The new Snow White movie starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White, Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and Andrew Burnap as Johnathan, has triggered many mixed reviews and has underperformed at the box office so far. Before I talk about those reviews, here is some information about the movie. It was released on March 21, 2025, distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and was directed by Marc Webb. He is known for directing other famous movies like 500 Days of Summer, and both parts of The Amazing Spider-Man. These movies were box-office hits and quickly became fan favorites. So how come the new Snow White movie did not do so well, both with the fans and the box office? Many factors may answer this question.
Before the movie was even released, there was already a considerable amount of backlash due to one of Rachel Zegler’s interviews with Variety Magazine. Many believed that Zegler suggested that the original Snow White movie was outdated when she said, “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White that’s not gonna be saved by the prince, and she’s not gonna be dreaming about true love.” Many fans of the Snow White movie were enraged by what she said and criticized and harassed her, accusing her of disrespecting the original movie, as well as Disney’s legacy. In another interview with Extra TV, Zegler was accused again of disrespecting and dismissing the significance of the original movie when she expressed, “The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird, weird…” These interviews already left Disney fans with a bad impression of the movie before it even came out, because they believed Rachel Zegler did not understand nor highlight the importance of the movie.
Unfortunately, Zegler was also racially harassed and discriminated against due to her ethnicity. Rachel Zegler endured unfair treatment simply due to her being cast as Snow White. Zegler bravely spoke out about the prejudice she faced “For being brown. For having brown skin. For playing Snow White… There was a lot of harassment from a certain group of people- they were showing up at my apartment and screaming profanities.” This behavior is completely unacceptable and Rachel should not have had to experience that.
Additionally, this film has faced criticism for being “too woke” and many believe that the new movie is cringe, artificial, and has poor acting. As I was scrolling through IMDb, a platform where movies can be rated, I noticed many people have also criticized Rachel Zegler’s and Gal Gadot’s performances; some claim that Zegler’s portrayal of Snow White is inaccurate and lacks emotional depth to the character and that Gadot lacks emotion and the creepy charm of what the Evil Queen should be.
Moving on to statistics, it is evident that this movie is facing a lot of backlash and criticism while also suffering at the box office. On IMDb, this movie has an average rating of 1.5/10 out of around 280,000 users. On Rotten Tomatoes, another website that can be used to rate movies, this movie has an average rating of 5/10 out of 56 Top Critic Reviewers. Additionally, while the film had a budget of around $200 million, it obtained a disappointing domestic gross of $66 million.
In my opinion, I can see where some people are coming from, but some of the criticism is uncalled for. I can definitely say that the movie was not what I was expecting. Rachel Zegler is a phenomenal actress and singer, but I wish that the written score would have called for a higher-pitched and almost wispy voice, like Snow White. I don’t love the fact that Snow White is belting throughout the movie. I still do think that Zegler elevated this movie heavily with her amazing acting and singing. I also agree with some of the comments on Gal Gadot; I think her acting was missing the creepy aspect that is associated with the Evil Queen. Lastly, I don’t love how the dwarves are CGI; I can definitely see why people say the movie feels artificial due to this. I wish they would have used real actors as the dwarves. On the other hand, I did like Whistle While You Work a lot. It was a very fun and whimsical song.
Overall, this movie has faced lots of challenges, including harsh backlash and criticism, box office difficulties, and low user rankings. While Marc Webb has directed many critically acclaimed movies, it is unfortunate that this one will go on his record as a possible box-office disappointment. I believe that some criticism of this movie is understandable, but some is also very uncalled for and completely unacceptable. We will just have to wait and see if this movie will succeed in the future, or if it will just be an underwhelming success.
