Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Who’s the Most Resilient Snow White of All?
Personal photo of opening screen of Snow White, the 2025 Disney live action movie, taken March 23, 2025, Dunkirk, NY.
There’s been chatter about Disney’s live action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for…years. Chatter which, of course, I have been following! I decided to go see it this premiere weekend, so I could decide for myself: yay, or nay.
A few things to know upfront:
When I had my early childhood students create fairy tale curriculum projects, the title was, “Disney Didn’t Write the Fairy Tales.” This is not because I hate Disney. Rather, it’s because it’s true. The Disneyfication of folklore has meant that many believe that the movie is the “real” version…and the magic of myriad variants from around the world has disappeared.
I haven’t watched other Disney live action remakes, so I can’t compare them.
I believe that the active imagining of stories in our/children’s mind’s eye is part of their power. Movies, whether animated or live action, diminish this, no matter how well done.
So I went with the goal of seeing how THIS Snow White compared on the Ordinary Magic of Resilience Scale!
It’s not my top pick of tales to read or tell with very young children because of its length and its complexity. But I KNOW young children will go to see it, so I went to a weekend matinee to gauge their reactions.
Unfortunately, there were only four other people in the theater with me, and the youngest was probably ten or eleven! 🫨 Boo!
CAUTION: there are some spoiler alerts in here if that matters to you!
The short version of my review:
I liked it! A lot!
I shoved all the whiny reviews and pearl-clutching controversies out of my head and suspended disbelief. I sat back and let the story transport me.
And the story is a good one! Some of the tweaks in storyline that “purists” were complaining about actually made it a stronger tale of resilience for me.
AND, heads up! Most of these were actually drawn from Snow White variants told in non-European cultures! Kudos to (I suspect) screenwriter Greta Gerwig for digging into sources like folklorist Maria Tatar’s The Fairest of Them All: Snow White and 21 Tales of Mothers and Daughters!
And this brings us around to the braver, more resilient Snow White that we discover in this latest iteration.
She is willing to take risks to save her friends. She fights back when necessary. And in the end, it is she who conquers the Evil Queen, with the help of all those her kindness and courage has touched.
I left the theater with a feeling of hope.
Snow White’s resilience is both gentle and fierce. That’s what allows her to bounce back from loss, adversity and tyranny. She’s my new fairy tale hero.
On to the specifics!
Here are my “Magic Mirrors into Resilience” (Pros) and (Slightly) Poison Apples (Cons) of the 2025 Disney live action of Snow White.
Magic Mirrors Into Resilience (Pros) 🪞
🪞Snow White’s early childhood:
In most Snow White versions, Snow’s mother dies in childbirth and her father just recedes into the background after he marries the Evil Queen.
Not atypical for fairy tale family dysfunction, but it begs the question: was it just her genetic gentle, sweet nature that carried her through all the trauma she experiences? And also: what a weenie her father was!!
In this version, Snow’s mother and father raise her into early childhood. They are shown as not only loving parents (#Relationships!), but generous and fair rulers of the land (#Cultural Affirmation). They offer their daughter lots of opportunities to help her fellow citizens (#Initiative) and co-regulate with her when she shows hesitation and fear at the well that she can’t be everything they hope for her (#ExecutiveFunctions #SelfRegulation).
Not only does this create the foundation for her resilience (according to the research! 🧐), but it’s a happy, gentle way to start a story which has, honestly, a lot of darkness in it.
🪞A truly evil Evil Queen
Enter the Evil Queen, who quickly enchants and marries Snow’s widowed father, and sends him off to fight an unnamed enemy. Thus saving him from permanent “Worst Dad Ever” status, as she turns the kind-hearted Snow into a servant girl.
Like all fairy tale villains, this Queen is ALL BAD: selfish, greedy, arrogant, mean, and viciously jealous. And this is one of the things that makes fairy tales work for kids: there is no ambivalence about her intentions, or her redeeming qualities. She has none.
And that makes her order to the huntsman to slay Snow White easier to handle. Bad people do bad things, according to children’s moral logic. Period. I’m glad Disney didn’t try to soften or humanize her.
🪞The band of robbers
Lots of reviewers pointed to the inclusion of the “band of robbers” as some kind of PC stunt. In fact, a number of the versions of the story have Snow discovering just such a band of robbers in the forest, rather than, or in addition to, dwarfs or other helpers.
So kudos to Disney for nodding to variants like the Chilean Blanca Rosa and the Forty Thieves or Rimonah of the Flashing Sword, told in the northern Africa .
Like the robbers in the movie, THESE robbers are not actually bad people.
They are the farmers and sailors and tradespeople whose lives had been upended by the Evil Queen’s destructive reign.
🪞True love’s kiss
There’s been lots of hubbub over the years about True Love’s Kiss and the issue of consent.
Disney sidesteps this by including a forest party scene where Snow and her robber friend almost kiss…and then realize that they have an audience. So when he kisses her before she’s revived, the consent issue seems moot.
🪞Powerful demise of the Evil Queen
In the Grimm’s variant, she attends the wedding of Snow White and the Prince: “But iron slippers had already been put upon the fire, and they were brought in with tongs, and set before her. Then she was forced to put on the red-hot shoes, and dance until she fell down dead.”
In the original Disney version, she is ready to roll a boulder down onto the dwarfs when a flash of lightning strikes and she plummets into an abyss.
I mean…she deserves to go.
In 2025, she shatters her Magic Mirror in anger when it reveals Snow’s inner beauty will always make her more beautiful. The Evil Queen turns into glass, which in turn shatters dramatically.
She is destroyed by her own greed and vanity. JUSTICE!
Note: The imagery reminded me of the dramatic shattering of the magic porcelain reflecting bowl that ends her reign in Rimona of the Flashing Sword (retold by Eric Kimmel, illustrated by Omar Ray Yan), though in that variant, Rimona hurls it after the escaping Evil Queen. Same result!
🪞 And yes, there IS a love story and lots of cute animals appear!
Enough said!
The (Slightly) Poison Apples: Cons 🍎
🍎 Snow’s escape through the forest
This is, visually, one of the scarier scenes in the movie. The scene pretty much parallels the Grimm’s version, as well as the 1937 Disney animation.
So: know your child, and it’s ok to cover your eyes!
🍎 No strong warning not to talk to anyone
In most variants, Snow White is told by the dwarfs to stay in the house and NOT to let anyone in. This doesn’t happen in the movie.
They caution her about taking off into the woods by herself, but that’s about it. No mention of being careful at the cottage.
As I wrote in this blog post , Snow White’s self-regulation challenges when faced with the temptations of the “old woman’s” wares are a powerful message to children who struggle with this themselves.
In the movie, she seems hesitant about taking the poison apple, but just for a moment, and without explanation. Not a huge deal, I guess.
🍎 Music
Some of the musical numbers seemed to go on too long. Kids might enjoy them because they are lively, but they interrupted the story at times (for me).
On the flipside: Rachel Zegler has a magnificent voice! Way more magical than the 1937 Snow!
🍎 The dwarfs
The dwarfs were ok as AI/blended/whatever.
I thought a few of the scenes with them dwarfing around, both in the cottage and especially, in the mines, were a little long and slapstick but also think these would appeal to kids.
I re-watched the original this week and discovered that THOSE dwarfs were…well…REALLY goofy and slapstick all the time.
I guess I DO prefer a bit more humanity in my magical beings. Even if they are animatronic! 🙄
And in the end: isn’t this what resilience is all about?
Becoming ever more connected and fully human so we can tap into our magical powers to overcome all odds?
Have YOU seen Snow White? What did you think? I’d love to hear below!
