At this point, Disney’s live-action princesses should be able to sue for damages. Snow White, like The Little Mermaid before it, has thrust a promising new star into the centre of a lazily conceived, visually repellent remake, depending entirely on her talents to drive its machine. But it’s offered her nothing in return – not on screen nor support behind the scenes, considering our new Ariel and Snow White, Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler respectively, are both women of colour targeted by rampant racist abuse online.
Zegler, like Bailey, was born for a role like this. She’s a classic theatre kid, bouncing off her first onscreen role as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story to give us a wide-eyed, deeply earnest Snow. There’s a touch of Judy Garland in how she delivers the character’s new signature power ballad, “Waiting on a Wish”, with a beautifully clear voice and dreamy naivety.
But “Waiting on a Wish”, while the catchiest of the new tracks provided by The Greatest Showman’s Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, is also a perfect case study of Disney’s increasingly procedural attitude towards its live-action remakes. It’s a highly produced, machine-like approximation of a Disney song, created to fill the gap left by the 1937 original’s “I’m Wishing”, banished in fear of the implication that this princess is still waiting around for a man to give her purpose.
Out, too, goes the majority of the narrative, replaced by a few buzzwords about bravery and being a father’s daughter. They never amount to anything beyond the lesson that good leaders always remember people’s names (sure, but are there not more inspiring lessons to be taught than basic etiquette?) Still in are the necessary nostalgic trademarks: the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) and her magic mirror, the poisoned apple, and the seven dwarves.
Of course, Disney is well aware of how troubling it is to characterise people with dwarfism as fairytale denizens. However, instead of using this as an opportunity to dismantle stereotypes through a reimagined narrative and platform seven actors with dwarfism in the process, the studio has summoned up the most corporate response possible. Human beings have been replaced with uncanny CGI caricatures that will make you yearn for the simple horrors of 2004’s The Polar Express. There are two actors with dwarfism in the cast – Martin Klebba voices Grumpy, while George Appleby plays an unrelated role – but neither are given the spotlight they deserve.
Director Marc Webb and cinematographer Mandy Walker struggle to impose any visual coherence between scenes shot on location and inside a studio. Characters will suddenly emerge from a colour-drained, flatly lit bit of woodland into a caramelised, abrasively artificial recreation of (supposedly) that same woodland. The Evil Queen is dripping in sequins and costume jewellery, which would suggest the anticipation of a camp performance, only to receive not a drop of that in return (Gadot’s involvement in organising screenings of an IDF-produced film about 7 October has led to calls from activists to boycott the film).
The film’s prince, played by Andrew Burnap and, for some reason, called Jonathan, is essentially Disney cannibalising itself, as he has the same thief backstory and curtain bangs as Tangled’s Flynn Rider. There’s self-cannibalisation at work, too, in Sandy Powell’s costumes, which are dour replicas of their animated counterparts. At times, Zegler’s bob leans dangerously close to “little Dutch boy”. What’s most disheartening about it all is how predictable Disney’s choices have become. With Snow White, they’ve finessed their formula – do the bare minimum to make a film, then simply slap a bunch of cutesy CGI animals all over it and hope no one notices.
Dir: Marc Webb. Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page. PG, 109 minutes.
‘Snow White’ is in cinemas from 21 March
