacious, just-romantic-enough-to-get-by Snow White proves to be an exception to the rule.”
Express (4/5)
“Sure, it’s a bit too long in places, but despite the few modern updates, it’s easily one of the best entries into the live-action canon, full of wonder and joy.”
The Telegraph (3/5)
“The motion-captured dwarfs don’t look photorealistic so much as just creepy [...] and the reinvention of Dopey as a gentle soul too beautiful for this world did make me retch a little. But otherwise, for all the early talk of Snow White ’25 turning tradition on its head, the finished article is keener to strike a soothing neoliberal compromise, in which Zegler gets to lead a rebellion but True Love’s Kiss still saves the day.”
Snow White hits cinemas on Friday 21 March.