It’s enough to make P T Barnum eat his words. The circus owner – and subject of 2017’s box office hit, The Greatest Showman – is credited with saying there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Disney has watched the past few weeks drive a coach and horses through what was always a shaky theory, and could be feeling the after-effects for some time. At a time when they should be preparing for Snow White’s star spangled premiere and a deluge of advance bookings, the red carpet has stayed under wraps and rumours still persist that the studio had lost confidence in the live action remake of their first ever feature animation from 1937.
Let’s not dwell on the negative publicity, except to say much of it has little to do with the actual film. The story stays close to home, but it’s tweaked to appeal to today’s audiences. The Evil Queen has her magic mirror, seven guys still work in the diamond mines, but gone is Prince Charming, bringer of the all-important kiss which revives Snow White. A comparative stranger to her, he’s replaced by Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), one of a band of Robin Hood style outlaws living in the forest and fighting for a return to the values of the long-lost king, Snow White’s father. The two meet early in the film and, by the time she’s taken a bite out of that apple, a kiss is very much on the cards. Some Day My Prince Will Come doesn’t get a look-in, although other familiar numbers have been retained, but with new lyrics.
The songs from the original underline the weakness of the contemporary tunes. In the main, they are as generic as anything you’ll hear in a recent Disney movie, despite the combined talents of La La Land’s Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, and Jeff Morrow from The Little Mermaid. But they’re not the film’s biggest problem. That’s reserved for the CGI “magical creatures”, to use Disney’s description, who try valiantly to recapture the magic and humour of their illustrious predecessors, but have neither. The only one with any genuine appeal is Dopey, as voiced by Andrew Barth Feldman (No Hard Feelings, 2023). As the film’s narrator, he has precious little to do, but it’s in the latter stages of the story where he and his enormously appealing eyes come into their own.
Disney’s live action remakes of their animated classics have a chequered history. Some of the more recent titles have disappointed hugely, despite the talent and budget lavished on them, yet there are more to come – Lilo And Stitch is due in May. Despite all its affectionate nods in the direction of the original, this incarnation of Snow White doesn’t live up to it but, compared to the likes of Peter Pan And Wendy (2023) and Pinocchio (2022), it’s something of an improvement. Whether what has so often looked like a vanity project has turned a corner remains to be seen, but the film is definitely a step up, not just from recent efforts but also from what we were expecting.
Snow White releases in UK cinemas on 21 March 2025.
