'Snow White' Has Many Problems - Rachel Zegler Is Not One of Them
- Jamie Marie Torres
- Apr 16
- 14 min read
Updated: Apr 17
There is nothing social media loves more than a bad movie, but what differentiates movies from being fun bad, or just bad?
The latest live-action Disney adaptation of Snow White is quite possibly the biggest failure of the 2020s, both critically and financially. With a budget ranging between $240 and $270 million, the film is struggling to break even; after three weeks post-release, the film has just barely made $100 million. If that wasn’t bad enough, the film is a critical failure, poorly rated by critics and audience members. How can a big-budget blockbuster from this million-dollar company crash and burn worse than a wildfire?
Disney would tell you the fault lies solely with the film's leading actress, Rachel Zegler. The journalist in their pocket at Variety would back up the claim, and the prouder’s adult son would tell you this actress, with six films to her name, can tank a million-dollar production.
Forget the many rounds of reshoots or the egregious company oversight. Does it matter that the direction was nonexistent and the writing was superficial, even by the standards of the littlest children? It’s Disney; they’re totally right to believe that children are too stupid to appreciate a good film. And how relevant is it that the film's antagonist is one of the most hated women by general audiences, whose reputation consists of terrible views and terrible line delivery?
No, it’s 100% the fault of a 23-year-old with social media and a dry sense of humor.
Zegler’s Snow White journey has been riddled with controversy from casting to release. However, let the record show that none of it resulted from her actions but from poor media literacy and bias confirmation.
Also, full disclosure: if Snow White were good, there would be no discussion of a tweet saying “and always remember, free Palestine” from a year and a half ago. If the film had a good opening weekend at the box office, no one would be accusing Zegler’s unwavering support of Palestine in the ongoing War in Gaza against Israel, at least not to the level of causing filmmakers financial ruin. If Disney didn’t screw the pooch so badly, nobody would even remember the tweet.
Producer Marc Platt’s non-Tony-winning son Jonah Platt slammed Zegler on Instagram, saying her “narcissism” ruined not just the film but also the livelihood of hundreds of the people who also worked on Snow White.
There’s a lack of correlation and causation, don’t you think? Jonah, answer this: If Zegler is to blame for Snow White, who’s to blame for Dear Evan Hansen? Another thing: Jonah, please tell your father that his trip to New York could have been an email.
So, what was the issue with Snow White? Was it really Zegler’s fault? Or was Snow White a perfect storm of production disaster?
If you have seen the film, you know it’s the latter.
Acting
Let's get this out of the way.
Assume that the process of making movies is like a relay race; each leg of the relay is from a different aspect of production, and three teams are neck and neck: Zegler, Gadot, and hell, Andrew Burnap’s Jonathan.
Zegler won the race, Burnap was not far behind, and Gadot tripped and fell two steps after she got the rod.
It’s a stance echoed across most reviews: Zegler is the only redeeming thing about this film. It’s great seeing her bring her stage background to the screen and fill the room. Many have picked on how she squares her jaw so much during tense scenes, but every actor has a tick that you’ll find if you look hard enough. Try watching Pirates of the Caribbean and seeing how often her upper lip twitches; you can’t unsee it. The only issue is that her scene partners are CGI monstrosities or Gadot.
Few reviews credit Burnap, but perhaps it’s because the script gave him scraps to work with. I had the pleasure of seeing him in Camelot on Broadway last year, and he crushed it as King Arthur. However, he does lay it on a bit thick, and sometimes, Jonathan acts caricature-ish. But this is not due to Burnap's talent but rather because of the lack of material to work with. If they had upped Jonathan and dialed back the Evil Queen, it definitely could've improved a lot of things.
Gal Gadot…. Oh my.
Wonder Woman (2017) is one of my favorite films, and even now, I still love it. It baffles me that I can love her as Diana in that film, yet find her presence physically unbearable here. It’s maddening.
Consistently flat throughout the film, there was no - as the kids day - “aura” about this villain. What was meant to be intimidating became downright corny, and I can’t even give her any musical credit because her one song was bland.
Gadot simply does not command the space the way other Disney villains do. Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Emma Stone’s Cruella, and Cate Blanchett’s Lady Tremaine were sharp and sophisticated, quite unsettling in the most alluring way. Mellissa McCarthy’s Ursula in The Little Mermaid had an electric energy that fit her drag queen origins.
In this day and age, it’s very easy for a villain character in media to be widely adored. It’s also been clear that Disney favors Gadot the most out of this cast; she had every advantage, but she still crashed and burned.
