There is a lot to say about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).  For one thing, how many people refer to it by its full title?  Secondly, it was the first feature length, color animated movie.  Indeed, it was the first color film of any kind, really, because nobody remembers 1914’s The World, The Flesh, and the Devil.  Thankfully, that one has been lost to time, and yes, that is a Catholic critic speaking.  Finally, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was an astronomical commercial success, going beyond its mere box office receipts.  If you want to read more, you can take a look at the review I have already written about it.  Still, this last point impacts today’s piece because without the fame and fortune the original brought to Walt Disney, being the beginning of his entertainment empire, you would not have the remake Snow White.  I cannot say this is a good thing, but continue on to find out why.

Once upon a time (hey, I am just doing as the movie) there was a princess born on a wintry day to a Good King (Hadley Fraser) and Good Queen (Lorena Andrea) who they named Snow White as a nod to the blustery conditions.  As a little girl (Emilia Faucher), the young member of royalty enjoyed the idyllic peace her parents brought to their kingdom, where nobody went hungry and everyone shared in common.  Sadly, the Good Queen dies before Snow White reaches adulthood.  Because the Good King needs a wife, he eventually marries a beautiful woman.  The narrator (Andrew Barth Feldman) does not tell us her real name, and I am guessing the Good King would not have wedded someone who went by the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot).  At any rate, the newcomer charms her stepdaughter at first, but soon moves to take over the kingdom.  Her first step is to create trouble with a neighboring nation, sending the Good King at the head of an army to fight.  He does not return.  From there, the Evil Queen enslaves Snow White even after she grows up (Rachel Zegler). Without their fair and fearless leadership, the kingdom falls into despair under the Evil Queen’s despotic rule.  She maintains order by having many armed guards.  However, her one obsession is her beauty, constantly asking the Magic Mirror (voiced by Patrick Page) “who is the fairest of them all.”  The enchanted decoration always answers by saying it is the Evil Queen.  Yet, there is always that one day, is there not?  It starts with Snow White catching Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a renegade living in the woods resisting the Evil Queen in the name of the Good King, stealing food.  The virtuous Snow White does not approve of theft no matter the desperateness, but says she will take his plight to the Evil Queen before letting him go.  Snow White’s entreaty does not go well, for her or her step-mother.  Because of her kind deed, the next time the Evil Queen consults the Magic Mirror, it tells her that Snow White is now the fairest.  The Evil Queen cannot brook such a revelation, and therefore orders the Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to take Snow White into the woods, murder the young woman, and return with her heart in a box.  The Huntsman initially complies with the directive, but as he is about to deliver the killing blow, he sees Snow White’s innocence and tells her to flee into the woods.  Snow White does as she is told.  After a frightening run through a forest that comes alive around her, she is led by the woodland creatures to the abode of the Seven Dwarfs where she falls asleep.  At the end of the day, that group of diminutive fellows returns from another day of mining gems to find, to their startlement, a human girl in their bed.  All of the men are for the gentle woman to stay with them, except for, unsurprisingly, Grumpy (Omari Bernard, voiced by Martin Klebba).  Even so, she wins them all over with her positive attitude.  Meanwhile, the Evil Queen learns that the Huntsman had not carried out her deed, leading to his imprisonment.  Instead, she sends out her guards to scour the surrounding area.  That same morning, feeling like she had been enough of a burden on the dwarfs’ hospitality, Snow White departs.  While wandering about, she encounters Jonathan and his band of bandits.  He had not thought much of her, but his opinion improves when she helps to fight those soldiers sent to find her.  Indeed, he ends up taking an arrow to the shoulder for her.  Snow White remembers one of the dwarfs is named Doc (Jonathan Bourne, voiced by Jeremy Swift), so they take Jonathan to their hut.  Doc goes by that name because he is an expert on precious stones, but he is convinced to doctor Jonathan all the same.  Their celebration of his recovery is cut short when they hear approaching guards.  Jonathan volunteers to lead them away, taking with him the locket Snow White received from her parents in order to better ensure they reunite.  These plans are brought to a stop when he is captured by the Evil Queen’s men.  It is enough to give her the location of the dwarfs’ house.  Creating the famous poisoned apple, which, when bitten into, induces a deep sleep that can only be revered by true love’s first kiss, she changes into an old woman and heads into the woods.  With Snow White’s locket as bait, the Evil Queen gives Snow White the fruit as sustenance for the journey to Jonathan.  Speaking of that true love, he and the Huntsman break out of prison, and Jonathan is able to plant the reviving smooch on Snow White’s lips.  She awakens to lead a triumphant rebellion against the Evil Queen, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Yes, the conclusion of Snow White is Les Misérables-esque, though with considerably less bloodshed.  That would have been strange in a Disney movie.  In truth, it is really no different from any other Mouse production, and for me it was excruciating.  The reason I do not enjoy so many of these offerings, this one included, is because they are musicals.  Without rehashing my longstanding distaste for the subgenre, I will add that this one did everything it could to pad the length.  The original is also a musical, but it keeps the runtime to a tidy eighty-three minutes.  The remake pushes it to nearly two hours, and seemingly all the extra time are musical interludes.  They kept a lot of the songs from before, with one major exception: “Someday My Prince Will Come.”  I am not sure the reason for this one being left out, but they made up for it (I guess) by inserting extra lyrics into the old familiars.  Look, there is a lot to admire about Snow White as a character from a Catholic perspective, and I will go into more detail about this in the next paragraph.  My issue is the style in which the story is told.  I am also not sure fans of musicals will enjoy it.  I am no expert on such matters, but some of the performances seemed a bit off.

Even if I am put off by Snow White, there are some aspects about it that should be praised.  She behaves in a perfectly Christian manner, offering charity in all its forms whenever she is given a chance.  That is why the Magic Mirror, which supposedly only tells the truth, switches its allegiances to Snow White.  It is not the Godliest form of revelation, but truth is truth.  In the Old Testament, magic is often attempted in order contravene the power of God.  Instead, it almost always ends up revealing Him anyway.  That is not meant to be an endorsement of the enchanted arts because messing with them can lead to some awful outcomes.  The Evil Queen is an example of the fate that awaits people who dabble in powers beyond their understanding.  Further, she seeks to use these forbidden talents solely for personal pleasure, namely to maintain her physical beauty.  Here again, you have the Magic Mirror telling her a truth, but not one she appears to recognize: that she is the fairest in terms of being physically appealing.  She is ultimately destroyed by the fact that real beauty comes from within.  That is where God resides, and if you cultivate that relationship with Him, graces will pour out of you for the benefit of those around you.  If not, you will become a charred husk like the Evil Queen, sent off to oblivion.

The way the Evil Queen meets her end in Snow White is one of several departures from the source material.  As I have discussed already, this is obviously done to artificially make the movie longer.  This is not great for me because of the constant interruptions by musical numbers.  It has the right messages, but I was eager to leave the theater when the end credits rolled.