BY ISABELLA BEELER

This past weekend, “Disney’s Snow White” came into theaters and I saw it. It is pretty much the same as the 1937 animated version, but live action and more modernized. I thought it was great! I do have some critiques, though. A lot of other people do, too. There is a lot of controversy around the movie.

The first thing they did to make it more modernized is they added stuff at the beginning. They showed Snow White as a little kid singing and making apple pies for others with her parents. The song they were singing was called “Good Things Grow”, which is a new song. I liked this addition because it gave Snow White more of a backstory. Then Snow White’s mother dies and her father marries the Evil Queen. She turns out to not be as good as she seemed. Then Snow White’s dad goes to help people and never comes back. 

The next thing they did to make it more modernized is they changed the prince to a commoner named Jonathan. He is still Snow White’s love interest and they are cute together. We first meet him when Snow White catches him stealing bread, since the Evil Queen is greedy. Then again when he gets caught and Snow White helps release him. Some time during or after the first two meetings, Snow White sings another new song called “Waiting on a Wish”. 

After those things happen, the Evil Queen finds out Snow White is the fairest of them all and sends the huntsman to kill her. That is the same as the animation. One different thing that happens is she is bold and asks the huntsman why. Then she finds the dwarfs cottage and sleeps. She doesn’t clean first like in the original, but everything else is the same. For example, the next song they sing is “Heigh-Ho”. That is the same, but they add lyrics to show why happy is named happy, bashful is named bashful, etc.

The next thing that happens is the Evil Queen finds out Snow White is still alive. She finds an apple in the heart box instead of a pig’s heart in the original. After she finds out, she sings a new song called “All Is Fair”. The next thing we see is the Dwarfs and Snow White meeting. It is pretty much the same, except they took out the face washing part. When the dwarfs are all fighting, Dopey and Snow White have a talk. Snow White learns that Dopey is too afraid to talk. To help, she teaches him to whistle. Then they sing my favorite song “Whistle While You Work”.

Later on in the movie, Snow White and Jonathan meet again. This time he is with his friends called the bandits. They are loyal to the king and seek to take over the Evil Queen by returning Snow White’s father to the throne. That makes Snow White think that her father could still be out there. When Snow White and Jonathan interact, they sing a new song called “Princess Problems”. Then the guards come looking for Snow White and the bandits protect her. Snow White wants to help and does. After they think they’re safe, an arrow almost hits Snow White. Instead, Jonathan takes the hit for her. Then Doc heals him because he is a DOCtor.

The last thing I noticed that was different was the end. The first different thing was that Jonathan got caught in the woods by the guards. Then they bring him to the Evil Queen, and she sees him wearing Snow White’s necklace. She knows he has been with Snow White. The guard told her where they found Jonathan at, and then the Evil Queen finds Snow White. Just like in the animation, the Evil Queen disguises herself as an old hag and gives Snow White the poison apple. What was different was they were outside the cottage. The other thing that was different was after Snow White already eats the apple, the Evil Queen reveals that she killed Snow White’s father. After or during that, Jonathan breaks out of the Evil Queen’s prison. Then he wakes her up with a true love’s kiss. The last thing that was different about the end was that the Evil Queen didn’t die falling off a cliff. After Snow White wakes up, her and her friends plan on standing up to the Evil Queen. Most of them are scared, but Dopey becomes brave enough to talk. Then they stand up to the Evil Queen and she goes into her magic mirror. 

Now that I told you mostly all the differences, I’m going to talk about all the controversy. The first thing that people are upset about is that Rachel Zegler is playing Snow White. She is mixed, so she is not “as white as snow” like in the original. Although I do partly agree, it isn’t that important to the story. They changed the backstory to her name in the movie by saying she was born during a winter storm. Another thing people are upset about is the CGI dwarfs. Disney was going to use real dwarfs, but dwarfs don’t want to be seen only as that. Instead, Disney gave the part of one of the bandits to George Appleby. I got used to the CGI. There were also talks about issues with politics with Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. Rachel Zegler was also a little disrespectful to the original Snow White in an interview. Although that was wrong, she apologized and corrected herself in other interviews. The last thing with controversy I’m going to talk about is that people didn’t like the changes with Snow White’s character. I agree. The new Snow White is all about being a leader and not waiting for a prince. She also belts out a song. While that is great, dreaming about being in love, wanting to do housework, and being soft and sweet is ok, too. I wish that Snow White kept those qualities. She still remained kind, though.

With all that being said, I enjoyed the movie. I would have liked it if Snow White kept more of her qualities from the original. Otherwise I thought Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and the rest of the cast and crew did amazing. I like that they gave Snow White and her love interest more of a story line and all of the songs.

7/10