‘Snow White’ (2025) Isn’t the Fairest of Adaptations
Disney’s recent remake of Snow White is as underwhelming as most people have, in some capacity, come to expect. And well … it didn’t disappoint.
Snow White begins like many fairy tales, with a good King and Queen longing for a child. One snowy night, the Queen gives birth to a daughter and names her Snow White. Her father gifts her with a locket inscribed with the words: “Fearless. Fair. True. Brave.” After her mother’s death, the King remarries, but his new bride—the Evil Queen—sends him off to war, and he’s never heard from again.
Snow White eventually meets Jonathan, a leader of bandits who steals from the castle to help the people. When he’s punished for the crime, she helps free him, which leads the Queen to call for Snow White’s execution. Fleeing into the forest, Snow White finds refuge among the seven dwarves and reunites with Jonathan and his band. Together, they return to the kingdom and, through kindness and courage, rally the people to rise against the Evil Queen.
While the story keeps several traditional elements like the poisoned apple and the dwarves, I couldn’t help but think after watching that what Snow White really needed was a Prince.
In a previous article, I alluded to the allure of bad boys in fiction, a trend which continues in this remake. Jonathan is a bandit. He is not royal, nor of noble blood, nor of any known honorable lineage. He merely remembers the kingdom’s better days under the old King and resists the Queen’s rule in his own way.
This raises questions for this viewer: is there a desire to show that good men no longer exist? And that the only kind a woman can depend on are morally gray?
When the storybook closes at the end, we see Snow White crowned—but not wedded. There is no declaration of true love, no promise of unity, no kingdom joined in peace. There’s no wedding, children, or anything.
I couldn’t help but think: Why can’t the princess be rescued by the Prince? Or, if not rescued, then why couldn’t she fight by Prince’s side? Could not his army have arrived in her hour of need? Could their forces, joined together, not have overthrown the Queen?
Make no mistake, in fairy tales, the Prince is not merely a love interest; he is a symbol. He is the future. He is the promise of safety and rest after trial.
It’s no secret that fairy tales were often an allegory of Christian thought. That the Prince/Knight/King/Hero was Christ and the damsel in distress/the forgotten children/the kind girl betrayed/the lost is the Body of Christ seeking a rescuer to save them from their time of turmoil. There are times when the bandits, the robbers, the demons, the dragon is too big, too powerful to handle. Where you’re caught in a situation where you are unable to rescue yourself from.
The Prince comes and saves the day. He risks his life to protect the one in trouble. For a reward, she is given a kingdom, and a prince who loves her.
Without a prince to save the day, we lose an important truth: There are good men who do come to save the day. In the original 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Snow White pined for that day when she sang, “Someday My Prince Will Come.”
Surely that’s the end of a fairy tale we can all get behind.
Isn’t it?
Love your thoughts. I haven’t seen the movie, and don’t think I will — I just love the classic fairytales too much to indulge what they’re producing now.
Thank you so much for the response. it’s not terrible, but it’s not great. Snow White elevated Disney to the status it is now and I think had different choices been made, it could have easily been a billion-dollar movie.
I love this. And it’s so true. I won’t be watching it but I’m glad you did so you could put some real insight into this mess of a movie. Thanks again for your time and your article!!
Thank you for responding and I appreciate the kind words!
Hi there Parker! Very thoughtful article. I don’t totally agree with your take on this version as a total disappointment, though. My family and I enjoyed it together, basically for its own sake. I felt they made the motivation of Snow’s character quite believable and the ending where she led the retaking of the kingdom very inspirational. I myself compared the evil queen’s takeover to rampant liberalism that sought to make everyone equally miserable and “cared for” in her eyes. Returning the kingdom to a free market and a land of voluntary help of neighbors and entrepreneurs actually fits in well with what is currently going on in America! I doubt that this is what Disney meant to portray, but I’ll take their version of Snow White (much like women in Trump’s cabinet!) over such “evil queens” as Hillary Clinton and Trump’s opponent in the prez race (why can’t I recall her name?) any day!
