The Snow White Soundtrack is Modern Disney's Magnum Opus
It exceeds expectations, that's for sure. (Note: this is NOT a movie review).
Disney’s upcoming Snow White movie has so many controversies attached to it, I just won’t get into details. Long story short, the dwarves are a CGI nightmare, the costume and hairstyling look atrocious, and unlike Wicked, the behind-the-scenes actor drama actually does look like it will negatively impact ticket sales. The audience knows it. Disney knows it. At this point it’s just a matter of getting it to theaters, where it will inevitably flop, and then shuffling it onto Disney+, where a curiosity akin to that of the moviegoers of 2019’s Cats will propel the main viewing demographic.
Now, I was going to be part of the crowd who planned to avoid the movie entirely1…but then I took a gander at the cast and noticed that Andrew Barth Feldman was also attached to this. If you don’t know Andrew, he’s a musical theater guy. Actually, there’s at minimum five Broadway guys in this movie. A good amount of theater guys were called in as triple-threat2 stand-ins the third (fourth?) and last time Disney revamped the dwarves, but additionally, Patrick Page plays the Magic Mirror, and Hadley Fraser plays the king. And then, of course, there’s Rachel Zegler and Andrew Burnap, the two romantic leads.3 If you have no interest in theater, this was at least 90% a boring list of names, and for that, I apologize. Just imagine that these people for me in this movie is the equivalent of Taylor Swift for other people being in Cats. Watching this in a movie theater is still a no-go if only for personal dignity, but I am curious enough to check it out once it gets to streaming.
The point
Despite the film itself looking to be an absolute dud, I had high hopes for the soundtrack. Rachel Zegler’s singing is incredible—certainly, the best I’ve ever heard from my own generation. Everything she sings is gorgeous and full of emotion.
So once the soundtrack finally dropped, and after searching for and reordering all of the pieces into a playlist to ruminate on, I decided to drop thoughts of my own on it here.
Logistics
The track list is as follows, culled from Wikipedia:
"Good Things Grow" – Good King, Artisans, Good Queen, Young Snow White and Ensemble
"Good Things Grow (Good King's Reprise)" – Good King
"Good Things Grow (Villagers' Reprise)" – Village Children, Lonely Girl and Snow White
"Waiting on a Wish" – Snow White
"Heigh-Ho" – Seven Dwarfs
"All Is Fair" – Evil Queen and Ensemble
"Whistle While You Work" – Snow White, Seven Dwarfs and Ensemble
"Princess Problems" – Jonathan and Snow White
"The Silly Song" – Seven Dwarfs and Ensemble
"A Hand Meets A Hand" – Snow White and Jonathan
"All Is Fair (Reprise)" – Evil Queen
"Someday My Prince Will Come" – Orchestra
"Waiting On A Wish (Reprise)" – Snow White
"Snow White Returns" – Snow White and Ensemble
"Good Things Grow (Finale)" – Snow White, Jonathan and Ensemble
"Good Things Grow (Good King's Reprise)" and the orchestral "Someday My Prince Will Come" were the only tracks I couldn’t track down. The whole thing comes to a bit over 30 minutes, which isn’t too bad, but there’s an awful lot of reprises. Still, 5-6 new songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (the twisted minds behind La La Land) is a pretty impressive feat.
I was worried that Pasek and Paul would lean more poppy, like how they treated The Greatest Showman. I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part, they stick to classic-sounding numbers. It almost makes you believe that the movie will be a genuine attempt to honor the original film.
The Songs
Let’s get into them.
Good Things Grow
This is an excellent introduction song to a Disney musical and a Snow White movie. That being said, if you asked me for lyrics, I would tell you that a lot of the verses end with “good things grow” and then point you to Hadley Fraser song recommendations, so I’m biased.
Hadley Fraser is a musical theater legend. In terms of digital footprint, he’s probably best known for his interpretation of Raoul in the 25th anniversary production of Phantom of the Opera, or as Grantaire in the 25th anniversary concert of Les Misérables where Nick Jonas plays Marius, or as a soldier in the background of the Les Misérables movie where Russell Crowe plays Javert. Despite having played both Marius and Javert on stage, he mostly played minor roles during filmed versions of Les Mis, so I was surprised and excited that he received an entire song in this movie where he technically only has a minor part.
It has an inexcusable amount of reprises: three explicit reprises and a fourth if you count “Snow White Returns,” which partially takes from its bridge. Still, that doesn’t make the individual song any less enjoyable.
“Good Things Grow” brings up a thematic question: what does Disney’s Snow White consider the mark of goodness to be?
If you haven’t seen the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,4 Snow White is a kind, sweet child who dreams of a happy future and continues to make good of whatever terrible situation she gets thrown into. She is proven to be beautiful inside and out. I often forget this, but the movie also includes a scene where she prays. Her goodness is tied to her belief—the idea of goodness as a trait stemming from God.
