Version Control: Which Live-Action Snow White Is the Fairest of Them All?

Usually when Disney put out one of its live-action-ish remakes of an animated classic – something it’s done more or less annually for most of the past decade – the movie is competing against people’s memories of the original cartoon, or more often coasting off of the earlier film’s sterling reputation. But Disney’s new version of Snow White has come along far enough into the cycle that it’s also potentially competing with other live-action versions of the same fairy-tale story, two of which were pretty clearly greenlit in the wake of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland hitting it big back in 2010.

None of these movies were as massive as the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and that’s still the obvious inspiration for the new film with Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot (playing Snow White and the Evil Queen, respectively). But unlike movies featuring talking animals or extensive fantastical wish-granting, there’s less of an inherent advantage in animating Snow White; the 1937 original is a landmark classic, of course, but it’s not impossible to tell this story in live-action. The 2025 Snow White borrows some elements, whether consciously or coincidentally, from other 21st century retellings. Most of them have their virtues, but at the same time, plenty of audiences won’t want to watch four different live-action Snow Whites. As always, Version Control is here to help! Here’s a chronological sum-up of post-millennial live-action Snow Whites, followed by a definitive recommendation of which one is best.

1. Would you believe that Amanda Bynes was on the live-action princess beat well before Disney got there? Well, sort of: Sydney White, a campus-comedy version of Snow White that was, I swear, originally titled Sydney White and the Seven Dorks, did predate Disney’s fixation on remaking its own history, but seems most likely inspired by the mild success of Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story some years earlier. Like that movie, Sydney White positions a former child star as an adorable yet relatable Cool Girl in Converse who triumphs over “evil” mean girls. It’s a clever-enough idea: In place of a wicked stepmother, college freshman Sydney must contend with a queen bee at a sorority that she’s rushing to feel close to her late mother; her exile from the kingdom is now rundown housing with seven geeky outcasts. But that’s about as far as the cleverness goes, because Sydney White feels vaguely embarrassed about its fairy-tale logline and mostly settles on being a regressive snobs-versus-slobs rehash; The House Bunny does the sorority-fairy-tale-comedy thing a lot better (“only vastly different,” as Anna Faris’s character would say). Beyond its lack of Snow White magic, any potentially funny jokes are quashed by the step-behind rhythm of the directing, which includes always holding the camera on Bynes long enough for her to make at least three different faces in every shot.

2. In 2012, what typically would have felt like a Disney-versus-DreamWorks battle played out sans either studio: Two live-action Snow White projects were released within months of each other. Coming out earlier and snarkier makes Mirror Mirror the DreamWorks equivalent, but the movie is better than that sounds, closer in spirit to the “Fractured Fairy Tales” segments that Shrek ripped off from Rocky & Bullwinkle than Shrek itself. The big drawn was supposed to be Julia Roberts doing a more haughty version of her self-loving shtick as the Evil Queen; she’s fine, but all of the actors (including Lily Collins – Emily in Paris herself! – as Snow) are upstaged by the physical production assembled by director Tarsem Singh (The Fall). One of Singh’s aces: His first four movies make up half the slim filmography of the late, great designer Eiko Ishioka, whose forays into the world of movie costuming are jaw-dropping in their imagination and originality. What Mirror Mirror shares with other, less openly silly Tarsem Singh pictures is a sense of pageantry; it looks like a particularly lavish theatrical production come to life inside a dream. Some of the humor is a bit on the corny side (again, shades of “Fractured Fairy Tales”), but the you-go-girl tweaks that allow for a swordfighting, bandit-courting Snow White are sweetly satisfying. Even Armie Hammer is well-used, cast as a goofy doofus (which we’re now learning was something of a best-case scenario). The movie only did middling business upon its initial release, and even Tarsem Singh superfan Roger Ebert was mixed on it, but it wears its spectacle lightly.

4. Though now regarded – if it’s regarded at all – as a movie that failed to ignite either a beloved franchise or Kristen Stewart’s mainstream post-Twilight career as a bankable lead, Snow White and the Huntsman was actually a pretty big hit back in 2012. (Among fellow releases from that year, it made more money than Taken 2 and only a little less than Django Unchained.) It makes sense, too, because especially by 2025 standards, this movie is stunningly beautiful, a real production in the same way that Mirror Mirror is, albeit with a completely different tone and texture. Even the murkier “dark fairy tale” stuff dealing in greys, blacks, browns, and whites is vastly more striking and better-shot by future Oscar-winner Greig Fraser than the average $100 million fantasy of 2025; he knows how to use earthier, more realistic tones without succumbing to the digital-overcast look. At the time, Stewart was mostly dinged for how thoroughly Charlize Theron steals the movie as the Evil Queen, but a decade-plus later, with greater knowledge of Stewart’s whole persona (and the many terrific indies she’d go on to do), her super-serious, earnest yet still slightly ethereal version of Snow White feels like a perfectly fine star turn. Admittedly, Snow White and the Huntsman moments of tedium; for all its gorgeous sights (a magic mirror that melts and reforms into the shape of a man; rays of sun bouncing off a hidden fairy realm; Stewart and Hemsworth’s gorgeous faces), it’s not always much fun as an action-adventure. Weird tip: The combination sequel/prequel The Huntsman: Winter’s War, which keeps Hemsworth and Theron, loses Stewart, and adds both Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt, is a pretty fun live-action fantasy movie, and does a better job of translating a fairy-tale universe to live-action than either its predecessor or most of its Disney equivalents.

5. What is it about Snow White movies that inspires Hollywood to pay such attention to old-fashioned craftsmanship? Many of the Disney remakes are so CG-saturated that calling them “live-action” feels misleading, but while their crack at Snow White is obviously full of digital tricks (the dwarves, for example, are all mo-capped computer-generated characters), it also appears to use more practical effects and production design than any of their remakes since Cinderella a decade ago. Like that movie, this one attempts to give its princess heroine more agency and dimension so she can more ably carry a two-hour film. That fairly standard-issue goal makes it pretty ridiculous that the movie has somehow come under fire for its supposed wokeness – especially given the debt it owes its two 2012 predecessors, particularly Mirror Mirror. From that film, it takes the idea of Snow White taking on a more active role that includes her teaming up with a gang of bandits; from Snow White and the Huntsman, it nicks the idea of an Evil Queen whose rule isn’t just personally vexing to Snow White, but the kingdom as a whole. At the same time, Snow White has plenty of old-fashioned charm, especially as a full musical, to which star Rachel Zegler is especially well-suited. Gal Gadot, however, is in a little over her head as an Evil Queen, especially if you side-by-side her performance with Charlize Theron’s. Still, the idea that anyone could find this movie offensive beyond the general dead-end nature of remaking Disney animated classics is patently absurd. It’s like a pretty good attraction at Disneyland with some Zegler star power.

   THE VERSION CONTROL VERDICT: Mirror Mirror (2012) is the fairest one of all!

   Fantasy completists may enjoy all three non-Sydney White options; they’re all a pleasure to actually look at. But the underseen Mirror Mirror does the best job of combining fantasy, comedy, romance, melodrama, and a musical sensibility, even if no one whistles while they work.