On Mar. 21, 2025, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released their newest live-action film, “Snow White,” which reimagined Walt Disney’s classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” of 1937. This new adaptation offers alternative personas of the original characters, while still telling the classic story.
Storyline
While straying from traditionality, the 2025 live-action “Snow White” still captures the main plot points of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Both versions tell the tale of a beautiful princess, Snow White, trapped in her late father’s castle by her stepmother, the Evil Queen.
The Evil Queen, who is jealous of Snow White’s beauty, sends The Huntsman to kill her. The Huntsman spares her life, and Snow White then flees through the forest and eventually crosses paths with the Seven Dwarfs.
The Evil Queen then disguises herself as an old woman and gives Snow White a poison apple that puts her in a deep slumber that can only be broken by true love’s kiss.
1937 Snow White vs. 2025 Snow White
The 2025 film changes how the characters and their motives are defined. The major change from 1937 to 2025 was Snow White’s character.
The writers illustrated a story of a strong princess who saves her kingdom without a prince. Which created a character who strays from the stereotypical “princess story.”
Both movies include the same scene with The Huntsman cornering Snow White with a knife. However, The 1937 Snow White shrieks when she sees the knife and cries while begging The Huntsman to spare her life. After he agrees to let her live, she then runs away, continuing to sob.
On the contrary, in the 2025 “Snow White,” when she sees the knife, she stands up confidently to face The Huntsman. She looks him in the eyes and asks him why he is trying to kill her.
I find this small change in her character significant because the writers of the 2025 “Snow White” film chose to depict her as a woman who isn’t afraid to confront a man holding a knife to her chest. She isn’t seen as a frail, helpless girl, which differs from the classic tale of 1937.
The portrayal of the live-action Snow White as a woman who can fend for herself and define her own “happily ever after” is a novel idea, and movie critics aren’t pleased with a “new” version of this beloved classic. Despite these changes, I believe this film to be necessary for us as a society to grow and break from the past male-centered themes.
Traditional Disney Princess movies usually end with the prince coming to the rescue, saving the so-called “helpless princess” and having their happily ever after thanks to the prince…again – very predictable.
However, the 2025 Snow White film explores refreshing modern ideas of how a princess can take charge of her own fairytale.
The new Snow White isn’t waiting for a prince to save her; instead, she is paving her own path to save her kingdom. In fact, there is no prince in this adaptation, she instead falls in love with a bandit named Jonathan whom she first meets when saving him from the Evil
Queen.
As the plot progresses, the princess and Jonathan work together to defeat the Evil Queen’s guards, and Snow White ends up saving his life a second time.
Dopey
My favorite change from the classic to the live-action film was the character development of Dopey, one of the Seven Dwarfs.
The 1937 Dopey is mute, silly, and clueless about his surroundings. His fellow dwarfs constantly make him out to be a fool, earning him the name “Dopey.”
However, the 2025 Dopey is a bit different. In the new film, he gets bullied by the other dwarfs, similar to the original, and because of that, he is too scared to speak. Thus, other characters believe he is mute. That is until Snow White arrives and teaches him to whistle, which, over time, gives him the confidence to finally speak up for himself.
In my opinion, the new film changed too many details to be called a true remake of the classic tale. But I think these changes defy the past labels given to women and those who need support and guidance, like Dopey.
Even though the original story is a classic, I found the live-action “Snow White” to be refreshing; it breaks free from the stereotypical Disney princess stories that tell tales of women being saved by men.
The movie explored important themes such as empowering women to be leaders, and to never judge a book (or a dwarf) by its cover, because there is always more to a story than meets the eye.
