There are a lot of movies to look forward to on the 2025 release schedule. As a huge Disney fan, the list of upcoming Disney movies alone has me incredibly excited for what's on the way. There are new Marvel movies, I will be seated for Tron: Ares, and then, of course, there’s the surefire blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash. However, of all the Disney movies on the way, the one I am most looking forward to may actually be the live-action Snow White.
Am I convinced the movie is going to be a massive critical and commercial success? Absolutely not. In fact, it’s the question of just how Snow White will turn out that has me so intrigued by it. It could be great, but it’s equally likely, if not more so, that it’s going to be a mess. The movie is already the subject of multiple controversies regarding everything from the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White to the use of CGI to create the dwarfs.
A lot of fans seem ready to write off Snow White for any number of reasons, but I’m not ready to do that yet. I freely admit this film has a pretty significant mountain to climb if it’s going to work out, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Disney may have a plan for how to handle this modern version of a classic story.
Disney’s Live-Action Snow White May Have Trouble Blending A Modern Heroine With The Classic Story
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first animated feature film and was the highest-grossing movie ever made when it was first released. It's still one of the best Disney animated movies, and it’s a true classic in every sense of the word. As such, it’s a story that everybody knows, even if you’ve somehow never actually sat down to watch it. All signs point to Snow White at least mostly being a faithful retelling of the Disney classic, but we know there will be some differences.
Rachel Zegler has said that Snow White won’t be saved by a prince this time around. While it’s unclear what that means specifically; like will there be a magical kiss to awaken her after she bites into the poison apple or not?
The trailer for Snow White has shown us a few scenes that don’t exist in the animated movie. Among them is a shot of Snow White standing with pikes pointed at her as she says she wants to take her kingdom back. This is certainly a far more proactive Disney heroine than we see in the animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, who is largely a passive observer in her own movie.
This is, to be sure, a positive development. A version of Snow White who actually does something is an improvement compared to a character who simply has the plot happen to her. At the same time, how the movie is going to balance this more progressive Snow White, with all of the original film’s classic moments, is a significant question.
The Snow White of the animated movie is innocent to the point of being naive. It’s for this reason that it’s at least believable that she would take a bite of an apple offered to her by a random old woman in a forest. But Rachel Zegler’s version of Snow White is not that sort of character from what we see, so how will these two concepts fit together?
I see a couple of possible ways for this to work, and either one has the potential to make the live-action Snow White a very different movie than you are probably expecting.
Radical Idea #1: Snow White Is More Sequel Than Remake
The first idea is that while Snow White appears to be a live-action adaptation of the animated original, that’s not really what’s going on, or at least, that’s not only what’s going on. The story from the animated movie might only be a small portion of the total runtime of the new Snow White. Events could play out more or less as they do in the film, but a majority of the runtime could follow the story after Snow wakes up from her apple-induced coma.
Perhaps we’ll get the naive Snow White who takes random fruit from strangers at the beginning of the movie. Then, after she wakes up and discovers what happened to her, she is changed by the experience, leading her to lead the rebellion against the Queen, who, in this version, isn’t killed in a random accident while Snow White was asleep.
This idea isn’t without precedent. The live-action adaptation of Dumbo follows this structure. The story we know from the animated movie, about an elephant that is born with massive ears, picks up a magic feather, and discovers he can fly, is Act I of the live-action movie. The bulk of the runtime is given over to the story of what happens after, which includes a run-in with evil Walt Disney.
This would certainly work for Snow White. It still gives the film the ability to tell the story people love and to hit those key moments and memorable songs, while also being a more modern version of the story. But that’s not the only way it could work.
Radical Idea #2: Snow White Never Bites Into The Apple
The second idea is a bit more radical because it actually would change a key element of the original movie, but in a way that might make sense for a modern retelling of the story. What if Snow White never actually takes a bite of the apple?
The trailer for Snow White shows one hand, which appears to be the Queen in her crone form, handing the apple to another hand, which appears to be that of Snow White. Having said that, we haven’t seen an image of Snow White taking a bite or ending up in her glass coffin as she does in the animated movie.
Since, again, this is a story that everybody knows, these moments wouldn’t exactly be spoilers, so it’s at least possible that the reason we haven’t seen them is that they don’t exist. If the Snow White that Rachel Zegler is going to play is going to take a more active role in her story and isn’t going to be naive to the point of farce, then there would be no better way to show that difference than to have Snow be suspicious of the apple and not actually take a bite.
While A Radical Version Of Snow White Is Possible, There’s A Reason It May Not Happen
There’s one major reason why we may not see either of these concepts or any other significant changes play out. The Disney live-action remakes that have been the most financially successful have been the ones that strayed from the source material the least. Snow White reportedly has a significant budget to make back, so one imagines Disney would be gun shy about making massive changes to a story that might turn off audiences.
Having said that, I would love to see either of these scenarios play out, and it’s barely possible we could see both of them fit together. I’m hopeful that there is something about the new Snow White that we’re not being shown, something that will allow the movie to not simply be a reproduction of the original.
While general audiences might prefer remakes that are faithful to the original, I feel if you're going to remake something, you should have something fresh to offer. I’m far from convinced that if the original story simply inserts a modern protagonist, it’s going to work. A version of Snow White where the original Disney Princess also becomes the hero of her movie isn’t a bad thing. I want to see that movie.