I recommend you watch Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes if you want to see the full extent of Zegler’s talent on display. See what happens when she has a good co-star? One that isn’t CGI? The difference is night and day.
Speaking of CGI…
Visuals
Blockbusters use CGI and Green screen tech to make these big other-wordly visuals. It’s also the easiest way for studios like Disney to make talking animals. The visuals of Snow White could only be described as very “Disney”, but in this context, that is not a compliment.
The scene in the apple orchard, for one, was poorly lit and very unflattering. It distracts from what's supposed to be an intense scene. Her run through the magic forest gives the audience tonal whiplash, and since there’s nothing like it for the rest of the film, it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s an entirely different film.
All the forest scenes were clearly shot in two different locations: a real forest where Snow White meets Jonathan and his band of thieves and the computer-rendered forest where the gnomes live. As an audience member with little knowledge of visuals and the technicalities of CGI, the differences are about as subtle as a brick wall. At least ABC series Once Upon a Time had the excuse of a small budget. What’s Disney’s excuse? All the good VFX people were striking or working on Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Then there are the 7 dwarfs. Oh boy, those things make an ugly Sonic look worthy of a Vanity Fair cover, especially grumpy.
Now, this is a gray area that gets overlooked in all the film’s controversy. Disney stated earlier that they had planned “a different approach” to portraying the seven dwarfs to not have an offensive depiction of people with dwarfism, especially in response to the criticism of actor Peter Dinklage. However, others, such as actor/wrestler Dylan Postl, disagree with Dinklage, saying that the choice takes jobs away from actors in their community, which are limited as they are. Perhaps either choice would've been a no-win situation, but now that the film is out, all can agree that the choice made was an ugly one.
Jonathan’s band of misfits also numbered seven, did you notice? That can’t be a coincidence, especially considering the choice to give Quigg (Colin Michael Carmichael) a bit about his stolen crossbow and a “crush” on another bandit both told to us and not shown (the golden rule), makes you think that perhaps they were supposed to be the “7 dwarfs” Snow White meets in the forest. Perhaps that was a road they intended but was thrown out in the reshoots. Sure, they wouldn’t technically be dwarfs, but at least they wouldn’t have looked horrid.
Between the soulless CGI dwarfs and the even more soulless Evil Queen, poor Zegler was not lucky with her scene partners.
Music Composition
Benj Pasek and Justin Noble Paul are two renowned composers. If you aren’t familiar with their names, you're familiar with their work: Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, and original songs for the live-action Aladdin and Only Murders in the Building. Their sound could be described as “mainstream musical”, pleasing to the general public, good lyrics but not too sincere. Their original songs for Snow White are very Pasek and Paul, both a compliment and not. Their style is made for blockbusters, with melodrama lyrics that are evident in “Waiting on a Wish.” It’s nice, but it also sounds as sincere as Katy Perry’s “Firework”.
This is not to say Pasek and Paul are bad; their music for La La Land was spectacular, and the stage musical Dogfight is thoroughly underappreciated and is some of their best work.
“A Hand Takes a Hand” also falls into this category of catchy and cute. It’s a good song on its own, but it made little to no sense within the narrative, laying it on a bit thick. I can only presume that there was much more Jonathan and Snow White screentime before the massive reshoots and overhaul, and this song is made for that film. But this love song is not entirely earned in the movie that’s currently in theaters. There is also the issue that, to us musical theater fans, the song is only a tempo away from being a copy and paste of the track “Only Us” from Dear Evan Hansen.
From here onward, we come to the meat of the issues, where we start to get to the meat of Snow White’s issues. With every choice made from here in out, three roads are taken: bad, memeable, or no choices. This is where even those not familiar with the process could see that Disney’s wants and needs stomped over any artistic vision this could've had.
Costuming
Zegler wears three dresses in this film: a pink maid’s dress, a white dress for the finale, and the iconic dress she wears throughout the entire film and has been marketed in.
Guess which one looks the worst on her?
The pink dress complimented her nicely, and it had some lovely patchwork patterned detailing; the same goes for the white.
But the dress? Laughably horrendous. The bright yellow is an eyesore, made even more apparent with the red and royal blue. The skirt's sheer tulle overlay makes the dress especially cheap. There’s little originality and detailing, too, and the authenticity you would expect from costume designer Sandy Powell is lacking.
Before Snow White enters the forest, it looks slightly, but only slightly, more bearable with the blue overlay it starts with. It’s clearly a piece meant to be ripped away, but they really would've been better off with it staying on.
