The remake of Snow White, released this March 19, seeks to modernize the heroine. To the point that an emblematic scene of the 1937 cartoon was deleted.
How to adapt a cult cartoon from 1937 by making it relevant for the 2025 spectator? It is the big gap that the director and writers of the remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Title only Snow White) tried to make … without escaping the controversies that drowned the film even before its release, this March 19 in theaters. Among the subjects of debate, there is the live action format (real shots), the use of CGI for the seven dwarfs, created on computer unlike the other characters played by actors, the racist harassment that Rachel Zegler undergoes, the tensions between the two main actresses about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict …
And then there are details that will make the nostalgic for the original cartoon scream. In its race for modernization, the film team must have made choices. If most of the well-known scenes have been preserved and enriched by additions to make the heroine more consistent and pro-active, a song of the cartoon of 1937 was purely and simply removed from this adaptation.
This is the key title of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, “One day my prince will come”, in which Snow White sings his hope of finding love. There is no trace in the feature film. However, heroin is still entitled to the traditional moment in which she sings her current expectations and issues, a classic narrative tool in musicals or cartoons.
“One day my prince will come” has been replaced by a new original song, “just a wish”. This title is interpreted by Rachel Zegler in the same way as in the cartoon, around the well with emblematic wishes. But instead of singing her desire for romance, the heroine approaches her hope of raising up to her parents, good and fair monarchs, and finding the strength and courage to save her kingdom from the wicked queen. This does not prevent Snow White from finding love as the plot progresses, but it is not (or more) its main objective.
This choice, which already displeases the purists of the Walt Disney classic, was explained by Rachel Zegler in interview with Variety: “We are no longer in 1937”, she said in September 2022. “She will not be saved by the prince and she will not dream of true love. She will aspire to become the leader she knows how to be, as her deceased father said it could be Courageous, just and faithful. “
Whatever reason, this new approach does not please everyone. The curious can go to theaters since March 19 to discover the result, when the others can console themselves with the original cartoon, which is always on Disney+.