A new opening and closing song was predictably supplied to Snow White, "Good Things Grow" introducing Snow White's family and promoting the environment of the kingdom. It's a decent cast ensemble piece but is dominated by an opening riff that is far more memorable than the sung melody. The personality of the new villain song, "All is Fair," builds from waltz formalities but can't seem to decide if it wants to be sinister or irreverently humorous. Its orchestrations by veteran Disney song orchestrator Dave Metzger are far more impressive than Gal Gadot's seemingly auto-tuned performance. The song for the prince substitute, "Princess Problems," prances into the comedy realm but conflicts with the dwarf material and offers uneven vocals from "Andre Burnap." A love song for the duo of Zegler of Burnap is a bit redundant with "Waiting on a Wish" in purpose and has a bit more contemporary instrumentation that perhaps owes to co-writer Lizzy McAlpine. Again, this song is extremely mundane and will remind of a number of other recent animation entries, and its melody recurs in "Snow White Returns." The usual song reprises factor as well, "Good Things Grow (Villagers' Reprise)" immediately extending the main performance of the song nicely and then turning back to the ensemble for the celebratory "Finale" rendition, by which point the soundtrack has completely lost all of the 1937 flavor. Gadot returns for additional over-inflection in "All is Fair (Reprise)" while "Waiting on a Wish (Reprise)" is surprisingly low-key and melancholy, showcasing the dramatic side of the idea. A new song that Pasek and Paul wrote for the dwarfs, "Hidden in My Heart," was removed late from the picture. Their contribution is average at best in terms of the melodies, Metzger's orchestrations the clear highlight, but the lyrics are sadly quite poor overall. They aren't as wretched as those in Moana 2, but they make you cringe at times, especially as Gadot switches back and forth between spoken and sung lines. Morrow doesn't do much to really help the songs achieve any identity in his portion of the soundtrack, the melodies only occasionally adapted into the score, especially those legacy ones that originate from the 1937 film. Listeners will encounter a poor narrative in the score on its own because of the lack of adequate strategic crossover with the songs.

While Morrow's work for Snow White earns his pay at every moment, supplying the appropriate orchestral ambience for a fairy tale fantasy of this type, there's no genuine passion or fright in any of it. The lack of emotional variance in the score or its performance relegates it to merely average status, that personality filling air space with the right tone in all places but somehow neglecting to generate any warmth of heart. Also confusing is his choice to write two score-only themes for the two lead female characters that serve no purpose beyond the song melodies already adequately supplied to them. Morrow's themes are soulless identities without any vocalized interpolation, making them superfluous despite the minimal motific connectivity they offer to the score. Most listeners will be disappointed by the lack of the song melodies expressed clearly or frequently enough in the score. The "Good Things Grow" song does vaguely inform the three-note phrasing of the score's Snow White theme and guides the optimism of "Once Upon a Time" and "The Orchard." What should be the main theme of the entire soundtrack, the melody of "Waiting on a Wish" only slightly influences the latter half of "Don't Be Afraid" and is pretty but bland in "Fearless, Fair, Brave, True." It's redemptively attractive for the full ensemble in "True Love's Kiss," but the score's instrumental end credits rendition of fanfare pomposity, "Waiting on a Wish (Main on Ends Version)," had no original input from Morrow. The only really recognizable adaption of the Churchill and Morey identities comes from "Heigh-Ho," which briefly dances into the comedy action of "Food Fight." (The lack of prominence for "Whistle While You Work" in the score is truly odd given the opportunities to interpolate it, especially since Morrow whistles himself for the soundtrack.) Although the Evil Queen has her own score theme, Morrow adapts "All is Fair" on bassoon and then horns at 0:19 into "Unfair Fight," becoming frenzied in action later. It also helps the flourish at the outset of "The Apple" and provides fragments on cello to open "The Dungeon." Morrow's original themes, meanwhile, are summarized nicely in the first two score cues, "I Remember" and "Mirror Mirror," which are arguably the most pertinent new moments from Morrow in the whole work. From there, the themes continue to factor but never elevate themselves to any memorable status against the songs, especially with no uniquely arranged suite to summarize them on album in end credits formation.

The score theme for Snow White contains three-note phrases seemingly built from "Good Things Grow" but owes much more to vintage Menken, and the prologue to Beauty and the Beast in particular. Technically an original Morrow idea per attribution, some listeners may find the melody to ascend in steps distractingly like Jerry Goldsmith's famous Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme. Tentatively informing the start of "I Remember" before emerging in full at 1:14, this idea is carried by flute early in "Animal Friends" and "Whistling Lesson," climbs on strings with noble intent in "Faith in Each Other," and becomes nervous in "The Apple." It turns melodramatic in a shift of progressions during "Requiem" and "The Dungeon" and resolves without much passion but enjoys some brass bravado in "Time to Restore Our Kingdom." Countering that theme in tepid interactions in "The Apple" and "Time to Restore Our Kingdom" is the theme for the Evil Queen, which has no musical relation to "All is Fair." This sinisterly rising and falling phrasing in uncomfortable chord formations is previewed at 2:08 into "I Remember" in a brief, suspenseful interlude to the Snow White theme but is developed extensively in "Mirror Mirror" with its inverted secondary phrases, leading to a large moment from choir and brass at 1:21. This theme stews on woodwinds without much consequence in "The Queen's Table," proceeds on creepy strings and high choir in "The Fairest Lives," and is vaguely militaristic at the start of "Jonathan Captured" but never convincing in force. Against Snow White's theme, the one for the queen is slight in the middle of "The Apple" and offers minimal suspense at the center of "Time to Restore Our Kingdom." Both ideas had potential, but Morrow can't really get either one off the ground for very long, and their manipulations are decent but typically underwhelming. The 41 minutes of score released on album is an easy listening experience but one that won't stick in memory very long. The same issue plagues the songs, which sound like marginally effective throwaways from a made-for-video production of a prior generation. If you do seek them, then the "Deluxe Edition" with both is your best option. The legacy of the 1937 classic deserved far better than this, especially in the recognition for its music. Reinventing the soundtrack only yields neutral shrugs and insults in the lack of respect shown. Even as a standalone musical, the songs and score in Snow White never achieve synchrony, leaving the whole endeavor as a head-scratcher. None of this remake music was necessary or welcome.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download