In the Evil Queen’s first scene, she enters in period-appropriate attire that looks lovely, but it’s only for ten seconds before she’s in the original dress from the 1937 film. This does her a disservice. She stands out uncomfortably from everyone else on screen.
Now, this category is personal to me because I love Sandy Powell. She’s the genius behind Lily James’ Cinderella dress. Her other credits include The Favorite, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Shakespeare in Love. Powell is an expert in medieval and fantasy wardrobe design and has won Oscars for her work.
Why are you hearing all this? It’s my way of telling you I don’t believe she’s responsible for these atrocities. All of this was clearly a result of the dreaded production oversight.
Besides Zegler’s long sleeves, nothing unique about this dress sets it apart from the 1937 production. If you’re hoping to revamp a classic, don’t be afraid to make things look different from the original. That’s why everyone adores the 2015 Cinderella dress. It takes inspiration from the 1950s feature but still manages to be its design, making it a staple. The result is breathtaking. The glittering skirt and butterfly-bedazzled bodice made James look like magic incarnate.
The same goes for the film's villains. In Lady Tremaine's (Cate Blanchett) first scene, she enters looking 1950s sharp in an envious green. Fantasy adventure films are the perfect opportunity for costume designers to mix contemporary ideas and the romantic styles of period pieces. Still, Disney clearly wanted the toy more than
the quality of work by an artist.
Side Note:
And Snow White’s hair? Poor Zegler was memed to high heaven for the horrendous wig they probably used for Farquad in Shrek the Musical. Zegler can look good with short hair, just not here.
In the narrative, the queen cuts her hair short when Snow White is young. For no reason other than to show her cruelty (she hadn't been called "fairest" yet). But Cinderella was a maid too, but they still took the time to make it look not ridiculous. Make it jagged, layered, uneven because it was haphazardly cut – hell, make it frizzy and tangled to say she hasn’t been able to brush in days. The straight-cut, slicked-down wig that naturally curls in at the edge (because hair can fall like that) does nothing for your star.
Directing
Were the actors given no direction or bad direction? Or both? Those were the two options here.
After Jonathan woke Snow White up from her sleep still sitting on the rock, that kiss told the audience that “yes, they are true loves!” but yet they sit there a foot apart, it looked awkward. Isn’t it directing 101 to let your actors touch each other? Especially when they’re acting like they’re in love?
The poor Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) received the brunt of this. A character meant to initiate - what is meant to be - a very tense scene. He’s meant to have a big moral conflict, and yet the final product was just…. Flat. Just because we know how the story goes, doesn’t mean the director can’t enrapture us in the emotion of a scene.
Here’s another scene I feel was the most prominent example of poor directing.
In the woods, Jonathan takes an arrow to the shoulder for Snow White, so she and his friends take them back to the dwarfs. The dwarfs and the off-brand dwarfs argue, and Snow White gives a speech on the line of “Stop fighting! This is what she wants, and we must be united and work together!”
The two groups just go, “Okay!” Meanwhile, Jonathan is still dying on the table in front of them, but since he’s not groaning in pain, I would say he’s taking it just fine.
Undoubtedly, it was the most anti-climactic “near death experience” I’d ever witnessed. No tension or decent pacing, and it is very cringy.
There is also this gem:
Snow White receives a snowflake, from somewhere in the heavens. I had never physically face palmed in my life until this moment.
Writing
Do you know the most significant lesson we can take away from Game of
Thrones season 8? You can have an incredible wardrobe, set design, visuals, music, etcetera, and all of that will not matter if you don’t have good writing to back it up.
Snow White was already leaning toward disaster, but the screenwriting was the straw that broke the camel's back. The narrative had no cohesion, and the dialogue was either flat, cringy, clunky, or flat-out bad.
It doesn't help that they chose to have this timeline of the film happen within a couple of days at most. In fact, it makes the whole film feel much worse. I keep saying that Snow White and Jonathan were decent enough to watch, but that’s all the script allowed them to be: cute, but no time to develop. There was no time to build romance in the narrative or in the 109 minutes.
The film tried to push this theme of Snow White being “fair, brave, kind, and true” as the equivalent to Cinderella’s “Have courage, and be kind.” However, the former was so literal that it just didn’t work. It was a weak way to give Snow White an end goal for the film, beyond the desire for a prince like in the original animated feature.
