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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Snow White (Benj Pasek/Justin Paul/Jeff Morrow)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you have no interest in the legacy of the 1937
version of the soundtrack, for the remake is unoffensively adequate and
mundane as a standalone musical.
Avoid it... if basic standards of legacy and respect must be met for your tolerance of remakes, those boundaries violated by substandard strategy in this case.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Snow White: (Benj Pasek/Justin Paul/Jeff Morrow) If
there's any proof that Walt Disney Studios needs to move on from its
live-action remakes of prior animated classics, 2025's Snow White
is that resounding evidence. The studio invited ridicule by attempting
to adapt its pioneering 1937 cornerstone, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs at all, the political environment that made that early
animation possible no longer even remotely acceptable in the 2020's. But
the studio forged ahead anyway, significantly altering the plot and
soundtrack of the remake to cater to contemporary social norms. In so
doing, though, they pissed off almost every demographic available,
especially with the political beliefs of its two lead actresses stirring
major, controversial press along the way. The casting of a Latina
actress as the titular character reinforced the entire "go woke, go
broke" mantra for masses of audiences not interested in diversity and
equity efforts interfering with their beloved concepts of the past. The
modernization of the dwarfs for equally politically correct reasons
yielded a catastrophe in their horrific rendering, their digitized forms
completely failing to blend in with the actual human characters. The
classic songs performed by Snow White herself were jettisoned in favor
of new ones deemed appropriate for a "modern" princess, dropping or
mutilating the entire storyline of the prince who is destined to save
her as well. In short, this movie was a total disaster, and after a few
weeks of release, projections placed Disney's losses between $100 and
$200 million on the extremely expensive project, causing the studio to
pause consideration on the adaptation of 2010's Tangled that had
been scheduled next. With some of the emotional core of the 1937
soundtrack prohibited from the remake, the music for the new Snow
White was equally destined to annoy if not handled extremely
carefully. Even with a master like Alan Menken at the helm of The
Little Mermaid once again two years earlier, it was impossible to
avoid the pitfalls of political correctness in the eye-rolling changes
to that music. The talent involved in Snow White failed at
finding even that level of respectful balance between past and
present.
For the 1937 film, the songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey and surrounding score by Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline are highly respected despite their archival recording quality, the slate of songs well remembered upwards of a century later. Three of the Churchill and Morey songs, "Heigh-Ho," "Whistle While You Work," and "The Silly Song," were retained for 2025's Snow White, clearly establishing that the dwarf material is all that could function with the newly rearranged story. The songs for Snow White and the prince were removed entirely; while the hearty and tender "Someday My Prince Will Come" was reportedly adapted into the score, that performance did not make the fullest album cut of the soundtrack. Brought on board are American songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the former typically responsible for the lyrics while the latter writes the underlying music. They rose to fame as lyricists for La-La Land and Menken's updated 2019 version of Aladdin, though they wrote the songs to The Greatest Showman as well. Meanwhile, composer Jeff Morrow was hired for the original score after having written the music for a variety of animated television series. He had also provided additional music for the remake of The Little Mermaid and had long been a ghostwriter for Christophe Beck and Henry Jackman, which likely helped earn him this assignment. Their combined efforts have some of the B-rate characteristics that plagued Mufasa: The Lion King and Moana 2, Disney struggling to assemble consistent talent for these diminishing remakes and sequels. Five new songs were coined for Snow White, each of them about as anonymous for the topic as those for the two aforementioned soundtracks. While "Waiting on a Wish" aspires to capture the same exact personality of "Beyond" from Moana 2, even borrowing some of the same anticipatory, stage-worthy progressions, it is attractively mundane. Rachel Zegler's singing is outstanding per usual, but the quality of the song is several steps below that which supported her performances in Menken's Spellbound just prior. Any hopes that Disney had for this song to join the collection of top-level princess ballads were dashed by the sheer formulaic nature of its entire construct. 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.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Song Album:
Total Time: 32:54
Score Album: Total Time: 41:33
Deluxe Edition: Total Time: 107:24
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for the digital versions of this album.
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2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Snow White are Copyright © 2025, Walt Disney Records (Songs), Walt Disney Records (Deluxe), Walt Disney Records (Score) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/5/25 (and not updated significantly since). |
