Snow White was released on March 21st, 2025. As a remake of the beloved 1937 film, many thought that the new film would be a sure hit. Snow White did in fact top the weekend box office as $87.3 million dollars, but considering that it had a budget of over $270 million, this remains a disappointment.
Although Snow White had at least an acceptable box office premiere, reviews are even less positive. For example, Chief Film Critic for The Times, Kevin Maher, said, “Believe the anti-hype, it’s that bad.” Further, the film received a rotten tomatoes score of 43%, which is even lower than the 48% that Captain America: Brave New World (which has also been the victim of harsh criticism) received.
Beyond the film itself, Snow White’s reception also presents a troubling trend for Disney as a whole. Disney had recently shifted to producing many live-action remakes of their beloved classics. Unfortunately, these remakes have seen mixed results. In addition to the poor performance of Snow White, other similar films such as The Lion King and Maleficent have also been criticized with 51% and 40% Rotten Tomatoes scores, respectively. Compare this with the original Snow White and The Lion King’s Rotten Tomatoes scores of 97% and 93%, respectively. Future remakes such as Lilo and Stitch give little hope for a revival of the genre. Put simply, the live-action remake focus is not working for Disney, and it needs to return to the animated sphere where it dominated for so long.
Unfortunately, Snow White’s problems don’t end there. Other concerns about the film include the seven dwarves, who were CGI-animated for the film. Not only were the new designs somewhat disturbing due to their too-large heads and overall off-putting appearance, but their inclusion in the film at all was divisive.
In fact, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, an actor with Dwarfism, described the decision to retell the story of “seven dwarfs living in a cave” as “backward,” according to the BBC.
Even among those who agreed with the continued inclusion of the dwarves, believed the use of CGI rather than actors was off-putting as well. Performer Choon Tan said in an interview with Daily Mail that the decision to use CGI was “absolutely absurd and discriminating in a sense. There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf in any given opportunity.”
This is still not the last controversy surrounding Snow White. Rachel Zegler, who played the titular character of the film, is notably pro-palestinian and has taken such a stance publicly and on social media. On the other hand, the actress of the evil queen, Gal Gadot, is Israeli and served in the IDF for two years. This rift has been speculated, according to BBC, and caused Disney to scale back the film’s premiere.
Finally, there are concerns about Zegler’s stance on the original Snow White, as she stated in an interview with BBC that the original film was “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power.” This and similar statements were not well received by the public, which is likely another cause of the film’s poor performance.
Beyond the off-screen controversies, Disney has several things to improve. The music, which was mostly original for the new release, left much to be desired. Further, Zegler and Gadot’s performances were uninspired.
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian said that “[Zegler and Gadot] are forced to go through the motions, and they give the dullest performances of their lives.”
Additionally, the prince from the original film was replaced by a new male character, Jonathan the bandit, due to concerns about the original version being insensitive. Unfortunately, the new version was no better than the old with Andrew Burnap giving an overall lackluster performance.
