Snow White movie a dismal failure in S’pore theatres, netizens slam musical film

Snow White movie screening performance due to “multiple compounding controversies”: critic

What was meant to be a magical fairytale movie with a happily ever after seemingly unravelled into a nightmare.

The newly released Snow White movie — starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the evil queen — has quickly amassed significant backlash and cynical reviews.

Since its Singapore premiere last Thursday (20 March), the movie has seen poor ticket sales, with local screenings seeing near-empty halls.

Source: Golden Village

Netizens slam musical film while others offer nuanced responses

Netizens who have watched the movie provided mixed reviews. One reviewer pointed out the lack of a wow factor in the movie, and that it “prioritised wokeism over compelling storytelling.”

Source: Golden Village

However, there were others who enjoyed the movie — one praised it for being “great entertainment for the family.”

Source: Golden Village

Speaking to MS News, film critic and freelance writer Jedd Jong said he enjoyed the “musical theatre DNA” of the movie most.

The 32-year-old found that Zegler is a “talented performer who was excellent in West Side Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”

“I think she did a fine job in Snow White, but I also feel like the movie doesn’t quite nail down the characterisation of Snow White because it is trying to give her emotional interiority but doesn’t get all the way there.”

However, he said Gal Gadot “wasn’t good in this movie at all,” he said, adding that she was “doing too little and too much at the same time”.

“I loved Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, and I don’t think Gal Gadot’s portrayal of the evil queen compares to that.”

Mr Jong also pointed out that while the movie has an estimated production cost of S$240 to S$270 million, he did not feel “all that money is up on the screen”.

Movie shrouded in controversies

Besides what was shown on-screen,  the movie was also shrouded in its fair share of controversies.

Before the movie’s release, Zegler made statements that unsettled purists. She noted that the original Snow White movie debuted in 1937 — “and very evidently so” — referencing its outdated themes.

In addition, she criticised the film’s focus on romance, highlighting that the prince “literally stalks her” — a dynamic she bluntly proceeded to call “weird”.

Critics also claimed that Zegler, a Latina, should not be playing a character who is referred to as having “skin as white as snow”.

Palestine-Israel controversies surrounding 2 main leads

The movie also faced considerable backlash due to the geopolitical stances held by the two leads.

Zegler and Gadot were found to be on opposite ends of the raging war between Palestine and Israel.

On 13 Aug 2024, Zegler thanked netizens after the movie’s trailer garnered 120 million views. However, she ended with the line “and always remember, free Palestine.”

Source: Rachel Zegler on X

Despite receiving pressure from Disney, Zegler reportedly refused to delete the post.

Gal Gadot, on the other hand, has openly expressed her support for her native country, Israel. She also faced backlash from anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists, who called for a boycott of the Snow White movie over her casting.

The Snow White movie thus “found itself embroiled in a fight between its two biggest stars over Middle Eastern politics”, The Guardian reported.

Mr Jong shared that although he did not follow the controversies too closely, he believes that “several distinct controversies blended together and got muddied.”

However, he noted that some of the controversies have been “overblown amidst legitimate and substantiated criticism about the movie.”

In Jong’s view, the “biggest problem” with the movie is the computer-generated imagery (CGI) dwarves.

While he understands that certain roles may not be acceptable for actors with dwarfism to take on, “the designs sit right in the uncanny valley, like in The Polar Express.”

“They’re cartoony because the dwarves are meant to resemble their counterparts in the 1937 film, but also hyper-detailed, so they’re uncomfortable to look at,” he said.

Source: Disney on YouTube

Multiple factors affecting Snow White movie ticket sales

Jong pointed out that a movie’s success or failure is not usually attributed to a single factor. Controversies certainly affect ticket sales, but in the case of Snow White, there are “multiple compounding controversies.”

He maintains that a little controversy “usually piques audiences’ interests, but at a certain point, there is an event horizon, and Snow White may have hit that.”

Jong also explained that given the current economic climate, audiences are becoming increasingly selective about how they spend their money. Even a hint of negative buzz can be enough to dissuade someone from purchasing a movie ticket— “especially if the movie will become available on streaming fairly soon.”

“I think if you put the controversies aside, it shares a lot of shortcomings with other live-action Disney remakes, so it helps to go into the movie with those expectations,” he advised.

Also read: Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear gets NC16 rating in S’pore, animated film features same-sex kiss scene

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Featured image adapted from Rachel Zegler on Instagram and Disney Studios on Instagram.