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Gal Gadot: "Snow White"

 My daughter and I survived only one hour of the new "Snow White"; Susie complained that the Evil Queen was too loud and that Grumpy was "bad to look at."


I didn't think Gal Gadot was too loud, but I agree with many critics that the performance is regrettable; how did this push past the editing process? I became distracted by considering various performers with actual musical-theater ability who would be better in the role. Heather Headley, Sherie Rene Scott, Anika Noni Rose, Annaleigh Ashford, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Laura Benanti--these are the names that came to mind.

Also, I thought about Stephen Sondheim and his stinging words for Diane Paulus. Sondheim became irritated when Paulus imagined that she was wiser than Ira Gershwin; Paulus would rescue "Porgy and Bess" by making it "more enlightened." Sondheim suggested that there is a difference between operatic grandeur and kitchen-sink realism; the fact that something is not "gritty and realistic" is not, by definition, an automatic deficit.

This was my problem with the new "Snow White." Look back at the cartoon, which is nearly perfect. There is very little by way of throat-clearing; the Evil Queen is simply there, at the start, and she is terrifying. Also, we aren't asked to think in depth about the working lives of the Seven Dwarfs; these guys simply emerge, and the story races forward. I will always scratch my head when Disney says, "We're going to take an essentially airtight story and tweak it by making it longer." It's like "improving" the David sculpture, in Florence, by using a coat of gold spray paint.

Also, it seems clear that Disney wants to suggest something egalitarian by having the new Snow White enlist the Dwarfs in a housecleaning mission. Heaven forbid that one character selflessly clean rooms for another! I want to suggest that this editorial choice was an additional misstep. In the original "Snow White," the heroine cleans the Dwarfs' cottage as a gesture of thanks; she is saying, "Thanks for opening your home to a stranger." Is this so objectionable, so misguided; does it really need to be rewritten?

Rent the cartoon. That's an expenditure that will not disappoint you.

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