Also, what was that final standoff between Snow White and the Queen? All Snow did was preach to everyone, and the people of the kingdom just… bought it? They all start echoing “I remember” in a scene reminiscent of the Disney Channel original Radio Rebel.
She names some people and their life facts, and that’s enough for them to stand against the Evil Queen, who does have magic abilities but only uses them to make roses. Instead of actually using that magic, she screams angrily and stamps back into the castle like a child throwing a tantrum.
The direction and writing of Snow White is what make it the most obvious that there was a completely different movie list in reshoots. There was clearly an entire scene where the dwarfs and the knockoff dwarfs sneak into the castle that we just never got to see, and Quigg, one of Jonathan’s friends, was clearly meant to have a running gag an a romantic inclination in another group member, I have to believe that those were references to scenes and character traits that got cut from the final product.
Scapegoating Zegler
From the eyes of Disney executives, the choice to throw Zegler under the bus is an obvious one. But it’s not exclusively about their dissatisfaction with her as it is feeling safer putting their eggs in Gadot’s basket. Not better, but safer.
Gadot has been in the industry for almost 20 years; she has friends, money, and connections with other Hollywood elites to survive the controversy. She’s got Pilot Wave Productions, a film production company with her film producer husband, Jaron Versano. It’s like picking teams in gym and choosing the kid that’s built like a refrigerator, even for a fifth grader. Ignore the fact that he trips over air. And this does not include the factors of our current political climate.
In Hollywood, pro-Israel ideals run deep into its roots. Scholars Giora Goodman and Tony Shaw published their book Hollywood and Israel: A History, dissecting the ties between the two groups. Israel saw this pace as an opportunity to garner support from the rich and powerful in Los Angeles. These strong ties run deep and continue to bolster their image.
The rise in social media, however, gives the public access to first-hand accounts about the dire straights of Gaza. Between a history of anti-semitism and present-day acknowledgment of Palestinian suffering, never has an issue divided Hollywood more in the twenty-first century. Zegler, for all her pro-Palestine support, isn't the first person Hollywood has tried to blackball out of existence, or worse, compliance.
In 2023, Paramount Pictures fired actress Melissa Barrera from Scream 7 due to social media posts she made, stating that the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza were acts of genocide. Zegler and Barrera were slapped with accusations of being antisemitic, and social media did the rest to persecute these young adults, who have managed to hold their ground despite an overwhelming amount of character attacks and public pressure.
But as previously stated at the beginning, if the film had been at least semi-decent, nobody would've cared about those tweets. However, even if she hadn't made those statements (which is her right to do so), Disney still would've made her the fall girl for Snow White, as they’ve done many times before.
Time and time again, Disney has thrown women to the wolves when things go south. Daisy Ridley, Kelly Marie Tran, Brie Larson, and Halle Bailey all faced an obscene amount of hate for taking on roles of importance in franchises predominantly made for male and/or white audiences.
Even actor John Boyega received racial harassment before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens when trailers implied that he might be a Jedi. Not even Kathleen Kennedy, the LITERAL president of Lucasfilm - that Disney owns - is immune to this treatment. This woman has worked on films since the 80s, and yet toxic fan communities will still find ways to harass her.
Where were their security teams?
Conclusion
Is this it, then? Has a film bombed so badly that it has ruined Disney remakes for the foreseeable future? The live-action Lilo and Stich is already coming to theaters, Moana is still in production, and it is too little too late for that - unless they seal it up for tex reasons - but reportedly, production on a potential live-action Tangled movie has been put on hold indefinitely.
Or is there a slim chance that Disney could learn from its mistakes? What's most aggravating about Snow White is the amount of potential wasted. This film could've been good, great even. Perhaps it was before Disney took the reigns. I expect that in time, we'll hear about what the original script looked like, and see conecept are that supersedes the finished product. That's what happened with Wish.
Morally, these live-action films should be opposed, but in the case of films like Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Maleficent, and Cruella, there is an opportunity to breathe new life into classic tales. It’s only a matter of letting the artist be creative. Sometimes the source material can be stretched and forgone, and it’s just a matter of where, when, and how much.
But playing it safely helps no one, especially the film. There is a high chance that Disney will wait for this film to go away and continue making inauthentic live actions. Or perhaps this brand of cinema has finally died, the way Allegiant killed the line of young-adult dystopian book adaptations they made in the 2010s.
Nevertheless, I have no doubt Zegler will weather this storm. Not because of money or aid from the Mouse, but because she had integrity, strength, and the talent to supersede this mediocrity.
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