The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
From Classic to Controversial: Deconstructing Disney's Snow White Remake
Disney's latest attempt to refresh their animated classics crashes headlong into the pitfalls of modernization with the Snow White remake. What should have been a loving tribute to the film that built the Disney empire instead becomes a cautionary tale about straying too far from what made the original magical.
The fundamental disconnect begins with the characterization of Snow White herself. As Katy astutely observes, "Beauty and strength don't have to all look like shouting in your face." The gentle, kind-hearted princess we remember has been transformed into someone unrecognizable, wearing the iconic costume but behaving in ways that feel completely at odds with the character's essence. Rachel Zegler's singing talents aren't in question, but her portrayal creates a jarring dissonance that never resolves.
Gal Gadot's Evil Queen fails to capture the menacing elegance of the animated villain, coming across as robotic rather than regal. Meanwhile, the decision to render the seven dwarfs in CGI while simultaneously including a person with dwarfism among a group of random bandits creates a bewildering contradiction in the film's approach to representation.
What becomes most apparent throughout our discussion is that Snow White's greatest sin is over complication. The original's simple message about true beauty coming from within gets buried beneath unnecessary plot additions, character modifications, and tonal shifts. As Nathan points out, "If you're going to change the personality and storyline of the character, then why would you put her in the Snow White dress?" This fundamental question highlights how the film attempts to have its apple and eat it too.
The most frustrating aspect is knowing Disney can do better. Other remakes like Cinderella managed to expand on their source material while honoring its spirit. Snow White, scoring a dismal 0.5-1 out of 5 from our hosts, provides a valuable lesson: sometimes the simplest stories are the hardest to retell. Want to experience the best of what this film offers? Skip the movie entirely and just listen to the soundtrack.
The weekend's here. It's time to unwind. Grab your snacks, leave the week behind. Blockbusters classics, they're all on the way. Let's kick it off with Cinema Saturdays.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another Cinema Saturday episode of the Couch Critic. I'm your host, nathan, and on today's episode it only gets better from here because I have my best friend once again on the show Katie. Hi Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I am so good. I'm glad to be talking to you and you weren't feeling well earlier this week and I'm glad you're feeling better.
Speaker 2:Just a little bit of health history for those listening about myself. I cannot throw up and so when I have the need to throw up, my body just goes insane and there have been times where I've had to get a tube up my nose to help me throw up. I know TMI, tmi people probably like why are you talking about this movie review podcast? This is not a health science place. If we wanted that, we'd want a podcast by katie's husband scotty, who is a doctor. So I won't go any further into my health history.
Speaker 2:Let's get right into something else. That may have caused some people to want to throw up. Exactly, katie and I are going to be reviewing the newest disney live action hit according to disney snow white. Notice how I didn't have a snow white and the seven dwarfs because they didn't want to put the seven dwarves in there. Because Rachel Zegler, I'm sorry, and here's. Here's something I want to try not to do when we review this movie, and I didn't.
Speaker 2:I just thought of it. I don't want to talk about what everyone talks about when they talk about this movie. I don't want to talk about Rachel Zegler. I don't want to talk about Gal Gadot. I don't want to talk about Rachel Zegler. I don't want to talk about Gal Gadot. I don't want to talk about the things that they talked about before the movie even came out, that kind of soured people's opinions before they even went to go see it.
Speaker 3:We could make just a blanket statement of like PR nightmare Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want to talk about that because I think people have talked about that to death and I, honestly, I didn't want to go see it. But I went to go see it because I was telling people, hey, I have this movie review podcast, which was a nice way to shamelessly plug my show that that was the reason why I was going to go see it and I was actually open to the possibility of maybe kind of enjoying it which I'm not saying I didn't fully not enjoy it. Is that a double negative?
Speaker 3:Before you get into the review, I want to hear the synopsis.
Speaker 2:A princess joins forces with seven dwarfs to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother, the evil queen. I can't so this live action movie. Stars we already said Rachel Zegler, amelia Foucher, who plays young Snow White, gal Gadot and Andrew Burnett, who plays not a prince, he plays jonathan, just some guy named jonathan he's abandoned let me just say right off the bat I did not care that they cast rachel zegler, because I think she can actually sing.
