Film talk: Snow White but not as we have always known it
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remains one of the most famous and beloved children’s films: its ties to the classic fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, its charming animation, and the fact that it made history as the first hand-drawn animation feature film ever made, makes the 1937 film a mainstay, even as it edges towards its 100th birthday.
Now Snow White – like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Mulan and more before it – is being remade as a live-action film. West Side Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes star Rachel Zegler is donning the classic blue and yellow dress to portray Snow White, while Wonder Woman Gal Gadot plays the Evil Queen, Snow White’s stepmother.
For the uninitiated, the archetypal fairytale plot of Snow White goes that a wicked queen, jealous of her stepdaughter’s beauty, orders her murder. Upon discovering that she is hiding in a cottage with seven dwarfs, the evil queen poisons her with an apple, causing her to fall into a deep sleep only to be awakened by true love’s first kiss.
In many ways, the remake follows the same story as the original – a princess teams up with seven dwarfs to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother, the Evil Queen – but there will be some key differences for the 2025 version.
“It’s no longer 1937,” star Zegler, 23, told Variety in 2022. “She’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.”
Rather than her name being derived from her pale complexion, Zegler told Variety magazine that this time around that she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. “And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience,” she added.
Zelger also stars in another of this week’s new releases, science fiction comedy horror film Y2K.
THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:
SNOW WHITE (UK PG/ROI G, 109 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland)
Rachel Zegler whistles while she works in the title role of a live-action reimagining of Disney’s groundbreaking 1937 animated fairy tale featuring new songs by The Greatest Showman duo, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Princess Snow White (Zegler) is raised to be fearless, fair, brave and true by her benevolent parents (Hadley Fraser, Lorena Andrea) and to share the kingdom’s bountiful harvest with the people.
Alas, the Good Queen dies and a beautiful woman (Gal Gadot) bewitches the grief-stricken king and is soon installed on the throne beside him.
The Good King subsequently vanishes, leaving Snow White at the mercy of a cruel stepmother who seizes control of the realm and enslaves her subjects to do her bidding.
When the Magic Mirror (voiced by Patrick Page) decrees Snow White to be the fairest of them all, the Evil Queen plots murder with the help of her Huntsman (Ansu Kabia).
Thankfully, Snow White escapes into the forest and joins forces with seven miners and a spirited bandit named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) to defy her sadistic stepmother’s tyranny.
THE ALTO KNIGHTS (UK 15/ROI 15A, 123 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland)
Academy Award winner Robert De Niro inhabits dual roles in a gritty crime thriller penned by Oscar-nominated GoodFellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi and directed by Barry Levinson.
Organised crime bosses Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro) were once the best of friends, but now they are fierce rivals in 1950s New York.
They compete for control of the city’s mean streets with armies of loyal underlings to do their bidding.
Petty jealousy and simmering resentment set the two men on a collision course that threatens to tear the Mafia apart and reshape the upper echelons of power in the Big Apple.
Y2K (UK 18/ROI 16, 92 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland)
Party like it’s 1999 in a horror comedy directed by Kyle Mooney and co-written by Mooney and Evan Winter.
As a new millennium beckons, best friends Danny (Julian Dennison), Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Garrett (Mooney) discuss plans to celebrate the new year.
Eli is pining for classmate Laura (Rachel Zegler), who already has a boyfriend (Charlton Howard), and he decides to crash a party that Laura is attending with her friends Madison (Ellie Ricker), Raleigh (Lauren Balone) and Trevor (Jacob Moskovitz).
A power blackout shortly after midnight heralds the emergence of sentient machines and electronic devices, which are intent on killing mankind.
Faced with armies of murderous automata, Danny, Eli and other survivors of the onslaught seek refuge in an old mill without any electricity.
FLOW (UK U/ROI G, 85 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis’s lyrical fantasy bested Inside Out 2, Memoir Of A Snail, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot to win this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The dialogue-free picture unfolds in the company of a lone grey cat, slinking through a forest.
The sneaky feline steals a fish from a pack of squabbling dogs and is subsequently caught in a flood along with other fleeing animals.
As the water rises, the cat seeks sanctuary in an abandoned cabin on higher ground with a Labrador.
Still the flood intensifies and just when it seems like the cat’s hiding place will become submerged, the animal finds refuge aboard a sailboat with a most unusual four-legged passenger: an inquisitive capybara.
NE ZHA 2 (UK 12A/ROI PG, 144 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
In 2019, Ne Zha became the highest-grossing animation in Chinese box office history, marking an auspicious debut for writer-director Yang Yu aka Jiaozi.
A direct sequel goes one better and currently stands as the highest grossing animated film of all time ahead of Inside Out 2 and the 2019 reworking of The Lion King.
Ao Guang (voiced by Li Nan), Dragon King of the East Sea, believes that his beloved son, Ao Bing (Han Mo), the reincarnation of the Spirit Pearl, is dead.
The grief-stricken monarch unleashes his fury at the Chentang Pass with a devastating attack coordinated with the other Dragon Kings of the Four Seas.
Ao Guang is unaware that the soul of Ao Bing still exists along with the soul of Ne Zha (Lu Yanting), the reincarnation of the Demon Orb.
Master Taiyi Zhenren (Zhang Jiaming) is harnessing the power of the sacred lotus to regenerate their physical forms near the Chentang Pass.
Alas, Ao Bing’s physical form is fatally wounded in the attack and his soul agrees to share Ne Zha’s body for seven days until they can earn a magical, restorative elixir from the vaults of the Yu Xu Palace, home to immortal Master Wuliang (Wang Deshun) and his disciples.
SANTOSH (UK 15/ROI 15A, 128 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Not every inheritance is a financial gain.
In a rural north Indian town, Santosh (Shahana Goswami) has little time to mourn the death of her husband before she inherits his khaki police uniform and assumes his role as a constable on the force.
The high-profile case of a young girl’s murder exposes deep divisions in the local community and begs unsettling questions about caste and religion.
Santosh is caught in the eye of the storm and nervously navigates the fallout with the support and mentorship of experienced Inspector Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar).
TWO STRANGERS TRYING NOT TO KILL EACH OTHER (UK 15/ROI 15A TBC, 100 mins)
Released: March 21 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Born and raised in New York, 87-year-old Joel Meyerowitz is a renowned photographer whose work is held in notable collections around the world.
English novelist Maggie Barrett is 78 years old, publishes her own novels and performed her own play off-Broadway.
The couple met in middle age and are now married.
In a feature-length documentary directed by Manon Oiumet and Jacob Perlmutter, Meyerowitz and Barrett reflect on mortality, ageing and their relationship.
The couple discuss disparities in their professional fortunes and challenging life events, airing grievances and jealousies in a poetic and artful study of what it means to be a multi-faceted and flawed human.
