This Review Contains Spoilers.

From when I watched the original Snow White for the first time at the beginning of the year until now, my stance on the remake was both clear and hopeful: the original is so paper-thin that whatever the remake could add would be an improvement, especially as it concerned the depth of both Snow White and her Prince, who’s alarmingly absent from the original. I’m beyond glad to say that I was totally right, and Snow White (2025) will be the first remake that I actually prefer to the original, and for many reasons.

For starters, Rachel Zegler was a revelation in the titular role; she dominated the screen with her acting and her musical abilities, and all of her songs were powerfully delivered. It was clear that she was the most talented member of the cast in each of her scenes with Gal Gadot, who was never offensively bad, but evidently lacked the emotional depth or range that the rest of the movie had. Gadot’s song was also a surprise—who knows if that was her singing—and it actually sounded alright, though it was my least favorite of the new songs.

Those new songs, though, were really great! I had heard “Waiting On A Wish” many times over the past few weeks and have grown to love it, but “Good Things Grow” and “A Hand Meets A Hand” were surprises and sensational. Pasek and Paul did a great job retaining the themes of the nixed original songs in their new ones, and I especially enjoyed young Snow White and her father echoing their family virtues to each other in the well, a la “I’m Wishing”. The music was great across the board, and the original songs were preserved well, especially “Heigh-Ho”. “Princess Problems” will be the kids’ favorite of the bunch, though, and I have no problem with that.

As far as the story was concerned, the original story was so bland and uneventful, but this new writing team preserved the original’s themes well while also adding background for the kingdom, the Queen, Snow White, and especially her Prince, whose name is now Jonathan. Their love story was much improved, too, mostly because they were both part of the story this time, not to mention how they improved each other in equal amounts. I liked how Jonathan wasn’t a prince and that he and Snow White falling in love with each other was natural and reciprocal and built on shared principles. And again, “A Hand Meets A Hand” was a great climax to the development of their relationship. Much of what was added to the story and each of the characters was worthwhile and made for a much more dynamic and enjoyable story, one that benefited from an added thirty minutes in its runtime.

As for the dwarfs, I was initially skeptical of their appearance and demeanor, but grew to like them eventually, and I honestly feel like there wasn’t a perfect way to integrate them in live-action. It would have been hard to suspend my belief if Zegler was hanging out with seven grown men with dwarfism—I think the dwarfs exist in a sort of in-between state in the original, between men and children—so the animated alternative worked, I think.

Truly, it was only my skepticism with the dwarfs and Gal Gadot’s stale take on the Evil Queen that kept this new take on Snow White from being sensational, though it was still really great and far better than the Letterboxd haters had led me to believe it would be. Snow White injected an old, tired story with some much-needed life, with a strong lead performance from Rachel Zegler, some solid support from Andrew Burnap and the dwarf voice cast, and a ton of truly great new songs. I won’t be shocked when I revisit the live-action Snow White sooner than the original (I will be revisiting the soundtrack very shortly, no doubt).