The new live-action Snow White takes you on a journey back to your childhood wonder in an enchanted kingdom. From the enthralling storyline and new heroes to the dreamy setting of the dwarves’ hidden home in the woods, this film has such an alluring aura and magnified themes of friendship and kindness that inspire hope. Coming to theaters on Friday, March 21st, 2025, this movie offers all the great elements of an adventurous fairytale. Everything about this movie including the musical repertoire is captivating and catchy. Disney cast this film perfectly with Rachel Zegler as the steadfast lead, Snow White, and Gal Gadot as the striking, evil queen. They complement each other incredibly well and bring the roles to life, invoking both excitement and fear in the audience, respectively. Snow White’s bandit-boyfriend, Jonathan, is played by Andrew Burnap who fulfills this handsome, rebel-rousing role, with incredible vocals.
Snow White’s opening song, ‘Waiting on a Wish‘ is the perfect coming-of-age song that sets the scene for the movie and illustrates Snow White’s fearlessness and her ability to see the best in everyone, as even the animals can attest. The song follows Snow White’s short origin story and builds up to the perfect cadence that will have America belting it like tunes from The Greatest Showman. To further that, Snow White and Jonathan’s climatic duet towards the end of the film is one of Disney’s best duets in ages, complete with the fireflies encircling them in this magical setting.
The storyline follows the plot from Disney’s animated Snow White with a couple of new heroes, character deviations, and twists. Snow White is driven by her virtues, “fearless, fair, brave and true,” as signified on her locket from her father and her character upholds these thematic traits throughout the entire movie. Zegler dawns her iconic blue and yellow gown with large red and blue sleeves and the costume designers went all out on the queen’s dark and eccentric bejeweled gowns, adorned by her impressive stained-glass crown. The evil queen’s look perfectly matched her mantra: “Ambitious girls must be vicious girls.”
The CGI dwarves added a fun and light-hearted element to the movie that probably could have been executed with real people but were inviting and engaging, nonetheless. Their banter and hilarious exchanges, along with Jonathan’s song, “Princess Problems,” offered the perfect comic relief the film needed between the more fearful scenes, verging on a little too scary for younger children. The dwarves also had their own rendition of the famous, “Hi-Ho!” song that granted them introductions and took the audience on a ride through their magical mine. It was a noteworthy element that entails more of a backstory for these well-loved Disney characters which is much appreciated. Snow White and Dopey, the youngest dwarf, shared a special bond when Snow White took refuge at their cottage, and she even helped him learn to whistle which eventually granted him the courage he needed to speak.
One of Snow White’s defining moments in this new film is when she emerges from the mystical woods to take back her kingdom wearing a red, hooded cloak and ready for revolution. She was coming face to face with what she knew she had to do to save her people. This archetypal moment was intentional for this pivotal scene in which she wears her locket proudly. The adorable animals and radical bandits that befriended Snow White, bonded together for this unique ending and thoughtful twist.
The film certainly gives Snow White credit for a lot of her own successes and a new sense of action. These new character traits portray Snow White not merely as someone who whistles with the birds and cleans the shack to accept her fate, but as a princess determined to work hard and improve her situation. She is a loveable character that is broadened by this film’s plot and given a greater scope as a firm leader embracing her royal duty and imparting her kind and caring spirit on all those she meets. She ultimately chooses love over power which has a wonderful message for all ages and this film quite candidly affirms that love wins.
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