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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jealousy Exposed & Happiness Postponed, January 3, 2003
I have very mixed feelings about this particular Brothers Grimm adaptation. First, I must consider that in the past Fairy Tales have been far from mediocre tales about sanity. Often they are warnings about our most inner desires bringing us certain destruction. This movie deals with jealousy and innocence, kindness and evil.
Caroline Thompson has a great concept at work here, but in places the script falls prey to the cliché. The acting would have been better if the script had been more mature. They seemed to want to make this for children and I could not help hearing the Barney song in the background of my mind when I saw the rainbow and politically correct admonitions. I was disappointed in her naming the dwarfs after the days of the week. I think the names Disney gave the dwarfs were more interesting and would have given them stronger personalities. The acting would have seemed better if all the characters had been given a much stronger script. Yet, this adaptation seems to be reaching further into the past than Disney ever envisioned.
The salvation is in the creativity with which the story is told. It is visually appealing and once you watch the extras on the DVD you will realize this was a low-budget production.
The mirror is fascinating. Not only are there a variety of mirrors, the mirror is broken at one point and contains magical properties. This mirror then becomes a transporter, video camera and weapon. It is no longer just a "mirror, mirror on the wall." The scenes of "raining glass" were wonderfully creative along with the sound effects.
The artificiality of some scenes lend themselves to the "Fairy Tale" appeal. The very fact that the characters are not completely believable at times gives them a certain freedom to be completely evil or completely good.
Snow White (Kristin Kreuk) is incredibly beautiful, but almost solemn in her awakening to the world. She has an almost gothic appeal. As a baby, she is born into a world where apple blossoms fall from the trees into a pond near her home and red rose bushes almost envelope the cottage. Her father John (Tom Irwin) is desperate to save her life after his wife dies after childbirth and tries to make it to a close village. He almost fails and yet his tears awaken a creature frozen beneath the ice. This bewitched creature is able to fulfill wishes like a genie and gives him three wishes. He also unfortunately has a sister who is not quite so kind.
Even as a baby, Snow White was able to sense evil intentions and disliked her new mother-in-law Elspeth (Miranda Richardson) who is part of the wish-fulfillment plot.
In the original story in German, Snow white is born as a princess. In this adaptation, she inherits her royalty through magical means. When the huntsman is told to kill Snow White the new queen asks for her liver and lungs. In this adaptation parents might not appreciate their young children seeing the queen eating "what she thinks" is Snow White's heart.
When the queen finds out Snow White is still alive, she poses as her dead mother instead of a witch. Offering an apple to someone has been known to be a declaration of love or deceit. In this movie, it spells certain death. Snow White is buried in ice instead of a glass coffin.
The queen is not transformed back into her true self until the end of the movie when she is subject to the violence of the "garden gnomes" that come to life to seek revenge. In the real story, she dances to her death in a pair of iron slippers which would not have been enjoyable to watch onscreen. The violence of the gnomes is more "implied."
This is not a calm, happy movie but does have a happy, yet questionable ending. Would any father let such a young daughter ride away with a prince? I think not. In the real story, Snow White grows into an adult while in the coffin. Her hair is still black as ebony, her lips as red as blood and her skin as white as snow.
This movie does contain some violent content I don't think "very young" children should be exposed to although I imagine they might miss some of the implied meanings. This should have been rated PG in some instances in my own mind.
Otherwise, there are elements in this story I really enjoyed, especially the magical elements incorporated into the mirror, castle, roses, forest and the inclusion of various intriguing elements not seen in a Snow White movie to date.
~The Rebecca Review
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Who is the Fairest of them All?", April 5, 2005
Though there are some serious deviations to this new version of the Snow White fairytale, on the whole I enjoyed watching it, especially in terms of its beautiful visual style. As most reviewers have already said, everything in the scenes are bright and colourful, yet ornate and whimsical, giving it a truly fairytale feel. Costumes in particular are lovely whether it be the rainbow outfits of the dwarves or Snow White's own princess-wardrobe.
The story harks back more to the Grimm's fairytale, and so is perhaps not for younger viewers (though kids get very little credit these days - if they can watch the Queen's transformation scene in the Disney version of "Snow White", I think they could deal with this). The wood-dwelling couple John and Josephine give birth to a baby daughter according to Jo's wishes when she pricked her finger on a rosebush: a child with hair black as ebony, lips red as blood and skin as white as snow.
However when the difficult birth takes Jo's life, John is forced to leave their home to fetch milk for his daughter. He stumbles through the snow, unable to find the village and only survives when his tears melt the icy prison of the Green-Eyed Granter of Wishes, who grants John three wishes in gratitude. Hardly able to believe the situation, John wishes for milk, a kingdom and his queen. The first two are easy work for the genie, but for John's 'queen', the genie goes to his sister Elspeth, an ugly wench who lives to spread misery over the forest creatures (she has a garden of 'real' garden gnomes!) Transforming her into a beautiful woman she gleefully forces John to fall in love with her through the use of a magic mirror, leaving her with a husband to manipulate, a kingdom to rule, and a stepdaughter to hate...
