My Thoughts on the Reviews on the Live Action Snow White Movie!
The new live-action Snow White movie starring Rachel Zegler as the titled character and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen was released this past weekend. Online reactions have all but indicated the same conclusion…it’s a massive flop. My personal stance: I'm not planning to watch it because the 1937 animated original is an all-time classic. Since I didn’t see it and have no interest in watching it, here’s a breakdown of what I’ve read about and what I know about the live-action version:
Comparing Critical and Audience Reactions: The differences in how critics and audiences have reacted to both movies are huge! The original scored 97% from critics and 78% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, while the live-action version only got 43% from critics and 74% from viewers. IMDb ratings show a similar trend: the original has a solid 7.6/10, but the new one is sitting at a miserable 2/10. When the trailer came out, it racked up 1.2 million dislikes versus only 44,000 likes.
Box Office Performance: The live-action movie had a massive budget of $209 million. Not including the press advertising budget, the whole thing sums up to almost half a billion dollars. Opening weekend domestic earnings: $43 million. Global earnings: Expected $100+ million but only made $87.3 million. To many box office analysts, this is considered a major box office failure, and it’s very unfortunate not because of the cast of the movie but rather the reputation the original animated movie had and still has today.
Controversies and Backlash: Political and social issues surrounded this film from the beginning. The controversy began when Rachel Zegler, of Colombian heritage, was cast as Snow White. The reason for this uproar was that the Snow White character’s name comes from her skin being as white as snow, as depicted in the original film. Another casting criticism occurred after Gal Gadot’s portrayal of the Evil Queen, which stemmed from her Israeli background and military service. The film’s higher production costs were attributed to the criticism of reimagining the Seven Dwarfs as magical creatures, which actor Peter Dinklage criticized. Rachel Zegler’s controversial statements further fueled the controversy, calling the original film “extremely dated” and describing the prince as “literally stalking” the princess. In November 2024, three months after the 23-year-old actress was criticized for her comment “and always remember, free Palestine [sic]” in a trailer for her PG-rated family movie, she made more comments, including “F–k Donald Trump” and expressing her belief that Trump supporters, voters, and Trump himself would never know peace.
Conclusion: All these factors—poor reception, political controversy, and financial failure—contributed to the film’s downfall. Many people feel that the movie’s overall "political wokeness" overshadowed how bad of a movie critics think it is. From the trailers and clips that I’ve seen with the CGI, acting, and storytelling, I’m not sad about not going to see this movie, and I hope the Disney executives understand that stuff like this will not attract a broad audience.