Disney’s ‘Snow White’ is magical and doesn’t deserve the hate

From a very young age, I dreamed of being a Disney princess. Ballgowns and princess dresses flooded my costume chests, and the Disney version of Pretty Pretty Princess was by far my favorite game.

Disney princess DVDs lined my shelves and the Disney FastPlay advertisement constantly replayed in my head. Princesses were my favorite.

When I heard they were making a live-action “Snow White” film, I was skeptical. Excited, but skeptical nonetheless. When Rachel Zegler was announced as the star, my excitement grew.

Photo by Stella Powers | The Miami Student
Culture editor Stella Powers has loved Disney princesses since she was a child.

I have been a fan of Zegler since middle school — my best friend and I would watch her YouTube covers together, always blown away by her vocal talent. My personal favorite was her cover of Lady Gaga’s “Shallow.” This was long before Zegler was even cast in her Golden Globe-winning performance as Maria in “West Side Story” in 2021.

Despite being thrilled about her casting as the live-action Disney princess, I quickly found out many people did not feel the same. The casting was controversial for a few reasons. For starters, some fans of the original film were upset by the fact that she wasn’t white, despite that being completely irrelevant to the film. Also, she spoke publicly about creating a modern-day Snow

White who wasn’t looking to be saved by the prince.

Many were also upset that the “magical creatures” (formerly known as the seven dwarfs) were created using CGI. The original film is very dated, and these characters played a prominent role in it that couldn’t just be erased. It’s a difficult situation as a whole, and regardless of what direction they took with these characters, there would have been controversy no matter what.

Aside from that, the only real problem I had with the film was the casting of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Though there were certainly some highlights, her performance was weak and next to Zegler, her singing was unbelievably unremarkable.

Gadot was, by far, one of the weakest parts of the film but the incredible performances by the rest of the cast made up for it.

Zegler, to no surprise, delivered a phenomenal performance and truly became Snow White. Only, this Snow White was more modern and, as Zegler stated, wasn’t looking for a prince. Instead, she wanted to become the leader her father had always hoped she would be, inspiring the incredible song “Waiting on a Wish.”

A lot of people were upset that Zegler belts in the movie, as opposed to how the character sings more soprano in the original. However, it works. The film is supposed to be more modern and appeal to this generation of children as opposed to the children of 1937.

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The film honors the original while also making it work better for a modern-day audience, which is perfect. It’s exactly what we need right now — a fun blast-from-the-past that’s engaging for today’s audiences. For adults who grew up with the original, it’s a beautiful throwback. For kids today, it serves as an introduction to a wonderful story.

The movie gets a lot of hate it doesn’t deserve. Sure, it isn’t perfect, but nothing is. As far as live action Disney films go, this one turned out pretty great. Rachel Zegler is a star and the perfect Snow White, and I’m so glad this generation of children gets to grow up loving Snow White and Disney princesses in the way I did.

When I saw the movie opening weekend, the theater was pretty packed. A few rows behind me sat a young girl. During the film, there’s a scene where Snow White says, “Hello.” The little girl loudly replied, “Hi!”

It was such a wholesome, innocent moment that made the film a million times better.

This is who the movie is for.

Rating: 7/10

powers40@miamioh.edu