Snow White has always been my least favorite princess out of the Disney princesses. I'm not sure why but it might be a combination of not having watched the cartoon much as a child (because it was one of the few we didn't actually own), and because I felt she was the weakest one, very frail and dependent. The rest are all dependent, but she was whiny and too much of a princess, I suppose. Oddly, this year has been a great one in terms of my relationship with this character. It started with the character of Snow on Once Upon a Time, in which Snow is a fighter, a rebel, and not just because she's been moved to the modern world. We see her development, and how she learns to become dependent, because otherwise, in the fairy tale world we all know, it doesn't make sense for her to just be independent when she was raised as a princess. In any case, I began to like this Snow White and watched other adaptations of the story.
Then I realized that there were two movies coming out this year. And I didn't watch any. When Mirror Mirror came out, everyone advised me not to watch it. The reviews were bad, people who took their kids wanted to gouge their eyes out, as did the kids, and the face of Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen just put me off (I like Roberts, don't get me wrong). And I was really busy at he time.
I decided to watch it this week, just because I tend to need distractions while working, and the kind of work I have been doing needs a lot of concentration, which means a lot of distractions as well. And I was quite pleasantly surprised. I had braced myself to feel bored and have to get back to work at some point, but I wasn't. I'm a huge fan of The Fall, and I think the two movies are similar in the over-the-top oddity that they present. And that might be why people didn't like the movie. There are other movies that are weird, like Alice in Wonderland, the Tim Burton version (which I didn't like because I don't understand how the interpretation of the book has moved in this direction). And people liked this adaptation, but that's what we expect from Burton and Alice I suppose. But I think that we don't want our fairy tales changed too drastically. Especially old classics like Snow White. But I really found the ridiculousness appropriately part of the setting and atmosphere. Especially in contrast with Snow White.
Ah, Snow White. She's the typically transformed pro-feminist character, which has tended to annoy me because the only point is to make the female as strong of a woman as possible while still stunning and ridiculously feminine. But Snow White in this is different and contrasting, in appearance and character. And the Prince is not as one-dimensional as he usually is. And the Queen is just marvelous.
This is not much of a movie review because I'm bad at them and I watched this movie a few days ago. But the point is, I guess, watch it, and don't suspend your disbelief. Accept the fakeness of the entire thing and embrace it. It's part of the story.
Then I realized that there were two movies coming out this year. And I didn't watch any. When Mirror Mirror came out, everyone advised me not to watch it. The reviews were bad, people who took their kids wanted to gouge their eyes out, as did the kids, and the face of Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen just put me off (I like Roberts, don't get me wrong). And I was really busy at he time.
I decided to watch it this week, just because I tend to need distractions while working, and the kind of work I have been doing needs a lot of concentration, which means a lot of distractions as well. And I was quite pleasantly surprised. I had braced myself to feel bored and have to get back to work at some point, but I wasn't. I'm a huge fan of The Fall, and I think the two movies are similar in the over-the-top oddity that they present. And that might be why people didn't like the movie. There are other movies that are weird, like Alice in Wonderland, the Tim Burton version (which I didn't like because I don't understand how the interpretation of the book has moved in this direction). And people liked this adaptation, but that's what we expect from Burton and Alice I suppose. But I think that we don't want our fairy tales changed too drastically. Especially old classics like Snow White. But I really found the ridiculousness appropriately part of the setting and atmosphere. Especially in contrast with Snow White.
Ah, Snow White. She's the typically transformed pro-feminist character, which has tended to annoy me because the only point is to make the female as strong of a woman as possible while still stunning and ridiculously feminine. But Snow White in this is different and contrasting, in appearance and character. And the Prince is not as one-dimensional as he usually is. And the Queen is just marvelous.
This is not much of a movie review because I'm bad at them and I watched this movie a few days ago. But the point is, I guess, watch it, and don't suspend your disbelief. Accept the fakeness of the entire thing and embrace it. It's part of the story.
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