Not only does the new “Snow White” avoid being the poison apple of Disney live-action redos, it actually manages to put some extra musical mojo on a ubiquitous fairy tale.
Director Marc Webb’s vision honors but also blows up the template of the original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The better-than-expected revamp (★★★ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday) strips away some of the forgettable matter – no charming princes here! Most importantly, “White” gives an inspired Rachel Zegler a different character arc and a smattering of original songs to let Snow strut as the fairest of them all.
In fact, the fresh stuff is the best part: You’ll note the seven dudes are not mentioned in the new title, and while they’re certainly kid-friendly, the little guys could have just stayed in their mines the whole time and the movie would have been just fine.
The main gist of the 1937 animated classic remains. Snow (Zegler) is a scullery maid dominated by her stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), who’s more super-nasty then straight-up evil here. The villainess is obsessed with asking her Magic Mirror who’s the fairest of them all. When the answer switches from Queenie to Snow, the youngster is tapped to be killed by the royal Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) but instead escapes to a magical forest where she talks to critters and befriends seven colorful roommates all on the shorter side.
The screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson (“The Girl on the Train”) cherry-picks from the cartoon and the old Brothers Grimm tale yet mostly goes its own way, with an even more tragic backstory for Snow and a clear trajectory for her as a Disney princess. When she belts out “Waiting on a Wish” – the nifty “I Want” number among the new tunes by Oscar-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul – Snow is less needing to find love and more yearning to get her royal groove back. Of course, she does share googly eyes with Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a potato-thieving leader of a group of forest bandits, so there’s something for the romantics in the house.