In “Good Things Grow,” goodness is clearly emphasized. During the bridge, the King declares that Snow White will “lead and make the good things grow” before highlighting traits of being “fearless,” “fair,” “brave,” and “true.” The royal family continues to sing:
We lead with open hearts
And we live with open doors
With love to protect and provide
And we always keep in mind
That what's mine is always yours
May goodness be our one true guide
Love and goodness are mentioned, but the ideas that get emphasized are openness, sharing, and leadership. The song itself focuses on goodness in the sense of being a good leader and using one’s position of power to inspire goodness in others, but doesn’t touch on Show White’s own personal relationship with goodness as much.
Maybe I’m reading too much into the lyrics (mind you, the film itself hasn’t released yet), but if the movie is focusing more on how goodness relates to leadership rather than internal character, then a lot of the strange choices and changes revealed so far for this movie start to make more sense.
Waiting on a Wish
A song for Rachel Zegler to display why she was hired. She is an incredible singer.
Snow White’s “I Want” song and probably the most important song for marketing, the biggest question I have after listening to this is “Why was Wish Disney’s 100th anniversary movie and not Snow White?” The tune, lyrics, and even princess fit so much better.
Unfortunately, the music video also continues to show how bad Snow White’s hairstyling and costuming is. Now, I’m not a color expert, but just looking at the dresses side by side, the blue Rachel’s blue-yellow dress is much too bright and clashes with the also very bright yellow, and it also very coincidentally looks like it’s ready to be shipped as-is to hundreds of Disney costume stores. As for the haircut…they tried to keep the overall shape, but the 1937 animation gave Snow White curly hair that turned the short haircut into a cute bob. Rachel’s hair is very straight in comparison and follows the outline of her face, which makes the cut just look awkward.
Heigh-Ho
It’s supposed to be Hi-Ho, right? I can’t have been spelling it wrong this whole time.
I did NOT expect the annoying dwarf song to be so compellingly sung. That’s Broadway singers, I guess; they convince you to see the enjoyment in songs that you associate with annoying characters. I was genuinely shocked at how much I enjoyed this one. It reminded me of Disneyland. Actually, most of this soundtrack does—the songs would fit perfectly with the songs you hear while riding or waiting in line at the park. The orchestra for the whole soundtrack very much tries to keep with the tone that was set by the 1937 film, and it pulls it off.
The song itself might go on a little long and be hard to follow without visuals, but it is very well-sung and is the song that made me see how good this movie could have been. I can imagine it on a Broadway stage; I can imagine it with live-action actors. Seeing CGI dwarves will both be uncanny and a glaring reminder that there could have been live-action actors, so I get the feeling that the scene will detract from the song.
I imagine that Disney will try to pin most of the blame for movie failings on Zegler first and then Gal Gadot, but the constant CGI on-screen reminders are going to make it hard for them to do that. From the original plan to hire real actors with dwarfism to suddenly backtracking after comments from Peter Dinklage and claiming they’d make “magical creatures” instead, and then backtracking a third time to say that “dwarves” really just represented a diverse group of outcasts, and then finally landing on CGI dwarves, Disney really destroyed its goodwill.
All is Fair
Both Gal Gadot and/or whoever produced Gal Gadot’s singing need a raise.5 This villain song is classic-sounding and keeps just the right amount of campiness; you can practically see the green flames rise. Gadot is acting her heart out here, and it is enough to overlook the actual tone of the singing. She also sounds unexpectedly young for how I imagine the Evil Queen, which adds an interesting layer to the jealousy.
Gadot mentioned that she dances during the movie, but whether this is during her villain number or elsewhere is yet to be seen. Like Pasek and Paul, the choreographer for this movie is the same as for La La Land. I’m willing to bank on the dance numbers being fun; it’s frustrating how many elements of the film sound good when the everything else of the product isn’t.
Whistle While You Work
Rachel Zegler gets to vocalize. Again, she has a beautiful voice, but it also becomes apparent here that it really isn’t what comes to mind when you think of Snow White. The princess’s voice is soft, gentle, and sweet, and Zegler’s voice is powerful, commanding, and teasing. Disneyland comes to mind again here, especially in the second half.
Princess Problems
When he tells you “check your privilege” and you tell him “check your prejudice…”the classic romantic set up.
This is a Frozen-and-onwards relationship song. It’s hard to imagine it fitting in any 2D animated Disney movie. The prince equivalent/replacement, Jonathan, is introduced here as a jaded rebel who doesn’t think much of Snow White. Sometime between this meeting and the next two songs, they apparently fall head over heels for each other, but I don’t really see how it can happen. I’m guessing that this song is also the moment where the movie begins to heavily swerve away from the original plot. That being said, it’s a fun song. That also being said, I get that he’s not supposed to be a prince in this version, but…he’s basically the prince, right? If this movie ends the way I think it might end, there will need to be a lot of character transformation in a very short amount of time.6
Andrew Burnap has remained firmly out of the limelight during this whole debacle of a press tour. He has done maybe two interviews for the movie in the entire three years of press. He’s primarily worked on stage, so the movie will be the first time a lot of people will see him. I have nothing against Burnap (I recommend his rendition of “Camelot”), but I’m worried about what his character means for the rest of the story—and the romance. More on that later.