The movie actually adds quite a lot of components from the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale "The Snow Queen", namely the role of the mirror. When Elspeth shatters it, two shards fly into John - one in his eye and one into his heart - the same thing that happens to Kay in Anderson's tale. I suspect many people were confused at the whole mirror sequence if they weren't familiar with this other story, but it is an interesting melding of stories.
Miranda Richardson magnificently plays the role of Elspeth, the evil stepmother and in many ways it is she who is the star of the production. She plays her role with great pizzazz from the twisted, bitter hag to the joyful maiden to the jealous and suspecting wife. Tom Irwin is a little hen-pecked as John, but ultimately we feel more sympathy than scorn for him. Unfortunately Kirstin Kreuk plays Snow White rather stiffly - though she is a perfect casting choice in terms of physical appearance. However, in Kreuk's defence it is one the most difficult things in the world to play virtuous, perfect heroines, simply because they appear rather boring on the screen (especially when surrounded by more fascinating villains). The dwarfs are a little silly (their connection with rainbows makes them look like extras on "Barney the Dinosaur") but most will be amused to recognise Warwick Davis ("Willow").
In keeping in line with the Grimm's story, the movie does include the sash that squeezes the breath out of Snow White as well as the famous apple, but unfortunately not the poisoned comb. Other interesting directions are taken by the movie-makers: instead of an old hag, Elspeth approaches Snow White as her dead mother, and as well as the colours of the rainbow, the dwarfs are named after the days of the week (and include a normal-sized Wednesday). The Prince is given a bit more of a back-story than simply entering at the end (he even gets a name!), but there are some loose ends not quite wrapped up and Elspeth's ultimate fate is a little silly.
Yet overall I enjoyed this movie, if not just for its gorgeous appearance which is made more amazing considering the very small budget for this movie. I watch it just to look at it: the elegant yet simple palace to the quiet, peaceful woodlands; the elaborate costumes, the colourful makeup, the subtle yet beautiful special effects, I could go on...
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kristin Kreuk SHINES as "Snow White", March 17, 2002
It's not your traditional version of the Grimm's famous story, but this effort by Hallmark Entertainment (distributed by Disney) certainly has it's merits! Caroline Thompson's script tells the traditional story of the princess with "skin as white as snow" and the jealous stepmother who wishes her stepdaughter dead. But Thompson decides to elaborate the story with several touches of her own. For instance, Snow White's father, John (played by Tom Irwin), releases a "jinn" or "genie" type creature (Clancy Brown) from a frozen prison in the ice. To show his thanks, the creature grants John three wishes: 1) milk for his infant daughter, 2) a kingdom, and 3) a queen. But the candidate chosen to sit at King John's side, is none other than the creature's hideous sister, Elsbeth (Miranda Richardsn). As an "act of kindness" to his sister, he transforms her blemished skin to worldly beauty. But King John's heart still lies with his dead wife, Josephine (Vera Farmiga). So, Elspeth's first spell of manipulation is cast. Another added plot twist borrows from another Grimm's story, "Snow White and Rose Red". Queen Elsbeth lets her raging hormones get the best of her when Prince Alfred (Tyron Leitso) spurns her lusty advances. For revenge, Elsbeth turns the prince into a bear, who then seeks out Snow White to help break the spell. In a psychological twist, Esbeth disguises herself as Josephine, Snow White's mother, when she delivers the poisoned apple. Quite clever. Hallmark Entertainment regular Miranda Richardson is perfectly cast as the woman who's sole existence rides on being "fairest in the land". In her usual brilliant way, Richardson's performance is deranged yet humorous all at once. Kristin Kreuk (WB's "Smallville") as "Snow White" gives a deeper performance than one would expect. Rather than turning the princess into a sugary sweet victim, Kreuk brings out the human qualities of a teenager who longs to be seen as more than the beauty she is. Because of Elsbeth's spell on him, her father ignores her. Her stepmother hates her. The visiting prince swoons over her. The poor girl simply wants to be loved and known for the person behind the beautiful face. Kreuk was the perfect choice. The seven dwarfs are creatively reworked as the creatures that control the weather. They travel around the countryside as a rainbow, with each of them playing a different color. Named for the days of the week, each dwarf's personality comes from the old nursery rhyme' "Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace.....". Warwick Davis, of Ewok fame, plays "Saturday". Davis is no stranger the Snow White story, having performed in and directed many pantomime productions in his homeland of England. In another creative twist, Vincent Schiavelli plays "Wednesday"....the only "dwarf" over 4.5 feet tall! Michael J. Anderson (Twin Peaks) plays "Sunday" the kind-hearted sympathetic leader of the "magnificent seven". As in anything she is in, Vera Farmiga is wonderful. She is under used sadly, as Josephine is buried for most of the film. Thankfully she is brought back for the famous apple sequence. If you are expecting a live action version of the Disney 1937 classic, you will be greatly disappointed. The film rides on it's own merit and will hopefully become another family classic. Thanks Hallmark!
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