‘A visual feast’: Disney’s Snow White remake is getting rave reviews despite controversy

Snow Whiteis being showered with praise as the best Disney live-action remake in years, including recognition for Rachel Zegler’s performance in the titular role.

The movie attracted backlash ahead of its release; there was racist criticism aimed at the casting of Zegler due to her mixed Colombian and Polish heritage and grown adults were also angry about her comments regarding the plot of the 1937 film.

Questions were also raised about the CGI portrayal of the seven dwarfs.

Despite the rocky road to the big screen, the movie has been given largely positive feedback.

Snow White (2025 version) follows the eponymous princess after the wicked queen (played by Gal Gadot), who is also her mother, orders her murder. Fleeing from the peril, Snow White finds herself a forest and discovers the seven dwarves in a cottage.

What have critics said about the re-imagined fairytale so far?

Disney’s live-action adaptations of their classic animated fairy tales have been met with a mixed reception. While some fans adore them, others feel these adaptations fall short for a number of reasons; thematic changes, cash grab accusations, or simply because they’re remakes.

Production on the film was pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the release date was pushed back from 22 March 2024 to 21 March 2025.

In the lead up to the film’s release, Zegler made a number of remarks about the animated film and how the live-action interpretation would differ. Speaking to Extra TV, she called the prince a “guy who literally stalks her” and called the original story “weird”.

She added that her Snow White was “not going to be dreaming about true love” and would instead be thinking “about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, brave and true.”

Rachel Zegler as Snow WhiteDisney

Zegler also dealt with racist backlash as a result of her casting as the origin of the character’s name in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale from the 19th century is that the princess has “skin as white as snow”.

However, the character’s name is given a new backstory in the remake. In an interview with Variety, Zegler said: “It fell back to another version of Snow White that was told in history, where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience."

The film also faced criticism from Peter Dinklage, who was born with a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. The Game of Thrones star accused Disney of “hypocrisy” over the film, citing the story’s depiction of “seven dwarfs living in a cave together”.

"Literally no offence to anyone, but I was a little taken aback — they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White," he said. "But you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me."

Disney addressed his criticisms in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community," a spokesperson said.

“We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period."

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