Movie Review: 'Disney's Snow White' is a Celebration of Empathy, Community and Courage

Disney’s Snow White

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by Erin Cressida Wilson

Starring Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap

Release Date March 21st, 2025

Published March 21st, 2025

Disney’s Snow White is exactly the movie we need at this moment. At a time when supposed leaders say things like ‘The fundamental weakness of Western Civilization is empathy,’ Disney’s Snow White takes a stand in favor of empathy. Indeed, the film boils down to a battle of good versus evil where a venal, greedy, oligarch is defeated by empathy, compassion, and courage. And not a single sword pierces flesh, no arrows fly, and no bodies pile up in the process. The triumph of good over evil is a victory of community over the selfishness of the few.

Disney’s Snow White stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, the princess of a kingdom run with benevolence, honesty and compassion by her parents, played by Hadley Fraser and Lorena Andrea. When the Queen dies, the King falls under the spell of a newcomer who comes to be known as The Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). When the King goes to war and does not return, The Evil Queen locks Snow White away while she steals the wealth of the kingdom, starving the people, and enslaving the farmer as guards under her magic spell.

Obsessed with wealth in the form of gold and jewels, The Evil Queen’s only weakness is vanity. The Evil Queen must be known as ‘The Fairest of them all’ and thus, when a now grown Snow White is said to be the Fairest, The Queen demands that Snow White be killed. The Evil Queen tasks The Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) with taking Snow White into the forest where he will cut out her heart and bring it back to The Evil Queen. However, when The Huntsman witnesses Snow White’s kindness and compassion he can’t bring himself to harm her.

Instead of listening to The Evil Queen, The Huntsman frees Snow White releasing her into the forest to find refuge. This will spell doom for The Huntsman who is placed in the dungeon once The Evil Queen realizes Snow White has escaped. Meanwhile, in the forest, Snow White finds a small cabin. The inhabitants of this cabin are seven dwarves, each with distinctive personalities. After much kerfuffle, they agree to shelter Snow White while she plans to search for her father who may somehow still be alive.

A group of forest dwelling thieves and outcasts claim to have pledged their allegiance to the one true King, perhaps indicating that they know where the King is. The bandits are led by Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) who happens to rescue Snow White from the Queen’s guards as they search the forest to retrieve her. After a bit of bickering back and forth, it’s quickly apparent that Jonathan and Snow White are destined to be together. Not only will they find love, together they will lead the kingdom in an uprising against The Evil Queen.

It’s all very simple and straightforward. The Snow White story that audiences have long been familiar with is fully intact, with embellishments intended to extend the story to feature length. These include new pop tunes and a new love interest character in Jonathan. These added elements work well enough to expand the Snow White universe. The music isn’t exactly to my taste, I found it a bit bland, but I am not the target audience for this movie. The music is intended to appeal to kids 8 to 12 years old who are learning to appreciate music for the first time and will appreciate the simple compositions with simple messages.

I don’t know why people think that is a negative. There is a grave shortage of big movies made for such young audiences. I happen to think that Disney’s Snow White is exactly the kind of movie that kids need to see today. As America struggles in a left versus right battle for the American soul, a movie like Disney’s Snow White enters the fray speaking to kids with a message that empathy is good and greed is bad. It’s so simple and yet so resonant. Snow White is kind, empathetic and courageous and these qualities make her a great leader while The Evil Queen is greedy, selfish, and vain, and these qualities doom her as a leader.

Disney’s Snow White never set out to be a political statement. The time in which the film is being released simply renders the film into a political statement. The film perfectly straddles the ideological divide between people advocating for compassion and community and those who are selfish and self absorbed. The message of the movie is that coming together, working together and caring about each other is good and being selfish and greedy is bad. This should not be a political message. It should not have to be posited as an ideological divide and it had no intention of illustrating a political divide. It simply does illustrate the divide and does so in a way that is remarkably valuable.

Disney’s Snow White ends without a punch thrown, a sword swung, or even a shout. The film closes with Snow White appealing to the goodness in people who then decide to put down their weapons and help Snow White rebuild the community that her kind, empathetic, and benevolent parents had built years before. The message is that we are better together, sharing the wealth and bounty, caring for each other and making our decisions based on compassion, kindness and courage. That should not have to be political but when American leaders oppose empathy and encourage us not to be kind and not share our wealth and bounty, it becomes courageous to make empathy the greatest weapon of all.

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