Speaker 2:She was in West Side Story. She played Maria. I think she has a pretty good singing voice. That did not bother me. I know a lot of people were bothered by that. I didn't care. I didn't even care that they cast Gal Gadot as the evil queen, because everyone's argument was Gal Gadot is a lot more attractive than Rachel Zegler. Yes, that is true. But if you remember the cartoon, it wasn't about the fact that the evil stepmother was ugly. Evil stepmother wasn't ugly either, and the whole point of the movie was that beauty true beauty lies within. So I didn't care that Gal Gadot was cast as the evil queen. I didn't care.
Speaker 3:I was excited to see Gal Gadot because I really like her, so I was like she's going to knock us out of the park. She fell flat. For me, I thought it was awful. Not because of who she is I don't think she's a bad actress, but this was not her role. She is not an evil queen. I'm sorry, but like no part of me was terrified of her whatsoever. Her singing was not great. She felt like a robot the whole time. Rachel Zegler casting horrible choice, in my opinion. I could think of so many other people, because here's the thing yes, you're going to sing in a Disney movie, but like what was the girl for Frozen? Kristen, kristen.
Speaker 2:Bell.
Speaker 3:Kristen Bell, thank you. She's not a singer and she sang in Frozen, Like this particular movie, snow White. Although there's music, it's not known for singing like it's not. It was known for the character of the girl, that it's like a soft tone, very light and airy and just a elegant demure happy woman happy, smiley, like you're just like sing, like just happy joy singing.
Speaker 3:And this girl I told Scott I was trying to give him a review. It's like watching AOC. Like I don't have anything against AOC as a person, but like that's not who I would choose to be the most similar to Snow White's character. So I'm like I could have seen Rachel Zegler as Tangled someone who's the movie is about being a really strong female. I think you can be strong without being blunt and in your face, right. So in my opinion, the girls out there that exist like probably 50% of us, are timid or more quiet people and that's not wrong. Like beauty and strength don't have to all look like shouting in your face. And so to me, this was a huge missed opportunity for Disney to say like hey, you can quietly lead, you can be a classy leader and still make change. So I thought she was a horrible cat. Like she just comes across I can't say the word on our podcast but starts with a B rhymes with which witch. Like she just cubs across so rude every time you watch an interview of her and then this is who you want to play. The sweet, innocent, kind. Like no, oh, my gosh, awful.
Speaker 3:I thought the most, I thought the best cast and the best like acting was the guy that played Jonathan. I loved him. His voice sounded like Owl City. He was that sweet, innocent, like he gave off the most, like kind of sweet kind. I just want to be a nice person, vibes. Anyway, that was a tangent. But that was probably my biggest dislike was either you should have gone totally a different direction, like way totally, and made a different movie and it was like a different take like the Snow White and the Huntsman. If you'll recall, that was like a completely different take on the story of Snow White. But the fact that you're trying to make it the same and use the same lines and use the same very cheesy looking costume but then also make her different, like her having the personality she has while also wearing this childish dress, is just like weird.
Speaker 2:It didn't make any sense to me and it's funny that you said that she you know you could see her personality playing like tangled.
Speaker 3:Or sorry, or like Moana, someone that's just very like in your face.
Speaker 2:But the reason I say that's interesting is because a lot of people had made has have made comparisons with this movie and Tangled how Snow White is kept trapped in the castle and her stepmother is obsessed with beauty, and how Jonathan is basically Flynn Rider and it's just. It's trying to be another thing. While trying to say that you're representing the very first full length feature animated film and the Disney company basically the movie that built Disney You're basically spitting in the face of that legacy by taking it and just not keeping like. Like I said last week when I reviewed the cartoon snow I, the cartoon had one of the most simplistic storylines in the history of movies.
Speaker 1:And somehow.
