Speak Now Storyteller

Summary: A princess joins forces with seven dwarfs to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother the Evil Queen.

Pros:

Rachel Zegler as Snow White. Snow White as a little girl grew up with her loving parents, who taught her to be fearless, brave, fair and true. She’s kind-hearted and involved with her kingdom until the story kicks in and her mother dies and her father marries The Evil Queen (TEQ). She’s kindhearted and tries to be the things her father taught her to be but is beat down by TEQ. I think Rachel Zegler is good in the role and I think she would have been even better with a better script. I thought in the moments where she needed to be soft she was and when she needed to be fierce and steadfast she was. I do think her mouth acting at times was distracting but overall, I think she’s the best part of the movie.

• What I think is interesting is how people perceive Snow White as a character in general. Some of the criticism I’ve seen is that Rachel Zegler is “too loud” for this role and I think that’s extremely silly. There have been so many adaptations of Snow White and she has fundamentally remained the same person through each of those adaptations with some tweaks here and there. Depending on the story being told. Yes, this is a remake of Disney’s animated film but it’s also so very different. Her “I want” song is just that, an “I want” song so for her to shout her feelings through song, is just fine.

Andrew Burnap as Jonathan. He’s a new character created for the film as he’s not a Prince. Instead, he’s a rebel who tries to defy TEQ’s monarchy. He’s witty and clever. I think he’s fine as a new character and new love interest for Snow White. Someone who is doing what she wishes she was doing or someone who is a bit more “free” than she is. Andrew Burnap is good in the role with what he’s given. I think he has a nice singing voice and when he gets to be soft for Snow, I thought that was cute.

Snow White & Jonathan. I thought they were fine for the most part, there was some chemistry there. It’s a step up from the animated film, where they got to talk to each other multiple times before the ending. Also the fact that he isn’t a Prince was a fine change. I really liked their duet, I thought it was sweet and I enjoyed the sequence. Outside of the fact that Snow’s dress should have been less “costumey”, there’s a little slow motion shot of her twirling during this duet that I really liked. He has very blue eyes and since this movie has a tendency to do so many close ups, it was strikingly uncomfortable sometimes when they zoomed so close on his face.

The Music. Pasek and Paul return (after writing the original songs for Aladdin) to do the music in this movie. I always listen to the soundtrack after the movie to figure out if I like the songs on their own outside of the sequences in the movie. Sometimes the sequences work with the songs but the songs don’t work on their own. I think overall, all the songs are fine. There isn’t one I dislike for the song alone. The opening song ‘Good Things Grow’ is a nice welcome to this world song. I think Snow White’s new “I Want” song ‘Waiting on a Wish’ is a nice song and Rachel Zegler obviously has an amazing voice so she sings it beautifully. The bridge of the song is probably my favorite part. The additions to ‘Heigh Ho’, I enjoyed. ‘Whistle While You Work’ is a classic and they updated the song a bit and I thought it was cute. The Evil Queen has a song ‘All is Fair’ and I think it’s fine… but Gal Gadot just doesn’t sell it for me. Snow White has two duets with Jonathan and they’re both fine but I like the second one better. I do feel like these songs feel like they were originally intended for the stage instead of a film.

Cons:

Gal Gadot as The Evil Queen. She’s not good. She’s hammy but not in a good way, it’s bad. From her first scene of speaking, I chuckled. I thought she was miscast when she was announced. She’s beautiful but she’s not an overall strong actress and while this movie and role may be looked at as a silly movie/role the, TEQ, is iconic and she has some iconic performances to live up to. But she doesn’t. Her line delivery (Kal-El NO!) was so overacted. I always say that I think she speaks/acts like she’s trying to figure out how to pronounce words because of her accent. Her singing was fine but because she’s not a strong actress when she’s doing the performance, it comes off silly. It’s almost like she thought she was on stage with how overacted her choices were. I don’t know what her direction was, or what she was thinking but it was so distracting. I kept thinking that Catherine Zeta-Jones would have been so good in this role 15 years ago. Shoot, she probably would kill it now.

The Dwarves. The voice acting is fine and their singing is fine. The “heigh ho” song was fun and I enjoyed the new lyrics added but I found their design (besides Dopey) to be crazy. Half the time, I couldn’t tell them apart. Whenever Bashful, Sleepy or Sneezy would speak, I had no idea which was which. I know they were a mix of puppets and CGI but they could have (should have) gone in a different direction with them. The movie has a very “dream-like” feel to it so in a way, they fit that but it’s so… ugly. Besides Dopey, who I loved.

Directing Choices. I noticed too many times how the camera zoomed so close to the actor’s faces. It was very weird. Having closeups are fine and they’re bound to happen, but I feel like it happens way too much in this movie and the closeups are so jarring. I made a comment about it to my sister at least 4 times because I didn’t like it.

More Snow & Jonathan. I thought they were fine overall, but I wish we could have gotten more with them? I thought their chemistry was fine but I would have liked to have seen them do more together? Or something where you could start seeing the longing from them. I feel like it happens so quickly. Obviously, it’s a fairy tale and a kid’s movie, but I think with it being a live action and longer than the animated movie, there was the chance to really amp up the relationships. It was almost there.

More Snow & Dwarves. I think Snow White didn’t spend enough time with the Dwarves to make a true connection with them. She was literally with them for one day. She got to have a moment with Dopey which was nice but not having it with the others was whack. I think we should have stretched her time with the dwarves into at least two days so we could see her interact with them more. We had the introduction, the cleaning sequence and the dance sequence but that was overtaken by the romance duet. I didn’t need her to cook dinner and make them go outside to wash, but I think it would have been nice to have her bake apple pies for them as a thank you for letting her stay. It also would have been a nod to how she and family would bake apple pies for her Kingdom. We could have also gotten the chance to know the dwarves as characters more than just their archetypes according to their names. I just felt like when it came time to them being sad about her dying at the end, it wasn’t earned. Outside of the fact that it’s just sad.

Weak Storytelling/Anticlimactic. I really wish there was a bit extra meat in the script and I think they needed a couple more edits. I could see the potential in there but they didn’t trust themselves? I was annoyed that the climax was anticlimactic. I don’t mind the change of how they had the confrontation with Snow and TEQ but it was boring. It really slowed down the already wonky pacing. The way TEQ lost was interesting, but I think it could have been more dynamic if they had Snow physically involved instead of just standing there watching.

Overall, I don’t think it’s terrible, I think it had some good things in it. But I feel like the biggest problem is how the script is handled. Rachel Zegler is the best part of the movie and Andrew Burnap is fine. The voice acting for the dwarves was fine and I really loved Dopey. I liked the music, the best being the romance duet “Hand Meets a Hand” and “Waiting on a Wish”. I can see the potential for a good live action remake but the script is the weak point, along with Gal Gadot’s performance. It’s distractingly bad. There should have been more interactions to create more depth between Snow White and the dwarves and Snow White and Jonathan. I think it’s very anticlimactic when there was a chance to make the ending interesting since it was changed. Everyone has already talked about Snow’s dress and while I didn’t give it its own point, because it’s not that serious, it could have been so much better. Her red headband should have remained to help breakup the gaudy yellow of her skirt. I also wish she got the chance to change outfits, there was a moment where I thought she was going to but then didn’t. I don’t think it’s as bad as others have said but perhaps I’m being nicer than most.

Rating: 2.7 out of 5 stars.

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