The Silly Song
Yodeling. This, “Heigh-Ho,” and “Whistle While You Work” are the three songs transferred from the original film. If you have a hard time like I did remembering where this one fit in, this is the song where Snow White and the dwarves dance together. If you’ve ever seen the gif of Snow White spinning in a circle while twirling her dress, that’s from this scene.
However, I forgot what this song sounded like almost immediately after I listened to it; I guess the silliness just isn’t for me.
A Hand Meets a Hand
Not going to lie, I kind of forgot this one after listening to it, too. Maybe I was getting tapped out after listening to so many songs, or I just didn’t want to buy the romance.
Look, I just think it’s ironic for Zegler to highlight the new Snow White as a non-romantic feminist tale and for the lack of marketing to all but back that claim, only for the movie to reveal that it actually does include a central romance. Not only that, but one with a substantial age gap in a movie where the original has been criticized for having an age gap.
People often talk about the age gap in the original movie being weird (18 to 14) but I haven’t seen one person bring up the age gap in this version of the relationship.7 Part of that might just be because marketing has been extremely vague about the scope of the romance in general. Additionally, both actors are older than 21, so it’s not as egregious as some of the animated age gaps. At the same time, it’s just weird to me that the gap is so much wider compared to other Disney live-actions. Hopefully Snow White’s age is clarified at the beginning of the movie; if Rachel is playing much younger than she actually is, I will be concerned.
Disney has also not been clear about whether waking up to a True Love’s Kiss will be kept. Maybe in this day and age, True Love’s Kiss would be seen as too risky to include. The Little Mermaid live-action changed a lyric in “Kiss the Girl” to add consent, so it does seem like Disney would want to hedge their bets against waking up a maiden from her poison-induced slumber.
One of the lyrics sung by both Burnap and Zegler in “A Hand Meets a Hand” is “But if there's a world where you wake me, promise to wake me with a kiss.” If that’s as good as consent, True Love’s Kiss might exist in the live-action, too, despite all the marketing ignoring it. Who knows. Since they’ve both sung the line about waking with a kiss, maybe Disney switched it up and Zegler has to wake up Burnap. We’ll find out in a week or so.
We’re at the end
There’s four more songs, but they’re all reprises.
Final thoughts: there is no horrific inclusion of an out-of-place song like The Little Mermaid’s Scuttlebutt. Therefore, it is a satisfactory listen. 9/10 soundtrack, too many reprises, but I would listen to the non-reprise songs again and have already. Many of the new songs are stacked in the first half of the film. “Waiting on a Wish” will be overplayed by marketing and I really hope Rachel can get some vocal rest after promo because it sounds like a difficult song to sing.
Disney has already started to prepare for it, but the movie will probably bomb. Out of curiosity, I looked at showings for the day of release in the two most popular theaters near me. So far, they’ve only sold over a handful of tickets each. Sales will likely increase as it gets closer to the date and as the soundtrack makes its rounds, but I can’t imagine any theater showing being successfully packed. The closest to getting there is a 3:45 showing—the most convenient time after a school day ends—which, when I last checked, stood at around 13% full.
Tl;dr: Great singing, great orchestra, great soundtrack, still anticipating a terrible movie. That’s the way it goes.
If you would like to support me in other ways, you can check out my buy me a coffee page. Thank you for reading! Also, if you end up watching Snow White, I would be interested to know what you thought of it.
This is the first time that the public resistance against Disney live-actions has gotten any physical momentum. Far be it from me to counter that sentiment.
Singing, dancing, acting. CORRECTION: The Wikipedia page has updated to reveal they were only called in for dialogue and singing.
Most(?) memorable/relevant roles for each if that rings any bells: Feldman took over the title role in Dear Evan Hansen when he was 16. Page played Hades in Hadestown, Fraser played Raoul in the 25th anniversary of Phantom of the Opera, Zegler was Maria in Spielberg’s West Side Story, and Burnap played King Arthur in the recent revival of Camelot.
Dwarfs is the spelling in the title. Unfortunately for Tolkien, the movie and The Hobbit released the same year. Tolkien held fairy-tales in high regard and apparently disliked the film for how it sanitized the story.
There is a good amount of autotune/effects apparent in some of the songs, but nowhere near the degree of Emma Watson’s Belle from the live-action Beauty and the Beast.
If the movie ends with a wedding, there will likely be a joke about how he now has “prince problems.”
Interestingly enough, the actors’ ages are actually close to the ages of the voice actors for the original. Rachel is older and Andrew is younger by 1-2 years each, but that’s still a 10-year gap.
It's nice to know that there's one bright spot in Snow White. Thanks for putting in the work.
HAHAHAHA!!