Speaker 2:Disney thought, hey, let's overcomplicate that by making her try to take over this kingdom and meet this bandit guy and basically become tangled. And okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you think it's kind of weird how they made all the seven dwarves cgi, but one of the bandit friends just so happened to be a small person? And you're telling me you couldn't find six more small people to play.
Speaker 3:No we both know and we don't have to go into, we don't want, but we both know that they got. They were afraid of peter dinklage. I think the seven bandits thing was probably like, wasn't that the whole thing? The seven diversity hires where they kept being made fun of on online?
Speaker 2:Well, that's because they released a photo of the characters who actually ended up in the film, but people were thinking that they were going to be in place of the seven dwarves, which obviously didn't happen, they decided to go with terrible CGI dwarves, which people were like oh but they grow on you? No, they don't. No, they don't at all. And what really doesn't grow on you the most is they tried to give again this. This movie has a simplistic storyline and they overcomplicated almost every aspect of it, including the dwarves, with giving Dopey a oh, my friends are picking on me. That's why Dopey doesn't talk. And then all of a sudden, snow White says hey, if you don't talk, maybe you can whistle, and that gives him the courage by the end of the movie spoiler alert for him to talk.
Speaker 2:I thought it was cute. He doesn't have a voice with it, like every other character in the movie, like all the other dwarves have a voice. That kind of goes with their personality, right, but when he talks it's like we will fight them. Let them come, like what Don't be, just don't. If Dobie's going to talk, he better talk like let them come. I'm like what dopey does? Dope, if dopey's gonna talk, he better talk like let them come, let them try to beat us, that's dopey boys.
Speaker 3:I, I do think I thought it was kind of cute. But I agree with you, it was sort of an unnecessary side quest as well as, like, what are the seven bandits for? Like, what was their purpose? Like just unnecessary characters to dance in the background. I don't know, man guys, snow white, you guys messed it up pretty bad. Disney.
Speaker 3:And I'm not just, I'm not one who hates all the um live action stuff. Okay, like I, I enjoyed the little mermaid that came out and I and I enjoyed it, even though it didn't look like the normal aerial. I know that was a big stink. But she, that actress, has the essence and presence of sweet and kind-hearted and again, when you watch her interview she just seems like a bubbly, sweet, kind young lady. That's what I kind of wanted in this thing. And again, I don't think every princess should be that way. But you've got all these other things you can do, live action, which mesh more with a strong-willed kind of person.
Speaker 3:Last thing, on Snow White specifically, is the bob looked ridiculous. It looked so horrible. I don't know what girl was looking at the movie and was like I want to look like that, she's beautiful. And again, I don't know that anyone would have been mad. I don't think people would have been as mad if they didn't give her the bob, because it's not, it isn't the 1930s anymore, and maybe do whatever hairstyle that's more trendy now, but still that jet black, still the nice big red lips. I don't know. But it was bad, nathan. I'm trying to think of something I liked.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean but, like you said, if you're going to change the personality and the storyline of the character, then why would you put her in the Snow White dress and why would you make her hair similar? Because I don't even think in the cartoon I don't think Snow White's hair looked exactly like that. I don't? She looks like Lord Farquaad, Lord Farquaad which is the joke in Shrek, that Lord Farquaad is the child of Snow White and one of the dwarves. Oh, there you go, but anyway, so yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, and I think to your point you just made, nathan, and if I could summarize how I felt, this was like the worst mix match of trying to do a new age version and also give credit to the past. So, like, the odes to the old one were terribly done in my opinion, and then the new edits I didn't like either. I'm going to, the old one were terribly done in my opinion, and then the new edits I didn't like either. I'm going to compare it to Mufasa, which I know you already reviewed, but my son and I are watching Mufasa right now. I actually really liked Mufasa. I don't remember what you rated it.
Speaker 2:I actually haven't seen it.
Speaker 3:Oh, then let's review it. I loved Mufasa and it was exactly what I would want in a live action remake me, remake type thing for disney. Like all these callbacks, like they had the same song scores in the background but a little bit different, or like scenes that were very similar to what had happened in the previous movie. So like I don't know, and someday my wish will, my, my prince will come, that song's not even in in there. That was, I thought, the iconic Snow White song other than Hi Ho.