Thank you for the response. It’s not a terrible movie, just not a great one in my opinion. The quality wasn’t great either, but hey, not everyone disliked it so you’re in good company.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I always suspected that despite all the controversy, it’d turn out to be broadly liberal in its milieu but not so much so that a conservative couldn’t conceivably enjoy it. Sounds like I was right.
Thanks for this article! It puts into words something that I’ve been noticing: how “Prince Charming” is increasingly being dropped from many fairy tale movies. It seems to be part of a trend away from including romances in action/adventure/fantasy movies in general. What do you think?
Thank you for your response. I think the romances are still there but they’re not well-developed. As a romance author, I’ve heard people say that all romance strives to be is kissy, kissy books when it’s more than that. So its often thrown into the story in a superficial capacity and given time for the couple to grow together.
My greatest pet peeve is the lack of strong male characters in fiction, and I’ve written a couple times on the subject despite not being male because… well, no one else is doing it (I did a very long google search and it was SO hard to find articles on writing strong male characters. Dozens and dozens on writing female characters, but like, zilch for the guys), and if it’s gonna take a girl to speak up for more strong male characters, so be it. I want more romances like Dee Henderson books. What has happened to all the heroes? I’m tired of the bad boys.
Disney is one of the worst at this, although I will say, Kristoff and Flynn Ryder were both brilliant. They might be the only strong male characters in the entirety of Disney (and yeah, Flynn might fall into the bad-boy category, but he DOES get a redemption arc and she doesn’t fall in love with him for that. She falls in love with him for those rare moments when he’s NOT being a thief.). I’m terrified what the eventual Frozen sequels are going to do to Kristoff…
I’m just gonna add, I’m ten times more likely to like a male character who is protective (I love adorably protective ship dynamics, it gets me every time) than one who just always lets everyone do their own thing because he doesn’t care.
Me too!
Thanks for your response. I love strong male characters. I’m not sure why some feel we have to sacrifice one for the other. Why can’t they both be strong and capable in different ways?
OH MY GOODNESS YES!!! I actually started referring to it as the “Dr. Doofenshmirtz Ideology” in my articles because his plans are always “to make me look better by comparison”.
One of my novel ideas I’ve set aside for the future is actually a Celtic romance fantasy that is going to tackle this exact topic. The FMC comes from a highly patriarchal, male-dominant society, and the MMC comes from a matriarchal, female-dominant society, and despite the fact that both of them are heirs, they are both demonized for being the gender they are (she for being emotional and not as physically strong as males, and he for being “too strong” and not as emotionally intuitive as the females). I’m hoping that when I write it, I can show them learning how yes, they are different, but their differences make them stronger together as equals.
In the meantime, I just try to write strong male and female characters in general with my stories.
Sounds lovely. Women are very cerebral, and we tend to focus on multiple scenarios at once which is why you can have, say a mom, talking to a friend, cooking, and watching the children at the same time. But she strategically puts everything in such a way so that each gains her attention. This isn’t to say that men aren’t cerebral either. Hardly that. I think it’s just expressed differently. Your story sounds great!
I’ve heard it described as spaghetti vs waffles: women have spaghetti minds and their thoughts lace over and are all connected at some point. And guys (I’ve had this confirmed by my brother and dad XP) are one thought at a time thinkers; the constant piece of advice my brother has given me on writing guys is “a logically lined thought process, one category a time”. Thoughts are organized into individual sections, like the divots in waffles. They don’t make as many mental leaps. Which is probably one of the hardest things for me to actually WRITE when I have my male characters, especially as an ADHD girl XD.
Any guys who read this, of course, can feel free to disagree. This is just what I’ve gotten from my dad and brother shrugs
One pastor said there’s a box for everything and the boxes don’t touch.
Love this post, Parker! Thank you so much for writing it.
I definitely agree about the prince/hero needing to be a strong leader, someone who is moral and on whom the princess/peasant girl can depend on. It’s so sad that that is lost now. I definitely don’t think I will be watching this remake, and it’s nice to find other voices out there that back up my thoughts on it.