Why So Blu?

Snow White (2025) (4K UHD Steelbook Review)

Disney continues its trend of reviving classic properties with (mostly) live-action remakes. The latest attempt? Snow White—and it’s a doozy. Between questionable casting choices, a few original songs, and CGI dwarves that belong in a horror film, you might be asking yourself: Is this new journey worth taking? So where do I land? Am I a princess purist, or does this reimagining of Snow White breathe new life into the 1937 classic?

Film 

The Setup: A Familiar Yet Bloated Tale

Director Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) brings Disney’s first animated feature back to life with a 109-minute musical reimagining. We begin with Snow White’s humble upbringing—raised by her kind-hearted royal parents. After her mother’s untimely death, the King remarries the infamous Evil Queen (Gal Gadot).

Snow White (Rachel Zegler), now a teen, radiates innocence and kindness. The Queen, envious and vain, tries to crush that goodness—often consulting her magic mirror for validation. Her cruelty ranges from villainous song numbers to stealing her subjects’ clothing and abandoning them in the cold.

Flight, Dwarves, and an Unwelcome Bandit

When the mirror reveals that Snow White is now the fairest of them all, the Queen sends a huntsman to kill her. Instead, he urges her to flee.

Snow takes refuge in the home of seven dwarves—Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, and Dopey—rendered in what I can only describe as creepy CGI straight out of a Polar Express fever dream. Despite the unsettling animation, the dwarves bond with Snow. Together, they sing, clean, and reenact familiar scenes from the original—only with a live-action twist.

In place of the classic prince, we get Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a bandit who serves as a clunky narrative stand-in. There’s some pie-making. The Evil Queen turns into a hag. There’s a poisoned apple. You know the drill.

Diversity Backlash: A 2025 Headache

One notable update is the film’s color-conscious casting, which set off a wave of backlash similar to the discourse around The Little Mermaid. Some Disney purists were outraged by a Latin Snow White and an Israeli Queen. Honestly, in 2025, it’s exhausting that this still matters.

“Who am I to care,” I ask, as the biracial son of a Black mother and White father?

But controversy didn’t stop there. The film’s promotional campaign became a political lightning rod, with both Zegler and Gadot catching heat for comments that alienated conservatives and liberals. Somehow, real-world politics drained even more life from a film already struggling to stand on its own.

The Verdict: Flat, Rushed, and Uninspired

Let’s be clear—Snow White isn’t a terrible movie. But it feels unfinished and uncertain of what it wants to be. Gal Gadot is striking as always, but she’s deeply miscast, trying to channel seductive menace beneath a high-fantasy cape and cowl. Her musical moments are few and far from memorable. Rachel Zegler, on the other hand, brings genuine charm to the title role. Her voice is sweet, and she’s clearly committed, but even she can’t elevate a film that never finds its emotional footing. The character of Jonathan, a bandit inserted in place of the classic prince, comes off as a weak plot device designed to inject some action and gender balance without offering any real depth. He doesn’t work. And then there are the CGI dwarves—uncanny, unsettling, and utterly distracting. Their design feels like a holdover from the worst parts of The Polar Express, and they pull you out of the story every time they’re on screen.

Read about the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs HERE

Video

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 2160p

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

HDR: Dolby Vision

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Disney by way of Sony have lovingly brought Snow White to 4K UHD Blu-ray.  The image on disc is striking and flawless.  The saturating colors and deep blacks are just the start.  Textures on clothing and in interior spaces add to the depth in set design adding to dense scenery that is eye catching throughout.  Visually the film is stunning, with the exception of those godawful dwarves.

Depth: Depth is best in motion, with camera movements deftly handled in the format.  Crisp focus adds another layer of texture with beautiful foreground and background information coming into view as the film puts images in and out of focus.

Black Levels: Blacks are exceptional all around no matter the scene.

Color Reproduction: Colors throughout are beautiful and warm.  Even colder tones have a warmth that you wouldn’t expect that feels tonally right for a fairy tale — Almost comforting to look at.

Skin Tones: Flesh tones on actual humans look perfect.

Noise/Artifacts: Zero.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English: Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Latin American Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, Castilian Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Czech, Polish

Dynamics: Not to be outdone by the visuals, the Dolby Atmos mix featured for Snow White plays like a kingdom of sound.  Rich with sonic clarity and love for its music, the mix is lower surround heavy with solid bass activity and some basic static height activity.  This movie doesn’t crave a huge amount of dynamic movement up top, so those effects aren’t missed.  Dialogue is always easy to hear and the singing and music sound exceptional always.

Height: Height speakers elevate the lower surround activity and help the film sound larger than life.  There’s not much more to say other than that, but there’s nothing to complain about if you ask me!

Low Frequency Extension: Moments with the Evil Queen and musical moments make for lovely bass moments on the soundtrack.

Surround Sound Presentation: Surround channels elevate the music and the random bits of action that are sprinkled within the film.

Dialogue: Dialogue is perfection here.

Extras

Bonus features presented on Snow White are similar to what we typically see on Disney releases.  Some in-depth items with some other more topical ones. At the time of this writing, Snow White is only available in 4K as a steelbook.  The steelbook itself is pretty, with an almost illustrated image of Snow White with the Evil Queen in hag disguise and woodland creatures in abundance.  The image is a reminder of the original cartoon. The release bundles a Blu-ray and digital code inside the steelbook with the 4K disc.

Blu-ray Features include:

• Sing Along with the Movie: Sing along with your favorite songs while watching the movie with onscreen lyrics.
• Deleted Scenes:
  • Anguish and Opportunity
  • Danger in the Woods
  • Hunt for Snow White
• Fearless, Fair, Brave, and True: Making Snow White – Take a look behind the scenes with director Marc Webb, cast and crew as they share their vision for this live-action reimagining of Snow White, highlighting how they honor the legacy of the original story, including the characters, set design and more.
• Merry Tunes – Go behind the songs with filmmakers and songwriting duo, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Hear about their new songs and how they beautifully intertwine with the classics.
• Fairy Tale Fashion – Get an in-depth look at the fashion and costuming for the film, featuring legendary costume designer Sandy Powell. Along with filmmakers and cast, Sandy provides insight into how she brought iconic looks to life for Snow White, the Evil Queen and more.
• Bloopers – Discover all the fun and laugh along with the cast as they have the time of their lives making Snow White.

Summary

Snow White introduces a handful of new ideas, but most feel half-baked and underdeveloped. The pacing drags in odd places and rushes through others, and while the visuals are technically competent, they rarely impress. Ultimately, this remake struggles to justify its own existence. It’s not a disaster, but it’s certainly not the revival Snow White’s legacy deserves.

Snow White (2025) had the potential to offer something bold and fresh while honoring its iconic roots. Instead, it delivers a confused, uneven film weighed down by awkward choices and studio timidity. The diverse casting? Great. The execution? Not so much.

Snow White’s legacy deserves better—and so do fans of the original film.

Buy Snow White (2025) in 4K HERE