Speaker 2:Because she wasn't rescued by the prince.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do appreciate that they still kissed and I did think of my kind thing, I, and it's actually really ironic. My favorite song on the movie was the romantic one, something to do with you when a hand meets the hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a pretty cute.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was a cute and and, ironically, like call me a romantic, I'm kind of a tomboy, but I'm still romantic. Like my favorite part of the movie was the romantic part between the her and the guy. And I'm like, okay, some people like want romance, like we don't have to have every movie now, like who needs a man? Like what about a movie where two people just fall in love and they love each other?
Speaker 2:well, and this and this is where I go back to what I believe is still the best disney live action movie of a classic disney cartoon, which is cinderella, I still think and that was like one of the first ones they did and they've done, you know, aladdin.
Speaker 2:They've done mulan, which mulan was good and mulan needed the changes that they did to it. Okay, there are some of some disney movies that I'm like, okay, there are some changes that can be made. Cinderella even like, fleshed out the characters more, but they didn't drastically change the storyline, like they didn't make cinderella all of a sudden a queen and she had to take down this evil kingdom like battle thing. No, it was simplistic cinderella's. They fleshed out the prince. They even gave the, the evil stepmother, a little bit of a moment of will she be change.
Speaker 2:But it was still like simplistic and that's exactly like. That's what they should have done with snow white.
Speaker 3:If you're gonna do a, two-hour movie and, yeah, if you had cut out all your extra crap it would have been a hour and a half, which is exactly what I probably want to watch in the movie. Oh, nathan, yeah, it was not good, but I have to give credit to the music. Like my, I went with my son and I do want to give his review. He said he loved the movie I don't really know what it means and but the only thing he's talked about is the song Hi-Ho. He has not mentioned any characters, even the dwarves at all. I don't think he cares about Snow White, so like that was.
Speaker 3:The one thing he liked was like the mining scene where you introduce the dwarves in the Hi-Ho song. So I will give Disney credit because I do think they deserve credit for the singing. I thought the songs were nice. I am sad that they didn't have sunday when prince will come, or maybe even a spoof on it, or even if they alluded to it, like even if they said a prince will come, not this time, or just almost some kind of mention it at all well, and they, they took a.
Speaker 2:You know I'm waiting for the one I love to find me. They took out that song. They took out the iconic like besides hi-ho. They took out the iconic songs from the original and put all these like they gave the evil queen a song. For goodness sake it wasn't.
Speaker 3:That was like it was terrible the thing about.
Speaker 2:I mean going back to what you said about gal gadot. I mean this is gonna be a long review because I gotta make up for the really short ones. Gal gadot is, like, like you said, a fantastic actress. I think she tried to play it too evil. Again, that's a very simplistic character. I'm not saying they couldn't have fleshed out the character some more. They could have done something similar they did with Cinderella. Maybe give her a moment where maybe you do feel sympathetic for her. Maybe there's a reason why she's so hard on herself about her beauty and stuff. And then going back to the dwarves, when they did the hi-ho and all this stuff and they touched the, the rock and their hands glowed like. And they never say why like, do they?
Speaker 3:have.
Speaker 2:I was wondering what I thought was kind of what what I thought what they could have done with the storyline is the evil queen is obsessed with diamonds, right, yeah, what are the dwarves mining for in the mines?
Speaker 3:yeah, I, I did. I totally agree. I felt like that was a missed opportunity, like that could have been a tie-in and then they realize this whole time that they've actually been helping the working together.
Speaker 2:And then they realize their wrongs and they don't give Dopey that stupid storyline they gave him and they just they make up for their wrongs and they're actually the ones that lead to spoiler alert Snow White's father's death and so they really have to make up for it. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Well, no, I will will. I will really dark with it. I think I disagree with the general public that like I think a dwarf playing them would have been good, but I do think they're, so they're such a caricature type type characters. I think it would have been harder for a real person to pull that off actually what peter dinklage was talking about.
