“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first movie produced by Disney. Traditional, hand-drawn frames made it the highest-grossing sound film of its era. The movie was extremely influential and marked the beginning of advanced animated films. However, the same cannot be said about the live-action “Snow White”. After producing great live-action movies for “Cinderella,” “Mulan,” “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Maleficent,” and “The Little Mermaid,” Disney has gone downhill since presenting the live-action “Snow White”. Why is that so?
Let’s backtrack, “Snow White” was set to film in March of 2020, but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the virus, filming began in March of 2022, but premiered on March 21, 2025 following retakes.
The negative reviews began spreading since the cast was announced in June of 2021. Many people criticized Rachel Zegler’s Latin descent, stating she wasn’t “fit” for the role of Snow White. Zelger went on to defend herself by explaining that the original line that states “skin as white as snow” would be interpreted differently. Instead, the quote will come to show the fairness and resilience in her heart. However, this only led viewers down another rabbit hole where “fans” grew angry that the original fairytale was being manipulated.
The original storyline follows the story of a young girl who is envied by her evil stepmother, because of this, the evil queen demands one of her huntsmen to kill Snow White. The huntsman couldn’t bring himself to harm her, as a result he told her to run far away and hide. While she was in search of shelter she came across a tiny cottage in the woods, which belonged to seven dwarves. The evil queen found Snow White’s whereabouts from her mirror and disguised herself as a helpless elderly lady to give Snow White a poisoned apple. Snow White can then only be awakened by a true love’s kiss. It has been 87 years since the original film was released.
Zegler spoke out about the original “Snow White” film stating it’s weird and outdated. The original storyline not only was being manipulated by the fact that it doesn’t hold the same significance anymore, but the seven dwarfs were also being changed. At first, the screenwriter’s idea was to make each dwarf a different ethnicity, however, this idea received immediate backlash. Due to this, the movie crew resulted in CGI dwarves instead of using actors with dwarfism, which, again, both ideas received criticism.
One of the major problems that took place during the filming was the boycott due to Gal Gadot’s pro-Israeli stance. Gadot spoke out saying she couldn’t stay quiet, that the people who live in Israel are Holocaust survivors and shouldn’t have to go through such events again, while Rachel Zegler openly supports Palestine. Many “fans” stated the actresses should keep their political values to themselves while filming. However, such comments were made outside of filming and have no correlation to the set besides the fact that the reviews caused major delays to the filming.
Lastly, the unflattering outfits for the film were also marked targets. Many have criticized the outfits, comparing Zegler’s wig to Lord Farquaad from “Shrek”, stating the colors of the clothing look dull, and that the waistline of the dress is unflattering. All of these elements are disappointing knowing that the production budget for the movie was $240-270 million dollars.
After the premiering of the film, many articles unleashed their negative feedback. Some go as far as to state that even critics won’t back it up. Out of the thousands of ratings the film received, overall it was ranked 1.3 stars. With the heavy criticism facing the film, many people are refusing to watch it. Maybe people should decide for themselves what they think after the fact, especially if they are true “Snow White” or Disney fans.
