Snow White

The general public is tired of live action remakes in general, but particularly from Disney. However their latest addition, Snow White, fell under extra special scrutiny because the internet hates women and Rachel Zegler was its latest victim. See, she made some outrageous and disrespectful comments about the original Snow White film. She said the film from 1937 was outdated (GASP), she talked about how the creepy old witch scared her when she was a child (what a monster) and these comments led to a flood of hate from a certain sect of the internet. The internet seems to forget that acting is a job and actors take roles to feed themselves. They might also really connect with the material and feel very passionately about a project but ultimately it's how they don’t starve.

Let’s get into the actual film since no audience score can be trusted due to the hate campaign against Rachel ahead of the film. Rachel who has one of the most beautiful voices in the world and is a ray of sunshine and deserves all the success in the world.

The opening song is very much reminiscent of the opening song of Beauty and the Beast. We’ve got a bustling kingdom, and we are seeing how their little village works. I wish that part of it was longer. The mix on the ensemble is a little weird. I really think that ensemble sound is one of the things animated Disney has always done really well and they seem to have forgotten that in their live actions and it makes me sad.

The sound mixing is amateurish, what is happening Disney? You have billions of dollars what the fuck is up with the sound?

Also if we are going to have narration in a musical why is it not sing-songy? Has no one seen Into the Woods?

Waiting on a Wish sounded a little too pop like at first, but it settled into a lovely Disney tone. And Rachel sounds just so beautiful, she really is a Disney Princess. And she would have sounded even better if the sound design wasn’t absolute trash. The mix is going to bother me, there is like no blending and the levels keeps changing and it's driving me insane.

Visually the film is beautiful. I think it does a great job of capturing the magic the animation had. The scene where Snow White is running through the forest is really stunning. The mining scene is beautiful. Of all the things that this movie might need to work on I am glad the cinematography feels as beautiful as the animation did.

All that said, Gal Gadot can not sing. She is trying to sing outside of her accent and that never works well. It's causing her vowel shapes to be distorted, also she has no musical talent so she is searching for that pitch like a blind man in the dark. Also her acting in this role is not great. The Evil Queen is a much darker, colder Disney villain and she’s playing it like she thinks she’s Ursula. She doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on the character.

When Whistle While You Work was featured in the trailer people thought that Rachel was too belty. Ya know all those internet musical experts who couldn’t recite the solfege scale. But the reality is that her voice is very light and she navigates into her head voice extremely well. The woman is a Mezzo Soprano…we’re still sopranos, the high notes are not a problem. She sounds incredible.

Can we stop casting mediocre leading men in these live actions? They can all carry a tune but they aren’t good singers. Guys Broadway isn’t that far away, so many better options were out there I promise you.

Also there was a lot of shitting on Rachel for saying that the film wasn’t going to center on the prince. There is so obviously and clearly a love interest, it just isn’t the central focus. The story centers on Snow White trying to free her people from the evil queen and also there is a boy. They have a full falling in love song that sounds and looks ethereal and enchanting.

The outside hate for this film is the only thing that held it back. Both in reviews and in financial success. The reality is that it's a solid film that is quite frankly in the upper tier of Disney live actions. It's not quite Cinderella but it is absolutely better than Beauty of the Beast, which puts it pretty on par, maybe a little above The Little Mermaid. The biggest flaw in the film is Gal Gadot, some of these live actions are really struggling to cast good villains which is a super bummer but it is what it is. 7/10 is pretty solid. It wasn’t life changing but it was a good movie.