Speaker 2:He was talking about how it's messed up to do snow white and the seven dwarves nowadays, because it would be like hammering a stereotype with people with dwarfism and that they would. He would hope that they would go in a more quote-unquote, progressive direction with it which disney came out and said oh we, we are totally doing something different and we're consulting with people in the dwarfism community I'm like, what did you consult with? Them about, like how short the cgi character should be. I mean what?
Speaker 3:well, I'm sorry, but no one said that about lord of the rings, when there's dwarves or make it's an animated film you're already changing the character of snow white.
Speaker 2:Why not make the dwarves like some warriors or something?
Speaker 3:no, I mean. I mean you have one of the people in the bandit group being.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry yeah, no, this is. It is crazy. I agree with you, because having dwarfism is not the same as a dwarf from folklore, like that is. That's like saying a fairy I don't in my mind. Like you could have had just like people and they could have even done what they did, uh, in wizard of oz, like could have had adult, like real adult, whatever size people that they just have made look smaller, whatever. Anyway, my thing is, I think you're so right. They were really underutilized. I mean it's because they were CGI, but Snow White didn't have to go be all girl bossy about it. Yeah, she could have worked all together and the dwarves could have helped more.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it was not good, nathanathan, and I'm gonna rank it pretty low well, at the end of the day, disney, if you're listening, you're probably not, but if you are, next time, if you want to go do something like you did with snow white, just make an original movie. Because, honestly, the storyline itself was actually like I liked and this is where I'll end it with something that I kind of liked about the movie. I liked how, when the evil queen took over, people slowly started to forget about a time where there was hope in the kingdom and all of that, where there was hope in the kingdom and all of that. And then when Snow White shows up and she calls them by name, like calls them their names, I'm sorry, if it was an original movie, I might've probably even gotten choked up by that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a really powerful moment.
Speaker 2:Like you call someone by their name, it kind of reminds me of Jesus when he callsary by her name in the show the chosen if they have that storyline in an original movie and all of a sudden they remember hope because of someone that's related to, someone who represented that for them. That would have been a much more powerful moment if it wasn't blanketed by the name snow white, because it, as good as of a storyline as that is, it's marred because of the fact that it's in a movie that has nothing to do with. That has nothing to do with.
Speaker 3:I think they just took way too much.
Speaker 2:True love conquers all and beauty is within Two of the most simplistic ideas in the history of movies, and it still could have been in this one, and you could have updated it a little bit, just like they did with Cinderella, but not totally revamp the storyline to change it completely. So that is my rant. I know I said I would end with something that I liked, but then I still ended up with something that I didn't.
Speaker 3:It was hard. It's hard to do that with this, I think. In summary, I didn't like anything most, or I didn't like 95 of it, but I did like the hand meets a hand song. So here's what I would suggest if you're listening and you want it and you're thinking about it, go listen to the Spotify playlist. Don't watch the movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I liked it for what it could have been if it wasn't tied to the name Snow White. So that is our review of Snow White, the live action version. So what are we going to rate this thing?
Speaker 3:I'm going to rank it because, as a movie, by itself would give it a one, but because of all the acts outside and just who disney was trying to be, I want them to get a 0.5.
Speaker 2:We'll begin with 0.5 yeah, and the fact that they distanced themselves so much from their lead star and canceled premieres for this movie and all of these things surrounding it. I'm still going to give it a one because, again, I liked it for what it could have been. It could have been a. It could have been a decent movie if it wasn't tied to Snow White, but they kind of messed themselves up by doing that. So that is our review on a cinema Saturday of Snow White. You can listen to our first episode of April where I'm talking about another Christmas classic. Katie couldn't guess it last time, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it now Home Alone that's right, talking about Home Alone and is it one of those movies that if you took out Christmas, it could still be something similar? We'll talk about that this Tuesday on the Couch Critic where every movie gets its close-up, close up.
Speaker 1:So grab a seat, let the credits play. We'll see you next for cinema saturdays.
