(Ray J's Autism Friendly Review) - Disney's "Snow White" (2025 - Live Action)🍎🎶✨ - Heigh Ho! This Is A New Low!

Genre:

Fantasy/Musical

Where To Watch:

Stream On Disney +, Purchase Or Rent Digitally

MPAA Rating:

PG

Runtime:

1 Hr 49 Minutes

Cast:

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Emilia Faucher (Voice Cast: Jeremy Swift, Andrew Barth Feldman, Martin Klebba, Titus Burgess, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Andy Grotelueschen)

Directed By:

Marc Webb

Ray J's Thoughts:

Fleeing from the Evil Queen, Snow White finds refuge with Dopey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Doc and Sleepy. When the palace guards embark on a mission to bring her back, a commoner and his group of woodland bandits band together to protect her.

Setting all controversies & cautiousness aside, I was fully prepared to be seated with my popcorn, Sprite & peanut butter M&M's to find myself pleasantly surprised with Disney's live-action "Snow White". I typically enjoy most musicals...even if the movie isn’t perfect, there’s still a chance of enjoyment!! Unfortunately, much of this film did not sit right with me. I'll get to that in a minute, but let me discuss positives first.

"Snow White's" got 99 problems, but Rachel Zegler’s singing ain't one. In fact, I enjoyed the vast majority of new original songs & updated renditions of classics (although you won't be hearing Zegler take on "Someday My Prince Will Come"). The new original songs early on (such as "Good Things Grow" & "Waiting On A Wish") standout amongst the rest. "Good Things Grow" is very much of classic Disney sound, while the number itself is delightfully reminiscent of "Belle" from "Beauty and The Beast". "Waiting On A Wish" is your typical Disney 'I Want' track, but Rachel Zegler's vocals stun on this one, making it a pleasant listen. Sonically, Gal Gadot's big number "All is Fair" is not bad either, BUT the number itself is A MESS - with cringe Tik Tok choreography attempting to be incorporated...YIKES! I'll admit that the new renditions of "Heigh Ho" & "Whistle While You Work" are not too shabby either. I particularly enjoyed the colorful visuals during "Heigh Ho" in the gem mine (if you enjoy the "Seven Dwarfs Mine Train" ride at Disney World, you'll love this musical number). One more positive before I dive into the tarnished water well - the CGI animals are actually pretty cute & it was a good decision to make the facial features more cartoonish than realistic.

Okay.....(breathes in & out deeply). As the movie went on, the more & more I became frustrated!! Disney needs to take a long look in the magic mirror, because they are the furthest from fairest of them all. Is Disney the Evil Queen? That's for you to decide! I'll start with the non-controversial areas. This live-action adaptation roughly cost 210 million to produce....so then WHY DOES IT LOOK SO TERRIBLE? Granted, not all of the CGI & effects are bad (as I mentioned the adorable CGI of the forest animals, and colorful visuals in the gem mine during "Heigh Ho"). The visual displeasure lies mostly within unprofessional green screen visuals & the ATROCIOUS CGI of "The Magical Creatures" - yes, it's true that they aren't called dwarfs. As you may or may not know, the CGI designs of the dwarfs/magical creatures/whatever were created by rendering the facial features of their respective voice actors - one of whom is an actual little person actor (Martin Klebba) & another who is a person of color (Titus Burgess), but the CGI dwarf/magical creature/whatever is light skinned - can you imagine? Not to mention that there are little people featured in the film (as extras) & another plays the role of a bandit. Yet Disney chose to pander to Twitter/X & Peter Dinklage & not hire little people in the roles. Remember that supposed "leaked photo" that people were up in arms about because they thought this diverse group of average height people was actually the new Seven Dwarves? Turns out that group is actually still in the movie, however they are bandits who are acquaintances of Snow White's love interest, Jonathan (also a bandit & not a prince). There's also a pretty significant twist regarding one of the dwarves/magical creatures/whatever, that I have a feeling will not go over well with audiences. Some may pick up on it early on.

There's a lot of obvious hypocrisies in this film that don't align with Disney's alleged ethics & further proves where the studio's phony priorities lie. It's sad & frustrating to behold, especially when the finished product is cheap in appearance & quality compared to many of their film's from the last five to ten years. It's one thing to make impactful & modern changes to a story, and another when the effort is so blatantly artificial & not well done.

Unfortunately, the controversies surrounding Disney's live-action "Snow White" prove warranted, given the smallest of saving graces from Rachel Zegler's performance + a handful of pleasant original songs (composed by Benj & Pasek - who wrote the music for "The Greatest Showman", "Dear Evan Hansen" & "Spirited"). Kids may not mind, but this time around Disney did it to themselves with this mess...

Ray J's Rating:

🌟Out Of 5 Stars